According to many “experts”  local search is slated to be the next big thing in the internet world. Do we believe this? Yes in fact we do. Many different well known internet research  companies have done a great deal of poll taking on this very subject.  What they found is that most internet users  don’t even know that they are doing global searches.

In short an average of 86% of search engine users are really searching for local outlets. The problem is, in my opinion, that non-savvy users generally just type what they are looking for without entering any type of geo locations. The best way to take advantage of the way people type in their search terms is to make sure that you have all of your basis covered. The number one place that people use, when not on a mobile device, is Google Maps. Google Maps uses a few different services to make sure that, in fact,  the business is still doing business at the location you’re looking for/in.  Here is a list of a few sites that you should make sure your business is listed on:

1. Google Maps - Local Business Center
   
2. Local.com
3. Yelp
4. directory.yahoo.com
5. City Search (Great for Larger Metro Area Reviews)
6. Restaurant.com (Food and Drink Sites)

For most of these sites you can gain a ton of SEO value with every consumer review. Each time someone writes about your local company it accomplishes two things. 1.Consumers love to read about other consumers experiences, especially the good ones. 2. You can’t get better keywords than ones consumers are letting you know about.

Take a few minutes today and make sure that all of your profiles are correct on these services, if not fix them, if your business is not listed on these sites make sure and get it on there. You will see a increase in traffic if your business is available on these high traffic site.

This advice will also help tremendously with your mobile SEO efforts as well.

Tags: Local, SEO