At SMX in Sydney I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing a range of professionals in the search marketing space. Over the next few days we will be delivering some of the video interviews that we conducted. The first in the series is with Monte Huebsch from AussieWeb where we discuss the state of local search in Australia and New Zealand.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9oBcBJhuSw]

Jacqui: Hi, I’m Jacqui Jones from Netconcepts and we’re at SMX in fabulous Sydney. Right now we’re speaking with Monte Heubsch from AussieWeb. How are you?

Monte: I’m great Jacqui, thanks for talking with me.

Jacqui: So you’re originally from Brisbane aren’t you and you’ve flown down to Sydney for the SMX conference?

Monte: Yes, we came down. This is the largest international conference of its type in the southern hemisphere with 200 plus people, people from New Zealand like yourself. I’ve got a yank accent, but, yes, I’m from Brisbane.

Jacqui: Is it possible that you can tell us a little bit about AussieWeb and what you do?

Monte: AussieWeb is a local search and business directory with 1.2 million Australian businesses in it. It’s the 5th largest directory in Australia. People who are larger than us are who you’d expect like Google, Yellow Pages and TrueLocal which provide the data for both Google and Yahoo!.

Jacqui: What is the status of local search in Australia and New Zealand if you know that?

Monte: Local search is in its infancy and is just beginning to grow. All the searches that were done historically in the past, and even Google recognises this because we partner with Google, you’ve used Google and found what you wanted and you have bookmarked all those sites and so you do less searches unless you have a new problem. Now people are using the Internet to find local businesses.

They are doing research on the Internet and finding a local company and not completing the transaction online, but they are buying local. In fact 62% of online purchases are influenced by online research.

Case in point, if you search for an Apple computer, an iPod or an iTouch you might find the Apple website, however you might not want to buy online and wait 3 days for it to be delivered. You want to find the local outlet, find out whether they have the stock of the phone or iTouch you want and then go buy it. Actually, local search is a percentage of general searches growing at a faster rate now.

Jacqui: Sorry, did you just mention before that you supply some of the data to Google and Yahoo!? Is that correct?

Monte: No, TrueLocal is the provider of the data. It is owned by Rupert Murdoch and they provide in Australia the data to Yahoo! and Google business directories. Google actually takes their data from multiple sources so they will have restaurant reviews from a restaurant review site. We provide Google with an xml feed if they think that data is useful so they use our data as well.

Jacqui: Do you think that over time that by Google’s local search and maps technology becoming more popular will possibly make local directories such as AussieWeb and local search redundant at all?

Monte: Good question Jacqui, it’s a valid one. Of all the major directories in Australia of which there are about 8, there are only two that are considered Web 2.0 and what I really mean is that they are free which are Google and ourselves. All the rest of the directories have premium listings and charge anything from $800 to $8,000 to participate. TrueLocal is a good case in point. They are an $800 a year product and if you list in TrueLocal, you automatically show up in Google and Yahoo!, as well as TrueLocal.com.au. That’s a paid environment and there is a big difference between paid and free. I don’t think we’ll go out of business just yet.

Jacqui: What do you think are some of the greatest challenges for businesses in Australia and New Zealand in regards to search?

Monte: The challenge in either country is the same and that is that there are so many new businesses starting every year and there are also so many businesses that exist and then go out of business. The number is around 40%. So keeping your directory base current and accurate is the biggest challenge and the way we get around that we have a button on AussieWeb’s site that says “report this listing as wrong”.

If someone goes and says “hey that business is longer down the street or they have closed or changed their name”, we’re actually using our users like a wiki to provide information to keep our directories fresh and current. That is our greatest challenge.

Jacqui: What are your top tips or what do you see happening in the future or what would like to see happen in local search?

Monte: We just did a seminar session with all the search players, competitors and friends alike, all got together and spoke about that. Google is a good case in point, where they have just added video, where you can link video to your local search listing and I think you’re going to find rich content coming along.

The ability for a small company who may not even have a website, having a directory listing that includes pictures, a map to get there, directions, a video, it literally becomes their web presence. And having that in multiple locations is valuable and the cost of being on virtually every directory in Australia of consequence, except maybe Yellow, is a few thousand dollars and that is probably better money spent than building a website which small businesses are time poor and do not have the ability to maintain and operate.

Jacqui: Absolutely. They are all the questions that I have for you today. Thank you for speaking with us at Netconcepts and I look forward to catching up with you again soon.

Monte: We hope to catch up with you in New Zealand.