MSN’s Local Search property, Live Search Maps, used to rely on Localeze for all its business listings. If you wanted to add or edit a listing in MSN Local, that’s where you went to take care of it.

That’s since been replaced by MSN’s own Local Business Listings Center, which operates quite similarly to Google’s version of the same tool. I went through the process a couple weeks ago for my wife, a local real estate agent here in the Tri-Cities, and here she is, already being found in the Top 10 on a local search for [real estate richland, wa]. Not too shabby.

It was a simple process: Submit the business data, upload a couple photos, and wait for the confirmation code via snail mail. A couple weeks later, the code arrived, I confirmed the listing, and BAM! … we have a nice, clean Cari McGee, Realtor listing on MSN Local Search:

(you can click for a larger version on Flickr)

Those of us in the local search industry tend to talk a lot about Google Maps and Yahoo Local, and spend almost no time on MSN Local/Live Local Search. That’s understandable, I suppose, given the current search landscape that has MSN with about a 10% search share. But did you know that the query [MSN local] is the No. 4 source of referral traffic to Small Business SEM? True story. And there are three other MSN Local keywords in the top 25. A lot of small businesses are looking for information about how the MSN local business listings work.

So, with that in mind, and prompted by both this recent experience getting Cari added into MSN/Live Local Search as well as an email from reader Todd K. that SBS was outdated a bit, I’ve finally gotten around to updating the Guide to MSN Local Search here on SBS.

Thanks, Todd, for giving me the heads up on that.