Every day, millions will use search engines to find products or services. 90% of those people will click links on the first page of the search results. Is your site on that first page? Are your competitors?<\/p>\n
Search engines are changing. You may have noticed that any time you search for something in your area, you get more than the usual list of results, you get a map with some links next to it.<\/p>\n
In Google, the map is called the \u201cOne Box\u201d and the links next to it are called the \u201c10-Pack\u201d and clearly, the links are different there than in the regular \u201corganic\u201d listings below. If traditional SEO (content and inbound links) helps you in the organic, what helps you in the One Box and 10-pack? Evidence suggests that creating\/claiming your local listings is a good start.<\/p>\n
So here are the basic steps to claiming, creating and managing your local listing. We\u2019re also showing you 19 places where you can do this. Most are Internet Yellow Pages sites (IYPs) and others are local directories and the search engines themselves.<\/p>\n
Over the life of your business, you may update your site many times \u2013 at least every 3-5 years \u2013 and you may work with different companies on different generations of your website, but some things should always stay within your control. I\u2019m not suggesting you shouldn\u2019t get help from experts, but just as you should be in control of your domain name, you may also want control over your local listings.<\/p>\n
There are so many IYPs and local directories to choose from! Here are a few ways to find the best ones for you:<\/p>\n
Where\u2019s the Competition Listed?<\/i><\/p>\n
From Google Maps, find competitors, click \u201cmore info,\u201d then click the \u201cwebsites\u201d tab. You may find other places to add your listing.<\/p>\n
Where are you located?<\/i><\/p>\n
Many IYPs are still based on the databases they use for their printed phone books, which means that not all of them are relevant in all places. If the company doesn\u2019t have a phone book in your region (such as Dex), it may not be possible to manage your listing on their site.<\/p>\n
IYPs and other places for local listings <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
YellowPages.com
Largest IYP, provides listings to AOL Yellow Pages, MSN Yellow Pages. Owned by AT&T.<\/p>\n
SuperPages.com
Second largest IYP, provides listings to SwitchBoard.com and InfoSpace.com. Owned by Idearc Media, a Verizon spinoff.<\/p>\n
Google <\/p>\n
Bing
Formerly MSN Yellow Pages.<\/p>\n
Yahoo! Yellow Pages <\/p>\n
InsiderPages
Owned by CitySearch.com<\/p>\n
Localeze
Provides listings to yellowpages.com, dexknows.com and yellowbook.com<\/p>\n
InfoUSA
Provides listings to CitySearch.com and Yahoo.com<\/p>\n
CitySearch\/CityGrid
This is a good one but it\u2019s \u201cpaid inclusion.\u201d They get listings from infoUSA and they share info with yellowpages.com, superpages.com, insiderpages.com and merchantcircle.com<\/p>\n
LinkedIn <\/p>\n
Best of the Web \u2013 Local
This is a new \u201cpaid-inclusion\u201d directory but the \u201cjumpstart\u201d listing is free.<\/p>\n
Yelp<\/p>\n
JudysBook
This local business review website provides ratings to Bing.com<\/p>\n
Spoke
This is mostly a peer-to-peer networking site, but there are business listings that can be managed<\/p>\n
Jigsaw
This site is really a tool to get contact information for people in businesses, but you can manage business listings<\/p>\n
MerchantCircle
A listing on this site can include all kinds of things including galleries, a blog, a newsletter and a network of other businesses. (Citysearch profiles migrate automatically in several business categories)<\/p>\n
Manta <\/p>\n
Dexknows <\/p>\n
Dunn and Bradstreet<\/p>\n
——-<\/p>\n
It\u2019s ideal to have all of your listings be the same, if not identical. This will help seach engines know that each listing is yours. Make sure the business name is exactly the same in each listing. For the address, they should all have the same info in each field. Suppose your address is 123 Elm Street, Suite 4. Make sure that \u201cSuite 4\u201d is always in the \u201caddress two\u201d field and that it doesn\u2019t appear as \u201cUnit 4\u201d or \u201c#4\u201d in some IYPs but not others.<\/p>\n
Many of these directories and IYPs will give you the opportunity to select categories for your business. Take your time doing this, making sure to choose all the most relevant categories. Be thorough.<\/p>\n
A good way to start is to first search for businesses like yours in that IYP. See what categories appear first. This will help guide you toward the categories that bring the most traffic to your industry.<\/p>\n
The best categories are those with names that include the words you\u2019re targeting for search engines. For example, if your business is a car wash, categories that have the word \u201ccar\u201d are generally better than those with \u201cautomotive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also, it\u2019s worthwhile to choose categories that aren\u2019t already full of the competition\u2019s listings. When a visitor browses through a directory, you want to be on page one, not page three. So look around to find categories that aren\u2019t as crowded.<\/p>\n
You may find that your company doesn\u2019t fit easily into the categories provided (ours often doesn\u2019t). This may be because they are using \u201cStandard Industrial Classification\u201d (SIC) codes. It looks like these classifications haven\u2019t been updated in a long time\u2026<\/p>\n
Whenever possible, enhance the listing with as much information as you can. Many sites now let you add a lot of things to your listings. Our recommendation: add them all. Upload your logo, add descriptions, keywords, hours, payment methods, and anything else you can think of. More is better.<\/p>\n
This step may take awhile. If there are multiple listings within an IYP for your business, claim one and request that the other be removed. These requests sometimes take weeks to process. But it\u2019s important. You don\u2019t want to confuse search engines by having more than one listing in any of the IYPs.<\/p>\n
Steve Mitchell<\/i><\/a> is an internet professional with more than sixteen years experience in the field of local search and web based systems.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n