As a local business owner, if you’ve been in operation for more than 5 years, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve purchased an ad for your business in the local yellow pages at some point. That’s because up until 2006 or so, yellow pages advertisements were the way to reach local consumers.

However, if you’ve been in business for less than 5 years, there’s a pretty good chance that you’ve never purchased an ad in the phone book. The reason? Since 2006, consumers have steadily replaced their phone books with search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. By some estimates, less than one-third of consumers will use a phone book in 2011*.

Local Search Forcing Out Traditional Print Ads

As consumers steadily replace their phone books with search engines, local businesses are beginning to recognize just how important search engine optimization has become.

Because search engines only show a handful of businesses on the first page – and because consumers usually click on the top search results – being listed #1 on Google (or Bing or Yahoo) for your business search term is more important than ever.

So, if you want consumers to find your local basement finishing business when they do a search for “Denver Basement Finishing,” you’ve got to work on optimizing your business for local search.

In the SEO industry, we call this Local SEO, and it’s the fastest-growing service in our industry.

Getting Started with Local SEO

One of the first steps in any local SEO effort is to create and/or claim a profiles for your business on popular websites like Google Places.

With a profile on Google Places, business owners can share their business phone number, location, hours of operation, types of payment accepted, types of services provided, etc., and this information can then appear in local search results.

Google Places isn’t the only place business owners can register a profile. Bing, Yahoo,Yelp, MerchantCircle, Best of The Web, and dozens of other companies all offer business owners the opportunity to create profiles as well.

By creating and/or claiming profiles for your business on all of these websites, you increase the likelihood that your business will show in local search results.

Why Business Profiles Boost Search Results

When someone conducts a search on Google, Bing, or Yahoo for a local business, the search engines each use their own complicated algorithms to determine which business should appear #1, which business should appear #2, etc.

While the specific details of these algorithms are secret, we know that “citations” – or a mention of a specific business in an online directory, local business organization website, etc. – correlate with rankings.

The reason that search engines look for citations is that they’re a very good indicator of a business’s trust and longevity. If a local business has been around for a long time, or if a business is well-liked and trusted, there will be a lot of mentions for that business in local business directories, on the local chamber of commerce website, on local business association websites, and even in local media.

So, if you want your local business to show up at the top of local search results, you need mentions…and that means you need to create profiles on as many quality local directories as possible.

Contact us to learn more about our Local SEO services, including local directory submission, profile creation and reporting

*Based on a survey conducted by Harris Interactive

-Chris

–Guest Post by Emily Thompson–

As the prominence of local search results grows, and more and more businesses come on board, Google continues to implement plans to make local search more effective. Throughout the last few years changes and features have come and gone and this year will be no exception!

One new feature, just recently announced, will include some refinements for local search results on Google. Designed mostly for exploring things to experience in a particular city, the results will now display other popular points of interest when you search for something say, in Maui, which is Google’s example.

When a location is searched for, they will now provide results of other interesting and related attractions and sites in the area. At the moment, this is available in about 200 U.S. cities, with plans to expand to more in the coming weeks. As the big G continues to expand this feature and offer other similar items for local searches, the value could be enormous for businesses that have optimized their listings and have the potential to drive traffic from these points of interest.

Also important are the “enhanced listings” Google has been testing.  The flat fee program allows you to highlight certain things within your local business listing, like videos, photos, coupons and more.  These enhanced features give more visibility and encourage more clicks on your listing, helping you get more traffic. Noted search expert Mike Blumenthal has great post on enhanced listings with some screen shots, and some helpful insights as well.

Location Based Services Are Powerful Tools

Along with changes that Google is making to their local search components, the growing importance of sites like Foursquare and GoWalla is also adding new opportunities for local businesses to increase visibility online. Search Engine Land discussed what they called ”location wars” and the impact of “check-in” sites. The stats about the traffic for sites like Foursquare are staggering.  As the article points out, “check-ins and tips are to local business reviews what Tweets are to blog posts”.  It could prove powerful to make sure you are utilizing these sites. Foursquare even has a program to help you encourage locals to check-in.

So what does this all mean for your business? It means the standard things (optimized local listing, localized website content, etc.) but it also means you need to stay abreast of the current issues and the reality is that the landscape of local search is changing, but with that change, comes much opportunity. Keep your eyes peeled- you never know what developments could show up next! Seen any new changes? Let us know!

Emily Thompson is the online marketing coordinator for Kutenda Online Marketing Software.  Kutenda provides the tools, training and services small businesses need to succeed with Internet marketing.  Follow Emily’s updates on Twitter – @ekthompson

-Chris