Google, Bing & Yahoo! all offer free local business listings on their search engine results pages (SERP). When someone includes a city & state in their search, these local business results are displayed before the organic results. You could own the #1 spot on Google for “lawyers in richmond va,” but you might be the 15th site listed on the SERP.
Benefits of being listed in the local business center
- All your contact information listed in one place.
Includes your company name & description, website, phone number, email address, physical address, a map with one-click directions, hours of operation and parking. - Upload photos.
Our recommendations: your company logo, a picture of your storefront, a few portfolio examples, a recognizable face within your organization. - Receive ratings & reviews.
Customers can rate & write reviews about your company. Of course, you’ll want to make sure you’re doing a great job first. - Include your YouTube Videos.
(Google only)
How to add your business
Google Local Business Center
- Go to Google Local Business Center.
- Sign in with a Google account (Recommendation: Use the same account you are using for Analytics, AdWords, etc.). If you do not have an account, now’s a great time to start.
- Follow the onscreen steps. Enter your information. Upload photos and/or videos.
- Verify your listing. Choose the phone method. Google will call you immediately and give you a PIN number. Enter that PIN into the verification box.
- It may take a few days for your listing to appear. Try searching for “[yourcompanyname] [yourcity] [yourstate]“. If it doesn’t appear within one week, sign back into your account and check it’s status (or ask us for help).
Bing Local Listings
*must use Internet Explorer or Firefox. Bing Local Listings does not support Chrome or Safari.
- Go to Bing Local Listing Center.
- Follow the onscreen steps. Be sure to list supplemental pages within your site that are of importance, especially pages with localized content specific to your area, or a contact page.
- Verify your listings. Bing only offers snail mail verification. They will send you a PIN via the postal service. When you receive it, sign back into your account & verify your listing.
Yahoo! Local Listings
- Go to Yahoo! Local Listing Center.
- Sign in with your account, or sign up for a new one.
- Follow the onscreen instructions. Enter all information.
- Yahoo! will verify your listing for you, but it may take up to 5 business days. Sit back. Relax. Or learn how to jazzercise.
Use website analytics to improve your listing
Now that you’re sending people to your website, you should probably know what they’re doing. You can use Google Analytics (for free) to provide information about these visitors. There’s a whole other post on how to analyze this data, but here are the basics.
Look at the “source” of your visitors.
- Your local listing traffic from Google will probably show up as maps.google.com
- Your local listing traffic from Bing will probably look like all other search engine traffic from bing, bing.com
- Your local listing traffic from Yahoo! will probably show up as local.yahoo.com
Once you single out the source of your traffic, you can then begin looking at:
- The location of your visitors
If they aren’t from the area your business is located, maybe they’re planning on moving to the area… or they’re just lost. - Which pages they are viewing
Are they viewing your supplemental pages from Bing? Are they finding your coupons? Discounts? Store hours? - How long they are sticking around
Do they hit your homepage and leave within 10 seconds? If so, you should evaluate your listing information with the info on your homepage. It might not match up.
Take advantage of negative reviews
Once your listing is up, don’t just let it sit there. Check back in and see if anyone has reviewed you. This can be especially important for restaurants, retail stores, or anyone interacting with a high volume of customers.
It’s free, unsolicited feedback. Learn from it. And improve.
And take action on the positive reviews too. If a customer gives you a great review, next time they go to buy something, be extra nice. Or if someone mentions an employee for providing phenomenal service, give credit where credit is due.
