Considering that local business listings show up on the first page of search results, in mobile searches and in mobile applications this is a free local marketing tool you don’t want to ignore. Ask yourself a couple of questions:
Does your business standout to local consumers through local business listings?
Is your business dependent upon the local geography for your revenue?
If you’re not using local business listings as an additional marketing tool to reach consumers then you are missing out on a powerful local marketing tool.
The only way local listings show up in these various search results is if you have managed your listings by entering marketing information. If you’re wondering how to enter your marketing information it begins by claiming your listing.
Google is important, but there is more to Local Business Listing than Google. There are several popular search engines, hundreds of social communities, 411 websites, GPS websites and various other business directories.
Keep in mind that this is not a one time process. You have to manage these listings by updating your keywords, photos (products, services, company), videos (tv commercials and others), coupons (discounts, offers) and events (promotions) on a regular basis. After all, these are the interactive yellow pages of the 21st century for businesses and you can update your marketing information 24x7x365.
Let’s take a look at a few reasons why you probably want to outsource having a subject matter expert company with experience and expertise to manage this for your company at multiple local listing websites.
1. You Have A Need for Revenue
You have to manage these listings by updating your:
- keywords,
- description and general text copy,
- photos (products, services, company),
- videos (tv commercials and others),
- coupons (discounts, offers), and
- events (promotions)
Remember that this isn’t a “one and done” event. This have to done on a monthly basis! And don’t stop at Google, keep going to Yahoo, Bing, Yelp, Local.com, Citysearch, Ask.comand others sites that are gaining popularity.
2. You Have A Need For Positive Public Relations
On both the B2B and the B2C level consumers and clients have the ability to post their experience with your business, products or services to these local listings with the click of a few buttons. While it never requires a request for a customer to post a negative review, businesses need to consider how they plan on asking satisfied customers to post positive reviews.Reviews have a quantitative component to them and thus are open to search engines using them as another data point in the future to rank your website. Anyone posting a review can indicate one star (negative) to five stars (positive). Of course, it is important to push for as many positive reviews as possible.
Sooner or later it’s going to happen. A negative review will eventually show up. What do you do with negative reviews? You have to do something! You cannot let them sit in your local listing on multiple websites for customers to interpret. You have a few options. You can dispute the review, write a rebuttal or apologize on the same property the negative comment was posted.
3. You Have A Need For Time
After reading this you will probably guess correctly that this process takes a lot of valuable time to claim, update, monitor, and manage your local listings at multiple local listings websites.
Unfortunately this one of those things that can’t be automated and requires experienced marketing labor resources in order to make decisions. Information consistency across multiple local listing websites; analyzing monthly local listing analytics to take actionable changes to your listing at multiple local listing websites; responding to consumer reviews at their origin since consumer reviews are syndicated across many different local listing websites are all examples of the monthly, or even daily tasks that must be managed.
Certainly your time resources are limited and Local Business Listing Services are provided by SmartFinds Internet Marketing. Additionally, this cost effective service may eliminate your need for yellow pages and other advertising costs. Let experts with over 16 years of Internet marketing experience help you use local business marketing tool properly and prevent brand security issues from occurring.
