Just last week, Dealer Ignition’s CEO, Steven Wagner, posted a video about Google’s Place Pages. The idea was to let small retailers as well as major brands the importance of local search in bringing business to a brick and mortar or online store environment. Search is a primary avenue for consumers to find what they need / want but surprisingly few SMB’s (small and medium business) take the time and effort to get search right. As a result many small retailers and brand marketers are scratching their heads over just what to do to get traffic to their web site and into their stores.

Each year local search marketing expert David Mihm publishes a list of factors that go into local search. This ‘survey’ is contributed to by many of the industry’s best and brightest relating to local search. While it may be a bit ‘heavy’ for many SMB’s and even many corporate brand marketers it is important to look over. The full report can be found here.

A quote from David Mihm:

“It’s getting harder and harder, even for the Local SEO experts polled for this survey, to keep up with all the developments in our industry. I think all of us empathize with small business owners who are not only trying to understand how to use the Internet to market their business, but also to run it”

That certainly can strike fear in the hearts of poor small business people who have to do virtually everything regarding their business from planning to HR to taking out the trash.

Please note this report is about what drives performance in what was once referred to as Google’s Local Business Center and the other major engines’ )Yahoo and bing) ideas of local search. The survey talks about elements that get a business placement in the 7-pack, 3-pack or one box search results. Here are some highlights:

1. Claim your listing in Google and the other engines! – This is so basic yet so many people do not know that it is a critical element in ensuring your Place Page will rank above others in your respective categories.
2. Make sure you are using proper categories – You want traffic for searches related to your vertical / industry so fully utilize the Google categories. After that the advice moves around a bit so out of the gate play it safe. Go with Google’s (and apparently the SuperPage’s) categories to be safe.
3. Associate photos with your listing – Very few people put photos in their local listings effectively. The engines like this because it adds to their universal search quest to deliver results that are more than just text.

As for the things not to do? Here are a couple.

1. P.O. Box on website without a physical address – This is just common sense. You look like less of a business if there is no physical address. Of course, many people work from home so this consideration is something that needs attention. Each engine has their policies.
2. An 800 number as your primary number on place page – This does nothing to help establish the local feel of a business. Use the local area code and number for the listing some the engines can feel more confident that you are who you are and you are where you say you are.
3. Location keywords in categories – The experts seem to agree that this technique would be a quick road to getting your listing deactivated. Don’t do it.

So there you have a few do’s and don’ts on the local listing front. These elements are important in the overall scope of any Internet marketing plan for the local business or the major corporation with local locations.
Are you doing the right thing when it comes to your local listings?

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