Organic search results are not the only game in town. Local directory listings are now served up by all three major search engines as well as by dozens of independent sites such as Yelp, HotFrog, MerchantCircle, and InsiderPages. In some local business niches, local directory listings can deliver up to 35 percent of total web traffic.

You can broaden your overall reach by securing complete listings on any or all directory sites. Google, Yahoo!, and Yelp are the most important, although Yahoo! is in the process of selling off its local features. With a few dozen business directory listings, you'll stand a better chance of blanketing the first page of Google's results when users search for your business' name. If you are highly effective at creating complete, keyword-rich local directory listings, your listings themselves might rank for primary and secondary keywords. What follows are some guidelines for supplementing your natural search results with strong...