In the past 13 months, I have spent tons of time working on local search marketing to help my local business friends get listed on major search engines. Inevitably, I was asked to offer consulting service to show local business owners how to do that themselves. This has become my side job.

Why is local search marketing so important?

If you read recent news, Google is trying to buy Yelp.com, the number one local review site, for $500 millions. As you may know already, Google Map, Google Earth are among many other Google services that are targeting local. Local oriented search in the past 2 years are also increasing dramatically. So It’s the right time to get local business listed and found. SEO is taking place in the local level as well.

There are many free resources and tools for local business to get found without spending a penny. For those local business who don’t want to deal with it and don’t know how to do it, I am more than happy to offer hourly consulting services.

So here you go!

First of all, there is no secret in the SEO world. Especially, doing local search marketing is even easier. All the resources and tools I mention in this post are FREE. However, a common SEO understanding is required to do it right.

Just to get you started, here are the top referral sites to one of my local customer site since September 2009.

• Yelp.com
  If your local business is not listed on Yelp, you are missing the most important piece of the local search marketing puzzle. Get your local business listed on Yelp now! Gogole love Yelp!
• Google Search (including Google mobile search)
  There is no doubt that Google is everywhere on mobile phone. With GPS built into modern mobile phone and smart phone, search local business is a snap.
• Twitter.com
  Do I need to mention say out loud? Twitter is one of the best tool to introduce your local business. Google, Yahoo and Bing recently start offering real time social search. So don’t miss this.
• ow.ly
  A shorten URL from Hootsuite.com. I personally recommend using HootSuite for your Tweet. You can easily schedule your local promotions tweet. Set and forget it.
• Blogcatalog.com
  You need a blog for your business web site. Register your blog on BlogCatalog.com and start blog about your business. This is one of the best blog network that send me traffic. Even they don’t offer do follow link, they do send you traffic.
• Facebook.com
  Do you have a fan page or app page for your local business? Do you know Google index Facebook fan page fairly quick?
• Foursquare.com
  This is the best GEO location based web sites and iPhone app I love. It allows you to check in to local businesses on your iPhone and see who else visited the place. Best of all, you can see other visitors’ tips about the place and the link Do FOLLOW. It also shows up on Google local search result FAST.
• maps.Google.com
  Are your local business listed on Google Local Center? Do I have to tell you what Google Map can do for you? You can even apply GEO Location data feed to customize map and distribute to many other sites.
• local.yahoo.com
  Are your local business listed on Yahoo Local? Do you now Yahoo Local is the oldest local search site? You will need real business address to be listed. PO Box or private mailbox is no good.
• local.Bing.com
  Bing.com is catching up. However, it takes a ridiculous long period of time to get verified. It still worth the time to register.

Now. There are many other sites that offer great exposure to your local business. They don’t directly drive traffic to your local business web sites, but you get your name out there on top of search engines.

• MerchantCircle.com
  This is a must have tool to get your local business name out there. You don’t have to pay for premium services, if you don’t want to. The free services will give you enough exposures. Just remember to keep your record fresh and make connection with other local businesses.
• SmartLocalShoppers.com
  This is a local marketing platform for local business to publish printable coupons and get list on major search engines. They also offer Google Map integration for nearby shopping and GEO location data feed that boost local business exposures on many web sites. It’s not free, but it is very affordable and works like charm.
• BrightKite.com
  This is actually my favorite site to check in the place I visited often. It allows other local people to find you.
• Meetup.com
  If you have some spare space available, why not offer that to local people an alternative choice to meet? Especially for those coffee shop, restaurant, Spa, Massage place, people meet and spend money.
• SmugMug.com
  Why is this important? I helped a local photographer convert her portfolio on to SmugMug. After customizing the layout and apply location data into the site, her site is listed on top of local photographer search result in a week. This is a highly recommended photo sharing site for professional photographer.

Those are the top sites I recommend. You may ask why YellowPage, SuperPage and many other local business directories are NOT listed? My answer is simple. They simply don’t work as well as I expect and they are expensive. You simply search a local business and see how many times local business page show up in the organic search results.

In many case, those links take you to out-dated page or the city page. You have to click many times to find your business page. Most visitors already give up after first 5 seconds.

You need to use the above sites wisely. DON’T SPAM. Otherwise, you may not see your business on search engine at all. Remember, it’s all about location location and location. Quality content and meaningful information is the key.

Still don’t know how to do it right? Contact me! I am more than happy to help!