The ranking of business listings in the Google Places and Google Maps results is partly determined by the number and quality of citations and reviews for the business.

Citations are rather like backlinks, but include the business’ Name, Address and Phone number – the so-called ‘NAP’ information. Any business directory which includes these three pieces of information is potentially a citation source.

It is extremely important to make sure that your NAP data is exactly the same on each of the citation sources.

There are a number of directories in South Africa which are treated by Google as important citation sources. Here is a list of 10 of my favorite free citation sites:

1. EasyInfo.co.za
Probably the most important directory for a high Google Places ranking. Most of Google’s default data is pulled from EasyInfo. The site allows you to add a free listing quite easily, but making changes requires submitting them for manual editing.

2. HotFrog.co.za
HotFrog was started in 2005 in Australia, and now has a presence in 34 countries, including South Africa. Results from HotFrog frequently appear on the first page of the Google results, aa well as in Google Places citations.

3. Yalwa.co.za
Yalwa is another international directory with a South African presence. Started in Germany in 2007, Yalwa is available in 38 countries worldwide. Again, the Yalwa listings often appear in the top positions in the Google results.

4. Cylex.co.za
Cylex is based in Romania, and publishes business directories in a number of countries.

5. Tuugo.co.za

6. WowCity.com

7. Zibb.com

8. SAFindIt.co.za

9. Firstier.co.za

10. Ananzi.co.za

Google Places Citations in South Africa is a post from: IdealMedia.co.za

Local search marketing, or local search engine optimization, is simply the process of getting your business found when people in your local area are searching for your product or service. It's a little different from traditional search engine optimization, because Google, in particular, has some built-in local search features which can make it much easier for businesses to be found.

Google Places

In 2009, Google introduced Place Pages, which are free web pages linked to the Local Business listings, and which display more information about each business, including photos, videos, reviews, coupons and short updates.

In 2010, Google rebranded Local Business Center, calling it Google Places. Using this service, you can "claim" your business in Google and customize your listing on Google Maps and other important services.

Google is the largest search engine, with an estimated 75-85% market share. Most of your online efforts should be focused on making sure your business has a prominent presence in this search engine.

While this can be accomplished by creating a website for your company and using search engine optimization techniques, it could take several weeks or even months before your site ranks well and starts to see significant amounts of traffic.

The best way to make sure your company has a strong presence is through the use of Google Places. If you have ever done a search for a local business on Google, you've probably noticed the Google Places listings at the top of the search results. They appear before the standard results, making them especially lucrative. It is very important to make sure your business has a presence here!

I've created a short guide to Local Search Marketing, called "Local Search For South African Businesses".

You can download it – absolutely free – by clicking the link below.

Download "Local Search For South African Businesses"

Please let me know what you think!

Local Search For South African Businesses is a post from: IdealMedia.co.za

Google Maps has developed to the point where it could be quite useful for your business.

Here’s a map I put together as an example. This map shows the locations of most of the Outdoor Warehouse stores in Johannesburg:

View Larger Map

It took me about 10 minutes. Click on any of the markers and you’ll see a pop-up with more information. This could be the store address, phone number, web address or whatever.

You can also add a photograph or a video.

If you have a business with multiple outlets, you can see the value. But even if it’s just a map to your office, or to your favorite local meeting place, there’s tons of potential.

Why would you want to do this? Google has been integrating information from sources like YouTube and Google Maps into their search results for some time now.

Look at this page:

http://www.google.com/search?q=pizza+trenton+nj&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

It doesn’t quite happen like this in South Africa… yet. But I reckon that as more SA businesses start using Google Maps, you’ll start to see them appear more often in local searches.

Having a detailed entry for your business in Google Maps can only help your search engine ranking.

Using Google Maps for Your Business is a post from: IdealMedia.co.za

Anyone who’s read The 4-Hour Workweek
by Tim Ferriss will know that one of the keys to recovering some of your precious time is outsourcing. Tim gives examples of how he and other people have outsourced all kinds of tasks to Virtual Assistants in India or the Phillipines.

Getting visitors to your website is an area where outsourcing can work very well. Building a network of incoming links is a tedious, mundane task which you probably shouldn’t be wasting your time on. If you could get Billy down the road to spend an hour a day doing it for you, it would free up your time to do the other important things which need to be done.

It really comes down to working out what an hour of your time is worth. If someone else can do the mundane work at a fraction of the cost, why would you not get them to do it?

If you’d like to know more about outsourcing, help me out by filling in my quick survey at http://outsourcefreedom.com. I’ll be creating a report based on the answers I get, and you can get a free copy as soon as the reort is written.

Stop Wasting Time is a post from: IdealMedia.co.za