What's the best technique to feature our business in the local listing (i.e. Google Map Local Business) in Google Search results? I like to be in the first 10 listings in Google Local search results.
If you want to perform better in goolge local search results use country specific tld and host in same country, it will help you in IP targeting for Google Map & local search.
In another thread, someone mentioned language as well. If you are targeting a certain population who speak a particular language - and in a geotargeted area, you will have a very targeted audience!
update google base if you have products and Sign Up under Local Business Center > Add new listing www.google.com/local/add
Here are a few items we have learned about that affect the local listing rankings: 1. A citation is where your business name and address are mention online by someone else and yes there is some trust value placed on who mentioned your business. The easiest place to get these citations are from the internet yellow pages. Places like citysearch.com, superpages.com.... 2. Customer reviews plays into this process. Get customers to review you. 3. Then look for local online directory's. The more defined the directory by category and location the better. 4. Don't forget to have some user content. Which means somebody has created a map of/to your business or geotagged a photo. Local Business Listings (Google, Yahoo, Bing, Local.com and many others) show up when someone in the local area is searching for a business name, product or service. These listings show up with map at the search engines on the first page. These listing also show up in mobile devices when folks are looking for products or services while around town. The value of these listings will be growing tremendously over the next year with the changes in the mobile device industry in 2010. All businesses are probably listed, however, most businesses have not claimed their listing or know how to best update them so they have value to increase their sales. Since there are more than Google out there services are coming about that help local businesses update, monitor for consumer reviews, and maintain these listings at all local listing locations. There was one service mentioned at KillerStartUps today that you can see here: http://www.killerstartups.com/Search/smartfindslocallisting-com-be-found-online
Bear in mind that Google requires that you follow Quality guidelines carefully. Spammy titles, multiple listings with the same address, and other like practices may result in the erosion of your listing's position or listing removal.