Local Business Listing - A Marketing Opportunity For Your Business

by Gloria Philips Expert Blogger

Local business listings began with a fundamental business directory over a decade ago. Chances are, your business has a local listing wherever you have a physical address location. Check it out -- go to Google, type in your company name. You'll probably see a map locating your business and an address. Obviously all you may find other information too. Local business listings are handled passively by many businesses. But that might be a mistake. You've probably read that prospects have something specific in mind when they are shopping. So try this evaluation. Go back to Google, type in the name of a good or service your business provides plus your hometown. Did your business appear? If it did: congratulations. If it did not: you are missing a major marketing opportunity.

Times have changed
From a marketing standpoint, the use of local business listings has exploded with the increase of social media and mobile devices. Consumers not only use these interactive yellow pages to find a business, product or service in their place; they're also posting reviews of those products and services. Nowadays, there are over 60 local business listing websites on the Internet in five distinct categories. They include the search engines, social websites, 411 sites (aka yellow page type websites), GPS sites and that age-old business directory.

You can no longer be passive
To make your interactive yellow pages listing a more powerful marketing tool, you must first"maintain" the listing with all the search engines, social communities, sites and organizations that lead people to it. As soon as you prove the listing is yours you can update it with your business marketing material. Businesses are realizing the value of this claiming process. As soon as you have claimed your local listing you can update information with text, keywords, business descriptions, products, services, photographs, videos, coupons, and much more. Some websites, such as Google, allow you to use all these options while others charge a fee for improved listings making this information present for local consumers through web or mobile searches

So what's the"security challenge"?

The claiming process is essential to security because if the wrong person gets access to a business local listing they can direct customers to another location by phone or website address. Additional damage may include incorrect information on photos, videos, coupons, and more. Because consumers are using local business listings to locate a business, product or service in their immediate area, the security about local business listings must have a high priority for any local listing site.

For more information about how to submit a business in a Small Business Directory, simply visit our website.