The growth of local search within Google as been increasing at a substantial rate. More and more Geo specific searches are implementing the, so called, OneBox. The OneBox is a mash-up of Google Maps and the yellow pages on steroids. If your not familiar with this, here is an example. The search for New Orleans Mortgage pulls up the normal search result along with 3 additional results and a mini map of their locations, this is the OneBox.  Now, Google has been constantly adding this feature to many of its search results and it looks has though Google holds the combination of maps and business information to be very important. The question is, how do I get my business into the OneBox.

First things first, you don’t have to have a website to be included into the OneBox. Google aggregates much of the information from yellow page type websites and sources such as the superpages.com . Here are few of the sources they pull data from:

nola.com
citysearch.com
Yahoo Travel
Insiderpages.com

Google Local Business is an excellent place to get started. Here you can submit your business without having a URL. Although, if you have a URL, please submit it:) After the  submission is completed Google will verify the existence of the business and its location by either a phone call or postcard to the address. I highly recommend doing this for many reasons but mainly because phone book listing are very often incorrect. By manually submitting your information you will insure that Google has your correct address, phone number , and URL.

Google takes into consideration 3 major factors when placing your business into the OneBox.

1. The location of your business to the city or location specified in the search. For the search New Orleans Mortgage, companies closest to the New Orleans will have a higher chance of being listed at the top position.
2. Google looks at how many information sources have you listed as a business. Similar to link popularity, Google holds websites in higher regard if they have multiple independent directory listings.
3. Google also is said to look at independent business reviews. These reviews help confirm the validity of your business.

Submitting you business to Google Maps also allows Google to place map link under site. Example here:

There are some on and off page factors that will help you rank in Local searches as well:
ON PAGE

• You should include your full address.
• Phone number
• Business hours
• Title of business on every page.

OFF PAGE

• Domain registrant address. You should include you town and state.
• Links should come from sites in your area. (Local Directories, newspapers, chamber of commerce, and local business)

The combination of all these strategies will help you take advantage of Google’s local search algorithms and the OneBox.

If I missed anything or you have an opinion, let me know. I would love to hear it.

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