Your reputation is only as good as what people can find, and increasingly the first step in any consumer decision is an online search—whether at the computer or on a mobile device. Search engines decide which businesses to show for any given area by looking at authoritative sources: review sites, business listings, social media and so forth. The more of these sources tell the same story, the better off you’ll be.
Claiming & optimizing – If you haven’t already, claim your review and social media profiles and make sure all your contact information is up to date. You’ll also need to find the top-ranking business listings or Yellow Pages sites in the regions where you have a physical business presence, then get yourself listed on these.
Interconnecting – Once you have a presence across a number of sites, strengthen it by cross-validating. If your social, review, and listings pages point to each other, that sends a strong signal that the information is accurate and relevant.
Checking for consistency – If you want to rank when people look for local businesses, you need to send a consistent message. At the very least, your business’s name, address, hours, and phone number need to be the same on all the sites you appear on.