New "Hyperlocal" Online Websites: Can they help your business?

Saw this over the weekend:

If your local newspaper shuts down, what will take the place of its coverage? Perhaps a package of information about your neighborhood, or even your block, assembled by a computer.A number of Web start-up companies are creating so-called hyperlocal news sites that let people zoom in on what is happening closest to them, often without involving traditional journalists...

Now that the Yellow Pages are (nearly) dead and local newspapers seem to be in big trouble the question for small business is, where to advertise?

This article suggests that new websites that focus on the neighborhood-level will try and fill the gap, and my quick search of www.everyblock.com was very interesting.  There are plenty of ways to discuss the future of the local newspaper, but from an advertising perspective for the small/medium enterprise we're still years away from these sites being the best option.

The key is exposure and traffic.  An example:  If someone is looking for granite countertops for their kitchen in the San Francisco Bay Area, are they going to go to everyblock.com?  1 out of 100 sure, becuase they heard about the site.  The other 99 people are going to the search engines like Google and searching for "granite countertops in the bay area."  The search engines are where people go for answers, and if your site is on the first couple pages of the search, your phone will probably ring.

As information resorces on local neighborhoods, these sites are very cool.  read the full article here.

Comments

[Chicago web design]

That is an interesting site - they even pull content from yelp and craigslist. I didn't see any advertising there, though.

Granite countertops