Claim Your Free Business Listing Now

If you’re a local business owner and don’t have time to finish this article at least CLAIM YOU LOCAL BUSINESS LISTINGS NOW. It’s FREE and will get you listed (if you’re not already) in GOOGLE, Yahoo!, Bing, Yelp, and other search engines regardless if you have a website or not. Just visit GetListed.org and enter your business name and zip code. GetListed will let you know if your listing has been claimed already and if not, will direct you to each search engines local business center where you can claim your listing.

Now for those of you who can stick around, lets me explain the what, where, why, and how of Local Search.

What is Local Search

Simply put, it’s a type of search performed by a search engine when the search query is deemed to have “local intent”. In other words, your search includes not only “what” you’re searching for but signals the intent by including “where” (street, city, zip code, region, etc.) your searching for it. However, sometimes search engines decide that a query has local intent even if location isn’t explicitly signaled in the search query.

For example, a search on the word “pizza” returns search results for pizza shops nearby or when the word “shoes” is searched from a location aware device (cell phone, GPS, etc.) search results are returned for nearby shoe stores.

The ranking algorithm for local search is different than the ranking algorithm for traditional search. Traditional search is focused on ranking the pages of a website while local search is focused on ranking the business listing pages. Accordingly, the ranking factors for each are different.

Where are Local Business Search Results Displayed

In 2008, Google and other major search engines began to incorporate local business search results (which formerly appeared only as part of Google Maps) into its “traditional” search engine results page when people submitted queries that had local intent. Local business search results only appear on page one in a very obvious business listing adjacent to a map that displays the locations of the businesses, known as “The Local 7-Pack (Google) or Local 5-Pack (Bing & Yahoo!)”. The 5/7-Pack is usually tucked beneath the sponsored ads at the top of the page but above the organic results. Other search engines show similar results for their local listings.

What’s important to realize is that it may be possible to achieve something that you may not be able to achieve even if you have a website, the coveted “top position on page one”! That’s because the Local 5/7-Pack essentially pushes organic search results into the 8th spot on the results pages. And what’s more astonishing is that this can be done without having a website. That’s one reason why it’s so important to claim your local business listing (see how below). Oh, and by the way, did I mention it’s FREE to claim your local business listing?

Why is Local Search Important for Small Businesses

Google reports that 20% of searches on Google are related to location. Using this combined with ComScore’s report that 10.7 Billion searches were conducted in the U.S. during the month of Aug 2010 you realize that Google searches with local intent exceeded 2 Billion for the month. Assuming the same % of local searches for the other search engines (Yahoo!, Bing, Ask, AOL) and the total searches with local intent conducted in the U.S. in the month of Aug. 2010 is over 3 Billion.

Local Search Has Gone Mobile
As Smartphones continue their push into the mainstream more local search will be done on the go. Google’s Eric Schmidt recently stated that mobile search traffic grew 50% in first half of 2010 and that “One in three queries from Smartphones is about where I am” (location). Mobile search is the logical extension to local search looking forward with smarter and smarter mobile devices. All the more reason to get your local business listing claimed.

Newspaper Readership on the Decline
Last but not least, the decline in newspaper readership is giving pause to small business owners who have traditionally advertised their business within print pages. According to comScore, newspaper readership is down 11% in past years as readers move to the internet to get their news. The result is that local businesses have lost audience awareness from the decrease in newspaper readership.

Why Businesses Should Claim Their Local Business Listings

Besides being able to achieve top position on page one of search results, there are other good reasons to claim you local business listing.

Correct Incorrect Information
Whether you have a website or not your business may already be listed in local search results. But that doesn’t mean the information is accurate. Search engines not only maintain their own database of local businesses but also look to trusted sources like infoUSA, Acxiom, and Localeze to gather local business information. If your business information is incorrect at any of these major data providers it may outweigh the information that search engines have about your business. One way that may correct this is to claim your business listing directly with the search engines. Once you claim your listing and complete the verification process search engines have more trust that your information is accurate.

Prevent Your Listing From Being Hijacked
Not only does claiming your business listing give you some control over how search engines index you, but it prevents someone else from hijacking your listing. It doesn’t happen often, but if it does it’s another problem you have to deal with in correcting your local business information.

Don’t Have a Website Yet? Let Your Local Business Listing Page Fill the Gap
If you’re a new business owner that hasn’t had the time or money to have a website designed for your business, then your local business page is a great alternative. You can add all sorts of information about your business including a description, products and services, coupons, business hours, business logo, photos, video clips, and more.

Low Competition + High Demand = Local Search Visibility
According to Google it’s local search index includes more than 50 Million Place Pages worldwide, yet only 4 million have been claimed! Compare this to the level of competition for keywords and phrases in traditional search and you can see that achieving high ranking in local search is going to be much easier. Compound this with the fact that 20% of all Google searches have local intent and you have a good reason to want to claim your local business listing.

How to Claim Your FREE Local Business Listing

A great place to start building your local business presence is by claiming you local business listings. Fortunately GetListed.org makes it easy for you by providing a one-stop business listing dashboard where you can enter your business name and zip code and GetListed.org will check your business listing status on five leading search engines (Google, Yelp, Bing, Yahoo!, Best of the Web, and Hot Frog).

If your business listing has not been claimed, GetListed.org directs you to the local business center of each search engine where you can establish a local business account (for FREE). After adding all your business details (check out David Mihm’s Local Search Ranking Factors for guidance) and submitting your listing to each search engine you can visit GetListed.org again to check you listing status. Once you have completed all the submission requirements you’ll have all green check marks and be one step closer to dominating your local market.

Resources

Google Places
Yahoo! Local
Bing Local Listing Center
Local Search Marketing Guide
Local SEO Guide
David Mihm’s Local Search Ranking Factors
SEOmoz
Search Engine Guide
Search Engine Land
Local Search News

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