Paying attention to your local listing for Google, Bing and Yahoo is important. It is also a way for brick and mortar business to stay on top of the ever competitive national companies who try to leach customers away from the local business with their paid advertising.
Visitors searching for your product or service typically click through the top 5 results of a search page. On average 50% more than websites or results that appear at bottom of page 1 or other pages.
One of the reasons local listings are so effective for local business owners is because they all have map locations of your business.
If you have a local listing use it to your advantage. Many businesses don’t know how to edit their local listing. Google, Bing and Yahoo all have basic procedures to do this and all it costs is your time to do it! It can produce a significant payback if handled properly.
Types of things you can add to your local listings are:
- Keyword descriptions about your business
- Ability to upload photos of your store, logo, shop or services
- Ability to upload a video
- Store Hours
- Contact Information; Email, Telephone and Fax
- Types of payment methods you accept
- Categories that you service
Google, Bing and Yahoo are not the only companies who provide local listing information. Managing your Internet Identity is very important. Even local phone directories such as DEX or Century Link, Yellow Pages and many other directories like the BBB post what they believe to be accurate information about your business.
Local listings are a great way to generate the initial led to your business if you do not have a website. They (if done well) can steer visitors to your website over the competition.
One of the most important things to know about local listings and why you should look at your local listings is because it is a place where customers may leave a comment for others. We all know how great it is when we meet a prospect who was referred by another customer. Someone who leaves good words about your business, service or products is literally invaluable. In turn, bad reviews can easily impact the visitor. We have all searched businesses and can not help to read the business reviews in local listing information. If you are not paying attention to your local listing then you may not be aware of the number of good or bad reviews out there.
What do you do if you see a bad review or inaccurate information on your local listing? First, if you have not done this yet you need to claim your local listing. Once you do this you will then have the ability to respond to any comment made in your local listing. This can really impact your potential visitors/customers because they will see that you are actively responding to an unsatisfied customer or post. That you do in fact care about how your business is perceived.
So do yourself and your business a favor. Search your business name or the most accurate keyword and add the city and state to find your local listing. If you are a new business then you will want to submit your local business information to these directories.
