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The concept of local business listings plays a vital role in the survival of businesses today. It influences the reputation of brands; their rankings as well as the revenue of companies. This is the main reason why attention should be paid to it; if the profits look forward which are achieved by local listing and promotion. It is pretty easy to supervise business profits with localized SEO. Virtually every business, no matter the size, is on the webpage.

With the benefits of local SEO, there are the chances that 85% of the prospects will see the business online during their search and the chances of buying products or services are higher. But this has not been the case because brands are neglecting the power in local SEO listing. A local SEO campaign without listings cannot see the light of the day. The real SEO happens to be local SEO listings.

What are Local business listing directories?

The phrase above represents the listing of a business that contains relevant essential business information. This will position your brand during the search by local consumers for goods and services that are in need. In the event of the search engine, finds the appropriate listings are displayed on the SERP(s).

The physical location of your enterprise will be displayed as well as other useful information that will bring the consumer to you directly. All that will be needed is listed below

Following details required for business listing sites

• Business name
• Address
• Phone number
• Website URL
• Category
• Description
• Tagline
• Social profiles
• Images
• Additional media (videos)
• Alternate phone numbers
• Fax number
• Business Certification
• Brands
• Payment accepted

How to submit a website in the local business directory?

You will be required to fill a form if you want to list your business on any of Yahoo; Bing or Google search engine local directories. Submitting the listing will not incur any costs, but if you desired the creative best that will position you well, then you should take the step of streamlining the process. It will involve submitting and verifying the business using the mail to list on the local search engine directory.

Let us look at what the process involves in carrying it out the process of submitting Business Listing free of charge on each of the three sites mentioned above:

• Google - You have to create your Google account to kick start the process. Next, you can go on to Google Places for carrying out the process of adding your business hours, business location and your pictures on Google Maps.
• Bing - If you’re to add the business to Bing; you have to register on Bing Places for free. Verification will be carried out to ascertain that you’re the authentic business owner. You have to search and verify if the business is already existing in the Bing Places in the enterprise directory.
• Yahoo - You can always add the business listing into Yahoo by successfully performing a Local & Basic Listing on Yahoo. You will complete the process by adding the location, store hours, phone number, pictures and website against your personalized profile.

Adding Business Website

Yahoo - Yahoo will allow you to submit the URL, free of charge. The first step is to register your account; then you can go on to fill the form. When you are ready to enlist your website on the directory, you can visit Yahoo submit your site website

Submit to other Local Directories

If you want to enhance your chances, you can take it further by enlisting on local directories. There is quite a handful of such that can help improve on your local directories. The list includes:

• YellowPages
• Yelp
• SuperPages
• CitySearch
• Facebook
• Manta
• BBB (Better Business Bureau)
• Angieslist
• City-Data
• MerchantCircle 

When consumers want to locate you online, it will make it pretty easy to get you through the localized directory listings.

Get Professionals to work for you

Getting the desired results through the processes mentioned above might not come easy. If the truth is to be told, it will involve painstaking efforts by the person to put something creative together that will make the brand to be visible. You must not take chances; if you are not sure of your ability, it is strongly recommended that you hire a professional to help in packaging something that will give you the best results on offer.

You need the best among the pros; their efforts will help optimize your marketing. If you are not sure of the brand to trust among the available options online, you can look in the direction of the following competent companies:

• SEO.com
• SearchRank
• Search Influence

The service will not be free; it will cost you some amount unlike doing it yourself process. But the price is worth it because the results that call for joy will be delivered to you.

Role of Business Listings in Local SEO

Let us take a look at the role of a business listing in local SEO to show how very important the role it plays in the life of any business.

Guarantees Local Visibility And Business Profitability - It is easy to do; if it is done right to the results that matter on your line of business operations.

It Is Ahead Of Organic Listings - The concept of the local listing is far ahead of organic because it will be displayed first on SERPs. The advantage of this to business is huge.

The Deliverables Are Better - People who are in urgent need of your product and services will be exposed to it. The conversion rate that you are going to get is magical.

People Search For Every product Online - Going by the submissions of a multichannel survey conducted by the organization shows that over 80 percent of respondents told they carry on their online research & analysis on various products before purchasing it. This is an opportunity that your brand or service makes a business successful.

• Business On Goggle Map - When your location can be traced easily online, getting the traffic will become pretty easy as well.
• Mobile Friendliness - It is said that most of the deals come online on the go through mobile apps.
• The Integration - Another factor that goes in favor of the business listing online is the fact that it can be easily integrated with other forms of marketing campaigns. The synergy in marketing will be creatively enhanced.
• Reputation - When you involve listing in your business, you are going to add more info to your brand and in turn, will have a positive effect on your brand
• Prominent Placement in SERPs - When you involve local listing to your brand, it will help drive rankings of the business forward. Your search ranking will be improved and gain link juice which will make you rank higher.
• Security - This is by far one of the greatest benefits. We are all aware of online activities who are in the business knows about hacking; where it can be manipulated the information according to their requirement. So the people's accounts and business information must be secured by the company before its too late. When you claim your local business listings it will enable you to take control of your business address, content, products and services, and several others.
• Affordability- Every brand wants to bring down the cost of operation. By taking to business listing; you are taking a path that will deliver the best results and all while costing you far less when compared to other available options.

How to Improve Local Citation Score?

Now we are going to tell all four of the basic things that you can do to improve on your local citation score. Here we go straightaway:

1 You Must Verify Your: Name, Address, Phone (NAP)

This is a very critical step that you want to see the results in form of  leads and sales. There should be consistency in the three mentioned above. Search engines will use the data that you supplied through the NAP to work on your behalf; this is the main reason why you should double check that the 3 parameters will remain same without changing it. Be consistent in these areas to avoid confusion.

2 Get Cited

There are several options here and you might get confused searching for the best option. The following areas are a good option that you can use to get cited:

• Better Business Bureau- It boasts over a century of quality experience.
• Yelp- Will help build your online community. It allows you access to your customers; you can answer their questions and give them your offers.
• Angie’s List- They have been around for more than 23 years to be precise and you can use it to get referrals and increase your business on search engines.

Get Local Backlinks for more Exposure

You must get more local backlinks which are from local sources. If you want to get the best out of this, then you can take action on the following to get all-local directory cover: Joining the local chamber of commerce; Local networking groups; Hosting an event; Sponsoring a local organization; Getting interviewed by local media. Those are creative ways of getting local links.

Best Local Marketing Tools to Increase Local Exposure

The following are the tools that you needed to make the best out of the situation

• Local Site Submit
• Moz Local
• Factual
• Express Update
• Acxiom
• Neustar Localize
• Local Report Tool

What more can we say about local business listings? The advantage of taking to it is amazingly super. Brands that truly desire the best results in their online marketing efforts should take to the heights because it is the path to lasting success when it comes to online marketing and branding.

If you do not have the time; patience and expertise to execute listing of your business on your own; then you can make use of the service of the professionals. If you follow the tips above, your business will skyrocket ahead of other competitor brands.

Cheers To Your Listing Success!