As a small business owner, are you aware that 80% of your prospects look for local businesses online before venturing out for their purchase? Will you be there when they start their local search? I recently had a training class for a cosmetic direct sales company.
There are probably hundreds of representatives of this company in our local area.
When I typed in the name of the cosmetic company and the name of our city into my favorite search engine, only one listing was shown.
One direct sales representative was smart enough to put her listing on the search engines.
If I was looking for a local representative of this company, who do you think I would call? All of the major search engines have a place for local listings and the listing is free.
It just takes a few minutes to set up information about your company.
You will also want to encourage your customers to post reviews of your business.
This is a great way to interact and connect with your current customers and future customers.
Some important tips for you local listing:

• Highlight important contact details in your listing, such as address, phone number and email address.
  
• Use local listings and a website to build your representation on the web.
  Local listings help your business display details, while a website is your virtual store front.
  
• Make sure your listing is as complete as possible to give your customers all the information they need to make an informed decision.
  

Placing you listing on these search sites is free marketing for your business and a must for any local business.
Take some time today to make sure you can be found locally.