Market Drivers Are Changing the Game for Local Businesses
To grow and remain competitive, small and medium-sized businesses must adapt their marketing strategies to the behaviors of online consumers. Not only are more people turning to the Web to look for products and services, but they also are relying on highly targeted searches to find exactly what they want - especially from local businesses.
These market trends include:

• The popularity of online search: After email, search is the most frequently-used
online application, according to a recent survey from Gardner Research. The
survey also reports that searching for products and services has become the Web’s
sixth most popular activity.

• Highly-targeted search behaviors: Frustrated by the thousands if not millions of
irrelevant hits returned by Google or Yahoo, many shoppers type precisely what
they want into the browser bars of their search engines. For example, a user
looking for legal services in Sussex County may enter “sussexcountylegal.com.”
A report by Jupiter Research estimates that nearly 17% of users search with this
method called direct navigation. This highly-focused search behavior typically
produces more qualified leads for the Web site’s owner.

• The growing use of search to find local businesses: A survey by Nielsen/Net
Ratings and search engine marketing firm WebVisible found that 70% of
respondents used the Internet to search for products and services from local
businesses. Many customers prefer the comfort and convenience of buying from
a local business, even when they first discover the company’s products online.

The Challenge: Finding an Affordable and Effective Method to Attract
Consumers Online

A local business can gain a competitive edge through well-known marketing tactics. As an example, consider Tony’s Italian Pizza, a fictional restaurant in New York’s Upper West Side. Tony could build a Web site, open shop in a bustling area and quickly earn a stellar reputation for serving delicious pizza. But customers unaware of Tony’s brand name may never realize his business exists.
To increase awareness of his shop, Tony might distribute fliers door-to-door, advertise in local newspapers and buy air time on television and radio. Tony would have to spread his marketing dollars across these various media channels, measure which provided the greatest returns and adjust his media spending accordingly.
Promotional efforts like these are often necessary to create awareness of a business, but they also are fraught with risks, such as:

• Expenses can mount quickly as the business tries to reach customers through
multiple media channels.
• Measuring the effectiveness of each channel is difficult and sometimes
impossible.
• Information from multiple channels can overwhelm busy consumers or fail to
capture their attention.
To grab the attention of the many consumers who prefer Internet search engines to find information, Tony would have to promote his business online. This would present Tony with questions about how to spend his marketing budget most efficiently
Search engines such as Google and Yahoo enable business owners to bid on relevant keywords that bump their businesses up in the search rankings. But this means Tony would have to bid continually against his competitors for the most desirable keywords.

Owning Geo-target Domains: A Strategy That Can Drive Highly
Interested Consumers to Your Web Site

Owning geo-targeted domains is one cost-effective search engine marketing method a company can use to drive more traffic to its Web site and convert more searchers into customers. Geo-targeted domains combine a business’ local area with the generic name of its product or service.
Consider Tony’s domain, tonysitalianpizza.com. Tony could buy a related domain or
domains with relevant keywords that an online consumer likely would enter to find pizza in the neighborhood, such as uppperwestsidepizza.com. This domain name combines the customer’s local area, the Upper West Side, with the generic term for the product he is searching for: pizza.
If Tony owned the domain upperwestsidepizza.com and redirected the incoming traffic to tonysitalianpizza.com, any user entering upperwestsidepizza.com in his browser bar would land directly on Tony’s Web site. Because the keywords “Upper West Side” and “pizza” are built into Tony’s domain name, Tony’s business would rank at or near the top of the results returned by search engines like Google and Yahoo.
Tony also could buy more than one geo-targeted domain. In addition to
upperwestsidepizza.com, he could buy other domains such as uptownpizza.com and
westsidepizza.com. By securing valuable keywords, Tony could own the Italian pizza
category in his neighborhood and leave his competitors with fewer options to attract local customers looking for pizza via highly-targeted searches.

The Benefits of Owning Geo-targeted Domains

The surging interest in geo-targeted domains is an “unbroken explosion,” according to Ron Jackson, editor and publisher of DNJournal, a trade publication that reports on the domain industry and tracks sales figures. “Time and time again, business owners who have bought these domains tell me they are getting fantastic results,” Jackson says. Owning one or more geo-targeted domains offers local entrepreneurs the following advantages:

Instant brand recognition: The names of local areas are well-known brands, as are the generic terms for product and services, such as “pizza,” “legal services,” “insurance” and “flowers.”

Category leadership: Owning a highly relevant geo-targeted domain name enables a
business to position itself as the market leader in its category and locality and gain instant credibility. Owning more than one can geo-targeted domain can limit the competition’s ability to grab a slice of the local search pie.

Owning versus renting: Instead of bidding for keywords on Google, Yahoo and other
search engines, a business owns the relevant keywords as long as it maintains the geotargeted domain’s registration. This reduces or eliminates the need to pay fees to search engines, preserving marketing dollars over the life cycle of the business.

Capturing the attention of online consumers: The best way to attract online consumers is to establish a highly-targeted presence right where they search. As more people gravitate to the Internet for information and shopping, the opportunities to reach more prospects increase.

More qualified leads: A consumer who uses direct navigation or types relevant
keywords into a search engine to find a specific product already is interested in buying.
And for purchases that usually require a lot of consideration, such as life insurance,
automobiles and dental care, consumers spend time online comparing features and
benefits before they buy.

A measurable return on investment: Unlike advertising with traditional media, search
engine marketing enables business owners to track the returns on their online marketing efforts. Simple Web analytic programs, which are low-cost and sometimes free, let owners track Web traffic and customer conversion rates.

Affordability: Since the knowledge of geo-targeted domains on Main Street is lagging
behind online consumer behavior, many domains are still available at reasonable prices.

What to Look for When Buying Geo-Targeted Domains

Geo-targeted domains can be bought from three major sources: companies that register domains, individual owners of domains and domain aftermarkets.

In the first step of the process, the business owner types the domain name into a search engine’s browser bar to see if the domain is available. If it is, the search engine usually returns a message stating that the document or page is not found. In many cases, the business owner can register the domain by contacting a company that registers domains

If the domain name returns a Web page or site, that domain is owned by an individual or company. If the domain is for sale, the owner often has posted a link for price inquiries.
The buyer must be willing to send funds to an owner he or she does not know.

Domain aftermarkets are the third option. These companies own portfolios that contain
thousands of domains. Not to be confused with aftermarket auction companies, domain
aftermarkets typically offer domains at fair and reasonable market prices.