Everyone is using the internet to get their information instead of the local yellow pages. How do you make sure that your business is represented online well?

How are people finding your business online? Many times it is through Google searches when they show the local results above the regular search terms. If someone in Honolulu wants pizza they check google for “pizza honolulu”…

The top listed results next to the map are results from Google’s local engine. They are not results from the normal Google index. Some of the businesses listed in those results do not even have a website.

That’s right, even if your business does not have a website it can be listed at the top of Google.

How do you do that?

The places that Google local (or Google maps) gets their information from are varied. Much of their information comes from data providers, phone directory data dumps, or even directly from the business owner. Many times the information Google or other search engines have is outdated or incorrect.

As a business owner you can go to each of these types of places individually and list your information by filling out forms on each one, which is a good option because it is free to do so.It is also very time consuming.

It used to be that to get your business information distributed to all the places it needed to go was a bit expensive, but there are new options out there that are making it possible to economically list your business in all the right places.

I am going to highlight ine such place today. (aff)

UniversalBusinessListing.org allows you to enter your business information just once, and then it takes that information and distributes it to all the major listing entities out there. Places like Google, Yahoo, and MSN, etc.  use these data sources to update or include your business.

What I like about this service is how cheap it is (30 dollars per year).

The time saved alone is worth it. This service lists your businesses into virtually all major Online Yellow Pages, Search Engines, 411 Directories and other vertical industry directories all at once.

Places that you get listed (in addition to Google, Yahoo, etc.) include:

411 DA, ALK -CoPilot, AOL, Ask, AssistGuide, City Search, Collarity,  DENSO Auto Nav, Dex, GetFave, Go2,  IBegin, Idearc, InfoSpace, Insider Pages, JVC GPS, kgb_USA/infonxx, Kudzu, LiveDeal, Lowrance/Navico, LSSI – Volt, Menu Network, Merchant Circle,  Mojo Pages, Onstar,  Open List, Quebecor/Canoe.ca, Search Bug, Spock,  Super Pages, TeleAtlas, Telemap, Tellme , Topix, V-Enable, viaMichelin, Vindigo/Zingy,  WhitePages.com,  Windows Live,  Yellow Book, Yellow Bot, Yellow Page City,  Yellow Pages, YellowPagesInc,  Yelp, YP, Zenrin and more.

You could add you business to many of the above entities for free, but can you imagine filling out that many forms? Ouch! (I have put in bold the ones I think that you should concetrate if you are going the free route).

Universal Business Listings also has a business directory as well, where you can check out how your listings are going, and update your information. This is very useful. Imagine your phone number has changed and you have to go to all those places (or wherever your business is listed) and update them.

If you update your info with this service, it actually pushes out that update to all the places you have been listed at, which is simply a great service.

Resources:

Form to list your business through Universal Business Listings

See more places that help your business get listed online for free or cheaply

Free tool that tells you how you are listed now in local search engines

Related posts:
Local SEO Tool – GetListed.org
Call for Local SEOs
The Little New Google Guideline That Could