Normally I stay “at” the casino because I don’t really gamble all that much and love the ease of going up to the room and catching a nap. But the only rooms available were $350/night.. I’m not exactly cheap, but $350/night for a casino room? I can go to Vegas for that much money. So the quest was on to find a nice place to stay, for a fair price, close to New Buffalo. Who knew that it would be such a challenge?

If you are running just about anything in New Buffalo local search is wide open for you. It took far too long to find a nice bed and breakfast reasonably close to the casino, well, not really, but if it weren’t for the new maps in Google we would have never found the place we wound up staying. Sans Souci Euro Inn and Cottages (yeah, it’s their title and it’s on every page). Angie and Sue run an amazing little operation on 50 acres with a small private lake just full of fish. It’s quiet, it’s well furnished, it’s 3 miles from the casino, and it’s incredibly reasonably priced. We already have reservations for a full week later in the summer.

So what’s the point of this long post? Am I just trying to rub in the fact that I found a great place to stay? Well, yeah, sorta. But more importantly it’s about how few people are taking advantage of promoting their local business on the internet. And more specifically, on Google. A simple search for new buffalo michigan bed and breakfast on Google returns just 85,000 results, and barring the map, and just “one” real bed and breakfast, ranked #7. There is a B&B that is closed, it even says so on their website, that ranks #5. If it weren’t for the fact that Angie is looking to retire I’d offer to rebuild her site for her. I may still make an offer, but it might be to just buy the place and change careers!

While looking for something to do other than the casino I did a search for charter fishing new buffalo michigan. Not a single charter boat based in New Buffalo has a tag on the Google local map. Not one. Any SEO in New Buffalo Michigan may want to take a drive around the docks and look for a few new clients. Or maybe not, I may be up there in August fishing and could use the work.

To recap,

• Casino getaway = great!
• Quiet B&B to relax at = fabulous!
• Have a website for a business and not taking advantage of local search = epic fail