Local Searches: Are you there? Google and Yahoo Local Search Project Spotlight The Business Education
Resource Center

I had the opportunity recently to work with Ethix on a website project dedicated to high school teachers who teach business courses. They quickly grasped our vision for the website and were able to deliver a fully functional product on time and on budget. They are a pleasure to work with. That is a combination of deliverables that is hard to beat.

Mark Abramovic
Saint Vincent College

Vision: The Business Education Resource Center envisioned a website that would allow high-school teachers in business subjects to share and access resources on their subject area as well as schedule speakers and field trips in their area that further compliments their curriculum.

Problem: The Business Education Resource Center had found someone to make the site visually appealing, but needed help determining how the features of the site should work as well as help actually developing the database and functionality for the site.

Solution: Ethix Systems is aiding in managing the project and is currently building all functionality for the website. By working with the Business Education Resource Center, Ethix Systems is helping to mold the vision into a feature-rich, growing community site.
In the 1990's, everyone was excited about the web because it seemed that all you needed was a website to make money. Today, it's more commonly known that having a website does not guarantee visitors. Billions of dollars are spent each year in search engine optimization (SEO) and web advertisements, making exposure on the web much more difficult for the little guy.
Because people are often looking for businesses in their area, Google and Yahoo now have "local searches" based on location. Normally if you search for "pizza Greensburg PA," you will find websites that mention pizza, Greensburg, and PA based on SEO optimization. But a local search shows specifically businesses serving pizza near Greensburg, PA first based on location and then on SEO techniques. This means that pizza shops in Greensburg will appear above those in Monroeville regardless of SEO.
Your website won't show up on these "Local" sites automatically, but you can add it yourself for free. To do this, you can go to www.google.com/local/add for Google and listings.local.yahoo.com/csubmit/index.php for Yahoo. All you need is a business name, an address, a phone number, and about 15 minutes or so - you don't even need a website. Here are some added bonuses:

	•	Set hours of operation, payment methods accepted, and a description of your services.
	•	People can submit reviews for your products and services, hopefully encouraging people to buy from you and improving your Local search ranking.
	•	With Google your local listing also links to you business's Google Map location, so people don't get bad directions.
	•	On Google Local offer printable coupons as an incentive to buy your products or services.