One of the first steps to local search marketing is to add and claim your listing in Google Places. This process is fairly simple and you can add your business listing, but occasionally you’ll run into some roadblocks that can make it a little more difficult. One of these roadblocks might be that your listing is already claimed and titled as an “owner verified listing.” If you’re the business owner and you have not had anything to do with Google Places in the past this can be troubling, but there is really no need to worry as this can be corrected.

The first step you will want to do in this situation is verify that no one at your business has taken the initiative to claim the listing. If you’ve ask around and determined that the listing was not claimed by someone at your company and you do not already have an owner verified listing you will want to create one for your company.

Here are the general steps to follow to create an owner verified listing for your company:

It cannot be emphasized enough that you will want to be attentive to detail to ensure that all the information is correct, as the last thing you will want is to have duplicate listings for your business.

Now that you have the correct listing online, go the Google Places listing you want removed. Once you are there, you will then click on “edit this place” to report a problem.

This will bring up this screen:

Select the “Place has another listing” option and provide details in the comment area with the URL of the correct listing and your request to have the duplicate listing removed. You may have to repeat the report a problem if the duplicate listing is not resolved after a few weeks.

Alternatively, you can also utilize Google support for Places, which might address other issues you could be having in claiming your listing.

Good luck and happy listing!

Do you have a story or a tip to share for perfecting the process of creating a Google Places listing? If so, comment below!

Rex Liu

As an Internet Marketing Specialist, Rex works with the link central team to complete monthly assignments distributed by the Campaign Managers.

Rex came to Vertical Measures with a background in Financial Services. He completed in his undergraduate degree at Arizona State University in May 2006. While achieving his degree, Rex interned with an Engineering Firm in Mesa, AZ and assisted with student recruitment for the U.S. Department of State. Currently, he is also enrolled in the W.P. Carey MBA program at Arizona State University with an emphasis in Finance and International business.

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Much attention has shifted towards local search marketing in recent months, but many might be unaware that it has been around for quite a few years and has been a big part of the way the search engines have evolved to what you see today. In November 2010, Google made a massive change to the local search results, integrating those results with the organic results.

I am currently working on how-to guide for local search marketing for Vertical Measures, and let me tell you, I have never had to edit a writing piece as much as I have this. Things in the local search industry are moving fast, very fast, and business owners, more than ever, need to try to keep up. Google has a very cool time line of corporate milestones, that it updates every so often with the changes and new products it rolls out.

Here are the instances that had to do with local. And, with the way things are going, this timeline will likely be missing something by tomorrow.

March 2004: Google introduced Google Local, offering relevant neighborhood business listings, maps and directions.

February 2005: Google Maps was released and featured satellite views and directions.

Shortly after that, Google Local was available for mobile devices and included SMS driving directions.

June 2005: Google Earth, a satellite imagery-based mapping service combining 3D buildings and terrain with mapping capabilities and Google search, is unveiled.

February 2007: Traffic information introduced for Google Maps for more than 30 cities around the US

May 2007: At our Searchology event, we announce new strides taken towards universal search. Now video, news, books, image and local results are all integrated together in one search result.

May 2007: Street View debuts in Google Maps in five U.S. cities: New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Miami and Denver.

June 2007: Google Maps gets prime placement on the original Apple iPhone.

June 2008: A new version of Maps for Mobile debuts, putting Google Transit directions on phones in more than 50 cities worldwide.

June 2009: We add a new dashboard to Google Places, which gives business owners information, such as what people searched for to see their listing or how many times their listing appeared in search results, about how customers find their businesses in Google Maps.

September 2009: We introduce Place Pages to Google Maps: one page that organizes all the relevant information about a business, point of interest, transit station, neighborhood, landmark or city—in any part of the world—in one place. Place Pages include rich details, like photos, videos, a Street View preview, nearby transit, reviews and related websites.

October 2009: Google Maps Navigation, our turn-by-turn GPS navigation system, includes 3D views and voice guidance—and because it‘s connected to the Google cloud, it always includes the newest map data, lets you search by voice or along a route, and provides live traffic data.

April 2010: Google Places (formerly the Local Business Center) gets a new name along with some new features, like showing service areas and, in some cities, the ability to use an easy advertising program called Tags.

November 2010: Google local results and organic results were combined, creating mayhem in the local search industry with local search experts attempting to find all of the consequences of the changes.

Local search has evolved dramatically over the past few years as the demand for local businesses in search results has also increased dramatically. While things have changed, the message to local businesses is still the same. Local businesses must pay attention and engage with this elephant called Google if they wish to succeed online.

Sarah Moraes

Sarah Moraes, Marketing Manager, heads the tactical planning and implementation of cross-platform marketing activities for Vertical Measures including; blogging, social media marketing, webinars, content marketing, email marketing and promotions. In addition, she published the Local Search Marketing for Business How-To-Guide, a part of the Vertical Measures How-To-Guide Series.

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As the local search industry continues to grow, so does the terminology! While there are certain terms and phrases that are standard across the industry, there are some that are less commonly used or have alternative terms. Below is a list that might help you navigate your way through the streets of local search and in the process provide a basic understanding of local search marketing. In most of the definitions here, since I just can’t help but get carried away when talking about local search, I have also given some tips on how to best utilize these features to help your local search rankings.

Category: When listing your business with Google Places especially, you will want to choose a category for your business. This is a very important factor in their algorithm. If you have not claimed your business on Google Places, it will choose a category for you from a set of approximately 2,000 default business types based on the North American Industry Classification System. Be sure to select the correct category for your business and up to 4 subcategories to be sure the search engines know what your business is all about.

Centroid: As determined by the local the search engines, the centroid is the very center of a neighborhood or metropolitan area. A business’ proximity to the centroid plays a role in where it ranks in the local search results; however there is debate on how important it is. In my opinion, I believe it matters more in competitive markets. For example, if there are 1,000 plumbers in San Diego and someone searches for “plumber, San Diego, CA” the businesses that are closer to the centroid and have nicely optimized listings are more likely to show up towards the top.

Citation: Citations are to local search optimization as links are to website search engine optimization. Citations are viewed by the local search engines as a listing of a business on a website, preferably with a matching address and phone number to that which is provide on the business website and on that search engine’s local listing. Ideally, you have your complete address and local phone number on your website, you have claimed your search engine listings, and you have matching listings on sites like Yelp, CitySearch and Internet Yellow Page sites. The search engines see these listings as verification and as votes for your business. This will help your rankings in the local search results.

Data Provider, Aggregator, IYP: Companies such as infoUSA, Localeze, and Superpages are major data providers, also known as data aggregators and Internet Yellow Pages. The search engines often crawl these sites to gather business data. These companies often have contracts with the search engines to provide this data. So, if you see that your business is already listed on the search engines, these sites are very likely where the search engine got your information. You will want to claim your listings to ensure all the information is correct.

Directory: A website that lists business contact information in an organized manner, typically in alphabetical order and/or by business type. Just as the search engines look to data providers and aggregators to gather information, they also crawl directories.

Geospecific search: When a user searches for a business or company with a geographic modifier such as a city, state or zip code. For example, “plumbers, San Diego, CA”.

Google 7-Pac: The 7 local listings that appear alongside a map at the top of a search engine result for a geospecific keyword. These results are determined by the search engine’s algorithm. If a particular neighborhood or metropolitan area does not have a large concentration of the type of business the user is searching for, Google might only show 3 results. Similarly, Yahoo and Bing have a certain number of results that will show up next their maps.

Local algorithm: Just as the search engines have an algorithm for the organic search results, they also have a specific formula that determines the ranking for business listings relevant to a particular geographic area. Various factors play a part in this algorithm, some carrying more weight than others.

Review: A customer’s summary of his/or experience with a particular business. Reviews cannot be controlled by the business owner. Reviews can be left on Google Places and on most other local search listing sites like Yelp, Foursquare and Gowalla. Business owners should pay attention to these reviews and use reviews as an opportunity to engage with customers. This touches on online reputation management.

This list covers the basic terminology that you will likely hear when you start talking to a local search professional. Knowing these terms will get you on your way to having a better understanding of local search. To continue your journey in learning about local search, check out our “Go Local or Go Home” webinar on the Vertical Measures webinars page.

Sarah Moraes

Sarah Moraes, Marketing Manager, heads the tactical planning and implementation of cross-platform marketing activities for Vertical Measures including; blogging, social media marketing, webinars, content marketing, email marketing and promotions. In addition, she published the Local Search Marketing for Business How-To-Guide, a part of the Vertical Measures How-To-Guide Series.

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Recently, here at Vertical Measures, we got a very special delivery: a SuperYellow Book. Wow, totally useful for an Internet marketing company like ours….I made a beeline for the recycling bin and promptly discarded it. It made me wonder though, do people actually still use the Yellow Pages to find local businesses? As someone who knows a little bit about local search marketing, I knew online local search has surged in recent years, but the exact numbers: not so much. Let’s examine the numbers.

Local Search Trends
Over the past few years local search sites have popped up all over the Internet. From Merchant Circle and Yelp, to Hot Frog and Google Maps, these sites help you find more than a business’s listing. Searchers can see detailed profiles for businesses: what customers are saying about a particular business, links to the company’s website, photos, video, and more. Basically: a Yellow Book on steroids (but not the bad kind of steroids, the natural, good, user generated content type of steroids).

Online users have flocked to local search portals to find more information about businesses. The numbers of monthly visitors are quite alarming. Below you’ll find a visual representation of the overall upward trend on some of the most popular local search sites.

(All figures below are courtesy of QuantCast.com)
Google Maps

Understanding the Numbers

Via Zany Pickle

As you can see, the numbers and growth are pretty astounding in the world of local search. Businesses who don’t have a profile on any of the above sites could be missing out on a significant amount of traffic. An estimated 49 million users visit Google’s local search section monthly (Maps.Google.com). An up and coming star in the local search game is Yelp, with an estimated 9.9 million users visiting monthly. There’s no denying the fact that the trend to use local search engines continues to rise.

Even if your business doesn’t receive a lot of traffic from local areas, there are still benefits to having a listing. A link back to your site, for one, is a great benefit. In addition, having a place for your customers to go to rate your business, discover more information, and share more information about your business are just a couple reasons to put up that local profile.

Want more information about local search? Well lucky for you our very own Sarah and Jason presented on the very topic in this month’s webinar. Check it out on our SEO Webinars page.

Kaila Strong

Kaila is a Sr. Account Manager at Vertical Measures. She works directly with clients to evaluate and analyze their overall Internet Marketing needs, creates sales proposals and recommendations. In addition she regularly reports on client rankings, gives SEO advice to brands in a variety of industries and manages client expectations.

Kaila has a background in social media marketing, link building, SEO and content marketing. She’s an active blogger on SearchEngineWatch.com, and an avid social media user (@cliquekaila on Twitter). She brings her experience to the table with new clients and enjoys writing about her experiences as well here on the VM blog and throughout the web.

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Do you own a local business? Do you want to get top rankings for your business when potential customers do a local search for your business?   If you answered yes to either question, you need links citations for your website.  And you’re in luck, because here are 10 great links citations you can get for your website right now.  And don’t worry; if you’re not sure why citations are so vital for local search marketing, I’m going to share that with you too.

What is a Link Citation?

A citation is any reference to your local business, including business name, address, telephone number or other relevant information that may or may not contain an actual link to your website.  That’s right–it doesn’t matter if there’s an actual link to your website or not–just the mention of your business within a local search frame of reference is enough to make it relevant for Google and other search engines to count it as a point toward helping you improve your local search marketing results.  In other words, citations help you get ranked for local search results.

Why You Want Links Citations for Your Website

In his article, Why Citation is the New Link,  David Mihm gives a complete picture of why citations are super relevant to your local business.  It boils down to this: If you want to rank in Google’s local search results, you need to do more than just claim your Google local business account.  And just building more links to your website isn’t necessarily going to help either.  What you need are citations.  From the big names in local directories to small niche directories, you want to add your business information to as many as you can find (or afford).

Where to Get Links Citations

There are many places to get relevant citations for your website to help it rank in the Google 10 pack for local search results.  Here are 10 citations you can get right now.

1. Best of the Web Local
2. Insider Pages
3. Super Pages
4. City Search
5. Hot Frog
6. Yellow Pages
7. Local.com
8. Yelp
9. Match Point
10. Zoom Info

Where to Get More Links Citations

First, look for niche directories where you can list your business.  For example, if you are a florist, you might look at places like this local flower shop directory.  Some get expensive with monthly recurring fees, so start with free ones and if you’re on a budget, choose paid local directories wisely.

Just like you might search your competitors’ backlinks to find linking opportunities, you can search your competitors’ citations to find citation opportunities for your local business.  How do you do this?  Go to http://maps.google.com and search for your competitors by name or category.  Then click on the individual business listing and click on the "Web Pages" tab.  There you’ll see all their citations (see picture below).  Then, go get ‘em!

And if you’re really intent on getting a few links to your website, here are 10 great links you can get in the next 50 minutes. But just remember, they’re not the same as citations…

Ralphm

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