Excellent points, Mike.

When I was in Sonoma Valley, visiting some of the wineries this summer, one of the places I visited was hosting a Dog Show. It wasn’t by any means on the scale of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, but it was something they were enjoying doing, and had done for a couple of years before then with some nice turnouts.

And it got them some nice mentions in the local newspapers (online and off), along with directions to the event.

Looking for links online and finding places to be mentioned is great. But it can also be good to do something that people will want to write about, and benefit in local listings that way. Actually getting involved with a local community is a great way to build some signals that you are part of that community, online and off. Even something like a dog show. 🙂

Unfortunately, Google doesn’t always list the URL of a business with that business/location correctly. There’s another Google patent application that came out this year that I wrote about which discusses how to be the authority web page for a location. It breaks down a number of the signals that it will look for to associate a URL with a location.

Bill

I totally agree with you. In fact you can probably take this one or two levels further and say that it only makes sense in the context of a total marketing plan and in the context of a business that is providing significant value to a client base (and the community in which it exists).

It is of interest to understand how it works but gaming the system provides little value if the underlying business has little value.

I was impressed that the Anchor Bar was mentioned in the NY Times but I guess inventing Chicken Wings (despite their dubious culinary and helath value) rates that level of coverage but it is a good example of what you are talking about.

Bill-

Another thought on this topic of “relevancy” is that Google unfortunately defines the rules of the game as only allowing 3 local businesses into the local Onebox on the main page.

It’s as if they have created an arbitrary and capricious way of “allowing” your business into the new age Yellow Pages and some of this exploration identifies some of that black box nature of Google.

In the end though your point of customer relevancy is the only thing that matters.

Mike

Many of these local listing sites offer comments and reviews about the listed business.

If a business is listed in 6-8 different local sites, how does the business owner determine which of the sites to send the next happy client to so that a comment can be added?

Assume all listings are new and none have brought a visitor yet.

Mike,

I appreciate your speedy reply. I should not have waited so long to check for a reply.

I have listed my own business in yellowpages.com, superpages.com, localeze, true local, Yahoo Local, Merchant Circle, Google Local and a couple of my town directories to learn what works. Yelp was on my list, but not completed.

This is my first foray into local search due to reading Graywolf’s interviews and many other’s articles on this subject recently.

After creating the listings mentioned above, Merchant Circle ranked right away (in 2 days), as did the americantowns site. I had been in MarketingTool for quite a while, so no surprise that this site shows up. The above is based on searching for jbs partners winchester ma in Google.

Yahoo produces a different result profile. They rank listings at the chamber of commerce, local library, Yahoo local, and americantowns much higher. MerchantCircle is in the index, but does not show up in the first pages of results.

Also, I suppose LinkedIn is another option for a review/comment. I always think of LinkedIn as B2B, but client comments would be useful there as well. However, searching Yahoo and Google, my listing is not in the indexes. I only just made my profile public in the last 2 weeks.

Merchant Circle is interesting because it allows you to keep track of activity at other sites.

I have customers that would be pleased to write a few reviews, if I tell them which site to visit.

It seems that Merchant Circle might be a great choice to add reviews to since the listing there ranks in Google. Would you agree? Other considerations? I am happy to keep you updated.

Many thanks,

Jim.

Mike,

Cool project. Thanks very much for letting me join in. 😉

Three records in Google, yep, an accident really; one includes Inc., my new official name, one has the zip code and one does not have the zip code. I am not sure which one is the best to retain. The Inc. is the most accurate, but it shows “unverified listing”, and I don’t know what to do about that. I got the postcard and entered the codes for all three. I was thinking that the oldest one is best to retain, but I don’t know which one is oldest or how to find out. Ideas?

I guess I thought having three was better than one, but it is sensible to just have one and not play around.

As far as the web page missing. Stumped. I instead searched for the book store in town, Book Ends. They have no web page listed either. My assumption is that they don’t show web pages in the side bar of Map searches. If you click more info” you can get to the web page. How can I make the web page visible?

Actually, two new ideas here. I just looked again. One, in my Google Local account I had listed my web address without the http://. I just added it. Think this is relevant?

Two, the first listing is the Google add and the second listing for the same company is their web site, which shows the web site address. Each of the
listings here have two entries. Am I on the same page with you, or is there something else I need to do to get the domain name listed with the ad?

Adding to the link text is a great idea. I hesitate imposing too much on client real estate. I don’t think they would mind though.

Google Coupons is a great idea. I was stumped on coming up with what to offer. I guess the old free one year domain name with a new web site is one to consider. These coupons need to be compelling to be valuable, unless it is just another free link.

Mike,
Thanks for your suggestions.

I have deleted the two extra listings in Google.
Great idea to replace the Inc. with words that describe what I do. That is also done in Google. I can modify other listings as time goes by. Still thinking of which site to send Susan. She wants to write a testimonial for me. Maybe Yelp. Any suggestions?

Cheers, Jim.

I have figured out how to post pictures and videos, etc to my Maps Listing, but I can not figure out how to get other “links” or “citations” listed on my account—-links like my Yellow Page.com account, etc. How do I get these “citations” linked to my Maps Page?

Rick