74.1% of all consumers in the United States use the internet to find and locate companies – Nielsen Online

In today’s economy, if you aren’t marketing your company on the internet you are losing business to your competitors who are.

How To Get Listed, Updated or Delete Bogus Listings.

There are three main types of internet web sites

• Local Search Engines
• Online Yellow Pages
• Local Social Media

So what are these and why are they important.

Local Search Engines - Over the past year or so, all of the major search engines have made changes in the way they display the results for local businesses. They all have gotten smarter. What do I mean by smarter? When a user types in a search, for example “roofing contractor”. The search engines will not only display the top “Roofing Contractor” sites, BUT they will also provide a local listing of companies based on the searcher’s location. They are able to do this because every computer connected to the internet has an unique address or IP address. Here are some examples.

What you notice, is the IP address identifies the Country, Region, City and Zip Code (if in the USA) for any computer connected to the internet. What I haven’t shown you in the above table, is it also indicates the Longitude/Latitude. See sidebar for more information.
Here are a couple of examples from the major Search Engines.
GOOGLE – local search is combined with the rest of the internet results.

BING (formerly MSN) – does combine local search with the rest of the web like Google, but in Bing’s case, it is the first result.

YAHOO – unlike Google and Bing, does require a location keyword. This example if for the search “roofing contractor roseville ca”

Online Yellow Pages - Sites like YellowPages.com and SuperPages.com offer a typical yellow page style ad. Those listings with logos are paid listings

Lastly, Local Social Media - These sites include user submitted ratings and reviews with the listings. It is important to note, you could have bad reviews which will affect your company’s reputation. It is important to monitor your company’s online reputation! In another article, I will take you through the steps to monitoring your company’s reputation using the service Google Alerts.
For the most part, these sites all have an online submission form. Typically this takes approximately 10 to 15 minutes each to submit. Below you will find a listing of some of the top websites to list, update or delete your listings:

LOCAL SEARCH ENGINES
	Get listed on Yahoo!
GOOGLE LOCAL	Google Local Get your copy of a free report with step by step guide.
	To add a free listing on Local.com
	To add or update your listing, you need to submit to infoUSA which provides the data for MapQuest

INTERNET YELLOW PAGES
	Get a free listing.
	Add or edit your listing
	Add or edit your listing
	Claim your listing

LOCAL SOCIAL MEDIA
	To add or edit your listing
	Sign up for a free account
	Sign up for a free account
	Sign up and get listed

These are just a few of the popular sites to list your company.

In today’s economy, it is more important than ever to expand your company’s online presence. With a little bit of time on your part, you can harness the power of the internet to drive more customers to your company.

Be sure to check out our complimentary 30 page guide to getting your company listed with Google Local Business.

If you would like to have our experts list your company to all three of the top internet search engines and 7 other internet directories and local social media sites visit SiteDesign.HomeBuildR.net We provide a very affordable service to help expand your company’s presence on the internet, with or without a website.