Some of you may have noticed the recent prominence of local search listings. i.e the list of ten local businesses that appears at the top of search results page for local search terms, for example ‘marketing sheffield’. From my experience, getting on these listings is dependent on the following factors:

Take control of your Google Local Business listing

Google gathers information from all sorts of local sources to put together its local search listings. However, if your listing isn’t where you want it to be then you have to take control. Enter your own details and verify your listing (I usually choose the faintly funny robotic phone call option to do this) – this will also give you the opportunity for the listing to link straight through to your website, whereas those that have been ‘discovered’ by Google will click through to the full details of the listing.