This checklist is predominantly designed with Google in mind but certainly applies to the other listing services as well.
Depending on where you are located, different directories have a different amount of force & influence on a local market. Therefore, local search directories actually need to be fine-tuned according to your specific locations. Please contact us if you’d like a top-10 list for your local market.
- Assure your listing is complete on Google, Yahoo and Bing. Double check all info with getlisted.org.
- Make sure you do not have duplicate listings with the same service. This will most definitely hurt you.
- Your physical address needs to be within the city of search. Consider having an address as close to the city center as possible. Proximity of your listing to the center of the city is a huge factor here.
- Make sure your page is verified.
- Make sure you are listed within the proper categories.
- The address on your website linking with your places page is crawlable.
- The business name on your other web listings and on your website match EXACTLY.
- Your website Page Rank plays a big role with your local search ranking.
- The phone number on your website is crawlable.
- Your local listing includes your area code.
- Your city and state are in your landing page title.
- Assure you are listed in as many other business directories as possible. Google watches this for credibility.
- Assure your product / service offering is in the title of your places page.
- Assure your location keyword is in your title.
- Assure your reviewers have your service / product keywords in their reviews.
- Keep enticing your customers to review you. The volume of Google places reviews is important.
- Assure your product and service keywords are in your custom fields.
- Add photos to your places listing.
- Assure there is a good variety of structured reviews. Consider making a video and link it directly to your places page.
- SEO practices of the main website influences the places ranking factors, so make sure the SEO of your main site is up to snuff.
- Velocity of reviews is monitored as well. In other words, keep it consistent. Don’t load up on reviews one month and do nothing for several months thereafter.
- This one you can’t do anything about, but the age of your places page matters.
- Assure your places page is absolutely complete.
- Add a review button to your website that links directly to your Google+ Local page.
- Assure your categories describe “what you do”, and not “who you are”.
- Set up a call tracking number specifically for your local listing. This will enable you to track its performance.
- If you link videos to your Google+ Local page, name the video titles according to your listing categories.
Stephan Boehringer is the CEO of Get The Clicks, a web marketing company. Stephan has over 20 years of experience in the field of web marketing, and has been a speaker and consultant for many years. Stephan is passionate about web marketing and helping their clients be the best they can be.
Stephan Boehringer graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science in Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services.
