• Detailed and accurate profile: Fill almost all the fields including ones which you may not seem important at first glance, like Hour of Operation, Payments Mode, certifications etc. Use only the appropriate categories to describe your business.
• Listing Title and Description: Google allows you to write a custom Title and Description of your business-listing page. Use most important location keywords you want to target.
• Address and Phone: Enter the same physical address on Google Local as mentioned on your website. Also, add your phone number with the local area code.
• Photos and Videos: Add photographs (preferably in large size) and videos in your profile. Upload photos of your physical location, your products, customers etc.
• Listing in Yellow Pages and Local Directories: List your websites in Yellow Pages and local industry directories like DMOZ, Yahoo, Yelp, CitySearch, etc. etc. to improve the trust factor of your customers.
• Positive Reviews: Include positive reviews to the customer profile to bring positive effect on your listings.
• References: Include references including hyperlinks and citations from relevant sources using your business name and location in order to improve the link popularity of the profile.

As a local business owner, you must know that out of over sixteen billion searches, one in five are for local businesses. If you are not patronizing local SEO, that means you could be losing one fifth of your customers to your competitors. So, it’s high time you started implementing local search marketing for optimizing your web presence.