Your Local Business Listing On Page One Of Google - Part 2

Last time we talked about creating a local listing in Google, and then listing your website in free online directories in order to push that local listing up through the rankings. We'd like to take a moment to review this concept, re-iterate its value and importance, and refute some common misconceptions about this practice.

Let's start with the things we'd like to refute. Good backlinks (from places like reputable directories) will NOT hurt your website ranking. Having someone put thousands of links on websites that have nothing to do with your website may hurt you, but listing your business with places like Yelp and MerchantCircle is not going to cause your website any harm. In fact, it will help more than you might expect. The links that you can get from good online directories, and directories that are directly related to your business are great for your website ranking. Every business should have one of their employees take a day or two and create listings in at least 20 or 30 online directories.

Now, the review of the the topics we covered in the last post: It is possible to have your local business listing appear on the first page of Google. You need three things: A Google local business listing, a healthy website (more on that later,) and good backlinks to your website. (We've provided a good list of online directories in the previous post.) If you create this local listing, and you have other listings that substantiate it linking to your website, your local listing will move up through the rankings, and eventually appear near the top of search results.

We should add that the same process can be done with Yahoo and Bing. Both Yahoo and Bing have a "local business center" of some kind (Yahoo is: http://listings.local.yahoo.com/, and Bing is: https://ssl.bing.com/listings/ListingCenter.aspx)

Why does this work? Why does listing your business in online directories boost your website ranking, and therefore your local business listing rank? It's because search engines place quite a bit of emphasis on the number of quality backlinks to your site. If you have a healthy website (full of original content,) and your website has a large number of quality backlinks, your website ranking will be substantially increased. If your website ranking goes up, the ranking of your local business listing goes up. However, the local business listing has a special advantage. It is competing only with other local listings. The competition for that top slot in the local listings is significantly less than the competition for the first spot in the regular organic listings.

So, put in the local listings, and go list your business in the online directories that we gave you in the previous post. It works! If you don't believe us, Google the following terms:

Stone Mason Los Angeles
Hardscape Los Angeles
Masonry Los Angeles
Brick Contractor Los Angeles
Stone Contractor Los Angeles
Masonry Contractor Beverly Hills
Masonry Contractor Santa Monica
Masonry Contractor Calabasas
Masonry Contractor Hidden Hills
Masonry Contractor Pacific Palisades
Masonry Contractor Malibu
Barbecue Contractor Los Angeles
Structural Concrete Los Angeles

Next time, we'll examine this process a bit further, and take a look at how to create a website that is viewed favorably by search engines.

www.mikepearsonconstruction.com
www.seoinlosangeles.org