If it seems like your business is only as good as its dot on an online smartphone map, well… you might not be that far from the truth.

Masterlink Interactive on Mapquest Mobile

Location-based searching matters—more than ever—in the Internet marketing world. In fact, Google reported that nearly a third of its searches now pertain to the searcher’s location. In other words: “Tire shops near Beltline” or {ahem} “Internet marketing gurus in Dallas off 75 Central.”

As we discussed last week, it has everything to do with the rise of smartphones and mobile web design, and the ballooning expectation for and reliance upon the ability to access important information on the fly.

Perhaps no company understands the importance of capitalizing on this trend than online map and direction giving/business searching/real-life maze solving site MapQuest. Despite helping pioneer the online map and driving direction world, MapQuest has been bleeding market share to competitors like Google Maps for years.

But the company saw smartphones as its way back into the game, and jumped at the chance to carve out a niche with its MapQuest Navigator iPhone app. In addition to the comprehensive maps it offers, the site has loaded up with nifty bells and whistles that capitalize on why smartphone users are relying on such maps in the first place.

It added its own “streetview” function, allowing users to become more familiar with an area before arriving there. There’s voice-guided “turn-by-turn” navigation and route-optimization. There’s a search for local businesses (parking garages, coffee shops, gas stations, etc.) along each route. It even boasts a mapped-out gas prices tracker.

More importantly (at least from a Internet marketing perspective), it features a host of information sharing and searching capabilities, like Facebook connectivity that allows users to share location-based recommendations more easily (and access others’ recommendations).

Apparently, with its finger on the pulse of the mobile searching community, this new approach is working:

“We’re one of the most downloaded applications on the iPhone, despite the fact that other options are built in,” said MapQuest CEO David Cole to WebProNews. The site reached nearly 50 million unique visitors in July 2009.

So how can you make location-based searching work for your Dallas-area business?

Contribute information to online map sites. MapQuest is encouraging local businesses to submit information like menus, coupons, and contact information.

A mobile-friendly website matters, as does an awareness of your clientele. If they’re local, design your SEO local. If you’re pita stop in Plano, don’t spend all your effort trying to conquer the Google search rankings for “great Middle Eastern food,” or even “Dallas Middle Eastern restaurants.” Try “Middle Eastern food in Plano” instead. You’ll be competing against a more narrow search term field, and smartphone users with a hankering for falafel will thank you — and use those MapQuest features to help others thank you as well.

Let your customers do the work for you. If your product is worth sharing, it will find its way onto Twitter, Facebook, MapQuest and more. You just need to lay the groundwork with a site that responds to their searches (and a product that makes them think you’re worth sharing).