There are a lot of local business listings out there—ThinkLocal®, Yahoo!® Local, and YellowPages.com™ are just a few. Thanks to these online business directories, it’s easy for your clients to find information on your business, which is great. But sometimes the information that is gathered by local directories is incorrect or outdated, which in no way benefits your business. Fixing this situation is easy, however, by simply taking control of your listings.
Take the time to look up your business on some of the top local search engines (click here for the top 5). By taking ownership of your listings, you can take control of what searchers find. In addition to changing or updating existing information, you can also add a link to your website, a description of services offered, your business hours, an email address at where you can be reached, and much more. We suggest taking ownership of your listings at the top 5 directories first, then expanding to the rest when you find time.
Why is ThinkLocal listed as a “top 5″ when it isn’t even close. This is a good directory, and I hope more is done to promote it. But SMBs need honest information – and according to compete.com, in May 2009:
yellowpages.com unique visitors: 16,730,296
yelp.com unique visitors: 25,287,091
thinklocal.com unique visitors: 5,910
It’s a great and very informative content. The current buzz in the web industry. Clients who seek seo services from web marketing companies are very much interested and prone to get their site optimized for local search engines for local business listings.
Keeping your site updated and relevant to what your customers are searching for is crucial. Most small business owners just want to set it and forget it. To stay ahead on the search engines, you have to be on top of it. Great post.
Local business listing optimization is definitely the hot area. Local business owners must embrace their local search real estate as this is becoming very competitive.