Local businesses rely solely on local customers. However, local customers almost always search Google, review websites and social media before they call or visit a business.

Why?

They want to know who is going to fix their problem and provide the best possible service.

Consider this:

If a potential customer is new to your area, the Internet is the only source of referrals and reviews.

How does your business appear when a potential customer searches for a “Knoxville Plumber” or an “Indianapolis Dentist?”

In our recent course “Earn More Sales by Increasing Local Traffic To Your Website” ($69, Udemy, http://bit.ly/1fFFNLl), we conducted a simple search in Google for a “Greenville SC Florist.”

We discovered one firm – Twigs Florist – was doing it right in terms of local SEO. Within the Top 10 Google search results, Twigs was No. 1 in the Google Map (also known as Google+ Local or Google Maps) and No. 2 in Google organic search results.

In addition, Yelp was No. 7 with Twigs Florist taking the top position in Yelp. Therefore, of the Top 10 Google search results, Twigs owned the most “real estate” by owning three positions.

This is a result of the florist properly optimizing not only their own website for local SEO, but also properly claiming, confirming and optimizing their business profile listings in Yelp, Google+ Local and other review and local listing websites and mapping sites.

Each one of these listing websites acts like its own little search engine. Customers can search for businesses within Google or within sites like Yelp, Manta, City Search, etc.

These searching options create two scenarios and two different searching results. Your website, for instance, may rank high in Google, but your Yelp profile might not rank high within Yelp. Therefore, local businesses not only need to optimize their website for Google, but they need to accurately (and fully) complete their business profile within local listing and review websites, too.

You can learn more about higher rankings in Google, Yelp and other local listing websites in our course “Earn More Sales by Increasing Local Traffic To Your Website” http://bit.ly/1fFFNLl.