Hyper local search is something that has been gaining prominence with the media over the last few years, especially with newspapers. While large companies and big advertisers tend to look at the broadest possible market to battle for the almighty dollar, smaller businesses have been honing in on the local market and appealing to the demographics of Small-Town, USA.

Local search is something that people have always been doing, but it’s presence on the web has been increasing over the number of years as people become ever more interested in what is happening in their local communities.

Part of the reason for this growth can be attributed to the number of reasons including economy and expansion of Internet in rural communities. People are not traveling as far from their homes due to tightening of the purse strings. Instead, they’re searching for products, services, and activities closer to home. Rural families and schools are also getting access to internet in areas of the country where internet did not exist before and are now able to search outside of the phonebooks and traditional media.

Mobile marketing campaigns have also added a depth to hyper local search. Cell phones can be taken anywhere and with the expansion of mobile search, searching for a great restaurant or a car repair center is only a phone call away.

Google honed in on this concept of hyper local search back in 2003 and created a patent for its geo-targeted advertising, giving advertisers a chance to localize their advertising to a specific target market. Google knew the importance of local advertising, even back in 2003, and was able to leverage this information and become the largest search engine on the Internet.

Businesses who utilize hyper local search with their websites have an enormous opportunity to tap into consumers who may have been overlooked before. In fact, they may be able to arouse trusting, loyal customers who buy their product over and over again.