There seems to be no stopping the growth of searches from users seeking local service providers. I will assume you are the provider, below are some tips to help you appear within these search results. Tip #1: Get your business where it counts. As of February 2013, Google still dominates the larger portion of search queries, taking up a wooping 67.5% share. The Comscore report shows Bing taking the second spot at 16.7%, followed by Yahoo 11.6%, Ask Network 2.8%, and AOL, Inc. taking the remaining 1.7% share.
Now that we have the facts it's safe to say Google, Bing and Yahoo are the three influential giants, so let's get listed. First we will head over to Google Places and follow the simple step-by-step process to complete our listing. This will be followed by either an email or telephone verification, followed by a wait of anywhere from three to six weeks to see your site in the local search listings. Same applies to yahoo, except phone verification isn't necessary. All three Giants let you create a free in-dept business listing with phone#, website, address, services provided, etc. Be sure to fill out everything accordingly and choose the appropriate category for your services. Below are the links.
Now that we have hit up the three G's, customer cooperation never hurts; Good reviews from your customers will boost your listing towards the top. Ask your customers, DO NOT offer incentives on your site in trade for a good review, as it will easily undo everything you have done up to this point. Take the approach of "If you had a good experience, we would appreciate if you took a moment to review my business on this site." You may not be able to control what they say, however having any review (with the exception to a terrible review) will help build credibility and make you look like a more reliable/trustworthy provider.
The above steps will get you listen on the 3 major search engines that your prospects are using to find you. All search engines including these 3 also use other local directories and maps to pull their search results, so its a good idea to also get listed on places such as; Mapquest, Superpages.com, yellowpages.com, and other major local online directories used by these engines.
Best of luck!!
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