1. Claiming your profile.

Claim your profile by logging into webmasters’ forums such as Bing Local, Google Places and Yahoo Local. Go through the mandatory verification process and start updating your profile.

2. Uploading Pictures.

Upload pictures at local listing websites to raise awareness about you and your business. Remember, they don’t necessarily have to be professional images. However, they represent you and your business. Hence, make sure that they are nice and decent.

3. Encourage Reviews.

Ask for users to review and comet on your website so that you may have the perfect understanding of all the places where you probably are lacking. Right at your contact or “Thank You” page, on all invoices and on all email communications. Make it a point to say “Hey we’d love it if you gave our business a review on Google/Bing/Yahoo Local.” These reviews, good or bad, make your business more creditable to future customers.

4. Bad reviews are good.

No company is perfect, so when users see all positive reviews, something looks wrong and they may actually choose a different company. Bad reviews are a part of any business and a few bad reviews can make the good reviews that much better. Obviously, you don’t want to encourage bad reviews.

5. Add local phone number.

On your website, make sure to publish a local phone number in text. This will add a lot of authenticity to

The above steps might appear as elementary but are equally important in laying the foundation for a decent and profitable website.