I can’t believe what has been happening with the local search industry lately. It’s amazing how many different players are getting into this game in the last 12 months alone in how many different solutions are being created. It’s amazing to me how confusing the local business owner mindset is right now.

With the abundance of affiliate marketers, search engine optimizer’s, Groupon Start-Ups, social networks, search engines, online review sites like yelp, yellow page companies, telecoms, and likely soon cable carriers all involved or getting involved with local search marketing, it’s amazing how the end-user might navigate through this and eventually profit. Now the Yellow Pages Association is the Local Search Association!

I’m thankful I have this information but for 23 million small businesses in the United States, we are going to hear horror story after horror story of small-business owners losing their shirt, increased marketing frustration and simply the creation of an industry that likely won’t be as pretty as it is now.

Think of a mechanic in the 50s like a business owner last decade. Internet marketing is like adding a computer to an engine, fuel injection to the carburetor and having the E85 fuel. Small engine mechanic simply cannot navigate through the complexity of the cards today without proper education. Although the small engine mechanic learned from trial and error by taking apart their lawnmower engine, once you throw in a computer with fuel injection you better stop tinkering.

That’s the way the world is for small-business owners. Understanding the circle of knowledge, the most dangerous quadrant to operate in, which is also the largest, is operating with the “you don’t know what you don’t know”. Business owners should at least get themselves to the place of they know what they don’t know. Well some of the things that they didn’t know, local businesses are only going to thrive in local search if they get themselves to a place where they know what they know.

There’s a few things in common among entrepreneurs in almost every country. Perhaps his passion, or drive but one ingredient that is critical to the growth of the business is taking action. We know this. We also know that a business that has a good product or service and great after sales service with happy positive customers usually tends to thrive regardless of the marketplace.

There’s this little company called Google. They happen to be an Internet marketing company. Their search engine service boasts over 70% of the local search market share in United States. It is said a search engine will drive more traffic to a website than all other mediums combined. Local search on the major search engines is hands-down the number one place to be any local business to thrive in the long term.

While there were many theories on how to do this, every entrepreneur should take a step back and recognize what they do know. They know their business. They don’t know Google’s algorithm. In fact I do not know Google’s algorithm, but I’m able to rank number one for keywords like [local marketing], [internet marketing for small business] or [Google Places Best Practices].

Local Marketing Search

Internet Marketing for Small Business

Google Places Best Practices

It may seem egotistical of me to demonstrate some of these results, let’s face it though, these are keywords and competing with against all other Internet marketers around the planet. How is it possible that some kid from a town in northern Ontario, Canada and single-handedly uncover and reverse engineer Google’s algorithm? I can’t. But I do know exactly what needs to be done to get any business to number one. At least I like to think I know, I have hundreds of clients that are small businesses around the planet that all have top rankings for their targeted keywords and organic listings inside Google places.

I know something that most Internet marketers haven’t yet figured out. Marketing. The goal of getting a business ranked number one on Google for a website ranked number one is not about links. It is not about citations. It is about equality business effectively marketing themselves utilizing digital channels.

Maybe with the fact that I wrote about service areas in 2009, or coined the concept of social review ranking filters. Or maybe it’s the fact that Microsoft wanted to hear some of my theories on local business. Maybe it’s the quite giant that reads my posts about Google – Hire Me. No, I don’t want to work at Google. I find it amazing that I can write about the service area challenge 2009, use my small courier industry as an example and a year later Google comes out with a solution when they introduced Google Places.

My point is that I seem to have demonstrated results in demonstrated that some of the larger players seem to listen to some of my theories whether they are right or wrong. Everything I teach around marketing a local business on the Internet is all about traditional philosophies that we have learned and business principles for years. You understand and audience, and create relevant value-added content targeted and distributed specific to that audience, deliver a value-added product or service with the great after sales service program. Any business that does this will thrive on the Internet without even knowing it.

This isn’t easy but simple. I have created some documents exclusive for a small business owner. Simply opt-in to my email list, and I’ll send you some great reading. Yes, I have stuff to sell, but not for everyone. Yes, I have a business that can do it for you, but you need to talk to other companies before you are convinced of our strategy. Read my stuff. Throw it away if you don’t like it. Get off my email list if you don’t like it….just get the first email, you won’t be sorry.