At a presentation for the Columbia River Gorge Visitors Association (CRGVA) yesterday I was reminded that huge impact can happen from small efforts.

My work is primarily on marketing strategies for ecommerce businesses, but it’s wise to remember that you don’t have to hit a pin nail with a sledge hammer. Some businesses, especially small local businesses, can benefit from focusing on local search efforts.

40% of Searches Have Local Intention

My friend, fellow SEMpdx.org board member and Local Search Guru David Mihm has done a great deal to raise awareness of the importance of local search, including launching a site to help small business owners called GetListed.org.

His message is this. Claim your listing. Then you can choose categories and provide link citations to companies that aggregate business information. There are many other things you can do to improve the ranking of your local listing in Google’s 3- or 10-pack, but a journey of a 1000 miles starts with one step.

So do it today. Claim your local listing.

Google Local Business Center Offers the Following:

*Free Listings
*Free Updates
*Free Insights

A search for “hood river marketing” turns up this list:

I’m fairly certain that the Fruit Company and Providence don’t need to be found for the keyword “marketing” but I’m sure there are local companies who would like to be found for that term.

I like the video Google has on it’s local business center page but it could just as well give this message to small business “Help me, help you, help me to help you!” Be Rod Tidwell to Google’s Jerry Maguire, then maybe they can “show you the money.”

Claim your local listing at Google Local Business Center today