When thinking about local search listings most people think of the Yahoo!, Bing and of course, Google. Other well-known listings may also come to mind: Yellowpages or Superpages, but marketers should not discount the smaller players in the market.

Many of these smaller local search sites offer valuable resources that
you may not find in some of the larger, such as reviews,
recommendations, photos, and promotion features. Even more important,
however, listing your business in all local search directories makes it
easier for your customers to find information on your business, which
is critical to not only driving more traffic to your web site, but also
generating more phone calls and delivering more customers thru the door.

A few tips to note when working with local listings:

Basically, you have an invisible license plate when you go on the internet with your computer. This is called your IP. Think of it like an “Internet Plate” for your computer that you drive around the internet with. This is why websites that you visit know things about you, like where you are from and what sort of operating system you are using along with how many times you visit. So what is Google doing with your IP now? They are giving results based on your location! Before, if you searched for a term like “car repair”, you would get results simply based on who markets themselves the best online and their location could be any where in the world. Now, Google is incorporating where you, the searcher, are in the world to show you relevant local results. So, in essence, if you are in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and search for “car repair”, you will get results from local “car repair” websites in your search results. In my opinion, this is great for local business and may eliminate the need for expensive advertising in local Yellow Pages. It’s now easier than ever to rank high on Google for local business terms!

So, what I recommend is to make sure your website has local keywords within the Meta tags, content, and H1 and H2 tags asap! Let us know if your local company website needs some fixing up to be better aimed at your local market.

Cheers, www.localseo1.com