Local advertising online has been a hot topic in the past couple of years, ever since Google started showing local results in the front page mixed with regular results. As of couple weeks ago, Google made one more major algorithm change. They now integrate even more local listings in their search results. For example type “plumber + any major city name” and you will see that more than half the front page results now come from Google Local (aka Google Maps). This is why it is important that your business shows up in local listings in the main city your are located at.
Some people have also taken initiative to try and open branches in different cities, by hiring remote reps, just to take advantage of additional local listings.
The local listings in Google have changed the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) game in a big way. No longer major corporations and companies can dominate the top 10 of search engines everywhere. Local small businesses now get a fair shot at Top 10. This is good news for the small guys, but not so good news for those big sites that had a lot of rankings.
If you need help getting listed in Local listings, but don;t know how to do it, there is one company that can help. Visit http://www.local-advertising.com to get more info and learn about them. They offer advertising for local businesses with various options such as Local SEO, local newspaper advertising and yellow page advertising.