Google Local is an awesome tool for searching on a local level. It is good for many people in business, including brick-and-mortar as well as online business owners and bloggers alike. It is well worth checking out and using the tool to benefit your business tremendously.
The search engine optimization world is a very competitive one. Small, local businesses often have a difficult time competing with larger, more powerful organizations. Often, those corporations have impressive websites with a large number of links and other effective marketing tools. You must tailor your blog content for local searches.
With the technological advancements that have been made thus far and professional competition as it is, it is quite difficult at times to compete with other businesses, online as well as in many other ways. Your web presence is essential and you must keep up.