How to Boost the Online Presence for a Local Business

Having a strong online visibility should be a crucial marketing component for any local business! And here is why:  

Google, Bing, Yahoo and the other search engines have revolutionized how we we shop and interact within our local communities. 

Today, Google alone handles more than 100 billion searches per month around the world. Of those searches*, 

• 4 billion desktop queries per month in the United States alone have local intent .
• 50%+ of mobile queries have local intent.
• Roughly 15-20% of all searches are mobile .

From these numbers, we can safely assume that there are approximately seven billion unique local searches per month on Google in the United States.

Currently, Google, Yahoo!, and Bing are returning local results that have challenged traditional print Yellow Pages. They have become--in most areas, and most certainly for the younger generation--the preferred method for discovering local businesses and local information. Knowing this, starting March 9, 2009, Google began showing local results for generic queries, meaning that Internet users no longer need to include any city or geographic terms in their search to be shown results that are local to their location.

Additionally, mobile search is absolutely exploding. Leading analyst firm BIA/Kelsey predicts that mobile local search volume will surpass desktop local search volume in 2015. Mobile searches primarily pull their results from local search engines.

What this means for your business:

The potential to attract new customers via local search is enormous.

The core of any local search marketing campaign is the creation of local business listings. Consumers search for local service and product providers from within many different venues, such as Yelp, Yellow Pages Online, Kudzu, Angie's List, etc.

A local business listing is simply an online profile that contains the business name, address, phone number, (often referred to as NAP) and other details. There are thousands of websites and directories on which local business owners are allowed to create free business listings. The most important places a business should be listed in is Google My Business, Google Map, Google+ Local, Yelp, Bing Places, Internet Yellow Pages, and Yahoo! Local.

In order to qualify for a local business listing, the business must meet all four of the following criteria:

1. Have a business name or DBA
2. Have a local phone number that matches the city of location (not a shared phone number, toll-free number, or call tracking number)
3. Have a dedicated physical street address (not a shared address, PO box, or virtual office, although a home office is permitted)
4. Make face-to-face contact with your customers (business is not conducted virtually)

The purpose of creating local listings is to make your business visible all over the Internet. Each new listing created increases the chances of being found by a potential customers. In principal, the more places a business is listed the more visible it becomes! 

Most business directories and search engines require you to verify each listing you create and many will only allow you to add more details about your business, such as business hours, website link, business category, images, video, etc. once you have claimed the listing. Each directory is unique and has their own rules.  If you do not claim your business listing you stand the risk of being removed.

In my experience, many businesses have multiple listings in directories, especially if the moved the business to a different location.  The result, their listing will not be shown or shown with a wrong address. Claiming your listing will allow you to "clean" things up.

Some local search engines and directories allow you to place your business into a number of categories—usually between two and five—that help further describe the nature of the business. This is an important step in creating your local business listing and should not be overlooked. The search engines use category data when deciding which businesses to show for particular searches. The search engines will not display a business that is uncategorized—or even worse, miscategorized—for particular sets of keywords. This usually happens among keywords and phrases that are the most competitive—where there are already a number of businesses associated with a particular category that might satisfy what the searcher is looking for.

Before you create your listing you should always search for your business first to see if it already exists to avoid duplications. 

Creating business listings is not difficult and can be done by any business owner or employee. However, it does take a lot of time and patients since it is a three-step process.  Beware of "easy solutions" provided for a fee by many vendors such as Yext.  They require a monthly or annual fee to create your listing but as soon as you stop paying them, your listing will be deleted and you are back to square one.

It is far better to either do it yourself or hire someone that manually submits your listings on your behalf and provides you with a spreadsheet of all log-in information, once the work is done. That way you are in control of your listing and can keep it updated as needed.  At Results Marketing we provide this service. Just give us a call at (707) 853-0702 or request your free online visibility report.

* (Sources: Comscore, Searchengine Land and Moz)