Forget about SEO, blogging, gaining back links, and posting to Facebook and Twitter for a moment. If you want to draw visitors to your physical storefront, you need to focus on ‘local’ first. Get the local part right, and the rest will begin to make sense. All paths will lead directly to your door.

Is your business visible on the map?

Navigate to Google Maps and type your business category and location into the search box. Does your business show up? Is it at or near the top of the list? If so, click on your listing. How does it look? Has it been owner-verified?

Now go to Bing’s Business Portal and Yahoo Local and do the same thing. Answer the same questions.

Those are the big three, but what about Yelp.com, MerchantCircle.com, Angie’s List, SuperPages.com, Local.com, Kudzu, Manta, InsiderPages, and do you know if you’re showing up on mobile and GPS enabled devices?

As a local business owner, you need to be highly visible on ALL the maps. Your listings need to be accurate, consistent, and present you in the best possible light.

Many local directory listings function as external supporting websites – providing not only your business name, address and phone number, but also links to your website, your social media profiles, third party reviews, even image and video uploads, and the ability to post blogs and coupons.

The upside is that the opportunity to increase your online visibility is huge. The downside is that I don’t know of one single business owner who has the time or the patience to make sure he’s listed properly in all the local directories.

That’s why we’ve developed our local directory listing packages. You can be visible wherever your customers are searching, without having to make the time to do it all yourself.

For more information, read What Do Search Engines Know About Your Business?

Clicking on the map pin for any of these businesses will bring you to the Google Maps page for the same keywords. In the screen shot below, I’ve clicked on the top search result, which brings up a balloon with expanded information from the Local Business Center listing.

Alternatively, you could click on the “Directions and more” link in the first screen and go straight to the Local Business Center listing below. If this is old news to you … good for you! I hope you’re taking full advantage of this free listing. If not, I hope you can now see its value.

Either way, here’s where it gets interesting. Just this month Google added a new feature to their Local Business Center. Now you can post short snippets of information directly to your LBC listing as frequently as you like.  Whatever you post will show up where the arrow is pointing, below. Wouldn’t that be a handy way to keep your listing fresh and updated with the latest information?

The “Post to your place page” box is in the upper right of your Google LBC dashboard. You’re limited to 160 characters, so you’ll have to be brief, but that’s plenty of space to post a note about a sale or an event.

Today’s Assignment:

If you don’t yet have a Google Local Business Center listing, log into your Google account and set one up. For detailed instructions on how to do that, please see Have You Claimed Your Google Local Business Listing. You’ll need to complete this quick and painless process before taking the next step.

If you DO have an existing Google Local Business Center listing, log in from your Google account, then post your first update. Add a reminder to your calendar to update it at least within the next 30 days.

This feature is not yet widely known about. I believe it has great potential, but only time will tell. What do you think? Do you agree that it’s worth a try?

Apparently Google’s coupon feature is a well-kept secret … or at least you’d think so. After three different searches through Google Maps, I only found one business making use of it. But if you’re paying to send out postcards, fliers or advertisements with coupons, why wouldn’t you also want to place a coupon online, where there’s no cost to you for distribution? Coupons offer an easy incentive for potential customers to do business with you when they find you in Google Maps. They’re easy to set up, easy for customers to print and present to you at your business location, and FREE!

To begin, you DO have a listing on Google’s Local Business Center, right? There’s no cost, but you’ll need a Google account and a verified listing on Google Local Business Center to be able to take advantage of this opportunity.

To create a coupon:

1. Log into the Google Local Business Center.
2. Click on the Coupons tab, then click Add new coupon.
3. Fill out each field that you want to appear on your coupon … check the results in the preview section on the right side of the page.
4. When it looks the way you want it to, click Continue.

That’s all there is to it. Within 24 hours, the coupon will be visible on your Google Maps listing. Find it in Maps by clicking more info, then clicking the Coupons tab.

Were you aware this feature existed? Have you ever used it? Why or why not? Please comment below.

So, at 5:15 a.m., the very moment I woke up this morning, I knew what to do regarding my other marketing-related blog. And that is – to begin soliciting local small business and not-for-profit event-related press releases. Why? Well, I really want to do more than just write about marketing … I want to help people who own businesses to improve their marketing results in a tangible way.

My other blog is called Local-Wisconsin SEM. It started with a flash of inspiration, before giving enough thought to the sustainability of writing more than one blog on the the topic of marketing while managing a growing business of my own. It’s languished unattended for a few months now, but that’s changing as of today.

If you own or manage a Wisconsin-based business that depends on drawing local customers to your door, the Local Wisconsin SEM Blog is written just for you. Its goal is to cover strategies to draw local visitors to Wisconsin businesses through local search opportunities, and precisely what steps to take to do so. Now it will also accept selected press releases about Wisconsin-based businesses and not-for-profit events. In addition, I’ll profile area businesses who are getting it right. Have a success story to share? Let me know about it via my contact form.

Whether brick and mortar or home-based, every business needs a presence in Google’s local search results. This is a change of opinion for me because until recently I couldn’t see the sense in identifying a post office box address on Google Maps. But as I’ve researched keyword phrases for my clients and learned more about how people search, it’s become crystal clear. Small businesses not optimized for local search are missing out.

My copywriting business is by no means limited to local customers. It’s just as easy to work with someone in Maine, Texas or California, as Neenah, Wisconsin. But by not optimizing for local search, I’ve been shooting myself in the foot where local business is concerned. Why is that? Because most people use local search terms to find what they’re looking for.

If you’re listed in Google’s local search results, your business location and information about your business will show up on Google Maps. The top ten local search results take precedence over the remaining search results and appear at the top of the page next to a small map of your local area.

To claim your Google listing, you’ll need to have a Google account. (If you don’t already have one, you do that right from the Google home page.) Once you’ve registered and logged-in, go to your Account, and find “Local Business Center” under your product listing. Simply click on the link, then fill in the form and proceed page-by-page to categorize your business, add hours, types of payment accepted, a photo, logo, and custom information. Once complete, you’ll need to validate your listing before your listing will appear live on the map. Validation can be done immediately by phone or you can choose to receive a postcard through the mail.

Take a few minutes and get the process started right now. It’s quick and painless, and you’ll have taken one more step toward improving your online visibility.

Photo Credit: jimfrazier

I’m involved in the marketing team for Paperfest, a four-day community event held every July in Kimberly, Wisconsin. Last year’s promotional efforts for this event included a well-organized and maintained web site, flyer distribution, billboards, lots of smaller signs, and local media coverage.

This year we’re adding social media elements to the mix, such as MySpace and/or Facebook, event photos on Flickr, bookmarks on del.icio.us, and maybe some reviews on StumbleUpon. We’ll let last year’s email list, event sponsors, and volunteers know about the new opportunity and invite them to participate.

This seems the perfect venue to promote through social media. We’re looking forward to four days of concerts, carnival rides, sporting events, and fun activities for the whole family. Better yet, this event raises money for local nonprofit and civic organizations. It’s a volunteer effort, start-to-finish.

Event publicity is not new territory for me. I helped organize and promote community events for a former nonprofit employer before volunteering with Paperfest last year. Social media’s not really new to me either, although I suspect that with as much as I’ve dabbled in it, I’ve just barely got my feet wet. But event promotion through social media is uncharted territory. I’m excited about it. It’s sure to be a learning experience!

Photo credit: Paperfest

If you’ve been in business for any length of time, your business information has been collected and disseminated from Amacai, infoUSA, and Acxiom. These business directories, also known as data providers, provide information to the Yellow Pages industry and the search engines.

Today’s tip is to simply check your business listing. I was unable to find a link to update your business listing on Acxiom, but I’ve provided links to Amacai (also known as Localeze) and infoUSA below. Just click on the links below, find or add your business listing, and make sure your business information is accurate.

Localeze

infoUSA

Related Articles:

Have you heard about MerchantCircle?

What is local search?

How to reach business decision makers

MerchantCircle

What is it?

MerchantCircle allows you to promote your business locally with coupons, ads, blogs and newsletters. You can also receive and display customer reviews and comments, and network with other business owners to increase your exposure. Their most basic version is free, but you can also sign up for increased promotional opportunities using one of their paid versions.

Your business may already be listed. To find out, type your full business phone number into the search bar on the MerchantCircle home page. You’ll either be redirected to your listing with an opportunity to claim it, or to a page where you can submit a new listing. If your existing listing is all wrong, you’ll be able to fix everything once you’ve claimed it.

Once you’ve claimed or submitted your business, you’ll want to build your profile page. Just use their easy-to-follow wizard to set up your basic information, a map to your door, your basic ad, coupons, photos, etc.

Why does it matter?

MerchantCircle lists over 14 million businesses in its dynamic online directory. By joining, you have another avenue to quickly and easily promote your business locally online.

Check out this short video for more information … and I hope to see you on MerchantCircle.

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Related Articles:

What is local search?

We’ll dive further into this topic in the weeks to come, but for now, check your web page titles. You’ll find them in the blue bar at the top of your screen. Does your title include your city and state? Hopefully it does not say “home page!” Your page title is some of the most valuable real estate on each web page. If local visitors are important to you, make sure your title includes your locale.

Does the footer of each of your web pages include your full business address and phone number? It should.

In addition, your contact page should display your full business address within the page.

Moving beyond your web site, there are numerous opportunities to list your physical business address in local directories for free. This also counts toward local search. We’ll be exploring these opportunities one-by-one as we discuss how to drive local traffic to your business in future Tuesday posts.