Don’t Get Left Behind in the Local Search Game
Get your local businesses found online by local prospects automatically.
People are searching for every kind of business, right there in your hometown, using
the Internet. And, every major search engine is rushing to become the next local phone
book. Now is the time to get your business listed and take advantage of the growing
numbers of people using local search to find businesses, services and products of all
kind.
Statistics show that somewhere in the neighborhood of 69% of households do some kind
of search for a local product or service on a daily basis.
So, the question is, how do they search?
For shoes, they type "Kansas City Shocks" or "Omaha shoes;"
For an accountant, it's "Chicago west suburb accountant;" and
For computer programming, it's "Idaho .Net programmer."
That's the reality of search on the local level. The search engines get it and are
rushing in to be the big players in the local directory game to deliver search results
all around town instead of just around the world.
Each of the search engines has set-up sub sites that specialize in helping people who
are searching on the local level find businesses in their town. So, let's say you type
into Google - "remodeling contractor 64114."
You may not have noticed it before, but the first results displayed are actually local
directory results complete with a "map it" feature and all. Click on one of the local
listings displayed, and you get all of the information that's presented. It's almost like
a mini web page for that business.
What this means to you and your local business though is that you need to make sure
that when someone does a search like the ones above that you show up in those directory
listings and in the normal “organic” search results for a local terms.
Here are the major players in local search – you will need to set-up free
accounts with each.
Google Local - https://www.google.com/local/add/login?hl=en_US
Yahoo Local - http://listings.local.yahoo.com/
Super Pages - http://www.superpages.com/about/new_chg_listing.html
City Search - https://selfenroll.citysearch.com/
True Local - http://www.truelocal.com/getlisted.aspx
SwitchBoard - http://www.switchboard.com/cobrands/sb/help_yp.asp#YP31
YellowPages.com - http://www.yellowpages.com/sp/contact/update.jsp
Local.com - http://www.local.com/partner.htm
Insider Pages - http://www.insiderpages.com/
Judy’s Book - http://www.judysbook.com/merchant/
In each case, you may have to complete a form and give out details such as store
hours, forms of payment and directions. Some of these sites have premium paid listings
available as well.
By John Jantsch