Click image to see 168 Business Directories

Even if your small business could afford a Super Bowl ad – at $3.5 million – there is another form of advertising that would benefit you more and consistently bring you far more business.

And the good news is you only have to pay to have it submitted ONCE to get free advertising on Google Places, Yahoo! Local, Bing, Superpages and hundreds of other local directories indefinitely*.

Completely Free Advertising

You can do it yourself manually, or create your own listings through Universal Business Listings (UBL – what I use), but there are MAJOR BENEFITS to having me do it for you including your not having to do anything except provide your business information. I will handle EVERYTHING for you.

What does it cost?
See Local Search Listings Frequently Asked Questions

DOES FREE LOCAL ADVERTISING WORK?

• See UBL Webcard examples of actual listings I have created and compare them to any other listing created on UBL. What you see in those examples is what YOUR business listing information will look like – listings that will be sent to hundreds of major sites including Google Places, Yahoo! Local, Bing, SuperPages, YellowPages, Yelp, Merchant Circle and sites about your location and industry.
• Local Search Case Study showing UBL listings generated 75 new visitors for every 100 visitors Google sent.
• Appliance store local listings generating 30 New Customers a Week.
• Enhanced local search listings generate new traffic of 81.32%

CLICK THIS LINK if YOU Want Your Free Advertising Now

* Note: Some databases and directories may remove your listing if you do not renew annually but most do not. There are other benefits to annual renewals – and they are fast and easy to do once you’re in UBL.

Click Image to read why we need Geographically Targeted Group Blogs

Small businesses and bloggers are missing enormous opportunities that can be easily accessed by creating geographically targeted Twitter accounts and blog content.

By adding a local component to your social media accounts and blog, or creating accounts specifically to reach a location based audience, your Twitter account becomes far more valuable – for you and others.

Any business that operates in a limited geographic area will want to implement these tips as will all bloggers – whether you think this applies to what you are doing or not. Read on to find out WHY your geolocation is your strongest niche.

Small businesses probably already realize that a Twitter account with followers scattered around the world is unlikely to increase their local leads or sales. They will understand why the people they most want to reach are their neighbors who could be interested in their products or services.

Small Businesses Need to Reach Local Audiences –
Bloggers Who Have Local Influence Are Invaluable
Because when you can reach a local market
It makes sense for businesses to buy advertising
on your blog or pay you for blog outreach services.

Bloggers frequently tell me they do not want to “limit” their audience to a specific location and I spend a lot of time explaining to them why adding geo-targeted information to their blog positions them where the money is and will get them more recommendations.

Blogs and Twitter accounts providing LOCAL information that
shares content specifically beneficial to people in your location
makes others want to share it with others
BECAUSE IT IS UNIQUE and provides value.

Adding a local component to your existing blogs or Twitter accounts OR creating a Twitter account or blog specifically for a particular geographic location is not difficult.

WHY GEO-TARGET YOUR TWEETS?

Are you a tiny fish lost in a HUGE ocean?

When you are a tiny fish
in an enormous ocean
of 1000s or 1os of 1000s
of Blogs in your niche –

WHY should anyone recommend you?

Be one of the Biggest fish in your LOCAL pond

Decide to become a HUGE fish in your Local Small Pond and provide content on your blog and on Twitter that is interesting and useful to that local audience you give them an excellent reason to share what you are doing with others.

Go out of your way to create content of local interest and connect with people interested in what is happening locally.

You become a more effective influencer
With a much more targeted audience.

HOW TO TWITTER LOCALLY:

1. Claim a Twitter username that includes your location. Consider common abbreviations and local nicknames. You must use a different email address for each Twitter account. You can get a free email address from mail.yahoo.com and many other sites.
2. Add an Avatar image related to your location and write a bio specifically about that city, metro, state or country.
3. Create a blog page about your new location and link to it from your Twitter account and make sure your Twitter username is easy to locate on that page and on your blog or site.
4. Follow Twitter users in your desired location (see tools below for how to find them).
5. Find interesting content about what’s happening, live events, local entertainment, or even the local news and weather and use Twitterfeed or something similar to feed useful information to your local followers.
6. Manually share additional tweets of interest locally.
7. Interact with others in your target location.

Join experienced bloggers with social media influence
on JustRetweet.com ~ Read about how we support other
bloggers and small business with Twitter retweets.

DoFollow CommentLuv Bloggers Add Your Blogs Here
to be considered by our special projects and private forum.

Small Businesses AND bloggers should also read
CommentLuv Your Way to Business Prosperity

HOW TO ADD A LOCAL COMPONENT TO YOUR EXISTING BLOG:

1. When writing about your usual niche add specific information useful to your local readers at the end. For example, if you’re a deals blogger add a few local deals at the end of your regular posts.
2. Write some posts specifically for your local readers. To continue with our deals example, if your blog has lots of deals content it won’t hurt to write a few posts about deals that are only available locally. Put those in a separate category.
3. Create categories for your geographic niche. When you include local info at the end of posts about your usual topics put those in the usual category AND the geo-targeted category. If a post is ONLY of interest locally, put it in the geo-targeted category only.
4. Use local businesses as examples in posts about your usual topics.
5. Write featured reviews, interviews, and human interest posts about topics of interest to your local audience. Your national or international readers are likely to consider these interesting for the same reason travel blogs are so popular. Those that don’t can skip over them because you’re putting them in a separate category.
6. Offer a separate RSS feed for you geo-targeted category so non-local readers can opt out if they wish. I will research and add a post on how to do this as soon as time allows.
7. Use these tips from professional copywriter Donna Anderson (@SheWritesALot) on writing compelling local content and read about or join our local blogging collaborations.

Join us at Just Retweet ~ Bloggers supporting bloggers and small business

TWITTER LOCAL

Although there is an account for the Twitter Geo Team @Geo and there were posts about Twitter Places there does not appear to be anything happening as far as an official Twitter Local offering except for prompts from the Tweet Location Feature

Ways tools can determine location:

1. Information in the Twitter profile.
2. Locations mentioned in tweets.
3. Profiles completed on third party sites.
4. By pulling data from additional sources.

All our Twitter related tips and strategies can be reached through
Our Twitter Best Practices post on How To Use Twitter Effectively.

TWITTER SEARCH TOOLS

Listed in order of usefulness at the time I tested them:

• Advanced Twitter Search ~ Type the location you are interested in into the Places /near this place field and select the number of miles around you want to search. Many of the results returned will be from Twitter users in that location. For large metro areas like Dallas Ft. Worth I use 50 miles. For small locations you may want to reduce that and if you are targeting an entire state you would select a city near the center of the state and select the number of miles it is from that city to the state boundary lines.
• FollowerWonk ~ Includes an option to search your followers by location. Use this when you create Twitter account(s) for specific locations so you can follow those you already have relationships with in an existing Twitter account.

ONLINE TWITTER GEO TOOLS:

1. WeFollow by City ~ Search for Twitter user by city; choose results ranked by most followers or most influential.
2. TwellowHood ~ Simple tool to use – just type in a location to find Twitter users who mention that location in their Twitter profiles. Results are ranked by number of Twitter followers by default. While you may find disabled accounts Twellow is a good way to locate blogs, businesses and individuals by niche, interests, or location.
3. TweetGrader ~ Twitter Elite by Top City – lists of the top 50 Twitter users for a given city, but although their blurb says the lists are ranked by number of followers that is clearly not true now. Exact criterion for ranking unknown. If you know how they are ranking, leave details and/or relevant links in the comments of this post and I will update this section.
4. Twitaholic – while not intended for the purpose, you can find someone in the location you are interested in on Twitaholic, click on the location link, and you will get the top Twitter users for that location ranked by the number of followers they have.
5. Twibs ~ Search Twibs for Twitter users by Geographic Location
6. ChirpCity ~Find out what Twitter users in a city are tweeting OR what tweeters around the world are saying about a location. Searches by keyword so all results will not be what you’re seeking.
7. Local Tweeps~ Looked like a good idea: Register a location for your Twitter account, then log into the site to follow other Twitter users in that location directly on the Local Tweeps site.  Unfortunately I was not able to get logged in and none of the four people listed on their about page has tweeted since at least Nov 15 or between Nov 15-Nov 22, 2011.
8. NearbyTweets ~ I was unable to get this tool to pick up my location because I recently tweeted about New York and clicking preferences in FireFox and Chrome did nothing. If there is a way to manually enter your location I haven’t found it yet. If you are able to get this to work for you, please leave a comment with details.

TWITTER LOCAL TOOLS:

• TwitterLocal.net – Adobe Air based tool that has to be downloaded to be used.

How to Find Local Twitter Users:

• Mashable: Local Tweets: 9 Ways to Find Twitter Users in Your Town (Jun 8, 2009)

MEET LOCAL TWITTER USERS:

• Tweetup Meetup Groups – Use this Tweetup link to search for Twitter Meetups around the world.
• Twtvite ~ Site to create Tweetup groups by location or plan local tweetups

LOCAL iPhone Twitter Apps:

• According to Mashable Local Tweets Post from Jun 8, 2009: “Four iPhone Twitter apps that include location-based search are Twinkle (free), TwitterFon (free), Tweetie ($2.99), and Twittelator Pro ($4.99). “

INACTIVE TWITTER APPS:

After I had come across so many Twitter apps that used to have local features that are no longer available I added this section so that I and others will not be looking for them.

• Tweetmondo

Do you have tips or additional resources
for geotargeting Twitter accounts?

We’d love to hear from you. Just leave a comment
or use our contact tab. Relevant links always welcome.

First Amendment Wording and Internet Censorship

This is a guest post by Internet Attorney Richard B. Newman which shares with us the status of the most recent lawsuit brought against Yelp alleging manipulation of reviews. Because the cases are being brought under the Communications Decency Act, the outcome affects bloggers even if they never use Yelp because the outcome sets precedents for the application of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.

In June 2009 I wrote How to Get Your Free Listing at Yelp and I updated that post in February 2010 and wrote Why We No Longer Recommend Yelp to Businesses because of repeated accusations that Yelp deletes positive reviews and/or adds negative reviews to get businesses to buy advertising with them.

The distinctive nature of the Internet has played a critical role in cases that have addressed the level of First Amendment protection to be applied to the medium.  Earlier this month, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that the Communications Decency Act Immunity for Publisher’s protection for interactive computer services against claims that seek to treat them as the publisher or speaker of third-party, user-generated content, is not dependent upon the motive underlying the services’ performance of traditional editorial functions.

The ruling was issued in conjunction with a lawsuit involving allegations that Yelp, an online review service, knowingly manipulates user-generated reviews and rankings on its service to drive its advertising sales.

Specifically, the complaint alleged that Yelp was liable for extortion and other wrongs on several grounds, including;

• creation of negative business reviews through its employees and other paid individuals acting on its behalf;
• manipulation of third-party reviews, by highlighting negative reviews for customers who did not sign up for its paid advertising service; and
• manipulation of third-party reviews to drive down its business rankings, which Yelp, rather than third-parties, creates.

The court disposed of the claim alleging that Yelp created negative reviews based upon insufficient allegations.  As it pertains to Yelp’s alleged manipulation of user-generated content, the court concluded the claims were barred under the Communications Decency Act.

The Communications Decency Act provides that no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of information provided by another information content provider.  This provision has been interpreted quite broadly by many courts.  Any activity that can be boiled down to deciding whether to exclude material that third-parties seek to post online is essentially immune.

The plaintiff alleged that this lawsuit involved content created by Yelp, a star rating at the top of each business’ review page, and that the Communications Decency Act did not apply.

The court disagreed, reasoning that linking the Communication Decency Act’s publisher immunity provision to a service’s motives would ultimately result in the “death by ten thousand duck-bites” and that such a bad faith exception could force service providers to defend waves of litigation involving editorial decisions.  Such an interpretation would contravene the purpose of the statute, the court said.

The Communications Decency Act immunized Yelp from these claims even if it performed traditional editorial functions, such as choosing which user-generated content to delete, with wrongful motives, such as trying to drive down a business’ ranking to encourage them to sign-up for paid services.

Although the case was dismissed and other cases interpreting the Communications Decency Act have not established an intent-based exception to immunity, the court did make it clear that the Communications Decency Act would not protect Yelp from a lawsuit alleging that it “deceptively represented its rankings as user-generated and neutral.”     Interestingly, this ruling differs from one issued in another lawsuit involving Yelp earlier this year, wherein a different judge concluded that Yelp’s bad-faith intent in manipulating user reviews fell outside the traditional editorial functions protected by the Communications Decency Act.

Traditionally, there are narrow exceptions to the broad immunity granted to service providers.  A website owner may lose CDA immunity if it takes an active role in editing unlawful content.  However, this recent ruling indicates that while the performance of editorial functions includes subjective judgements - determining which motives are permissible could prove problematic - exposing service providers to potential litigation about those motives could chill online speech and contravene the Communication Decency’s Act purpose.

If you are uncertain of how to interpret the exceptions to the Communications Decency Act, contact your Internet Defamation Attorney.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Richard B. Newman is an Internet Lawyer at Hinch Newman LLP
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT of 1996

• Eff.org ~ articles related to Communications Decency Act
• Epic.org ~ Communications Decency Act struck down

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

• Freedom of Speech and Online Hate Speech
• ACLU History: Modern-Day Censorship: Reno v. ACLU
• Freedom Forum: The First Amendment

YELP REVIEWS EXTORTION

• Eric Goldman: Yelp Gets Complete Win in Advertiser “Extortion” Case–Levitt v. Yelp
• TechCrunch: Class Action Lawsuits Alleging Extortion Over Yelp’s Review System Dismissed

Google is not your friend
In fact, you are not even Google’s customer.
You are the PRODUCT Google sells to its customers.

When I saw the image below in a ppc training blog post warning lead generation advertisers of what is to come I had to share it with my readers.

I encourage anyone who relies on organic or paid AdWords traffic to make the time to read that excellent post and subscribe to and follow @theppcblog on Twitter.

This image is for all those who still insist that Google has the best search results. I ask you to look at the image below and then answer the question below it.

Do you suppose the income from promoted listings might affect what Google chooses to display above the fold and on most of the first page?

“Are you STILL sure Google provides the best results?”

Almost all of the first page in that example is advertising. While not all searches have that many promoted listings, it is likely that many more will over time. Do you honestly believe money will not affect which results Google shows?

While the blogger who created that image was writing about lead generation, the search it shows is for san francisco dentists – not a business that most would think of when we think about lead generation.

Organic results like those affect many small businesses.

I would love to hear from my readers about every alternative search engine they’re using. Do me a huge favor and leave a comment with a link to any post you like (yours or someone else’s) about alternative search engines or link(s) to the search engines you use.

It is up to us to find the best search engines and share that information with our friends, family, co-workers, readers and followers.

Click image for PlanetGreen Discovery Light Bulb Moments

Bloggers I know are not fully grasping the importance of location to blogging. It is so critical to their success that I sincerely hope every blogger will read this post.

If a giant light bulb does not go on over your head read this again or talk to me about it.

Any bloggers who provide business coaching or small business marketing advice must get this concept clearly in their minds.

We have to stop recommending businesses install blogs if:

• There is not enough interesting content to attract THEIR POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS.
• They aren’t willing to keep them updated and interact in the comments.
• No one is going to be interested in REGULARLY reading about what they do.

What Blogs Interest YOU?

Would YOU really subscribe to a blog about fixing things if what you would really do is HIRE someone to do that? NO! The only people who want to read about fixing things are do it yourself types who want tips on how to fix things.

If you never repair your own car and have no intention of starting, are you EVER going to subscribe to a blog about:

1. How to change your oil? (NO!)
2. Or how an engine works? (How many people drive? How many of those care how engines work?)
3. The importance of checking your brake pads? (MAYBE you MIGHT be interested in that because not doing it can cost you a lot of money, but even that is doubtful – most will NOT want to read about that.)

If you want to get HIRED to install or repair anything
WHY would you create a blog
YOUR POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS will never read?

In order to generate leads or sales, the ideal blog must be able to reach the audience each business needs BEFORE the buyer is ready to buy - because people prefer to buy from those they already know and trust.

How do you reach their potential clients?
By providing entertaining and information information
about what they care about most: themselves.

Almost everyone is interested in what is happening where they live and work – especially if you tell interesting stories that relate to them and their lives. Most businesses operate in specific geographic areas, so your blog must reach the audience that is their target market in a way that will retain readers.

WHAT IS INTERESTING LOCALLY?

Think about what your area is known for such as San Antonio’s River Walk or Australia’s Gold Coast. What is happening around you? Are there seasonal events? Many small towns in Texas have annual events with a parade connected to something produced in their area.

Who are the interesting personalities who live there or are connected to that area?  Any famous authors or historical figures? Where are your favorite places to eat or most unusual businesses you patronize? There are tons of human interest stories you can cover.

Create the most interesting blog and Twitter account
for any specific location to attract followers and subscribers!

Those followers and subscribers WILL be interested in information about local businesses, products and services if you make the way you share the information entertaining. Maybe the owner or employees are real characters, or the way the came up with the business idea is unique, or they have funny stories about what has happened over the years.

Many businesses assume since THEY know what they do so does everyone around them. They are dead wrong. Even in thriving small towns most people do NOT know every business in town. (Just because you have a sign on your business, that does NOT mean everyone in town sees it.)

Few people have any idea what else is available – even in businesses they regularly visit. They will buy what they usually buy. Unless the business is creative at sharing what else they have to offer, most of their regular customers will never know what else they could have purchased there instead of at a big box store.

Imagine how many products the average hardware store carries? Even their employees don’t know everything in the store! Even at my age, with as much as I use the Internet, and as many ecommerce stores with huge inventories as I have worked with I still see products every day I never heard of before. You could write about hard to find items or unique products too.

There is a growing interest in healthy eating with true organic and grass fed products still difficult to find in many areas.  Research that for your readers and you can grow a loyal following – and share with them where they can buy what they most want. The harder it is to find the more valuable your blog will be to them.

More people are interested in the environment now too. Your local site can write about environmental challenges specific to where you are or close enough to impact your readers. Every person is more interested in what is close to home than far away. The major media often ignores the very information real people most need to see. YOU can fill that void!

Blogs are NOT search. Search converts into leads and sales well (IF you can get on the first page of Google for your preferred keyword phrases) because buyers find you at the moment they are ready to part with their hard-earned money. If they already know about what you do they won’t need to search, will they?

Create relationships with people in your local communities
and share only what you believe in – and that trust can
benefit many small businesses in your area.

You can see an excellent example of how to make a blog about a local area highly interesting by going to District365.com to read about Things to Do in Washington DC. Rohan from @365thingstododc was the first to comment in this post. Since I tend to get a lot of comments, I’m sharing what he wrote here:

“Wow, I think you perfectly describe what I’ve been doing in Washington DC. It started out as a hobby (well it’s still a fun hobby for me) but I have been getting a bit of interest from local companies and it has really been a life changer for me in many ways.”

See? This isn’t just some pet theory of mine. It is simply logical that if you create an interesting site that reaches a specific local audience, intelligent businesses will recognize that and want to advertise with you and/or get featured in your blog. It is a simple way to position your blog where the money is.

As availability of information on Twitter and Facebook goes up, searches should go down. Already, more people are asking their Facebook friends, Twitter followers, or others they know online what to buy and where to buy it. THAT is the future of business.

Business success is like surfing. You need to predict where the next wave will be in order to ride it. Make sure your clients are where the waves are – and not sitting alone in the sand  of their lonely blog where no waves ever arrive.

Every business needs to have an online presence.
What you most need to know is in the GrowMap
Small Business Internet Marketing Starter Package.
Use it yourself ~ Be sure to share it with your favorite small business.

Click Image to Learn about the Benefits of Collaborative Consumption

Thank you, Danny Iny (@DannyIny on Twitter), for linking to my blog so I would see your guest post on Danny Brown’s excellent Social Marketing blog about Commenting Communities. (Follow @DannyBrown on Twitter.) Danny Iny offers a Marketing Training program on his Firepole Marketing Blog.

I look at every incoming link and when they are of high quality – and especially when they are on a blog I read regularly – I will usually want to contribute to the discussion and share that post across social networks.

What those of us who love CommentLuv and regularly comment on each others’ blogs (at least when we can make the time) do and what this post suggests are vastly different. We do not “require” anyone to comment anywhere. We simply have blogs we regularly read and share and when we have something to contribute we comment.

What we have are informal COLLABORATING communities.

When I talk of collaborating what I mean is that bloggers should be aware of other quality bloggers in their own niche, join in discussions that are pertinent to their experience, and then share those posts and discussions with those they interact with on social media.

I do NOT recommend any contrived systems
that mandate who has to comment where and how often.

When we comment or link it should be because
we have something relevant to contribute.

I do not believe we need to create fire-walled communities. I DO believe niche blogging communities are growing in importance. I encourage bloggers to read what people such as Heather Stephens (@StephensHeather on Twitter) who has extensive experience to share regarding commenting tribes.

The primary difference between what we do and what most tribes and groups require is the REQUIRING part. We do what we can do as much as we can when we can and we don’t worry about whether others are or are not “doing their fair share”. I understand the desire to make sure others are contributing; I just do not feel a need to control what others are doing.

Do you REALLY want to kick out your best collaborators because they are too busy to ALWAYS do x, y or z but when the are more available they are wonderful? Life gets in the way. Many are dealing with health issues and emergencies – their own and others – and the frequency of those is going to continue to escalate.

All we need is for bloggers to do is this:

Identify the blogs that are most related to your own
Focus most of your time reading, commenting
and sharing those specific blogs.

Up until now, most bloggers’ audiences have been other bloggers and they have written about how to blog, how to use social media, how to monetize your blog, affiliate marketing strategies and so on.

Now what bloggers need to do is take the skills they have collectively learned and apply those to creating a better world. IMHO, the best way to do that is to create a group blog for a specific geographic area that targets a specific very large niche but does not exclude other topics.

I particularly like the home improvement or home and garden niche
because it is so large, is a regular part of most people’s lives
and encompasses so many small businesses.

For example:

• Dallas Fort Worth Home Improvement (one I am creating here on GrowMap – and if anyone else is doing the same please connect with me)
• Los Angeles Home and Garden
• Chicago Home Improvement – a Chicago paper had a great blog on this but today even after multiple searches I can not find it. I’ll add it when I do.
• Florida

Note that bloggers can select the geographic area that best fits their local area. Texas is a good example, because we have different areas based on how far it is to a major city:

• Austin, Texas Metro
• Waco / Temple / Killeen (and surrounding rural areas)
• DFW (Dallas Fort Worth and surrounding counties)
• Florida – you pick the area that fits
• New York State or New York City or New York Metro – only someone in New York will know what you call the greater New York area

Bloggers need to be aware of how people find what they need to buy.

Those who live in small towns buy some things local and generally travel to the closest large city to buy other things. The target audience of small businesses around you is NOT just the people in that large city – it is all the people for whom that is the closest place to physically shop.

I am also encouraging bloggers to create blogs for their communities
such as this one I am starting for Kaufman, Texas.

I chose that specific city because they are one of the few
still thriving small towns.

We need to find and promote the survival of small communities
and create new ones wherever we are.

They will be key to improving the quality of life and ensuring adequate healthy food is available for those who live in each area. I want to leave you with this infographic that clearly illustrates a point I’ve been trying to get across to everyone I interact with: When you buy local you keep money and prosperity circulating for everyone versus having that money hoarded by the few offshore.

Why Buy Local? To Keep Your Local Economy Circulating and Increase Economic Stability Where You Live - Click the Image to go to the Original Post and See Full Size Image

As you can see from the infographic:

Buying locally keeps $73 of every $100 in circulation
versus only $43 of dollars spent in non-locally owned stores
which includes corporate big box stores.

As we strengthen our local communities and encourage small businesses to source more of what they sell closer to home even more prosperity will stay and support local giving and public services – making your city and county one of the few not having a fiscal meltdown.

Bloggers are called to make a difference by taking their knowledge, internalizing it as wisdom, and then facilitating the spread of what needs to be done across large areas. I am here to assist any blogger, business, organization or community who asks regardless of ability to pay. (In other words, do not allow not having money to spend or a current budget to keep you from contacting me.)

Read more about how creating Group Geo-Targeted Niche Blogs positions your blog where the money is so that by supporting your local businesses and communities you can also make an income you can live on.

Are you a local business? Find out how GrowMap can assist you.

Every Web site owner needs to clearly understand the importance of search engine traffic – and for those who do business in a specific geographic location – especially Local Search traffic.

Kelsey Group U.S. Local Share Mobile Search Revenue Volume Feb 2009 - NOTE the increases in 2013 predicted Local Related searches and revenue on Mobile Devices

Seventeen months of data for Texas Gazebo Manufacturer Golden Rule Gazebo was captured to illustrate clearly that Google has a monopoly on traffic and the importance of using Universal Business Listings to get your small business into all the tiny Local Search Directories to which you would never have manually identified and submitted.

This first screen capture shows overall search traffic for this very small business from October 29, 2009 (when analytics were first installed on their new blog) through March 20, 2010.

Over that time Google sent 1,412 visitors
Yahoo sent only 11 and Bing sent only 7
Google sent over 98% of their search engine traffic!

Golden Rule Gazebo Search Engine Traffic Click Image to See Full Size

During that same period of time Golden Rule Gazebo used Google AdWords to send 1,293 visitors so of the above traffic, only 765 visits were from organic searches.  Note that the time period shown above does not include the most recent year.

This next information adds the most recent full year, expanding the time from October 29,2009 to March 20, 2011. You can see a screen capture of that data full size here.

Google sent a total of 4,769 visitors
Yahoo sent only 96 and Bing sent only 71
Search (search who?) sent 45, aol 34, ask 10 and altavista 1.
Google sent just under 95% of all their search engine traffic.

In spite of such low search numbers their business – which would be expected to be as hard hit as other construction related businesses such as Millwork Companies and Contractors have in this economy – enjoyed a very good year last year and traffic is already picking up for spring which is their traditional strongest demand time.

Their sales are strong because of their many Local Search Directory Listings that send only a handful – or even one – new buyer at a time. This traffic converts much higher than traffic from a regular search engine because these types of sites are used by buyers when they are ready to hire someone or buy something.

Their Top Referring Local Search Directory Sites:

You can click on the image below to see this screen capture data full size or just check out the list below the image of the referral sites and number of visitors each has sent.

Referring Sites 1 thru 20 10.29.09 through 03.20.11 Click Image to See Full Size

None of these are major local search directories! I don’t recognize any as being on the previous list of Local Search Directories I found when I did a similar Case Study on incoming links generating by using UBL for Good Millwork.

All of these are sites we would not have manually listed with and none are among the Top Ten Local Search Directories by Importance.

Notice that Google does not break out traffic that comes from their Google Maps site separately so there is no way to know how much of the traffic they send comes from Local Search but it is likely to be a significant percentage.

LOCAL SEARCH DIRECTORY URLs – Number of Visitors

This list is from Oct 29, 2009 to March 20, 2010:

1. localfindonline.com 92
2. foundnearby.com 39
3. easylocalonline.com 36
4. easyshoplocal.com 34
5. mydailylocal.com 34
6. yourgreatlocal.com 33
7. easylocalfind.com 32
8. ad.yieldmanager.com 29
9. ilocalnet.com 28
10. localpages.com 28
11. click.zipcodez.com 26
12. alltruelocal.com 25
13. click.entertainmentdirectory.com 25
14. localonlysearch.com 23
15. click.salondirectory.com 21
16. click.ultimateyellowpage.com 20
17. federalyellowpage.com 19
18. finddozens.com 19
19. click.yellowpageonline.com 18
20. findcitylocal.com 17

Compare the first list above to the list for Oct 29, 2009 to March 30, 2011:

1. localfindonline.com 105
2. definitelylocal.com 90
   
3. amazinglocal.com 89
4. guidetolocal.net 88
5. superpages.com 83
6. foundnearby.com 75
7. localsearchlive.com 72
8. yourlocalticket.com 71
9. tradecrawler.com 68
10. local-md.com 63
11. ilocalnet.com 61
12. searchyourzip.com 58
13. localpages.com 57
14. backroadhome.net 47
15. easyshoplocal.com 46
16. switchboard.com 46
17. click.localsearchguides.com 45
18. easylocalfind.com 42
19. easylocalonline.com 42
20. yourgreatlocal.com  42

The sites listed in bold at positions #5 and #16 are major local search directories and the 10 sites shown in italics were not even on the list of top 20 referrers the year before. Notice that the top referrer has slowed, probably because they have either lost search engine position or have stopped promoting themselves as well.

As new niche directories and geo-targeted directories are created, their site is automatically added because they are in the databases distributed through UBL. Small businesses with listings in as many local directories as possible are less affected by Google’s changes because as one local directory loses traction in the search engines, others you are also listed in will rise to page one.

332 tiny Local Search Directories referred 3,430 visits
Compare that to Google sending 4,769
Like them, you can protect your business from dropping Google traffic!

For those who want to see all the other little Local Search sites that sent this Texas Gazebo Builder traffic and buyers, here are screen captures of the data from their Google Analytics:

1. Local Search Referring Sites 1-20
2. Local Search Directory Sites 21-55
3. Local Search Directories Sites 56-90
4. Local Search Directory Referrals Sites 91-126
5. Local Search Directories Referring Sites 127-162
6. Local Search Directories Referrals Sites 163-197

Besides all of the referring sites shown above, Google Analytics captured 135 more sites that sent one visitor each. No business is going to manually list on all these sites – and it isn’t necessary because there is a fast, easy way to make sure your business gets listed on existing sites and included in new niche and geo-targeted sites.

I encourage bloggers to create niche geo-targeted blogs and that post explains why that is important for both small businesses and bloggers. It also explains why some small businesses especially need to get the Local Listings explained in this post because their location makes them harder to locate in Google Maps or Yahoo! Local.

We offer Local Search Directory Listing Services for Businesses.
If you prefer, see our do it yourself Local Search Directory Listings instructions.
We will also teach others how to offer these services.
Focus on These Priorities for Small Business Internet Marketing!

Image Credit Proximity Search Marketing - Click Image for More Details

LOCAL SEARCH INFOGRAPHICS

• Linking Mobile to Local Infographics
• Local Mobile Search
  

Businesses and consumers alike must learn to use discernment in evaluating the validity and accuracy of the reviews they read online.  When I read the comments in blogs, forums and on Social Networking sites it is apparent to me that many have never heard this old saying:

“Don’t believe everything you read”.

For reviews to benefit us as consumers to know which businesses and products we can trust, more people who can write accurately and honestly need to be contributing their opinions. The more individual reviews there are the more likely we are to find the truth.

Click the Image to see stats from EZLocal on where Google pulls reviews

Valid reviews benefit us all. They allow us to avoid businesses that offer horrible service, save us from losing money buying bad products, and discover small businesses that really care about us.

We must hold business communities like Merchant Circle and Yelp accountable for their actions and not allow them to charge businesses protection fees or encourage them to allow merchants to manipulate real reviews.

At the same time we do not want to allow any individual to use the threat of bad reviews to hold businesses hostage or businesses to sue over bad reviews. Although we have no control of what others do, the bad behavior of some who claim to be online reviewers reflects poorly on us all.

Do your favorite small businesses, friends and neighbors a favor and write reviews of their businesses and services and add product reviews after you use what you buy.  To make that easier for you see the section under the bold heading Where to Write Reviews in our post about Supporting Small Businesses.

Related articles

• Top 10 Local Search Directories By Importance (growmap.com)

Because there are hundreds of Local Search Directories we researched to determine which are the most important.  We recommend using Universal Business Listings and provide this information on How to Obtain Local Business Directory Listings; however, even if you use them it is still imperative to claim and enhance your most important listings.

Any listing that has reviews should be protected by claiming – especially Google – because it is possible for someone to hijack your good reviews and change the contact information and address to their business which effectively takes business away from you.

I have personally seen that happen to a local Dallas mobile mechanic. He was able to get his account restored but prevention is much faster and easier.

The Local Search Directories listed below are the ten you may wish to spend the most time optimizing. I have a spreadsheet of the 107 listings using UBL created for Florida custom milling company Good Millwork.

I created this list by checking PageRank and traffic to each site roughly one year ago so the order may have changed, but Google is definitely number one for traffic and the others are probably still the key sites.

If anyone disagrees, has more recent research, or would like to see the entire spreadsheet let me know by leaving a comment in this post or using the information on my contact tab.

TOP LOCAL SEARCH DIRECTORIES:

1. Google Maps
2. Yahoo! Local
3. SuperPages
4. YellowBook
5. YellowPages
6. Yelp
7. Citysearch
8. Merchant Circle
9. Topix
10. Insider Pages

IMPORTANT: All of these directories have a free option; however, they WILL try to upsell you into a paid offering and that can be monthly charges. Some make the free listings difficult to find or will even tell you there is no free option.  When they call – and some will – simply tell them you are happy with your free listings.

If you are unable to find a free option contact me and I will find it if it still exists. To date I have always been able to locate a way to obtain a free listing; however, that could change.

As I wrote in my previous comprehensive post about the importance of Local Search Listings:

“It is foolish for any business not to obtain their free listings on at least the major sites offering local directories. Not having these listings is like having someone offer your business years of free advertising and saying “no thanks”.

See our Local Search Directory categories for additional posts on how to submit to several of these specific directories.

Additional Local Search Resources:

• GetListed.org Local Listings tool to see where your business is listed and what local listings you have claimed.
• Google Places Category Tool – search to find out what the best categories are for your business for your Google Places listing.

Image Credit: Local Money Book

Most bloggers struggle to make money because they don’t have the one thing that is necessary to really earn an income from their blogs: the right audience.

The money is going to flow to blogs that can reach a specific target audience.

That audience could be people interested in a particular niche (home improvement, golf, healthy living, gardening, etc.) OR in a specific geographic location. Choose the location you love and know the best and that has a fairly large number of people either living in it or traveling to it.

Give some serious thought to how large an area you want to cover because that is going to be key to how many businesses and advertisers will be interested.

In some areas – such as Austin – that will be a simple decision. In others such as the Dallas / Ft. Worth metroplex you will have to decide whether to target DFW or just Dallas or Dallas Metro or only Ft. Worth or Ft. Worth Metro, or maybe rural Dallas or surrounding areas outside a particular direction from Dallas.

Ask around and see what other people call where you want to target the most. Do a little research – maybe check to see how CraigsList has your area sectioned off. They have Dallas/Ft Worth separated into Dallas, Ft. Worth, DFW Mid-Cities, North DFW and South DFW.

A larger area is probably going to be better than a very narrowly focused one because the more people you can reach for a specific business the more valuable your site will be to them. This is going to vary greatly depending on whether you are in a large city or a small one.

Before you decide on the area you will cover, be sure to think about what kind of topics you want to write about and what businesses are involved.

Why target only Santa Rosa Beach or only Pensacola if you can just as easily target the entire Florida Panhandle or even all of Florida?

The reason you want to do that is so that you can reach a potentially larger audience and more businesses will be interested. A lumber mill like Good Millwork would be much better off working with a blog that covers Florida than any one city in Florida.

In their case, blogs or forums about home improvement or interior design might be an even better fit. If you’re really into DIY (do it yourself) home renovations or have a flair for interior design or love architecture consider those niches instead of or in addition to a geo-local blog.

You need to cover an area you know well because you will know how far people customarily travel to shop or on vacation or for entertainment in YOUR area. This can vary greatly from state to state and even city to city.

While city dwellers may rarely drive outside their own city, those who live in smaller cities (populations under 80,000-100,000) usually do travel into the closest large city and those who live in small towns may drive 60+ miles to make major purchases or have a night out on the town.

Do NOT target only the metro area. Remember that those who live outside of it drive into the city because there may be no other choice for them. Whenever possible you want your site to appeal to those in surrounding communities too – and this is why:

You want to target the audience that businesses need to reach.

Different businesses are interested in reaching different geographic locations. There is a hole in sites like Yahoo! Local and Google Maps for some businesses that you can fill.

Those sites usually target only locations within 25 or 50 miles which can be detrimental to manufacturing businesses that are centrally located between major geo-metros. Here is an example.

Golden Rule Gazebo is a gazebo manufacturer which delivers all over Texas and to surrounding states. They are located right in the middle of Texas – perfect for delivering gazebos across the state but bad for getting any kind of visibility on Local Search Directories because all of the major cities are just beyond 50 mile distance limit from them.

That means they can’t show up for searches for gazebos from Austin (just over 100 miles) Dallas (124 miles), Ft. Worth (112 miles), Houston (163 miles), San Antonio (173 miles).

Being featured on and advertising on blogs with large audiences in major Texas metros, blogs that write about Texas in general, or blogs where the audiences might want a gazebo are the perfect solution.

Good target audiences that immediately come to mind for gazebos are people interested in landscaping, wedding planning blogs or blogs catering to Bed and Breakfasts.  Think about what audiences you can reach that businesses need.

Geo-targeted and niche blogs can fill the void for businesses like them. And sharp bloggers can create collaborations to push their local location blogs and niche-specific blogs to the top of Google search.

You can offer advertising packages across blogs for the specific other cities and metros businesses want to reach in the same way free printed classifieds like The Penny Saver and Thrify Nickel (now called American Classifieds) do.

Exactly what geographic area you cover is up to you. It could be anywhere and of whatever size you feel is best for what you want to write about and what kind of businesses you plan to attract as advertisers.  You could even partner with an existing site.

There is ample interesting content that can be developed:

1. What to do in that area
2. Local attractions
3. Local events
4. Restaurant reviews
5. Local musicians
6. Other bloggers who write about your area

By reaching a local audience, your blog can become a focal point that any business local to that area can use to reach their potential customers and clients. That is where the money will be.

It makes more sense for people to “hang out” on a site where others where they live are instead of Facebook or Twitter and that ability may be coming later this year. (More on that in the next month or so.)

You could either have just a blog and use this new Social Network we will be alpha testing OR create a blog that has a live aspect to it similar to how BloggerLuv works. What you want to do is become “the” site – or at least one of “the” sites – that everyone wants to share locally.

If you’re sold on the idea of starting a local site you may be interested in becoming an authorized Local Proud reseller. This very short video explains what they offer:

Have questions? Want to take your blog to the next level or start a new one? Join us in at BloggerLuv, add CommentLuv to your blog, or inquire about being invited into our private blog collaboration.

Just leave a comment in this post or use our contact information.