CitySearch
CitySearch is a major provider of local information for sites including MSN, Ask.com, Expedia.com, Ticketmaster.com, and many others.
As a small business owner, you should make sure your business is listed — and listed correctly — in CitySearch. Start by searching for your business. If it’s there, click through to your profile page. In the lower right of the main content column (under your business information) you should see two links — one inviting you to edit the listing if it belongs to you, and another inviting you to “suggest a correction” if you see something wrong. (see below)
That first option is somewhat of a misnomer; you cannot simply claim your own listing and edit it. The only way to take control of your own listing is to open an advertising account with CitySearch. The second option — “suggest a correction” — can also be used to add a new listing for free.
InfoUSA
InfoUSA is an information aggregator that compiles databases on businesses and households in the U.S. and Canada, getting information from white and yellow pages, business records, real estate records, newspapers, and more.
Chances are good that your business is already in their databases, but InfoUSA offers a simple online form for either adding your business or updating an existing listing.
Local.com
Local.com is a fast-growing local search engine that claims to get about 10 million visitors per month. They offer a variety of advertising options on the site, including banners and cost-per-click ads. The site shows user reviews with some listings; the reviews come from sites such as Insider Pages and Judy’s Book.
Small businesses should, at minimum, take advantage of the free basic listing, which includes your company name, address, phone number, web site URL, and a brief description. Local.com also offers a service called Local Promote Premium, which includes a business profile web page and many additional information options. This service runs $40/month.
MerchantCircle
Merchant Circle offers more than just a business listing; it offers a set of online marketing tools that the company claims will let you reach more local customers. These tools include a web page/landing page with a blog, newsletter-sending capability, coupons, and more. The idea, MerchantCircle says, it to make it easier for small businesses to do what many big businesses are doing to improve their online reach. Note, though, that some of their claims related to how their service will “move your business up in search engine rankings” are not necessarily true.
Your business may already be listed in MerchantCircle, and you should claim it if it is — before someone else does. At this moment, there appears to be no authentication when listings are claimed … it shouldn’t be so easy for anyone to claim any existing listing. But it is, so find your listing and look for the orange “Claim This Listing” button on the left.
MerchantCircle offers a free basic service, plus two tiers of paid services with additional options and benefits the more you pay. You can compare MerchantCircle’s packages before making a decision on which is best for you.
The most interesting aspect of MerchantCircle is the idea of marketing via a business network. Once you’re signed up, you’re encouraged to invite other businesses in your area (presumably ones you work with and like). Once they join, you’re in each other’s network — and your listing will show on their page, and their listing will show on yours. In essence, it’s an automated referral service. It’s easy to think of a real estate agent or agency inviting mortgage companies, home appraisers, even home cleaners or moving services that the agent/agency likes to work with, and creating a network of recommended business — each giving the other some extra exposure from being in the same circle of friends.
There’s a flip side: Merchant Circle has employed questionable marketing tactics that have caused quite a stir. Here’s our coverage, most recent at the top:
More Trouble for Merchant Circle
Merchant Circle calls off calling campaign
Strange goings-on with Merchant Circle
TrueLocal
TrueLocal is a local search engine that the company bills as “a Yellow Pages with brains.” Why? Because users can do full text searches, not just business name/location searches. So if you’re in Los Angeles and have a craving for Filet Mignon, TrueLocal will point you to restaurants that match your search.
TrueLocal gets its data from GeoSign, a company it recently acquired, which also provides business listing data to sites such as Amazon’s A9.com, InfoSpace, AOL, and others. If you have a physical address, your business may already have a basic listing in TrueLocal’s system. If it’s not — or if you need to edit the listing — you’ll have to signup for “TrueTarget” advertising. TrueTarget includes an expanded company listing, and also includes a minimum $1/monthly bid to have your business featured on the category/zip code combination of your choice. In other words, you could get an enhanced, featured listing when someone searches for “hair salons” in your zip code. If there are other businesses bidding on the same combination, you’ll have to increase your $1/month bid for higher placement.
The Canadian version of TrueLocal is available at TruaLocal.ca.
Yelp
Yelp is a growing entry in the local search arena, and follows in the Yahoo Local approach by including user reviews, but goes beyond that with other social/community-style features. Their goal is to develop a strong and active user community, which in turn should lead to more user reviews — all of which makes Yelp more valuable as a local search tool. Yelp began in San Francisco and is expanding out from there. Many smaller towns and cities have only a few user reviews, but the San Francisco city page shows the potential for this combination of local listings and an active user base.
Do a search for your business name and zip code to find out if you’re already in Yelp’s system. On the bottom of the search result page, you’ll see a red button titled ADD BUSINESS which leads to a simple form where you can add your business.
When adding your business, you can even rate it from one to five stars. But don’t get too excited about thinking you can spam the ratings — only registered users can rate, and every rating can be traced back to the person who submitted it. Not a perfectly spam-proof system, but probably good enough. During the sign-up process, remember to take advantage of the profile system. Your profile should be an advertisement for your business. This way, as you take part in the Yelp community, other users will be exposed to your business via your profile.
Yelp also offers paid advertising in the form of enhanced listings and featured placement in search results. Their web site offers few details about how these programs work, but they do invite business owners to complete a contact form for more information.
Here’s a previous SBS profile of Yelp.com.
Insider Pages
Insider Pages was recently acquired by CitySearch, but the two will remain separate sites (at least for now). Like Yelp and Yahoo Local, Insider Pages combines local listings with user-generated reviews.
As with the other local search sites, your first step is to see if your business is already in the Insider Pages’ database. Insider Pages offers information for merchants wanting to update a listing or buy advertising from a single location. Sponsored ads show up above and below the main listings on a search results page, and those ads currently run from $5 to $25 per month, depending on the size of your location and the popularity of your business category. Here’s the current Insider Pages rate card.
Summary
Local Search is still in its infancy, but is expected to grow dramatically over the coming years. While this list of “other” local search opportunities is not comprehensive (more will be added as time allows), it does offer a good start for the small business owner looking to get in to the Local Search market early. It’s impossible to say which of the destinations above will be successful and important 3-4 years from now, so it’s smart to consider each opportunity as part of your search marketing strategy.
