The three major search engines — Google, Yahoo, and Bing — provide free online business listings for local businesses. Even better, these listings are provided at the top of the search results page where consumers are most likely to see them. If you own a local business, you are foolish if you don’t take advantage of these.
An article on our website discusses online business listings and how important they are for local businesses. However, not all local businesses are familiar with them. This blog post is intended to bring you up to speed on what a local business listing is and how it can affect you if you own a small business.
Local listings have existed on the Web for years. Various companies have purchased business databases and create websites with the information. Some of the database information is from the phone companies and some comes from other sources, but the result is a sort of yellow pages on the Web. The listings have your business name, location, and telephone numbers, and they may also provide mapping information, hours of operation, forms of payment you accept, a description of your business, and customer reviews. The sample above comes from Google’s local listings.
Many companies provide and promote these listings including Google, Yahoo, Merchant Circle, Insider Pages, Kudzu, Super Pages, and the Yellow Pages. All of these companies provide small business owners with a free basic listing, which can be updated and corrected by the business owner merely by claiming the listing. Business owners can also update these listings whenever the information changes. Think about the paper Yellow Pages where you couldn’t change your business advertisement for a year. These are a wonderful marketing bargain this is for small business owners, and if you own a local business, you should claim the listings for your business as quickly as you can.
Some of the listings have become even more important lately. Google claims over 70% of consumer search and Google’s local listings are likely the first items presented to your prospective customers when searching for your products or services. Claim the Google listings first! Then move on to the Yahoo listing and the Microsoft/Bing listing before claiming any of the others. Claiming multiple listings may actually increase the “trust rating” given your business by the search engines and your listing may be boosted to the top of the search engine results list by your actions.
Google encourages businesses to submit pictures and videos with listings. Others provide for picture submissions from your customers. Google also provides listing owners with access to a Small Business Center dashboard, which offers simple analytics describing traffic to the listing. All of the listing providers are increasing the incentives for your business to participate.
Do yourself a favor and claim your business listings. If you don’t have the time or the expertise to take on the task, I can do it for you. If you have questions about online business listings or about customer reviews, please contact us. If you do nothing, you’ll be wasting a very powerful and FREE Web marketing opportunity.
Related articles
- Yellow Page Advertising? Seriously? (roundpeg.biz)
- Yahoo! Small Business Launches Advisor (it-sideways.com)
- Photo Sums Up How We Feel About The Yellow Pages (gizmodo.com.au)
