Keep Your Online Business Listing Updated

Have you updated your ThinkLocal® listing lately? It’s a good idea to keep your online business listings as up-to-date as possible. If you add or change your business’ phone number, make sure this is reflected in your online listings—you want your customers to be able to reach you quickly and easily, without having to search for the correct number.  Does your business have multiple locations? Be sure to create listings for each so that all locations show up in local searches. If the online business directory offers a description field, fill it out and include any promotions or special offers that are currently going on. Your business listing can drive a lot of traffic to your Web site; if there’s a particular page you’d especially like your customers to see, use that as your business URL instead of directing traffic toward your home page.

The best thing about local search directories and online business listings is that most of them are 100% free. Take advantage of this cost-effective way to spread your online presence, and optimize your listing as often as you can.

Local Search Continues to Expand

If you have a Facebook® profile, odds are you’ve seen the myriad applications that are now available for your page. While most of these are for entertainment purposes, there are a few that actually provide useful information to their users. Where I’ve Been^TM is one of the latter applications. Sure, the concept is entertaining—you get to show off to others the places you’ve lived or visited, and you get to compare your travels with those of other members.

But Where I’ve Been^TM has morphed into a valuable travel and local search resource, similar to Trip Advisor®. Users can see pictures, read reviews, find travel accommodations, and more, all at one convenient Web site. Ben Parr recently posted an article at Mashable.com that highlights some of Where I’ve Been’s newest features. To view his article, visit http://mashable.com/2009/04/27/where-ive-been-2/.

Get Listed. Get Sales.

Earlier today, I came across an article written by Larry Small, entitled “Local Search Means Business.” This article includes several impressive statistics about today’s consumers and local search, including this one: “nearly half (45 percent) of Internet Yellow Pages and local online directory searchers went on to make an online purchase in the fourth quarter of 2008.” He also went on to say, “local search is less about browsing your options, and more about closing the deal.”

Obviously, local search is growing fast. Therefore, if you want to proactively compete, you must jump on the bandwagon and create your online yellow pages listing now. Quoting Small, “ignoring the Internet will catch up with a business, no matter how small or what niche it occupies.”

Find Local Businesses Through Twitter™

Here at ThinkLocal®, we’re huge fans of Twitter™. We use Twitter to find new articles pertaining to local search; share information that can be beneficial to our followers; explore hot discussion topics via the Twitter Trends function; and get ideas on how we can make ThinkLocal a bigger and better local search directory. Twitter is also great for finding local businesses in your area. With their search function, you can enter a phrase like “St. Louis restaurant” to view tweets (posts from Twitter members) that contain those keywords. Your results will vary: One person might be notifying his followers that he is going to eat at his favorite St. Louis restaurant, while another Twitter user might be spreading the word about the new sushi restaurant she just opened in downtown St. Louis. You’ll also find posts that contain reviews of St. Louis restaurants, as well as tweets asking for restaurant recommendations from other Twitter users.

Next time you’re looking for a local business, point your browser to Twitter and take advantage of the information you can discover through a simple search. Once you’ve found a local business, visit http://www.ThinkLocal.com to view its online business listing, read reviews, find directions, and much more.

Effective Email Marketing Campaigns

One of our readers forwarded the following article from TrackVia.com: http://www.trackvia.com/blog/2009/03/13/email-campaigns/

This article provides helpful tips on generating an effective email campaign. Email marketing campaigns are a great way to supplement other online marketing efforts, like local search. If you are currently using or plan to start using email marketing to promote your business, you should read this article.

The Benefits of “Mastering Local Search”

If you own a brick-and-mortar business and still need a little more help understanding the benefits of utilizing local search, read this article by Manish Patel:

http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/articles/Mastering_Local_Search.aspx

In the article, Patel explains various aspects of consumer behavior and how local search responds to those behaviors to produce favorable results for business owners.

5 Top Local Search Engines: Are You Listed?

More than half of the American population have said goodbye to their phonebooks and hello to a simpler, faster and more up-to-date type of directory − the local search engine.

Unlike phonebooks, consumers have access to numerous online business directories.  The key to being found is to make sure that you are listed in several high-quality online directories. Don’t worry. It’s usually free to get listed. Below are five top-notch local search engines that will help bring new customers to your door:

1. Yahoo!® Local
2. Google® Maps
3. ThinkLocal®
4. Yellowpages.com™
5. Local.com™

The Demand for Local Search Is on the Rise

The following article claims that “54 percent of Americans have substituted the Internet and local search for phone books,” and “ninety percent of online commercial searches result in a local offline purchase and 61 percent of all local searches results in a transaction”:

http://searchenginewatch.com/3632973

So are you taking of advantage of local search yet?

Need Help Making Decisions?

Which movie should we see? Where is a good place to meet for lunch? Which merlot is better? Should I read this book? Decisions like these need to be made every day. Now, thanks to Goodrec.com, the decision-making process is easier than ever. Just access the site via the Internet or your mobile phone, and you’ll be able to find recommendations for local restaurants, local bars, books, movies, and wine. Since Goodrec is easily browsed by mobile phones that can access the Internet, you don’t have to worry about having “Why didn’t I research this before I left the house?” moments in the future-all the recommendations you need will be right at your fingertips, even while on-the-go.

The emergence of sites like Goodrec and ThinkLocal® is further proof that local search is changing the way consumers make their money-spending decisions. If you haven’t done so yet, get involved! Local search can help you, both as a consumer and a business owner. Visit ThinkLocal.com to sign up for your free business listing, rate your favorite establishments, and discover events taking place in your area.

How to Optimize Your Site for Local Search

An online business listing is a visibility enhancer all on its own. However, it doesn’t hurt to support your online business listing with a business Web site that is optimized for local search traffic.

Optimizing your site for local search is ideal if your business has a physical location. It will increase the chances that your site will get noticed when a relevant search is made online.

Below are some tips for optimizing your site for local search:

• Include both your target keyword phrases and your location (city, region, state, country, ZIP, etc.) in your page titles whenever possible.
• Mention your location on most, if not all, of your Web pages. You can usually do this by including the location in your body copy or in your footer text.
• Have incoming links that use your business name as the anchor text.
• Have links from local business directories, like ThinkLocal™ and Insider Pages™.
• Have links from direction pages.