If you have a local business or lead any public organization with a street address, you have a “place” on the web in Google, Yahoo and Bing. Now, you need to claim it for yourself and spruce it up a bit.
The major search engines all have special “local” features to help searchers looking for local services like yours. The search engines collect and list local info automatically, from whatever they find in phone directories and such. Whatever they have is probably thin, and it could be outdated or incorrect.
The search engines don’t want inaccurate info, so they have made it so that you, the business owner, can claim the listing, for free, and then edit the information that appears there to make it more helpful to the searchers – and much more helpful to you too.
To claim your listing:
1. Find it by searching in Google, Yahoo or Bing. You can search for your business name or your business address or for “Pawling” and your type of business. Click on the link to go to the listing for your business.
2. Click the link for the local listing for your business. (If you don’t see it, check for old or misspelled names.)
3. On the listing itself, find the link to “claim this listing”.
4. You may need to sign in (or sign up for) your free email account at the particular search engine: Gmail for Google, Yahoo mail, and LiveMail or HotMail for Bing.
5. Finally, fill out the form to confirm that the business listing is actually yours. The search service will want to arrange to call your listed phone to confirm that you are the owner, or they’ll have an option to do it by mail.
Once you have completed the confirmation process you will be able to edit the listing for your business. Be sure to include every bit of useful information that you can, including the description of your business. Include special types of service that you provide and use all of the possible names that people might be searching for to find your services.
Be sure to check all of the fields and items to make sure that they have the best possible information about your business.
Be sure to include a link to your business web page too. If you don’t have a site for your business, you can link to your business listing in Yelp, or the Yellow Pages or even Facebook. If you have any questions about how best to fill out your listings, please give me a call any time.
Mike Pepper ~ Computer Guy
Pawling NY
845-855-5824
