It seems Seth Godin’s popular marketing mantra “small is the new big” applies to local search as well. We all know local search is one of the big sources to fuel the search engines. I’d like to think that it also gave the rise to location-based platforms like Foursquare and Gowalla. Most importantly, if there’s local search, there’s always marketing involved – location marketing.
Early this month, Google has launched Google Offers to big cities such as New York and San Francisco. Google has improved its Android app called Shopper in order to support Google Offers. Along with Google Wallet and Google Places, Google Offers is set to engulf Groupon and Foursquare’s turfs.
Some people are asking why are “big” cities the only ones being offered with Google Offers? In a recent study from online ad network Chitika, the company sampled from 10 million search queries that brought traffic to its US sites during the first week of July. Smaller cities like Tulsa and Chattanooga were among those who have high local search percentage. On the other hand, big cities like New York and San Francisco have the least local search percentage.
So what does this suggest? Searches from small cities matter more because a brand’s “physical presence” like a store or an outlet is more visible in big cities. With the big Google+ integration lurking around, it’s a no-brainer if Google Offers lands on every city to bring daily deals.
