Gradiva Couzin, Author at Gravity Search Marketing

Local Business Listings on Google, Yahoo!, and Bing [Updated]

February 19, 2014
by Gradiva Couzin

Local listings are more important than ever. Here’s how to get your business listed in the major local search engines.

Google

Google’s local search results can be seen in Google Maps and as localized results in universal search. You can create a free local business listing on Google+ by logging in and navigating to Create a Google+ Page, but first you’ll need a Google Account.

To claim an existing local business listing, navigate to your business page and click on “Manage this page.”

Yahoo!

Yahoo!’s local search results are available at http://local.yahoo.com. Local listings are free, but listing enhancements can be purchased for $9.95/month or $29.99/month. You can submit your local listing here. (You’ll need a Yahoo account).

Bing

Add a new listing at Bing Places for Business (click on “Get Started”).

To claim your business if it already has a Bing Places listing, navigate to your business listing on Bing.com and click “report a problem.” On the next page, click the “claim this listing” button. Alternatively, you may search for and claim your business on the Bing Places dashboard.

Also note that Bing (as of February 2014) gathers and verifies data from Yelp, so it is a good idea to update Yelp in conjunction with Bing Places.

Ask

Ask’s local listings (available at http://www.ask.com/local) are partnered with Citysearch.com. See below for information on how to add your business to Citysearch.

Citysearch

If your business already has a page on Citysearch, navigate to your business’s page and click on the “Own this business? Unlock this page” link. You’ll be prompted to claim your listing via a free Citygrid account.

Citysearch does not currently feature the option to add local listings on site. Citysearch obtains local business data from InfoUSA. Please read on to learn how to add your business to InfoUSA. After doing so, your business should appear on Citysearch within 1-2 months.

Yelp

Yelp is an online city guide made up of user-generated reviews. Bing has begun to incorporate Yelp data into its local listings; additionally, iOS 6 and iOS 7 integrate Yelp features into its Map application, making Yelp more important than before. To add or update a Yelp listing, follow the outline below:

To add a listing, first perform a search for your business name & location. If no results come up, click the large, red “Add A Business” button on the page. You will need to sign up for a free Yelp account.

To claim an existing business listing, navigate to your business page and click on “Edit Business Info.”

Learn more at the Yelp support center for business owners.

YellowPages.com

Yellowpages.com offers a free listing. Follow the instructions to add your listing here: http://listings.yellowpages.com/.

Infogroup/InfoUSA

Infogroup/InfoUSA has a database with millions of local businesses, and is used by many other search engines to fill out their listings. You can submit your business at http://www.expressupdate.com/search.

Search for your business by entering your business name, phone number or address. If you see your business listed, click the blue “claim now” button. You will receive a phone call at your business phone number to verify that you are the owner. If you do not see your business, click the “add it now” text link.

Localeze

Similar to Infogroup/InfoUSA, Localeze lists local businesses in an extensive database. Add or claim your business listing at www.localeze.com.

If you have an existing listing, you may make updates once per year at no cost. If you do not have an existing listing, or wish to make updates more frequently, you may purchase an annual enhanced listing for $297.

Acxiom

Acxiom’s feeds go to Yellowpages.com, Superpages.com and Google+ Local. To manage your listing via Acxiom, visit this link. Acxiom allows small business owners to list five locations for free. If you have more than 5 locations, the cost is $50 per location annually.

ask the experts

Ask the Experts: Will Domain Masking Impact my SEO?…

February 14, 2014
by Gradiva Couzin

Q: I have an established website for my consulting business (let’s call it my-boring-name.com.) I’ve recently added a really exciting white paper to my site, and I think I can get a lot of links to it – especially if I register a new and memorable domain for it (let’s call it really-exciting-paper.com). I feel strongly that I’ll get more traffic and links if I use this new domain! But I want to keep my old domain around too because it’s doing well.

My hosting company offers a service that they call a pointer domain. As I understand it, this means that users entering really-exciting-paper.com will always see really-exciting-paper.com as the URL in the browser address window, even when they click into pages on my-boring-name.com.

I’ve been reading on the Internet that pointer domain is also called domain masking, and that it isn’t a good idea. Why?

A: The warnings you read online are correct. The problem with domain masking is that it creates duplicate content in search engines, particularly Google. In the example above, Google would see the two domains, http://www.my-boring-name.com/page.html and http://www.really-exciting-paper.com/page.html serving the same content. Google (and other search engines) will identify these domains as duplicates and decide to serve one over the other; and sometimes it’s not always the one you want. In short, it is not possible to have a search engine presence for two domains showing the same content.

Your situation is fairly common. Even our own website, at //www.yourseoplan.com is serving the dual purpose of being a companion site to our book, as well as a corporate brochure for our consulting business. A separate URL, http://www.gravitysearchmarketing.com redirects to the services page using a 301 redirect.

Here are a few options that might work for you:

You could keep the two separate domains and build each of them up with unique content, and be transparent about the interlinks between them.
You could combine your materials into a single website. This is the approach we took with this site.
You could set up the two separate (and unique) websites and then wait for a period of time for links to really-exciting-paper.com to build up. Then you could set up a 301 redirect to pass some of the accumulated link equity to the other domain.
You could follow the pointer/masking approach that you describe, and ensure that one domain is not being crawled and indexed. The ideal approach here is with a canonical tag and will convey to Google these are duplicate sites, example:

Place a canonical reference on both domains pointing to your preferred domain:

http://www.my-boring-name.com

<link rel=”canonical” href=”http://www.my-boring-name.com”/>

http://www.really-exciting-paper.com