On-Site Optimization - Part Two - Local Directories

If you haven’t already, make sure you check out “On-Site Optimization – Part One“!

Top 10 Local Directories

I highly recommend that you optimize your business listing in the top ten directories.These are usually considered the top ten local directories:

Bing
CitySearch.com
Local
DMOZ.org
Google PLaces
InsiderPages.com
Local.com
MerchantCircle.com
SuperPages.com
Yahoo Local
Yelp.com

Make sure that you do it in a congruent way. What I mean by that is it’s very important when you’re optimizing your local listings, in the directories,that you keep your name, address, and phone number exactly the same on every single one of these directories.

Now concerning Bing, Yahoo, and Google. When you optimize the local listing, they will send you a postcard in the mail for verification. They want to know that you are a real business at a real location.

So they will actually send a physical postcard in the mail, which has a PIN on it, and you just take that PIN, and you go back to that directory and enter the PIN, and you’re verified. Then make sure and fill out your profile completely.

After you’ve done these top ten large directories, go find some local directories, in your niche and in your town, and list your business in there as well.

Google My Business

Google Places, and Google Maps, have all been combined into Google My Business.

So, optimize the other directories first, and get those established with your name, address, and phone number, and then come to Google My Business, and request a verification, and then fill out your profile completely on Google My Business, with a good description. Tell what your hobbies are. Tell what your business is all about, what your businesshours are, and then upload pictures, videos, and content. Google loves it when you do all you can tofill out your profile completely.

And then finally you can set up Google Authorship which connects all of this Google My Business stuff with your website. The content that you create on your website should be connected to Google Plus, through Google Authorship. This is how you get your little photo to appear beside your listing in the Google search results page, and this is important for search engine optimization as well.

In the next blogpost, On-Site Optimization Three, I will be discussing reviews and how they are a part of the optimization process!

This blogpost is an excerpt from our latest book Digital Marketing Secrets for Small Business. It tells about the latest in digital marketing and what you need to know to grow your business.

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