You’ve been hearing all the gurus talk about it for a year now. “Things are moving local.” They’re using the phrase “hyper-local” in ways you don’t understand.
So, what’s it all mean? Simply that in an increasingly mobile world, your company being indexed in local searches is a must if you rely on local traffic. Ok. So, there are a lot of local indexes. And a lot of people calling me telling me to work with them in order to get listed in Google Maps, Mapquest, Yelp and more.
Here’s the reality. You need to be in those indexes. But you probably don’t need “them” to do it. Because this isn’t secret society stuff. You have control over your information in the indexes that matter. So just go check out your listing in the following 10 places and make sure they’re accurate. And if they don’t have you listed, add yourself. Now there are search engine optimization efforts that can maximize your local business success. But step 1 you can do all on your own.
Google local business listings. Foursquare. Yelp. Mapquest. Facebook Places. Citysearch. Navteq. Where. And Truvo.