I have been religiously spreading the word recently about claiming your Google Places listing. I have been trying to hammer this into my clients as well as any other business owner willing to listen to me for a few minutes. I am happy to say that several have taken my words and put them into action, but I also want to let everyone know that there is further steps that need to be taken.
Google Places will rank your local listing based on several criteria, one of the most important being citations that Google finds scattered across the internet. A citation is a listing for your company on a web site such as Yelp, or Kudzu, or SuperPages, etc. These listings normally include Company Name, Address, Phone Number, Web Site Address, Description, etc. The more (and better trusted) web sites you list your company on the more emphasis Google will give your Places listing.
Here are my top web sites to list your company on (in no particular order):
- Kudzu – Kudzu makes it easy for you to choose the best service providers for your home and family so you can confidently get your to-do list done and get on with your life. Kudzu gives you honest, uncensored feedback on millions of business from homeowners just like you — plus thousands of money-saving deals in every major US city.
Main Web Site: http://www.kudzu.com
Add Your Business: https://register.kudzu.com/packageSelect.do?
Cost: Free basic listing with upgrades possible with additional fees. - Yelp – Yelp was founded in 2004 to help people find great local businesses like dentists, hair stylists and mechanics. As of August 2010, more than 38 million people visited Yelp in the past 30 days. Yelpers have written over 12 million local reviews, over 85% of them rating a business 3 stars or higher.
Main Web Site: http://www.yelp.com
Add Your Business: https://biz.yelp.com/signup
Cost: Free basic listing with upgrades possible with additional fees. - Merchant Circle – MerchantCircle is the largest online network of local business owners, combining social networking features with customizable web listings that allow local merchants to attract new customers.
Main Web Site: http://www.merchantcircle.com
Add Your Business: http://www.merchantcircle.com/merchant
Cost: Free basic listing with upgrades possible with additional fees. - Angie’s List – Angie’s List is a growing collection of consumers’ real-life experiences with local contractors and doctors. More than one million consumers nationwide use Angie’s List to find reliable professionals in their area.
Main Web Site: http://www.angieslist.com
Add Your Business: http://company.angieslist.com
Cost: Free to list your business on Angie’s List, but the customer has to pay to search for and rate businesses. - Judy’s Book – Judy’s Book is a book of local secrets that helps you to make decisions. Tips on local restaurants, shops, home repairs, health professionals and much more.
Main Web Site: http://www.judysbook.com
Add Your Business: http://www.judysbook.com/Biz
Cost: Basic Listing – $9.95 one time, Enhanced, Enhanced+ and Premium – $10.49 to $49.99 per month. - SuperPages – Superpages.com is the local expert, and a top online resource for finding information and insights on businesses and retailers. Every month we help millions of consumers find valuable local business information from driving directions and hours of operation to Web links and customer reviews.
Main Web Site: http://www.superpages.com
AddYour Business: http://www.supermedia.com/spportal/businessprofilebegin.do?&tsrc=SP&campaignId=SP_FT_AddEditaBusiness
Cost: Free basic listing with upgrades possible with additional fees. - InsiderPages – Insider Pages was created to help people find the best local businesses through recommendations from their friends and neighbors. At InsiderPages.com, people share reviews of local businesses and find great services they can trust. Millions of people visit our site each month to get the Insider scoop on local businesses.
Main Web Site: http://www.insiderpages.com
Add Your Business: http://www.insiderpages.com/session/new
Cost: Free basic listing with upgrades possible with additional fees. - YellowPages – YP believes that providing a compelling local search experience will empower users to live their daily lives more richly and efficiently. YP helps users discover, find and connect with local businesses, events and attractions via online, mobile, or IPTV.
Main Web Site: http://www.yellowpages.com
AddYour Business: http://listings.yellowpages.com/Services/CreateServiceStarter.aspx?product=1
Cost: Free basic listing with upgrades possible with additional fees. - LocalEze - Localeze is the largest online content management company serving businesses, local search engine publishers and ready-to-buy consumers.
Main Web Site: http://www.localeze.com
AddYour Business: https://webapp.localeze.com/extranet/addbusinessdesc.aspx
Cost: Free - CitySearch – Citysearch is the essential local guide for living bigger, better and smarter in your city. Covering more than 75,000 locations nationwide, we combine in-the-know editorial recommendations, candid user comments and expert advice from local businesses, and we keep you connected to the most popular and undiscovered places wherever you are.
Main Web Site: http://www.citysearch.com
AddYour Business: https://myaccount.citygridmedia.com
Cost: Free basic listing with upgrades possible with additional fees. - Local.com – Local.com is a leading local search engine and the largest local search network in the United States. The company provides over 19 million consumers each month with the most relevant search results for local businesses, products and services on Local.com and over 700 regional media sites.
Main Web Site: http://www.local.com
AddYour Business: http://advertise.local.com/
Cost: Free basic listing, Premium listing costs $49.95 - Brown Book – Brownbook.net is the free local business directory that anyone can edit. You can add and find businesses in any country in the world, though you’ll notice that we’ve got most Listings in UK, USA, Canada and Australia right now.
Main Web Site: http://www.brownbook.com
AddYour Business: http://www.brownbook.net/business/add/
Cost: Free basic listing with upgrades possible with additional fees. - Best of the Web Local – Best of the Web is a comprehensive directory of categorized, content-rich, well designed web sites – and the internet’s oldest search directory.
Main Web Site: http://local.botw.org/
AddYour Business: http://local.botw.org/helpcenter/jumpstartproduct.aspx
Cost: Free basic listing, Premium listing costs $29.95 per month - Hot Frog – HotFrog is USA’s fastest growing FREE online business directory listing over 6.6 million US businesses.
Main Web Site: http://www.hotfrog.com
AddYour Business: http://www.hotfrog.com/AddYourBusiness.aspx
Cost: Free basic listing with upgrades possible with additional fees.
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