Tips to Make Your Local Listing Appear Above Your Competitors
You’ve got your company listed on all the Local Directories (Google Places, Yahoo! Local, Bing Local, Yellow Pages, Yelp, etc.) but you are 15th on the lists!
Here’s how to move up those lists:
1. Add your location and the keywords you want to rank for in the title tags of your website pages. They should look something like “Bakery in Tampa, FL”.
2. When you link to your contact page, make sure the anchor text of the link says “Bakery in Tampa, FL” instead of just “Contact Us”. The link text is very important.
3. Include the legal name of your business in the title tag of your contact page.
4. Use a local phone number (same area code as the city you want to rank for) and avoid toll free numbers.
5. Use a physical addresses instead of PO boxes if possible.
6. Use your keywords several times in your local listings (in the title, description, categories, tags, etc.)
7. Complete your local listing profiles as much as you can. Add business information, website, photos, YouTube videos, etc.
8. Some local search engines allow you to add coupons. Take advantage of this.
9. Include full contact information in your website footer and on your contact page. Be sure to include the physical address and make sure it matches the one in your local listings.
10. Some people say that locations closer to downtown are more likely to rank above other listings. I haven’t seen proof of this, but if you have multiple addresses, use the one closer to downtown.
11. Don’t submit your listing more than once. Duplicate entries can get you in trouble.
12. Use your main keyword in the title of your listing. Name your business “D’Angelo Italian Restaurant” instead of just “D’Angelo”
13. Use as many categories as possible. If a local directory allows you to choose up to 5 categories, use them all.
14. Include your top products in your business description so your customers searching for them can find you.
15. I like submitting my “Contact Us” page instead of my home page to the local directories. It works great because that’s where I have my business address.
16. Pay attention to industry-specific directories. For example, if you own a restaurant, UrbanSpoon and OpenTable are a must. If you’re in the real estate industry, you shouldn’t forget about Trulia and Zillow.
17. If your industry is very competitive, building links pointing to your local listings will help.
18. If you have multiple locations, here’s what you need to do:
- Give each location its own page.
- Consolidate all your local listings into one account (i.e. don’t have one Google Places account for each of your locations.)
- Develop a store locator so people can find the location closest to where they are.
- Cross-link your location pages.
- Make sure each locations has its unique phone number. If possible, make sure you use local area codes.
- - If you want to take it to the next level, create and submit a KML Sitemap.
Zeke Camusio is a serial entrepreneur, Internet marketing expert, published author, speaker and founder of an Internet Marketing Agency in Portland, OR
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Great post! Just a question… Do you think that using microformats for marking up address information in my web site would also help on moving up the lists?
Tips for improving your local listings, interesting info > http://bit.ly/aExN4T
I completely disagree with point 12. I would suggest you to avoid using keywords/key-phrases in the title of your Google Places(formerly Google Maps) listings. It is against the quality guidelines of Google. You can refer Google’s Quality Guidelines on Google places here http://goo.gl/aY0c
HI,
your 1 point on local listing as below i did not get it can you explain me in detail….
17. If your industry is very competitive, building links pointing to your local listings will help.
waiting for positive reply,
thanks
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Make Your Local Listing Appear Above Competitors
http://dailyseotip.com/tips-to-make-your-local-listing-appear-above-your-competitors/1157/
Tips to make your local listing appear above your competitors… http://bit.ly/aExN4T
Great tips i had never even thought of getting links in to my local listings but now you say it seems obvious thanks
Interesting post… Not sure I agree 100%, but whatever works. We can all have our own opinions, right?
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I think your blog is very useful. I was looking for this kind of information because my family had problems with phone calls in the night. It is a shame that authorities do not have a way to help you in these situations. This is why this service is great.
This is really great. It could really help a lot. Nice Read!
I got one of my websites ( www.ShortSaleHomeExpert.com ) on the 1st Google place which target keyword is Bellevue Short Sales. I definitely will try your magic formula to my other websites. Great post!
This is very help full information for local listing..i have a question that is what is GEO – Tag? Is this is also help full for local listing..
would you also recommend adding video clips and photos to the local listings ?
thanks for this great tip,this articles really good
What a wonderful piece of information. Admiring the time and effort you put into your blog and detailed information you offer! I will bookmark your blog and check up here often. Thumbs up!
Thanks for the tips. I just recently setup my listing and hope I got everything right. Within weeks of setting it up the big G changed their algorithm yet again. Now I’m looking into the importance or lack of in Google +. Here I go again lol.
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