Many Internet searches today are followed up with a visit to a brick and mortar location. Local search engine optimization focuses on increasing your web visibility for those locally targeted searches.
Additionally, there are numerous directory / review type websites out there today where customers can freely review your business.
A local search engine marketing program will address where your website is listed and actively manage content of these listings so that your business is represented professionally across the web. Google Places has taken over the most important ‘above the fold’ screen real estate for many searches when a location term is combined with a search term or phrase, making it more important than ever to optimize your local directory results for Google. Bing is following a similar trend, as the key search engines take over the role as key, frontline providers of local directory results. Thus it is more important than ever to pay attention to the ‘yellow page’ role these engines are targeting.