The mantra for many businesses in deciding where to open a store front was location, location, location. It often made or broke a business if the store depended on visitors. Now the busy road has turned to search engines that decide who has the best location. These search engines are the digital highway that customers find and experience a company. Getting this good location takes work and effort in optimizing a website for search engines and for customer usability. Some pay to get listed like billboards alerting you to upcoming exits. Then there are those blue informational signs on the road that mention gas stations, food, and hotels. Local search, in my mind, is similar to these blue signs by informing you to businesses with a map, locations, phone numbers, and websites which is commonly known as the ten pack. You can easily claim your local listing and optimize it to rank high in local search.
How Do I Claim my Business Listing in Google
Start by claiming your local business listing. Every search engine has a local business listing including Google, Yahoo, and Bing. We will focus on Google because Google is the market leader for search queries. Claiming your listing can be done through the Local Business Listing on the bottom of Google. Once you have created an account you will be asked for your information. At the end you will be asked to either receive a phone call or a post card for verification. Whatever you choose, be sure to receive the call or return the post card.
Optimizing You Listing for Better Results
In claiming your business listing you should make sure you fill out as much information as possible. The more content you have about your business the more ways your customers can find you on local search. This includes hours of operation, payment methods, photos, coupons, and website URL. These of course make sense however, there are many people who over look the categories section. Instead of listing your company for one particular service or category, be sure to include as many categories as possible. For example, if you are listing a restaurant another possible category is for catering. Also, try not to keyword stuff your listings which may amount to no visibility.
Making Use of Your Website Footer for Local Search
Once you have claimed your listings make use of microformmating. Microformat is HTML programming that helps computers read information while preserving human readability. Hcard microformat allows a device to recognize the information and allows the user to add it to an addressbook or a phone. This Hcard should be placed in your global footer with your address. Google has guidelines on what do to insert a hcard in your footer. If you consider the adoption of mobile devices and smartphones then you can appreciate the usability of this. People on the go are more easily able to download information, share, and contact your business because of this formatting.
Third Party Businesses Listings
Make use of other business listings to help increase your likelihood of ranking well. Google uses third party business listings as a way to verify your business. Sites such as Localeze, Axciom, and InfoUSA are used by Google to help verify and identify your company. The more business listings you appear in, such as Business.com and Yelp, help increase the veracity of your listing. Google also searches business listings for reviews. If you have ever clicked on a listing you will see other business listing reviews along with the ad. Asking your customers to write a review will help with converting customers and securing that coveted spot on the ten pack. It is these comments that give Google the confirmation that come from your customers.
Local Search and Advertising
Local search will soon advertise. The local business ads are currently under a testing phase in California. Businesses can advertise for a small fee to have the listing appear in targeted searches. The adoption of mobile devices and Google’s free Map Navigation will make your listings viewable in more places. The questions do you want to pay only monthly or appear for both listings?
Conclusion to Claiming and Optimizing You Business Listing
Google Ten Pack is a coveted spot to be in. If you think about the number of times you show up in the search results through organic, pay-per-click, and local business listing, the more times you have a chance for a business to choose your company. So claim your listing and optimize it by including all categories, hcard formatting in your website footer, and third party listings. Reviews also help authenticate your listing so get your customers to say something about you and watch your listing rise.
If you are looking to learn more about local search you can also read David Mihm’s blog Mihmorandom. His insights into local search are excellent and worth reading.