Daily Rants

Over time, the Internet has literally become a way of life. We are constantly connected to it via desktop computers, laptops, smartphones, tablets, and PDAs. Frankly speaking, many of us simply cannot live without the Internet nowadays.

In addition, people are now more "on-the-go" than ever before. Why bother looking at print ads or billboards when it's so easy for one to whip out their iPhone and search for nearby restaurants, no matter where they are?

The Internet has become the number one tool for consumers to find local businesses, and the number of people using it is increasing by the day. If your business cannot be found on the most preferred medium for local information in the world, you will lose business to your competitors who can be found; plain and simple.

Latest Search Engine Trends

The following data shows the growth in monthly Google searches since January 2008, according to comScore:

Jan '08: 6.1 billion
Jul '08: 7.3 billion
Jan '09: 8.5 billion
Jul '09: 8.9 billion
Jan '10: 9.9 billion
Jul '10: 10.3 billion
Jan '11: 11.1 billion
Jul '11: 11.2 billion
Jan '12: 11.8 billion

In only 4 years, the number of searches conducted on Google per month has nearly doubled. Google has officially stated that approximately 20% of all search queries are location specific. In January 2008, this number was 1.22 billion. In January 2012, it was a phenomenal 2.36 billion.

This trend has two important implications for you as a local business owner.

One, the number of local searches will continue to rise as time goes on. Not only are the older generations slowly adopting the Internet, the next generation is practically being raised in the digital world.

Two, print media such as magazine ads and the Yellow Pages will continue to decline in effectiveness until they eventually become obsolete. It's simply more convenient for a consumer to find local businesses online. Plus, on the Internet, the consumer can find a plethora of related information about a business that he or she may need. For instance, driving directions, product pictures, customer reviews, and so on.

What does this mean to the business owners? If you do not have a website online, you are missing out on the large portion of potential customers for your business. I will discuss what the next steps are in the next articles, but the first step is to find a quality web designer company to help you getting started.