How do local customers find me on the web? Many local merchants are under the false impression that it is difficult to compete in getting customers to their local business using the web.
In fact nothing could be further from the truth.
With the recent changes to search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo and others the local merchants are a big part of the key search criteria "Relevancy".
It only makes sense.
The search engines must drive traffic to local venders to keep relevant as a search engine.
When you search one term like "Reston Movers" you will get the results in the following manner:

1. Sponsored Links - one the top and on the right hand side of the page.
   These are where a Merchant has paid the search engine such as Google AdWords to position their ad.
   
2. Local Directory links.
   This is where Merchants have registered their company name and are displayed when a relevant search is requested.
   
3. Organic Links - These are links that are produce by the search engine that match the search criteria.
   These links are created by SEO - Search engine optimization.
   SEO is driven "Relevancy".
   Relevancy can be created by several different things but the major ways to create relevancy is
4. Backlinks
5. KeyWords
6. Articles
7. Press Releases
8. Videos
9. Blogs

As a merchant your online presence should never be just putting up a web page and hoping people find you.
That is like throwing a stone in the ocean and asking someone to find it.
You need to have a constant effort to bring attention to you Web presence and have a "Call to Action" when people find your website.