How to Create a Great Local Search Business Listing

According to Google, when you create a new business listing in the Google Local, a great local search business listing should include the following:

• Categories
• Photos/Videos
• Hours of operation
• Payment options (and) the payment types you accept
• Additional details: Brands you carry or if your provide Free parking

More specifically, the information you should submit to create a great Google LBC Listing:

Basic information

When you submit information about your business, make sure to include the following:

• Company/Organization: This is the official/registered name of your business
• Address: Enter your address the same way it would appear on a paper mail envelope
• Phone number: Include the area code with your business phone number
• Website: Make sure to list your authoritative business website as your homepage, since Google uses information from your homepage to help improve search results. The URL you provide can be a maximum of 255 characters
• Description: Tell users what makes your business special
• Email address: Let users know how to contact you

Categories

Categories are ways to classify your business that help Google show your business for the right searches. The Local Business Center will suggest categories that match what you type, but feel free to create your own if you don’t see a category that fits your business. Make sure that the categories you choose are accurate and describe your business well. It’s OK if they’re specific; Google’s search algorithm makes sure that users looking for a general business type, like ‘book stores,’ will see businesses in more specific categories too.

Hours of operation:

Let customers know when your business is open.

Payment options:
Specify the payment types you accept.

Photos and Videos:
Including photos and video adds visual appeal to your listing.

Additional details:

Create custom attributes that allow you to include additional information that you’d like customers to know. For example, you can list what brands you carry or if your business provides free parking.

Last year, a client of mine asked me to help them with getting more (free traffic) to their site. Whole World Baby is your typical small business trying to compete with thousands of more established and much larger companies.

To help them compete against The GAP and other high end baby clothiers, I told them that I would create and optimized their LBL on Google using high traffic keywords that matched their product line. In less then 30 days, WWB was on Page #1 of Google Local in the very competitive “baby clothes” niche market.

Top 10 Most Important Review Engines

1. Yelp

2. InsiderPages

3. Yahoo! Local

4. CitySearch

5. Google Places

6. Superpages

7. Niche Industry Sites (BBB)

8. TripAdvisor

9. Judysbook

10. Kudzu

Other sites worth noting: YellowPages, Merchant Circle, Angies List.

Important Data Providers

• infoUSA

• Superpages

• Localeze

• YellowPages

• Yelp

• InsiderPages

• Acxiom

• Yahoo! Local

• CitySearch

• Niche Industry Sites (BBB)

Other sites worth considering:

• Niche Civic/Municipal Sites (Chamber of Commerce, Local Directories)
• Merchant Circle
• Universal Business Listing
• Yellowbot

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Tags: Google Places, Local SEO, SEM, SEO