Capturing quality leads with local search engine services

Lately, you may have heard a lot about web features like Yahoo! Local and Google Local that enable search engine users to find relevant local information with neighborhood business listings, maps, directions and web pages. Why should you list your business on one (or both) of these sites? You'll make it easy for qualified prospects to find your business, you have full control over your listing and, best of all, it's free!

Both Google Local and the Yahoo! Local Listings program collect business information from their own indexes of websites, Yellow Pages directories, and other sources to populate search results. However, the best way to get an accurate listing is to submit your own listing to the directories. You can sign your website up at Yahoo! Local here and for Google Local here.

It takes 3-5 business days for your listing to appear in Yahoo! Local. After submitting your information to Google Local, you'll receive a letter to your business address within two weeks containing a unique PIN number and activation instructions for your listing. Your listing will then display on Google Local four to six weeks after it's submitted.

While both the Google and Yahoo! local tools allow you to edit your listing whenever you like, changes can sometimes take six weeks or more before they're reflected in the search results.

Need help setting up your business listing? No problem. We've created a tutorial for setting up your listing on Google Local and Yahoo! Local in our Web Marketing Strategies section of our website, which you can access here. If you have XSellerate automated marketing, the tutorial is also located in the Marketing Aids section under Tools.