For small businesses who service a town, city or small region, getting to the top of Google’s local map search results is critical. In today’s search market, local results are replacing organic results for many search queries. If a city name is attached to a query, you can almost rest assured local map results will pop up. This situation is extremely important because the top spot on Google can grab as much as 30% of the clicks. The second spot can drop to the low teen percentages and everything under that quickly falls into single digits. Long story short, you need to be near the top see the true power of a search engine campaign.

The awesome news is that dominant positions can be achieved by small companies. You don’t need to be the largest company in town or have a Fortune 500 budget to grab the top spot. What you do need though is a precise and well executed strategy to take you there. The screenshot below shows how Clicked Studios grabbed the top spot for “St. Louis Web Design” despite having larger competitors aiming for the same position.

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Combine a highly visible search ranking plus a solid web presence that articulates your competitive advantage with clear calls to action and you’ve got your company one awesome inbound marketing channel. As I mentioned above, it does not really matter what business you’re in, how big you are, or where you’re located. If you serve a local region, you can benefit from this type of ranking.