The Importance of Profiles and Directories for Local Search

One of the most important things a local business can do is to create a locally visible presence. 20 years ago a billboard may have seemed like the best option. Perhaps a 30 second spot on local television, or maybe a newspaper ad. Not having a Yellow Pages was small business suicide as it was the only place that people would actively look for what your small business had to offer. Today more and more people are jumping online to actively find local businesses.

It’s said that as much as 40% of all online searches have a local intent, with a said whopping 80% of commercial searches having local intent. This makes sense. If I search for “pet store”, I almost assuredly am looking for one in Chicago, where I live, and not in Florida. It’s not the most refined search, but these generic searches certainly occur with regularity.

As more people toss the bulky Yellow Pages book in lieu of search engines, as more places offer free wi-fi, as more people are outfitted with internet enabled phones, the more local search will be impacted. This is no secret, but how do you as a local business owner take part in this search revolution?

First – on your own site, is your address visible? Is your phone number on each page? Are these in a format which the search engine spiders can see? Is your contact information on every page? Does your site convey to the searcher that you are a local business? Getting all your information straight on your own web property is at the core of local search optimization. And as far as search is concerned, it’s better to have a local number rather than an (800) number, or list both.

Next – off site – have you claimed and optimized your local profiles?

Here are links to the major search engines where you can add and update your local listings:

• Google Local Business Center – This is how you can get listed in the local 10-pack results that show up on the search results next to the map.
• Yahoo! Local – Yahoo’s version of Local, also valuable for map results.
• MSN’s Live Search Local Business Center – And now MSN/Live’s version of the same. All valuable for local based searches.

Another recently added and very valuable local profile that you can get for free right now is via BOTW:

• BOTW Local – There is also a featured submission to help you get further exposure for $19.95 per month – which will help you get listed higher in results. (use the coupon code SAVE25 for 25% savings until March 31, 2009 – this also works with standard BOTW listings, which are also very valuable)

A great resource for monitoring your local listing profiles can be found at GetListed.org. This won’t show every possible listing, but GetListed.org is a great place to start claiming the local profiles listed above. In addition to showing you where you’re listed, this site has the added benefit of helping you submit information to multiple local business profiles simultaneously.

While claiming your local profile, get all your information in sync. This includes listing your address in the same manner for each profile. If you are located at 1234 N. Damen Ave. – make sure “1234 N. Damen Ave.” is the listed address on every profile – even down to the “.” – Google and other engines aggregate reviews from many sources, and having consistent information that identifies your business entity helps in this process.

Local profiles can also help with reputation management: If you have many local profiles set up, they will be gaining age on pretty powerful domains. This is a helpful bunker against any future potentially damaging reviews. On the other side, your profiles (because you have claimed many) may be found through various searches which can help garnish additional reviews in general and hopefully help drum up some additional new business.

Here are some other local business directories that you should take advantage of by either claiming your business’ profile or signing up for one:

• Local.com
• YellowPages.com
• SuperPages.com
• Local.com
• MapQuest.com
• ZoomInfo.com
• Kudzu.com
• Yelp.com – where you have to become a member to create a listing, and where your business may already be getting reviews!

So now that you have your local profiles set up, now what? Go ahead and ask some of your satisfied customers to write a review for your business. If you have multiple listings, they’ll have multiple avenues on which they can rave about your superior service, products, or whatever else is relevant to your business.

For additional ideas on how to improve your local search efforts, please read David Mihm’s excellent article on the subject of local search ranking factors.