How Are You Doing On Search Engines?

TUESDAY UPDATE: Jennifer Laycock at Search Engine Guide has some good additional information for brick and mortar businesses and Google Maps. As Google Maps Grows, is Your Business Being Left Behind? is a good add-on to Pauls article link below.

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A few things you should know about search engines and local small businesses.

Paul, over at Search Engine Guide has written a piece that shows you how to get listed on Google and Yahoo local searches: Back to the Local Search Engines: Google Maps and Yahoo Local

Why is this important? Go to Google right now and type in your industry name followed by your city. For example: day spa, waco, texas

Here's a screen shot of what you might get:

Rather than go to the yellow pages, this is how people now look for local businesses. Did you show up in your Google search? If not, make sure that you follow Pauls advice in the link above.

Do you need a website to show up on these local results? Actually, no, you don't. In the Waco day spa example above, only four of the top 10 results had their own website. However, if you don't have a website, you need to have a listed business phone number or submit your business to Google and Yahoo local (remember to use the above link).

But it will be better for you to have a website. When searchers see those 10 local results, they're almost certain to click on one of links. If you have a link to your website with valuable information, you might be the business that gets the call. Think of your website as the equivalent of a display ad in the yellow pages.

So, how are you doing on search engines?