Local Business Listings – 5 Don’ts
A local business listing is a very important part of every local business search optimization campaign. It’s a straight forward action that also contains a few important, and all to common mistakes.
Local Search Map
The addictive part of these mistakes is that they can provide you with a top ranked listing. The punishment is that eventually Google and the other search engines will catch on and you will lose that position; perhaps permanently.
Is it worth taking that chance in a world that will increasingly depend on finding your business through your website?
Local Business Listing; Top 5 mistakes to avoid
1. Multiple Local Business Listings with the same address.
You’ll see this once in a while, until Google catches it. Then the culprit disappears… along with their traffic!
2. Multiple Local Business Listings with the same Phone Number.
This is another level of tricky – Not! The search software that major search engines use can easily catch this, and when they do… poof – you’re gone.
3. Using just a PO Box address in your business listing.
Are you a real business? The search engines have decided that without a physical address, you’re not and once they clue in (and they will) they will rank you far down the list.
4. Creating multiple Local Business Listings with the exact same business name.
Sure, there are legitimate reasons that a small business would have multiple locations with the same name, but for now the search engines have decided that (and probably from people trying to spam the index..) this type of listing is likely spam and will penalize you for it.
5. Exclusive use of an “800 number” on your contact page or on your Google Places Page (mmm…bad).
Local businesses use local numbers with area codes that match the region.
These are listed in reverse order of importance. Remember that no one factor usually determines your search engine position, the search algorithm’s are based on hundreds of elements. However, local search has different and fewer elements to use as an authority guage, so these items can severely effect your ranking.