With Local Search on the Rise, Google has been working hard on penetrating the local search market.

Its Latest Beta Product – Google Top Places !

They have combined the power of Google Places, Google Boost, Google Talkbin and Google Offers.

Its Google’s version of Yelp. They are helping local businesses get found.

Google Top Places is currently available in :

Portland, Austin, Madison and San Diego. 

.

Google Top Places connects buyers with sellers while allowing people to discover the happening spots in the city.

One gets to Choose categories and experiences to find Places recommended by the local community.

Check it out for yourself and share your experience below.

Visit Google Top Places .

I’m always looking to share ideas about Local Search with fellow bloggers.

I noticed that no one had a list of quality Local SEO blogs put together.

So here’s my List of Top Local Search Engine Optimization Blogs for 2011.

.

I also thank all of you who emailed or tweeted me their recommendations. Always Appreciate the suggestions. If i missed someone or if you would like to recommend someone, do post a comment below.

Top List Of Local SEO Blogs For 2011

• David Mihm :  David is well known for putting together The Local Search Ranking Factors. An article that was put together after involving over 36 SEO experts. He’s also the man behind Getlisted. You can connect with him by:       Visit his Blog or         Connect on Twitter or        Connect on Facebook

• Mike Blumenthal : If there’s anything you’d like to know about Google Places then Mike’s blog is the place to read. He’s on top of all the latest news related to google local listings. You can connect with him by :                                        Visit his Blog or     Connect on Twitter or      Connect on Facebook

• Matt McGee : I first found Matt thru his blog HyperLocal which he’s stopped blogging in late 2010. He’s been into local search and assisting small businesses market online since the late 90′s.  You can connect with him by:                       Visit his Blog or    Connect on Twitter or      Connect on Facebook

• Mathew Hunt : Matt is one of Toronto’s top local search bloggers who runs smbusinesscoach. He offers small businesses training in courses such as Google Maps Marketing. A great person to connect with and quite helpful.                        Visit his Blog or         Connect on Twitter or    Connect on Facebook

• Dev Basu : Dev is the founder of Powered By Search a Toronto based Local Search Firm. An experienced  local search blogger on Search Marketing Insights. Visit his Blog or      Connect on Twitter or     Connect on Facebook
• Andrew Shotland : Andrew used to work for InsiderPages and left them to start his own local search marketing firm. His blog has good info on local search.  Visit his Blog or      Connect on Twitter or   Connect on Facebook

• Chris Silver Smith :   He’s well known as Si1very online. He blogs on Nodalbits on Local Search, PR and  Heat Maps. A key contributor to David Mihm’s Local Search Ranking Factors.                                                                                    Visit his Blog or      Connect on Twitter or     Connect on Facebook

• Greg Sterling :  Greg is the founder of SMI and an editor on Search Engine Land. Do visit his blog for posts on Local and Mobile marketing.                       Visit his Blog or        Connect on Twitter or         Connect on Facebook

• Steve Hatcher : Steve runs Axemedia and GeoLocalSEO  where he offers great tips on local search. He’s one of the first guys to have put a list of fellow local search blogs.                                                                                                  Visit his Blog or      Connect on Twitter
  

• Miriam Ellis : Miriam runs  SolasWebDesign and her blog on Local Search is always interesting to read. Love her creativity and way of digging into details.  Visit her Blog

• Martijn Beijk :  Martijn is a local search expert working at OnetoMarket in Netherlands. His blog is a great place to read about location based material.     Visit his Blog or Connect on Twitter or Connect on Facebook

• Don Campbell :  Don’s the founder of Expand2web and helps small businesses get sites ranked in local searches. He’s also running MyReviewPage assisting firms manage your reviews online.                                                                    Visit his Blog or Connect on Twitter or Connect on Facebook

• Scott Gallagher :  If you’re looking to learn local search marketing then Scott is the man to connect with. He offers local search courses thru LMS that cover over a 6 week period  topics from Local Search to PPC to Social Media.                Visit his Blog or Connect on Twitter or Connect on Facebook

• Mary Bowling : I first came across Mary when i read her whitepaper on Local Search Engine Marketing for the Travel and Lodging Industry . Her personal blog has some great post on competitive analysis for local search results.               Visit her Blog or Connect on Twitter or Connect on Facebook

• Larry Sullivan : Larry’s an 8 yr Veteran of Internet Marketing and blogs on LocalBizBits .                                                                                                     Visit his Blog or Connect on Twitter or Connect on Facebook

• Ed Reese : Ed’s the man behind Sixth Man Marketing. He’s a faculty member of GetListed Univ. Great person to connect to.                                                  Visit his Blog or Connect on Twitter or Connect on Facebook

• Tom Crandall : Tom runs SEM Report Card and was a SEMMY 2010 Nominee. His blog posts are worth reading.                                                                  Visit his Blog or Connect on Twitter or Connect on Facebook

• Aaron Weiche :   Aaron runs Syder Trap and Five Technology and has interesting blog posts on Local Search.                                                               Visit his Blog or Connect on Twitter or Connect on Facebook

• Jim Rudnick :  Jim’s been running KKT Interactive and blogs at CannuckSEO for a long time and has great case studies on local search.                                    Visit his Blog or Connect on Twitter or Connect on Facebook

• Darren Shaw :  Darren’s the founder of WhiteSpark which has an awesome Citation Finder Tool .                                                                                           Visit his Blog or Connect on Twitter or Connect on Facebook

• Paul Jahn:  Paul’s been involved in marketing since 2003 and a contributor to David Mihm’s Local Search Ranking Factors.                                                      Visit his Blog or Connect on Twitter or Connect on Facebook

• Nyagoslav Zhekov: A new edition to the world of Local SEO and Google Places, but increasingly getting noticed. Visit his Blog or Connect on Twitter or Connect on Facebook

• Ramit Narang :  That’s me! I don’t need to brag about myself, if your reading this on RamitNarang.com you know what i do best .                                            Visit my Blog or Connect on Twitter or Connect on Facebook

.

If you have any suggestions for other Great Local Search related blogs to add to this list, do write a comment below. In case i have any incorrect info above i do apologize and do let me know so that i could update it.

The above list is in no particular order. The people in my List of Local SEO Blogs is one that anyone interested in  Local Search should connect with on Twitter and Facebook and subscribe to their feeds.  I’m working to put together a blog that connects to all of their feeds with their latest blog posts. Stay tuned for updates on that.

I’m putting together a list of the Top Local SEO Leaders and Bloggers for 2011.

Would appreciate your thoughts on your Top Local Search Leaders and Bloggers along with their Credentials and website URL.

Will use your inputs in putting together this Top Local Search Bloggers List.

.

Of course you’re welcome to nominate yourself if you have a Local SEO related Blog.

You may share your input by writing a comment below or send your input using the contact page.

Local SEO Bloggers get your pics ready !

.

.

DEADLINE: Please submit all submissions by January 28, 2011 7 PM PST

.

We all know that its important to rank in Top 7 for local listings for getting targetted local traffic.

But how to ensure your listing is in the TOP 7 Listings ?

I’ll show you the Top US citation sources for ranking high in local searches.

In order to get top rankings in local searches, Citations from certain sources play a crucial role. In this post we’ll go over the Top Citation Sources for Local Search Rankings. Do make sure your business is listed in these sources.

LIST OF TOP 8 US CITATION SOURCES FOR LOCAL SEARCH

1) SuperPages : SuperPages is a top online resource for local info on Businesses. They have an extensive database that is used by several search engines for verifying info. You can get your business listed for free using this link here .

2) Best Of The Web Local : BOTW Local listings is a new feature from BOTW. It’s giving all other local listings a run for their money. Its very easy to use and very interactive for business. Businesses can avail the free listing or go for a premium listing. You can get your business listed for free using this link here .

3) InsiderPages : Insider Pages tagline ”reviews for the things that matter most” says it all. Being a subsidiary of Citysearch.com a citation from here carries enough juice in rankings. You can get your business listed for free using this link here .

4) Yelp : A powerful local portal that had over 38 Million visits to their site in August alone ! Its effective in connecting people with local businesses. They seem to have a good system in place to cross check the reviews posted for authenticity. You can get your business listed for free using this link here .

5) Localeze : These guys are major players in the local search market.  Its worth getting listed here. They verify all listings. You can get your business listed for free using this link here .

6) Judy’s Book : One of the most used local search sites. They have a great database that is extensive and growing at a fast pace. You can get your business listed for free using this link here .

7) CitySearch : A great local listing site for Businesses like Restaurants, Bars, Hotels and Shopping. Its part of City Grid Media. You can get your business listed for free using this link here .

8 InfoUSA : These guys are one of the main providers of data to yahoo local listings. They maintain and update their records on a regular basis to ensure all data is accurate. Great place to get listed in multiple places as their data is purchased and used by quite a few directories. One can get their listings from a subsidiary of InfoUSA called Expressdateusa. You can get your business listed for free using this link here .

Of Course you’ll need to have citations from Yahoo Local, Google Places and Bing Local.

Submitting to all the local listing sites can be time consuming and painful. If you’d like to use our Premium Citation Submission Service for submitting your listings to the Top Listing Directories, Listing Aggregators, Major Search Sites and more, feel free to use this contact form  to contact us and we’d be glad to assist you. The service is affordable and a lifesaver for small and big businesses looking for increasing their online visibility for targetted traffic.

I hope you found this write up on Top US Citation Sources for Local SEO helpful. Do share your thoughts and feedback  in the comments below.  We do reward regular commentators with do follow links.  Don’t forget to sign up for my free newsletter and follow me on twitter ( i will follow back )

You’re searching for a local Plumber using Google Local Listing (also known as Google Places).

However, how do you know whether the plumber is reliable and reputable ? The Reviews !  But how do you know if they are authentic reviews ?

We’ll go over a few Google Local Search Reviews to see for yourself if they are real reviews. Also we’ll go over Google Review Syndication.

Local Search Analysis:

I did a random search for “plumbers san diego ca” in google ( http://ow.ly/2qB9D ) and saw one listing (Bill Howe Plumbing)  that stood apart as it had 106 reviews !

If you click on the reviews for this fellow you’ll see that the top 5 reviews are all 5 stars, perfectly happy customers ! Thats a good thing right ?

So i decided to look into the details for the top 5 reviewers and noticed an odd pattern. I’ll use the latest reviewer : “Chappy” as an eg to show the odd pattern i found

This fellow is someone who takes posting reviews very seriously. All his reviews are 5 stars. On August 6th chappy has posted 17 reviews. Most of us dont have the time to post more then a couple in a day but thats ok, “chappy” takes reviews seriously.

However should one look further in detail you’ll see a lots of odd things :

1) On the review for Bill Plumbing “chappy” claims to be Megan M of San Diego Ca, however on the same day posts reviews under the names of Craig B of Denver CO, D G of Chicago IL, Danielle of Minneapolis, MN, Christi of Costa Mesa, CA

2) Chappy claims to be living at Legend Park Apts in Schaumburg, IL yet takes his/her ( not sure )  garage door to be fixed in Lake Forest, CA ! Further goes to a dentist in Boston, MA and uses a Spine Doctor in Chatham, NJ.

3) Posting of 17 reviews on Aug 6th alone and buying of several cars from various dealers all across the country

4) Always posting 5 star ratings ! I guess he/she is always extremly satisfied.

Now, would you agree with me, that there is an odd pattern here ? Also its the same pattern with the other top 5 reviewers for Bill Howe Plumbing. Which brings the question: Are these Reviews Authentic ?

There could be some explanations for the reviews done. Perhaps chappy is a young billionaire who has houses all over the country, travels on a daily basis for leisure or business. Perhaps used their services at one time and just got to posting the reviews on a day when they had nothing else to do.  I dont think thats its likely, but i really dont know. Perhaps you can come up with an explanation and share with all of us here ?

Now i must say that this is not an odd incident. I found similar questionable reviews for several other service providers like Chiropractors and even Criminal Attorneys. I found one case for a Criminal Attorney in Texas that specialized in military cases, where they had a review posted every 7 days on the dot. All of the reviews gave 5 star rating, each reviewer had only 1 review under their profile and the writing pattern was the same for all reviews.

I’d have to say that they were probably done by a Review Providing Service … Google Review Syndication. There are firms that provide reviews for business by either posting fake reviews using various techniques or claim to find your customers and get them to write their reviews on a post card, mail it to the review firm which then posts the customers reviews online under various accounts. Is this service acceptable to google ? While there is no official statement from Google regarding this service, i’m sure google review syndication would not classify as a review but as a comment.

Google’s guidelines are very straight forward. NO FAKE Reviews are acceptable and they do remove fake reviews, ban local listings for business if found to indulge in unfair and unethical methods. Are you willing to take that risk ? I’d recommend thinking twice before you hire a firm offering a review providing service.

I hope you’ll use this post to determine if the reviews you see in local listings for business are authentic or not and do share your thoughts on the eg’s i provided and let me know if you think they are authentic.

On a key note, i have to clarify that I have no affiliation with any Plumbing service. Also am not liable to any loss of business that any firms used in the eg’s may face due to this post. Also i would not be liable if google decided to ban the local listings for any firm mentioned here for unethical methods or non authentic reviews posted. I am not saying that they indulged in any unfair methods, thats for the readers to decide for themselves based on the facts i provided from the reviews.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts on whether you think the reviews are authentic or not. Also if you have other methods to determine if a provider is reputable to not. I can be followed on Twitter and you can fan me on FaceBook. Also feel free to sign up for my Free Newsletter for more exciting articles.

In my next post i’ll go over Top Citation Sources For Local SEO

UPDATE ( Aug 18, 2010 ): Stephanie, Communications Director from Bill Howe Plumbing contacted me to inform that all the reviews posted were genuine and that they had provided them to a Review Syndication firm they hired. The Syndication firm then posted the reviews for Bill Howe Plumbing.

This brings  me to ask

Should Review Firms Provide Proof that the Reviews posted are Genuine ? (Some do by posting a link to a scanned copy of the correspondence from the customer) Let me know your thoughts.

UPDATE ( Sep 13th 2010 ) : Looks like Google has responded to Review Syndication. At the time of writing this post Bill Howe had 106 Reviews showing on Google Places. Now there are only 75 Reviews showing. Did Google respond by removing the reviews they found questionable ? It would seem that way. Will this mark the end of Review Syndication ? feel free to post your thoughts on this below.

UPDATE ( Oct 2nd  2010 ) :  Google removed more reviews for Bill Howe. They have only 49 reviews showing on Google Places.

This is a continuation of my previous post on 3 Steps To Get Your Business Listed in Google Local Listings where i showed you how get your Business listed in Google Local Listings.

Since everyone has not started listing their business in local listings there is a need to rank higher in local listings.

I’ll share the Five Proven Steps To Rank Higher in Google Local Listings.

How to Rank Higher in Google Local Listings

1) Add Keywords to your Company Name and Description : If your Business Name happens to have your Keywords in them then definitely use that name in the listing. Don’t make up a new name with the keywords just for the listing. Google gives you the ability to add a description describing what services the company offers. Make sure your content has your keywords along with Location added along with the prime features. This description is used by google in calculating rankings.

2) Add Logo, Photos and Video : Make sure you take advantage of Google’s option to add your Logo to your listing. Also add as many photos and Video’s that show the viewer who you are and what your Business is about. This lets them know more about your business and how you can help them. The more photos you add the better it is. Do make sure the quality of the photo’s and Video’s are decent.

3) Get Tons of Reviews : The more the reviews that you have the better your listings stands out from the rest. Don’t make the mistake of faking reviews, you will get caught and its not worth it. Get as many reviews from previous clients who have used your service in the past. Have your reviews have your Location in them. Reviews play a strong role as to whether the visitor would click on your site URL.  Think about it, which Dentist would you rather go to.. one with 5 Good reviews or one with 50 Great reviews ?

4) Add a Company Coupon : A lot of people don’t know you can add a Company Coupon to your local listing. Nothing gets more traffic then a great coupon offer. Create an Urgency to use the Coupon. Make the customers see value in you through your coupons.

5) Create One Way Links for Your Listing : Now that you’ve optimized your local listing, you need to create one way links for it. Just like any other page on your website you need to push it higher in rankings and one way links does the trick. You can get links from indexed articles on top article sites, links from your own website, your social profiles. These links will push your listing higher in rankings.

Implement the above steps properly and you’ll see the results. In case you don’t have the time to do it yourself or are just lazy feel free to contract it out to my team and we’ll take care of it for you. You can contact me through the Contact Page here. These steps have worked for me and my team successfully.

I hope you found this write up on Rankings in Google Local Listings helpful. Do share your thoughts and feedback  in the comments below.  We do reward regular commentators with do follow links.  Don’t forget to sign up for my free newsletter and follow me on twitter ( i will follow back )

Contact us for getting your Business Listed in Top Rankings in Google Places, Yahoo Local Listings and Bing Local.  You can reach us at

Sales (at) RamitNarang.com

Twitter is the most Powerful Social Networking Tool one can use to create their online presence and get targeted traffic. I’d say Twitter is the Perfect Marketing Platform.

Your Twitter Profile should let viewers know Who you are, What you do and What you Tweet about.  Remember its not about getting mass followers but Targeted Followers that are interested in you or what you have to offer.

Read my 5 Personal Tips on How to Create the Perfect Twitter Profile for Getting Targeted Followers, and Sales.

.

5 Steps For An Optimized Twitter Profile

1) Keyword Enriched Bio The best way to show up in search engines or twitter search is by adding relevant keywords to your bio. When we do this for websites why not for Twitter Profiles ? This way your Twitter Profile shows up higher in searches.

Take a Look at @RamitNarang my Internet Marketing Consulting Twitter Profile: I am an Internet Marketing Expert and Data Security Consultant helping business succeed online. Contact me for consulting work related to SEO or Data Security. As you can see I’ve added my keywords in my Bio.

2) Choose Appropriate Twitter Name Make sure your Twitter Name has your Name or Company Name and if possible add a Keyword as well. This makes it easy for followers to find you. I prefer not to use my niche in my main profile as your niche might change but your name would hopefully remain the same !

3) Add Website URL to Profile This may sound as something that everyone would think of, but you’d be surprised how many profiles i see without any websites. Also its good to use a special landing page to track visitors from your twitter profile.

4) Add Your Location This is important as this relates to Local SEO, allowing your profile to show up when people are doing local searches for people in their area. Local SEO is key to targetting people that are in your local area.

5) Add Appropriate Background and Profile Pic It helps to add a nice image background to make the profile attractive to attract followers to want to know what the profile is about. You can find lots of free backgrounds to use or even go ahead and get one custom made for yourself from a professional. ( Contact me for getting one custom made )

Once you’ve followed the above steps you’ll see that you’ll get more followers automatically follow you without you having to follow them first. Also you’ll see that your site will get more targeted traffic from twitter. I get tons of traffic to my blog from twitter and quite a chunk of my Business too, and i absolutely love it.

In my next post i’ll write about the 6 Golden Rules For Tweeting Success, a continuation of the series on how to get more followers on twitter, get targeted traffic that bring in tons of sales.

I hope you found this write up on Twitter Profile Optimization useful. Do feel free to share your thoughts and feedback  in the comments below.  We do reward regular commentators with do follow links.  As always Don’t forget to sign up for my free newsletter and follow me on twitter ( i will follow back )

I

This is the third and final post in the Series on Local Search Engine Optimization. In this post i’ll show you how to get your Business listed in Bing Local Listings. Last week we talked about Yahoo Local Listings.

People ask me ” Why do i need my Business Listed in Local Listings on Search Engines ? “  I then ask them a simple question” Do your Customers finds you through local searches on Bing ?“  That answers their question on geographic targeting.

So let me show you How to Get your Business Listed in Bing Local Listings in 3 Easy Steps.

.

STEP 1 : Provide Your Business Details

Visit Bing Local Listing Center and log in using your Windows Live Username and Password. You’ll then be prompted to enter your Business Name, Address, Telephone. Bing Verifies if your Business is already listed and if not will create a new listing for you.

.

STEP 2 : Choose Categories and Info about Your Business

Here you can choose your relevant categories and enter all the information on services that your business provides. Bing also allows you to provide links to relevant pages on your site. Eg A Cellular Dealer may provide links to their Specials Page, Contact Form, and Reviews on Ebay.

The more info you provide about your Business adding the right keywords to your description, the better your listing will rank.

.

STEP 3 : Verify Your Listing

Just Like Google Local Listings you may choose to verify your listing by Phone or by regular mail. Once you’ve verified, your listing will go live in a few weeks.

.

Bing Local Listing is currently only available to US Business. There are some rumors that it may be available to UK Business as early as next November.

Also we have noticed that bing verifies listing from an independent database.  You can add your listing here if you’re business is outside the US and your listing may get listed before others once bing starts local listings in your country.

You may also be aware that Yahoo and Microsoft have entered into an agreement where bing will be the default search engine on yahoo.com. This should be enough for you to add your listing on bing today !

In case you’d like for us to list your business on all the local listings for bing, yahoo and google feel free to contact us. We also offer enhanced listings ( superpages, citysearch and more )

UPDATE: June 2010 Bing UK Users can now add their business for local listing on this site as Confirmed on Bing’s own site here.

If you liked this article, do leave your feedback below and do follow us on twitter and sign up for our free newsletter.