With the coming of Google place search to the organic based search landscape, SEM’s and SEO’s alike have been faced with new challenges on ranking well with Google’s switch to focusing on local results, ranking well for industry keywords would reward businesses with very first page, front-and center-placement on Google’s SERP . Now the very space originally made up of organic search results is very much shared with location based search results which in turn highlight local businesses.

Getting on the map

1.     Submitting your listing to Google Places and then some- It is a must-do for any business that hopes to be found for what they do best. Moreover, you must make sure to include your business in these other local lists like Yahoo Local, Bing Local, Superpages, CitySearch, InsiderPages, Localeze, Yelp, Local.com, Yeloow pages as well as Hotfrog.

2.     You must make sure that your address is clearly listed on every page of your website. Since location now plays an integral role in getting found for what you perform, through having your address on every page of your site does ensure relevant listings.

3.     You must have knowledge about your business. Beyond just your physical address, you must have the following information does gets ready when submitting for local listings:

The official business name-Use the full name and not an acronym or shortened version

Phone number- You must include your main number along with a toll free and fax if you have them

Email Address- If you don’t have one of these, by now you should. It is crucial for listing

Business Category- You can know and understand what category your business falls under

Include images- You must include original images of your business and not stock photos of products/services

Include video- You must know that instructional and informative is the true key to success

Locations- You must include all areas where your business operates from

4.     You need to make sure that you have submitted to every relevant local directory. Each city has its own directories like chamber of commerce and other related business directories. You must include your business in smaller directories because it is a good practice and it means that you are truly covering all the bases.

5.     You must use reviews for helping local rankings. Though opinions are as prevalent as noses, it is one way potential customers are basing their decisions. You can very well cultivate several possible reviews as possible will do wonders for your ranking. Negative comments will inevitably surface as the time goes on, so you must be prepared to suck it up as well as hope the positive ones outweigh them. In some of the cases, negative reviews can mean big business.

6.     You must incorporate local page content- Whether you offer a product or service that includes local page content on your website is paramount to alluring the web crawlers as well as ranking well for relevant industry keywords.