Cause People Under 40 Don’t Use the Yellow Pages Book Anymore.

With most local business searches happening online through local search engines and local search directories, local search marketing and local search advertising are more important than ever. A huge part of local search optimization is the local search directory. There are now dozens of places online to find local businesses, so knowing the best local directories for local search and how to submit to and get listed with all of these local search engines and directories is extremely important to today’s local business.

The Local Search Engines, Directories & Data Sources below are listed in order of importance to a local business, and it is critical to be in as many of them as possible , especially those ranked near the top. That’s why the list below was compiled.

Losing Business? Perfect Example

I was doing some research on Twitter.com , a place where people give short updates of what they are doing etc, and I came across this perfect example of a local business losing business because they were not listed well locally.

In this case, a local franchise of Kona Grill lost business because this person could not find its location via MapQuest.com or her GPS unit. From reading this article, you’ll learn how this incident could have been avoided.

Where to Start Listing Locally

Submitting to all these directories will take about 13 hours, which is a lot of time! Even worse, its tedious.

So start with Universal Business Listing (UBL).   I don’t mean this to be a review of Universal Business Listing, but they are the "big one". They feed listings to almost everyone else online, as you can see in the Notes area of the table below. Plus they also get you in 411 and GPS directories. The cost is nominal at $30, and included in that is the cost of listing with other paid directories like the Yellow Pages, Super Pages, Dex. You also don’t have to wait 4-6 months to get into InfoUSA which is all important online and off. Do the math and you’ll realize that its well worth it, plus , it gives you one place to make updates with in the future, not 26.

After submitting to UBL, hit at least the top 5 local search directories not covered by UBL. Do the rest too, but you’ll be leaving a lot "on the table" if you don’t hit at least those top 5).

Get Listed With These Local Search Engines, Directories and Providers

The above list was compiled by using a formula based on the popularity of the Local Search Engine/Directory, its recent increase or decrease of popularity, the significance of the sites it "feeds" and where it get "fed" its information from.

The Importance of Online Local Listings

Besides the fact that over 75% of searches for information on local businesses &services occur online, there are other compelling reasons to get listed on as many Local Search Directories as possible:

User experience – People tend to start with a general search online, then go from there. Eventually they locate the information they need, and if they have a good experience, will seek out that information resource (site) again. What this means for local business searches online is someone who searches for "Ice Cream" with a Zip Code, will end up a map of results from the search engine (why you need to be in Google, Yahoo and others) as well as results from local search directory sites like Merchant Circle, City Search and others (see the list above). If a user knows where they want to go already, they will use the map feature, if they are looking for reviews and opinions from others,they will go local search directory instead.

This is the current user experience today. It is not flipping through the Yellow Pages. Yes, the fingers are still doing the walking, only now its more like a tap dance on the keyboard, so you need to be part of it.

Reach – From the above ice cream example, you can see the reach you get from being listed. But data collected and managed online now goes a lot further. Not only is mobile local search picking up steam with the iPhone and similiar devices, but I often find places with my GPS while driving as well. (Gas, Food, Florists, Coffee Houses). Being online as well as on everyone’s GPS is pricless. Its being right where people are already looking.

Ranking – The better your search ranking with search engines like Google, the more often your site will be found, bottom line. When you are listed oline, you have a web reference to your site. The more references that are relevant the better. The more popular the site referencing you, the better. Listing with Local Search Directories provides you a way get popular and relevant sites linking to yours. Things are never really this simple, but you get the point, these links have value to your site ranking, and therefore to your business.

Writing for Local Search Engines & Directories

Steven Brier over at Local Internet USA brought up a good point to me recently, in that the focus on submitting to Local Search Engines and Directories is not so much about the time it takes to submit to them all, but rather the work it takes identify your keywords and create some compelling and attractive copy that will draw your target audience in from these local search engines and directories.  This obviously comes from a professional who see the results of well thought out copy.

Before submitting to search directories, your website should be optimized with your keywords.  You’ll want to make sure these make it into your listing copy where appropriate.  Here is more information on Local SEO for your website .

Note: This list does not cover local niches. If you are a restaurant for example, you will want to list with local directory sites like UrbanSpoon for instance. If there are niche directories with local listings, get in them as well! I’d put such a directory near the top of my list.

Now that we’ve discussed how to do SEO properly and how to get listed locally everywhere online, I’ll put some time into local online advertising (and not the useless opportunities you’ve been approached with by some sales guy).