There are plenty of opportunities for you to spruce up your local internet marketing efforts for your small business.  Advertising your products and services on various local search marketing directories and networks increases your online visibility and exposure to those who are ready to visit your site and purchase. Today we’ll focus on a few to help your business get the local visibility it deserves.

But before we do, let’s just say that Google is placing more and more importance on local search and apparently 70% of searches are local.

I recently became aware that Google’s free keyword research tool now will give you local search results for keyword phrases along with the global results.  Powerful stuff.  I say that to say that listing your business in local directories is important if you want local clients to find you.  Take advantage most of these tools are FREE and have additional premium features.

Local Internet Marketing Search Tools To Increase Your Small Business’ Visibility

1) Google Maps Local Business Center: You can add a Free Google maps listing for your local small business.  I recently wrote about Google adding local search results for non specific terms such as “Realtors” or “attorneys” when someone does not specifically enter their location.

You will have to create a Google account if you do not have one in order to list your business.  Once you do you can customize your listing to add a coupon, photos,  and any videos you may have available on YouTube that will be of benefit to your potential customers.

2) Yahoo Local: Our second major player in search, Yahoo, also has a free local business listing service.  To  enter a free listing go to Yahoo Local as well.   You will also need to create a Yahoo account if you don’t already have one.

3) Merchant Circle: This is one of the big free online local advertising services out there.  Merchant Circle allows you to customize your free listing with pictures, blogs, coupons, ads, and newsletters.  You can upgrade to a paid account that will allow you to place a number of Search Engine Ads, Merchant Circle Ads and send newsletters to those you are connected to on the service.  This one is great for business to business (B2B) marketing, as you can connect with other local business owners.

4) Show Me Local: Show Me Local provides a regional search of all businesses within a particular area while featuring different promotions available (coupons, specials, jobs, etc.) all on the same page. If any promotion or business interests a consumer, all vital local business information including product or service info are quickly and easily available for review. Features such as reviews, “tell a friend”, social bookmarking, feed subscription and sharable links will help local businesses get promoted and add accreditation to the local business in the eye of the consumer.  You can also create a website with Show Me Local (the advantage would be to create a backlink to your main blog or website for SEO).  The premium features look robust (definitely worth a look).

5) Yelp: Another local business directory that receives loads of traffic is Yelp.  On Yelp’s about page, you’ll see informative stats about the service, including that as of February 2009, more than 20 million people visited Yelp in the past 30 days.  This is a big social networking site that is big on local business reviews.  This tool is a huge fan page for your business, essentially.  You can build connections on the platform as you would Facebook, but its a lot simpler.

So those are just 5 local search and directories you can create free accounts at to maximize your online business visibility.

Matt McGee at Small Business Search Marketing has a great guide for all local search marketing on his blog: Local Search Marketing Guide

One of the main benefits from an SEO standpoint is that the more places you have your blog or website linked the more backlinks you are adding (more sources of blog traffic too).

What local search tools have you used besides the ones listed above and which ones are working for you?

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• SEW Experts: Local Search Tactics for Tough Economic Times (searchenginewatch.com)
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About The Author

Dali Burgado, also known as "The Dali Blogger" teaches creative entrepreneurs how to carve a web presence that connects with their Inner Guru and their target audience. Her first online marketing love is SEO. She's an avid connector on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. When she's not coaching or teaching, she's tweaking sites for Search Engine Visibility, working on her PHP and Javascript coding skills, Singing Opera, or learning about gardening. Circle Dali on Google+