The following is guest post by Emily Thompson:
Local search is becoming one of the most affordable and simple ways for local businesses to connect with prospects and get involved in their community. Did you know that 82 percent of local searches online result in further action: a phone call, site view, in store visit or immediate purchase?* With statistics like this, creating and optimizing your local presence is more important than ever.
The reality is, there are many facets to optimizing for local- including on-page factors such as title tags and meta data, and utilizing your geographic modifiers with your keywords as you optimize your content. While each component is important, one of the most critical pieces is off page: your local listing. For Google, these listings are often given prime placement- right at the top of the page. This placement is key, providing local businesses with visibility that was previously unattainable.
Here are 10 easy steps to help your listing get in to that coveted “7-Pack”.
- Submit your listing. This step alone is the most important. Just submitting and verifying gives your listing a higher level of trust with the big G.
- Include your city name and industry in your title. This is helpful not only for the search engines when aggregating results, but also for users as it reiterates your location and helps your listing to stand out.
- Choose the categories for your listing wisely. Google local business center gives a plethora of choices for the categories for your listing. Make sure to thoroughly look through and pick those that best suit your products and services.
- Be thorough in your description section. This is the most content you can provide about your business in your listing, so make it count! Be descriptive and give people a reason to choose you over your competitors.
- Use a local phone number. Providing a local number helps the search engines ascertain that you are located where you say you are.
- Ensure your listing is 100% complete. This is one of the simplest, and most effective steps to do. Include pictures, videos, coupons, etc. Google is all about the user experience and the more complete your listing, the more helpful it looks to them.
- Be sure there is only one, optimized listing for your business. I have seen this make a huge difference in the position of a business listing. Make sure to research and find any existing listings, claim them and suspend or optimize where necessary.
- Update your listing whenever you can. It can be as simple as adding a new coupon, but ensuring your content is current helps Google know that you are relevant and provide up-to-date information.
- Reviews for your business are essential. In certain industries, the amount of reviews you have (positive or negative!) can mean the difference between first and second page for your listing. Try encouraging reviews from satisfied customers.
- Make sure your information is accurate and submitted to other directories as well. Google actually aggregates information from other directories, along with the information you provide when you submit. It’s recommended to submit, standard information to as many other local directories as you can to ensure accuracy.
It’s really that simple to get started with your local listing. While there are no guarantees, optimizing can have an extremely positive impact on your listing position. Have any tips from your experience with local listings? We’d love to hear them!
*Source: TMP/comScore, October 2008
Emily Thompson is the Online Marketing Coordinator for Kutenda Internet Marketing Software. Kutenda offers software and services for small businesses to succeed in online marketing and grow their business.
Hi Emily,
I think your comments are well taken to raise the awareness of a new local business marketing tool. This is probably the first time the Internet will help the local business reach the local consumer through web searches and mobile searches.
What I am most concerned about are small and local businesses having to contend with multiple websites when it comes to their local listing. What I'm really talking about are "time resources".
Afterall, there are over 60 websites in four different categories specifically geared towards local listings. How can a local or small business have the time resources to cover this space?
Even if you made a conscious decision to not manage all 60, there are well more than Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Ask. The space goes to Local.com (they went public), Yelp, Merchant Circle, and many others.
Consumers will be the ones deciding which of these local listing websites they will go and post their experience through consumer reviews. This adds to the burden that no one single local listing website will do the trick.
Something we recently read at KillerStartUps are companies that are offering a low cost service to update then manage these listings for companies. You can read about this at KillerStartUps here:
http://www.killerstartups.com/Search/smartfindslo…
It is a changing world and the local business will benefit. There will be some adjustment to this space needed.
Good information from your post and hopefully varying opinions help give perspective.
Wow,what wonderful coverage of this topic-
it is "Spot On".
Especially in this economy, the need is great for companies to get as much exposure as possible.
Sites like those mentioned are to be commended for their offerings to companies.
Social Media tweeting,connecting,befriending, buzzing,shouting,yelping,all are helping build up American economy,presence,and pride in what we can accomplish.