Another interesting question popped up today. The gist of the question was if someone searched keywords for a particular type of business, would Shop Local Delmarva appear in the top ten search results. The short answer is it depends.
A generic search of "locally owned businesses on Delmarva" will return Shop Local Delmarva in the top spot along with Shop Local Delmarva's Facebook page and blog page. A specific search of "locally owned florists on Delmarva" will also return Shop Local Delmarva in the top spot. However, a more specific search of "locally owned florists in Cambridge" returns results from Cambridge, MA. If the search is changed to read "locally owned florists in Cambridge, MD", nothing from Shop Local Delmarva appears in the top twenty results. Why is that?
Shop Local Delmarva is geared towards all of Delmarva. Listing every possible town that a consumer may use is infeasible, not to mention that such a long list of keywords really irks the search engines. At the time of writing this article, Shop Local Delmarva has no florists listed in its directory. If a potential customer searches for a locally owned florist in a specific town on Delmarva, there is no telling what results would be returned. This is where the keywords to your individual listings play an important role.
If you look at the different listing packages, you will see a "number of keywords" option. The basic, free listing includes three search keywords. One of those keywords you would want is your town. The other two keywords would relate to your business, in this example, "florist" and "floral gifts" may be a good choice. Choosing these keywords doesn't guarantee a top-ten search result, but does get you closer to where you want to be.
The work for Shop Local Delmarva begins and continues indefinitely to refine these keywords. Periodically, the chosen keywords are tested and the search results evaluated. With only three keywords to describe your listing, search results probably won't return your listing in the top five, but should return your listing in the top thirty. In this example, if the chosen keywords "Cambridge", "florist", and "floral gifts" does not return desireable search results, Shop Local Delmarva will change the keywords to try to obtain results in at least the top thirty results. Perhaps, "Cambridge", "florist", and "flowers" would be a better choice of keywords. Shop Local Delmarva cannot guarantee a particular business' search result ranking, but will always strive to achieve the best possible ranking given the keywords available to use.
The more keywords used in your listing, the more likely your listing will appear neaerer to the top of a typical search. A Premium subscription gives you four more keywords to use in your listing and an Enhanced subscription gives you seven more keywords to use. Shop Local Delmarva will manipulate the keywords in your listing level and compare them to Google analytics to optimize the best or most likely used keywords that a potential customer may use to find you.
In the example given, if you are the only florist listed on Shop Local Delmarva, you have the advantage of being the only florist to appear in the search results, but you have the disadvantage if the potential customer uses "Easton" instead of "Cambridge" in their search query. Odds are good that your listing would not appear in the top fifty results much less the ideal top twenty. If, however, there is a florist listed in Easton, there's a good chance the potential customer will find you through the Shop Local Delmarva directory as the potential customer shops around the site. That is the power behind having a large directory of businesses. Many businesses listed throughout Delmarva will guide potential customers searching for a business in a particular town to other related businesses located nearby the potential customer's town.
At this point, you may be thinking that attracting potential customers through the Internet is nothing more than a lucky throw of the dice. To the end user, your potential customer, this may appear true. But to you, the business listed on the Shop Local Delmarva website, you are the house controlling the dice and, as anyone who has been to Atlantic City or Vegas knows, the house always wins in the long run.
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