to Local SEO Search Engine Optimization

If you knew there was going to be a war between your business and your competitors, would you wait to prepare?

I recently had a lengthy discussion on Facebook (of all places) with a sales rep at one of the largest yellow pages publishing companies in the United States. She was defending the value of print yellow pages. At the end of our lengthy discussion, I saw that she failed to comprehend my argument about local search and usage of print yellow pages. I made a comment that it is a challenge to “sell” phone book ads in rural markets where smart phones like the iPhone and Droid are widely purchased. I told her that in rural markets usage of print yellow pages is still heavy. I hate to say I told you so, but after selling phone book ads for over 9 years, I can tell you that if your small business is still investing the majority of your advertising dollars in phone book ads, and you are in an urban or suburban market, you need a serious wake-up call!

The war between small businesses to rank at the top of Google search engine results is now upon us. If you are late in preparing for this war, it is time to catch up! With more and more businesses planning on using local search to acquire new customers, it is imperative that you work with a local search engine optimization and marketing expert before it is too late. Decline of print usage will increase at an astounding rate thanks to mobile browsers, decreased costs for internet access, and continued success of geo-location search results by search engines like Google.

Google controls around 70% of all searches performed on the web.  Google is the leader of search. In 2007 Google launched a big change in its algorythm (the factors that determine how search engine results are populated on search engine results pages) called Universal Search. Universal Search was essentially the beginning of blended search engine results. Google’s maps or local listings became a common result for consumers who search on Google. Internet Yellow Pages sites, like YellowPages.com, have been declining in usage since their own search engine optimization efforts can not account for the fact that Google is displaying 10 or 7-packs of local listing results, instead of results from Internet Yellow Pages sites.

With search engines specializing in local business searches, the yellow pages are quickly becoming an aged advertising, marketing, and business tool. Instead, millions of Americans are turning towards the internet to find local businesses instead of flipping pages in an oversized bulky phone book that you never asked to receive.

If you are just getting started with local search engine optimization, here are a few tips and words of advice to incorporate local search marketing to your small business marketing mix:

First, Create or Claim Your Business Listing on Google Maps-

Go to www.Google.com/Local/Add and create or verify your businesses listing. Often times the listings are originated from yellow pages directories who, like Google, typically obtain the information from Acxiom or InfoUSA. (at one time the yellow pages companies had a distinct advantage (monopoly) due to access to phone company listing information)

Include the following bits of information in your listing:

- your website address

- your categories or areas of service/practice and products

-try to include keywords in your company name or title

-make sure the address you use is also on your websites pages

- avoid the use of a toll-free phone number

- fill out a general business description that contains keywords related to your industry

Listing verifications are performed by Google via phone or snail mail.

Free listings from Yellow Pages websites also can help get you listed in local search results. It is not necessary to advertise on sites like SuperPages.com, YP.com, or Local.com. Google does not give you credit for investing extra money on these sites. Most of the clients whom I have worked with over the years do not get a significant amount of calls or clicks from these internet yellow pages sites. Local search is extremely fragmented with many different sites.

If you want to also increase your rankings on Google Maps, it helps to have ratings and reviews on the following sites:

Your businesses ratings and reviews on sites like Kudzu, InsiderPages, Yelp, CitySearch and others makes a huge difference on whether or not you rank at the top. This is called CITATIONS.  I often recommend to clients that they create an offline buzz to these sites for client reviews.

After you create your Google listing, you should next create a listing on Yahoo Local by going to http://local.yahoo.com and then Bing Local by going to http://www.bing.com/maps/ for the Bing Local Listing Center.

If you are having trouble ranking on Google Maps, or want additional help setting up your local listings, you can get your business listing optimized for local search by SMB SEO, starting at just $299.00 one-time.

Just a word of caution: Do NOT allow companies to claim your listing, unless they do so under an email account created for you or by you. There are many scam artists who are charging clients as much as $100.00 per month just to setup a local listing.

When SMB SEO sets up your listing, we also submit it to 7 or as much as 21 different local search directories. This service is called local directory submission and optimization. It is a key component of local search engine optimization.

Cheers!

Mike Stewart

Director of Search Marketing and the Dallas Google Guru