There is a lot of misinformation going around – some of it being peddled around – about Google and Yahoo local listings. Here are the facts:
1. Getting your business into the listings is easy. Just set up an account, submit your business and put in the information. You’ll show up.
2. Making your business show up first, or high, is impossible. This is not like Search Engine Optimization where Google is trying to serve up the most relevant most important page for your search.
No one knows how Google decides where your listing will show up. There are hints of possibilities of ways to influence it. These are unconfirmed.
Definitely do not pay someone to get you “high local listings positions.” For one thing, it certainly depends on where the person doing the searching is located.
And you could show up one time and not the next.
3. As in Organic Search, whether your listing shows up on certain searches or not depends on what Google or Yahoo thinks your business is about. Unlike normal SEO, you can directly tell them by what categories you put your business in. Like the print Yellow Pages, the categorizations tend to be confusing and it can be hard to find what is most appropriate. So spend some time looking at what companies show up in your key searches, and what categories they’ve put themselves in, how they describe themselves etc. And spend some time exploring the possibilities.
4. It’s one thing to get into the listings. It’s another to get someone to look at your listing. Unlike organic search or sponsored links (pay-per-click) your initial listing has no ad. It’s just name and contact info. And REVIEWS. So get happy customers to write reviews.
5. Then well-worded descriptions, pictures, videos, etc. all contribute to the likelihood of someone acting on your listing – picking up the phone, going to your website, etc. So work on it.
6. The number of people who see and look at your listing is going to be relatively small, compared to your organic listings or perhaps click ads. But a very high percentage of them are going to be serious prospects. So it is well worth while putting some effort into your local listings.