Make sure your local business listing is complete. For instance, include pictures, coupons, full description and select multiple categories. Claiming your business listing is a must and should be completed as quickly as possible. Your objective is to create a quality listing and avoid any techniques that could be considered spamming.

1. Company: This is the title for your listing. Your listing should match the business name. Keywords here do help, but be careful. Blatant keyword stuffing is not recommended. Do not include phone numbers or URLs in the business name.
2. Phone: Use a local phone number instead of a toll free number.
3. Categories: You can enter up to 5 categories to describe your business. Including keywords in the categories improves rankings dramatically. The primary category is the one that’s most heavily weighted. You can always enter your own category if the Local Business Center doesn’t suggest one that fits your business.
4. Description: Use keywords in this 200 character text field to describe your services or products. A well crafted keyword rich description is very important to getting a good ranking. Do your keyword research to determine the best keyword combinations for products, services, and location. Make your description as long as Google allows.
5. Location: This is your actual physical location (not a PO Box) in relation to what Google considers the center of the city. Don’t expect to rank well for towns and cities where you don’t have a physical presence (service area doesn’t count). Do not create more than one listing for each business location.
6. Other Directories: Sites like bbb.org are highly valued by Google and a listing here seems to improve your ranking.
7. Reviews: Reviews on your business are an important ranking criterion. Consider encouraging customers to review your performance. Reviews, either positive or negative, help your listing ranking; of course good reviews help your click through rate.

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