What is the challenge for local businesses when it comes to search?
It’s a challenge for businesses to keep their data current online. Retail chains are opening and closing all the time. What used to be a Shell [gas station] is now a BP. If people like to shop at Gap, they want to make sure they find the one closest to them. Dollar General might open 1,000 new stores in one year. Starbucks has had a number of openings and closings over the past year. They want to prevent the situation where someone is getting sent to a closed location. It is too cumbersome for these companies to fix or add their local listings for each location to each of the major search engines: Google, Yahoo and Bing. Q: What about smaller businesses that aren’t necessarily franchised? A: Small businesses don’t know where to spend their money. They used to mail a lot, buy ads in the newspaper or advertise in the Yellow Pages. Those [channels] don’t necessarily work anymore. Now businesses are rethinking that, because it is expensive to mail 3,000 postcards. They need to find ways to
