1. First, visit http://www.Google.com/local/add and sign in with your Google account. If you don’t already have one, you can get one for free.
2. Click the button to add a new business listing.
3. Fill in the required information.
   Your business name. Your business name should be your legal business name for your company.
   Your telephone number. Your main telephone number should be your direct phone number. Not an 800 number. You can add additional phone numbers using this link (the add more phone numbers link).
   Your Address. Your address cannot be a PO Box. It must be your actual physical location. Additionally, all of these pieces of information should be the same as what’s listed on your website (if you have one).
4. If applicable, use an email address that is the same URL as your website. For example, if your website address is http://www.ABCCompany.com then your email address should be yourname@ABCCompany.com.
5. Enter in your website URL.
6. Give your business a description. Describe what your business does and how it can benefit someone reading your local listing. If possible, include a positive review that your company has received.
7. Enter a category for your business. Begin typing and Google will display a listing of categories. If one of the categories Google suggests to you fits well with your business select that one. If not, enter in what best fits your business. If your business fits into multiple categories, you can click the link to add another category. Google let’s you choose up to five of them. Click next.
8. Finally, you’ll be able to add details to your local listing such as your operating hours, what kinds and types of payments you take, any photos or videos of your business and any other additional details you’d like to add. Remember, the more you add, the more helpful it will be to web searchers.
9. When you’re finished, click submit and Google will ask you to verify your listing either by a telephone call or postcard. If you choose telephone call, remember to be near your business phone as they will call you at the telephone number you provided in your business listing and provide you a PIN number on the screen. If you’re not, simply request that they send you a postcard and they’ll send you your PIN number via postcard.

Once you’ve verified your local business, it should appear within Google’s search results within 12 hours.

Google has begun to roll out a new service where you can now pay to have a Google local listing. How soon it will come to your area is tough to say but right now it’s being tested in San Fransisco and San Diego and truth be told, it’s really too soon to see if it pays off or not.

Probably one of the most disturbing things that I’ve noticed thus far is that if you do a search in one of these markets, say “Salon San Diego” nearly everything above the fold is an advertisement leaving the organic search results pushed to the bottom of the pile.

(Note that in the image below, the local salon’s in San Diego that are using this service are highlighted at the top of the page with the blue balloons next to them.)

Google Local San Diego

Now this is not to say that every single time you do a search in Google will you see and entire half-page full of ads. It only (at this point in time) appears to be those more competitive local markets.

So how is this supposed to work?

1. You need a verified Google local listing within the Google Local Business Center.

   “…Local Listing Ads is available for business owners who have verified their free listings in Google Local Business Center in a limited set of categories based on advertising policy, and other considerations.”

2. When you purchase a local listing ad, your ad will show up whenever a local user searches for your kind of business.
   1. The ads will show up on Google.com and on Google Maps.
   2. You get your first 30 days free.
   3. You’ll get reports on how many people called you, how many people clicked, and how many people wanted directions to your business.
3. Unlike AdWords where you bid a price on specific keywords, the only thing that Google Local Listing Ads require is that you select a category (A category; meaning ONE) for your business and then pay a flat monthly fee for that ad.
   1. The flat fee is set by Google themselves and is based on how many people are looking for your kind of business in your area.  (So in other words, Google tells you how much you’ll have to pay based on their estimation and you either pay that or you don’t get a paid local listing).
   2. Second, Google is offering a “free call tracking” service.  How they’re doing this I don’t yet know (the local paid listing is not yet available in my area), but what Google will do is give you an announcement prior to that call that says “This caller brought to you by Google”.  As of today this is NOT optional.

Now, something that I want you to notice in the screenshot above, is that there is a 7-box (a map with 7 listings next to it) that are not listed in the Google Local Paid listings above.  That said, I can only surmise that the added benefit to having a Google local paid listing is to show up at the very top of the page where you might see typical AdWords ads like so:

My largest concern was that the typical search results we’re all used to seeing would be heading out and only the sponsored results would remain.  This however, does not seem to be the case (at least not yet).

In summary, it’s really too soon to say how this will affect local businesses (if at all), and how much Google is going to charge for these listings in your market because obviously it will differ greatly depending upon your location.

This will definitely make for an interesting test as soon as they bring it to all markets.

The purpose of SEO is to get your site listed in the top ten search results without having to pay to be there and without it being a local listing (although this is important) for keywords that will get you targeted visitors who are likely to spend money at your store or sign up for your newsletter, whatever you want the goal of your website to be.

But, the average website owner usually doesn’t know the difference between all of these different listings.  So let’s talk about them so that YOU are an educated consumer.

First, the Paid Listings (PPC)

In case you’re not familiar, when you do a search at Google and get a page of results, oftentimes you’ll see listings at the very top of the page which are highlighted in yellow (at Google) and you’ll see listings down the right hand side of the page.

These listings (outlined in red above) while technically on the first page of Google, pay to be listed here.  Each time someone clicks on any one of these ads, the owner of the ad has to pay a certain amount of money.  The more competitive the term, the more money you’ll have to spend per click.  Now to be fair, there are lots of little nuances that go into a PPC listing such as (as previously mentioned) how competitive a term is but other factors are how much you’re willing to pay for each click as well as how much you’re willing to budget each month for those ads to run.  So while you could split hairs and say “Well, this is a top-ten listing.” you would be right.  But, in SEO it’s our goal to get you listed in top spots without having to pay to be listed there.

SEM which stands for “search engine marketing” is a way to not only get your site listed in the top ten results at Google but also helps you place ads in the Pay Per Click marketplace so that you can get traffic to your site while you wait for the search engines to pick up and start ranking your web pages.  Now I can’t speak for all SEMs but typically across the board you’ll find that no legitimate SEO company will count this as a “top ten listing” at Google; again, because you have to pay to be listed there.

Second, the Local Listings

I’ll be the first to admit that if you have a local business whether that be in your home or an actual walk-in brick-and-mortar business, a local listing is an absolute MUST.  Google has made quite a few updates to their local listings so that you now can show up for highly competitive terms whereas before you had to state a location in your search query.  These are what local listings look like in the search results:

However, again, when we talk about a top ten listing in a search results page, we’re talking about the listings that A) you don’t have to pay for and B) the listings that aren’t local.  One flaw to a local listing is that if you’re in an area that doesn’t have a lot of competing local businesses listed in the local business area, you’re listing will not show up as a local business.  Plus, a local business listing doesn’t take into account all of the different keywords you’d want to rank well for in a search results page.

Here’s a great example I did on a search for “bicycle tires”.  Now, in my local area there are tons of bicycle shops and most if not all of them sell bicycle tires.  However notice from the screenshot below that there are no local listings like the image above shown:

Now this means that even though you have a local business that does sell bicycle tires, the local business listing doesn’t show for that topic.  To be fair, this could be due to a variety of reasons; either local business shops in my area have not created a local business listing, or if they have they have not listed bicycle tires as one of their items, or, likely, there’s just not enough local businesses to warrant a Google local listing.

This is why actual top 10 natural listings are so important…

Third, Top Ten Natural or Organic Listings

This is the cream of the crop.  This is what SEO actually does for you is get you listed in the top ten positions of a SERP (search engine results page) without having to pay for it and without worrying whether or not your local listing is going to show up at all.  If you look at the image above, and you sold bicycle tires, it is the goal of SEO to get your site listed right there in the top positions where those other sites currently reside.

Can you guarantee those listings?  Absolutely not!  How come?  Because we, as SEOs don’t control the search engines.  We aren’t privvy to all of the factors that go into a top listing at Google or any other major search engine for that matter.  We do however, understand quite a few of the factors that can make that happen.

Things such as what keywords you’re using on the page, how your website is set up (is it easy for the search engines to move through or does it stop them in their tracks?), who is linking to you, how important those links are, and tons of other little details.

So the bottom line is, the next time someone promises you “Guaranteed Top Ten Listings at Google!” read carefully because you might be in for more than you bargained for.

But, in this post I want to bring to your attention something that some unsavvy folks might decide to do to your local listing especially since now the local listings are becoming more prominent.   It’s something called MapSpam and even though you may not have heard of it, it’s extremely important that you understand what it is and how it works to prevent your own listing from being hi-jacked.

I made a video about this issue around six months ago when the floral industry was the victim:

Here’s what’s important to understand:

• If you do not claim your local listing, it can be hi-jacked.
• This issue may become more prevalent since Google is now showing local listings for more competitive terms.
• If you’ve never claimed your listing, you wouldn’t be notified.
• If you attempted to later claim it you have to jump through hoops to do so proving you are the original business owner.
• To claim (or add) your local listing visit https://www.Google.com/local/add/

For example, if I type in the one word of “spa” within Google, I now get local listings of all the spas located in my area.  See below.

Google will show you local listings relevant to the search you just performed based upon your IP address.

Why this is so great for local businesses is because now, it appears that regardless of what keyword you place in the search box, you’re likely to get local listings instead of depending upon the user making a reference to their location.

Just consider the possibilities for local businesses here for a moment.  Previously if I wanted to locate a spa in my location of Des Moines, IA, I would have had to tell Google that I was looking for a spa in my city.  So I’d submit a query such as “spa des moines, ia”.

Now, all someone has to do is enter in a generic term (which is near to impossible to rank well for on a quick basis) and if your local business has set up a listing with Google and you’ve included keywords relevant to that listing, then your business would show up regardless of whether or not you specified a location.

If you have not yet set up a local listing for your business, I highly suggest that you do so by visiting Google Local and specifying your local business details.  It’s completely free but you do need a Google account in order to do so.

On the flip side of these new listings showing up, you might wonder where the rest of the listings are heading.

The good news is, that even with the local listings showing up for more competitive terms, there are still the typical 10 web page listings on the initial page.  The local listings (and any news listings or videos), are only placed within the actual search results as an “addition” not as a “replacement to” the current listings.

That being said, it’s interesting to note that even though some local listings might be more relevant to me as someone who is searching for a spa, I receive a couple of web page listings first and then receive my local listings.  However, the map for the local listings certainly draws the eye which may tend to make someone overlook a single blue link on the page.

The moral of the story is that if you do have a local business and you want to get it appearing in search results for those within your location, get that listing up on Google Local as soon as possible.