Why are search engines important to you and your local business? Local business marketing online depends on being found in online media. Unless your market already knows where you are, you need to search for it. Today, the most popular tool for searching the Internet is search engines.

First of all, you need to understand how a search engine works. Next, you need to understand who the best search engine customers are.

How do search engines sequence results?

Initially, website administrators manually submitted their website information for listing in web directories, often for a fee. Often, as part of their business model, these “search engines” would feature these sponsoring websites according to the amount of fees collected.

By the year 2000, the Google search engine was gaining popularity among search engines because it achieved more relevant results with an innovation called PageRank. Google developed an algorithm to rank web pages based on the number, trust, and authority of other web pages that link to them. Google’s premise is that good and desirable web pages are linked to more than less desirable web pages.

Now, Major Engines operates in a similar way. The way each search engine decides which pages match best, and in what order, varies widely from engine to engine. Methods also change over time as Internet usage changes and new techniques evolve.

What is an algorithm?

An ‘algorithm’ is an effective method of solving a problem expressed as a finite sequence of instructions. Each algorithm is a list of well-defined instructions to complete a task. In computing, a search algorithm is an algorithm for finding an element with specific properties among a collection of elements. There are also many algorithms specifically designed for recovery on very large databases, such as bank account records, electronic documents, product catalogues, fingerprint and image databases, etc.

Each search engine uses a proprietary algorithm to index and return only meaningful results for each search query. The index is built from the information stored with the data and the method by which the information is indexed. While millions of web pages may include a particular keyword, some pages are more relevant, popular, and authoritative than others. The usefulness of the search engine depends on the relevance of the results it returns in each search query.

Who are the search engine customers?

Major search engine business models are for-profit. Each SERP has a clearly defined theme and a specific theme. The money comes from strategically placed paid ads on each SERP. Each advertisement includes a web link to the advertiser’s website. Advertisers pay for these ads to attract people searching for specific keywords.

No engine has control over the content of the universe of web pages. The better an engine responds to each search, the more money you are likely to make.

These web browsers are becoming more sophisticated every day. Every day more and more people search the internet to find and buy more and more. It stands to reason that search engines continually refine their search algorithms to continually improve profitability.

What is a search engine? Perhaps it is the key to the prosperity of your Local Business…

It’s no longer enough to sit back and wait for new customers to stumble upon your local business. The fact is, these days, your customers are more sophisticated than ever. Loaded with thousands of “Buy Me” messages every day, they are determined to find true value for themselves. They are not waiting for your message; but, they are looking for what they want to buy on the Internet.

Therefore, local business marketing online is your new imperative. Now that you understand search engines, how they work, and who uses them for what, it’s time to seize the day. Use search engines to market your local business. Get in front of your customers. Take the iniciative.

Marketing local businesses online is simply putting interesting and relevant content about you and your business everywhere on every search engine results page. To be found!