When you search the web, where do you start?

Silly question, I know. Because your answer was most likely "Google" or "MSN" or "Yahoo!"... But what I really mean is what type of search do you do?

Here's a typical search routine:

1. Let's say that Mr & Mrs 'Typical' do a search for a generic phrase; ie: "double glazing".
2. They then scan the results and look at one or two of the top sites - primarily looking for straight-forward content and, very likely, a local telephone number.
3. After a few seconds (that's all it takes) they press 'back' to return to the search engine results and click another link or two - still looking for that website that makes them feel like they've found someone close by.
4. Realising that the generic term is, well, too generic, they add a regional keyword to the search term, ie: "party dj lincolnshire" - this way they're bound to have narrowed down the results to companies on their doorstep. Right?
5. Not necessarily so. Mr/Mrs 'Typical' web-user will then click away on the results and find that there are still loads and loads of national companies dominating those top results on Google, etc., and they still find it frustratingly difficult to get relevant results on their door-step.
6. So the back button gets a second click and off they go again - determined that this time they will find a local supplier of the product or service they need.
7. The final search includes a town, city or more specific area as a keyword so that, finally, the results will be relevant to the search and also local to the customer. For example "louth minibus".

Unlike just a few short years ago, the web is incredibly huge and, unfortunately, every business large and small is competing for your customers next purchase. The web, to a large extent, has lost out to devious marketing techniques and the search results are often irrelavant to the user, making it increasingly difficult to find exactly what they are looking for without the inevitable annoyances along the way. The solution:

Localised search results.

If you are based in Lincolnshire and replied on the Lincolnshire area for your customers, for example, you would want to Lincolnshire SEO friendly phrases, yes? If you're in Lancashire, same thing, Yorkshire... You get my drift, I'm sure.

A future proof and detailed Search Engine Optimisation strategy, along with the realisation that local search results will become (and remain) fundamental to the relevance and ease-of-use for end-users, must include localised keywords and phrases.

Google (etc) take localised search results very seriously at the Country level (including domains and hosting locations) but (at the moment at least) localised results are entirely down to the keywords and phrases chosen by you, the website owner (or your favourite SEO Expert).

Local content (and search results) is fundamentally essential for the future of the Internet. The top search engines' aim is to deliver the most relevant results that they can for every search, and their method of determining "relevancy" extends way beyond the basics of how many pages you have and how many back-links you have.