If you have a business that provides goods and services in a particular location, local search is hugely important to you. Wouldn’t it be great if your business were one of the “pins” in the map at the top of the search results? Here’s how it happens:
The local-search indexes are separate from the regular “organic” search information. The search engines gather this data from various business-record sources. But you can modify and add to the data, and in fact doing so is one of the most important things you can do to help yourself rank well in local search.
In Google, click the More or Reviews links to go to the business page; then, click the Business Owner? link at the top of the page. (You have to verify that you are the owner of the business by a code sent to your business phone, or a postcard sent to the location.)
Add as much data as possible: information about your products and services; pictures; videos; and so on. Use all the important keywords!
Do the same for Bing and Yahoo!.
For the moment, Yahoo! manages its own local-search directory. However, at some point this may be handed off to Bing as part of the Yahoo!/Bing merger.
Consider also submitting to UBL.org, which will forward your data to dozens of other local-search systems.
Keep track of your reviews, and encourage your customers to submit reviews. The local-search systems often display star ratings in the search results, so having five stars can encourage people to click the link to your information.
You might also consider Google Tags and similar services. These help your listing take up more “real estate” on the page and encourage clicking.
dummies
Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/local-search-online-for-local-businesses.html
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