TrueInsight Newsletter

Check Your Local Listings
Making Sure Your Business Ranks in The Local Search Results

If your business is already using paid search (or pay-per-click advertising) to geo-target your search marketing efforts, then congratulations—you’re already well on your way to driving qualified, local customers to your business’s door. But the ability to be found in local natural search results is fast becoming an equally vital component of an effective local search marketing strategy. But in spite of its power, local search is often overlooked by many businesses.

“As consumers increasingly go online to search for local goods and services, the ability to be found in local natural search results is a major component of search marketing success,” says Michael Teitelbaum, President of TruePresence. “Whether you are a one-store operation or a national, regional or franchised organization with multiple locations, local search can make sure customers in your market or markets find you

What is Local Search?
Local search refers to search engine queries conducted specifically to find local businesses. Today, most of these searches are being performed on major search engine like Google and Yahoo! Local, as well as online directories like Superpages. These sites use geo-targeting capabilities to match locations within search terms, such as “banking, cleveland oh”, to deliver listings based on location or ZIP code.

Local search results appear above the natural search results, and just like natural search results, listings are free—there are no cost-per-click charges.

The results are delivered in the form of an online business listing, allowing users to gather critical information on your business in a glance—things like phone number, web address, street address, driving directions, business hours, and customer reviews.

Updating Your Online Business Listing
The key to an effective local search strategy is to ensure your online business listings are accurate and up-to-date across all the major search engines, portals and online directories. Local search engines and directories such as Yahoo! Local, Google, CitySearch, Superpages, and Yellowpages.com allow you to create and update your listing (or listings, if you have multiple locations) to display all the key data just mentioned: phone number, web address, street address, driving directions, business hours, and more. But these are far from the only sites on which your company should register.

“There are dozens of vertical market directories and geographic-specific search portals on which your business may want to be listed,” says Teitelbaum. “For each one, be sure to create as complete a listing as possible so your business is matched to as many relevant search terms as possible.”

Local Search Made Easy
Maximizing your visibility across all the local search engines, portals, and directories can be a confusing and time-consuming exercise. A knowledgeable search marketing partner can be a great resource for identifying the best local search portals for your business and providing each one with an updated business listing. TruePresence’s Local Search Enhancement solution, for example, helps increase the likelihood of a business appearing in local search results by handling many of these activities.

“With our Local Search Enhancement program, we create a single, comprehensive business profile that we distribute to more than 40 of the Web’s most-used directories and search portals,” says Teitelbaum. “It’s an extremely low-cost service that we feel is a no-brainer for companies already leveraging a search marketing program.”

To learn more about TruePresence Local Search Enhancement, contact us today.