screenhunter_03-jan-26-0119If you’re not in the local listings, you’re leaving a lot of business on the table. It’s free, it’s easy and it’s fast.
Where Should You Get Your Company Listed?
Google Places
Yahoo! Local
Bing Local
InfoUSA
Yellow Pages
Localeze
Yelp
Acxiom (via UniversalBusinessListing.org)
SuperPages
Some Tips to Make Your Ads Appear Above Your Competitors’

  • Add your location and the keywords you want to rank for in the title tags of your website pages. They should look something like “Janitor in Atlanta, GA”.
  • When you link to your contact page, make sure the anchor text of the link says “Janitor in Atlanta, GA” instead of just “Contact Us”. The link text is very important.
  • Include the legal name of your business in the title tag of your contact page.
  • Use a local phone number (same area code as the city you want to rank for) and avoid toll free numbers.
  • Use physical addresses instead of PO boxes if possible.
  • Use your keywords several times in your local listings (in the title, description, categories, tags, etc.)
  • Complete your local listing profiles as much as you can. Add business information, website, photos, videos, etc.
  • Some local search engines allow you to add coupons. Take advantage of this.
  • Include full contact information in your website footer and on your contact page. Include a physical address and make sure it matches the one in your local listings.
  • Some people say that locations closer to downtown are more likely to rank above other listings. I haven’t seen proof of this, but if you have multiple addresses, use the one closer to downtown.
  • Don’t submit your listing more than once. Duplicate entries can get you in trouble.
  • Use your main keyword in the title of your listing. Name your business “D’Angelo Italian Restaurant” instead of just “D’Angelo”
  • Use as many categories as possible. If a local directory allows you to choose up to 5 categories, use them all.
  • If you have YouTube videos, add them to your listings. Also, add a few photos to your listing, too.
  • Include your top products in your business description so your customers searching for them can find you.
  • I like submitting my “Contact Us” page instead of my home page to the local directories. It works great because that’s where I have my business address.
  • I also like having my full address in the footer of my site.
  • Pay attention to industry-specific directories. For example, if you own a restaurant, UrbanSpoon and OpenTable are a must. If you’re in the real estate industry, you shouldn’t forget about Trulia and Zillow.
  • If your industry is very competitive, building links pointing to your local listings will help.
  • If you have multiple locations, here’s what you need to do:
  1. Give each location its own page. Consolidate all your local listings into one account (i.e. don’t have one Google Places account for each of your locations.)
  2. Develop a store locator so people can find the location closest to where they are.
  3. Cross-link your location pages.
  4. Make sure each locations has its unique phone number. If possible, make sure you use local area codes.
  5. If you want to take it to the next level, create and submit a KML Sitemap.
Reviews
Reviews are a huge factor to determine who ranks at the top of the local listings. A few tips about reviews:
  • Ask your customers to review your business on Yelp, Google Places and CitySearch.
  • Make sure you are constantly encouraging your customers to review your business. Fifty reviews this week and none next week look very suspicious. At a local restaurant I go to all the time, when I ask for the check they bring me a letter that tells me their business depends on referrals and asks me to go to Yelp and review them. I think this is a great idea.
  • SEOMoz has a great post on this topic.
local search engines