Free Wifi for the Fordham Road BID

An online upgrade for the Fordham Road

Starting 2013 December, Fordham’s Business Improvement District (BID), will have a series of online access points or Internet hubs along its buzzing commercial stretch of East Fordham Road from Grand Concourse to Arthur Avenue. It will be sponsored by the Spanish company Gowex and will be installed along the shopping district in phases over the next three years.

What does this mean to the shoppers and the public?

The shoppers or students trickling down from nearby Fordham University or Monroe College will be able to get online both outside and in local businesses using the free WIFI. This means more people will be relying on local search engine results or apps to locate a product or service they are looking for.

How will it impact the local business owners?

Users can zero in on the businesses, provided the owners have set up websites and/or business listings, and are already featured in the search results or apps. This means if you are listed in one or more of the important search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing local searches/maps and Apple maps, you will see an increased flow of customers into your business establishment!

Are you a business owner in the Fordham Neighborhood?

Attract more local sales by directing customers through online searches

Local and hyper-local businesses (such as restaurants, beauty salons, pizzerias, daycare centres, tattoo parlors etc) can benefit significantly if they appear in the local search results or maps when a would-be customer who happened to be in your neighborhood, or is within a certain distance from your business, searches online for specific products or services that you offer on their mobile devices.

On Google, an estimated 20% searches conducted are focused on a place or location. Mobile search, which has already taken a huge bite out of PC traffic, is increasingly focused on localized search terms; local mobile search is now estimated at 40%, according to Google’s Surojit Chatterjee.

In order for small businesses to reach their target audiences, which are often geo-specific, they must ensure that they are ranking high in these local searches. According to Google’s Think Insights Databoard:

  • 94% of smartphone users have looked for local info and 84% have taken action as a result
  • of the above, 65% visited the business they looked up
  • of the above, 29% made a purchase in-store

There are several strategies for targeting local search, including:

What PixvieweR™ can do for you:

We will create (or redesign) a website that truly reflects your brand’s personality, so that it will stand out among your competitors. All the sites we design, develop, or redesign are optimized for search engines, and for viewing on a wide range of mobile and tablet devices as well as various browsers and platforms. We will get your site listed on all major search engines featuring a local search, or a map by creating keywords based on your business/service/product (such as “Pizza” or “Sneakers”) and location (example “Fordham” or “Grand Concourse”).

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