This article was published in 2012 and updated in October 2026.
Social media, SEO, blogging, ads, email campaigns, followers, likes — the number of internet marketing tactics you’re “supposed” to use can be overwhelming, especially for a small business without a marketing agency. It’s easy to miss the trees for the forest. One of the most effective — and often neglected — steps is also one of the simplest: make sure your business is listed correctly in the online directories and maps people use to find local businesses.
Google Business Profile
What used to be Google Places is now the free Google Business Profile. It’s the most important listing for local businesses: your profile appears in Google Maps and in local search results, with your address, opening hours, phone number, website, photos and reviews. Keep it complete and up to date, add new photos and posts regularly, and reply to reviews.
Bing Places for Business
Bing’s equivalent, Bing Places, feeds Bing search, Bing Maps and services that use Bing data. Bing has a smaller market share than Google, but setting up a listing takes only a few minutes — and you can import your details directly from your Google Business Profile.
Apple Business Connect
Many iPhone users search with Apple Maps and Siri. With the free Apple Business Connect, you can claim and manage your business listing in Apple Maps, add photos and opening hours, and show special offers.
Yelp and industry directories
Yelp combines a business directory with customer reviews and is especially important for restaurants and local services in the US. Depending on your industry and country, other platforms matter too — for example TripAdvisor for hospitality, or specialised directories for doctors, lawyers or tradespeople.
Keep your details consistent
Make sure your business name, address and phone number are exactly the same everywhere. Consistent information builds trust with customers and search engines and helps your business rank better in local search. Check your listings once or twice a year, and especially after moving or changing opening hours.
It’s a small step compared with a full marketing campaign — but for many local businesses, these free listings bring more customers than any other online channel.
Sarkari naukri
Oct 23. 2012
Dear Admin,
I landed upon your article”See the Trees of Internet Marketing”from google, Actually i am doing a research work on”Internet Marketing”,found your article useful for my research work. Actually i was looking for more related articles on your blog but unfortunately didnt find anymore of it.Hope read more related articles in coming days…I will keep following your blog till then
Regards
Mia
Tech Crates
Oct 23. 2012
Hi Sarkari and thanks for your thoughts. I take this request seriously and publish more Internet Marketing related articles on Tech Crates soon. You are very welcome to provide a guest post for us Sarkari 🙂
Karl
Oct 24. 2012
Internet Marketing becomes more and more powerful. Thanks for sharing
LindseyJD
Oct 26. 2012
Another internet marketing article coming up! 😀
Sandra
Nov 03. 2012
These tips for internet marketing as well as the previous one are really helpful. Like to see more online business tips as this topic gets more important than ever
Tech Crates
Nov 06. 2012
Thank you Sandra, I’ll take this request serious and come up with more online internet marketing strategies soon
Hermine
Sep 01. 2013
Thank you for these useful internet marketing tips Lindsey.
Tech Crates
Sep 01. 2013
Thanks for commenting Hermine 🙂
Gordon
Jan 19. 2014
This is a great marketing advice and very useful to my study. Thanks a lot for putting up this informative post
Tech Crates
Jan 25. 2014
Thank you Gordon
Digital
Mar 19. 2014
It is Really Excellent and informative content! we learn lots of thing from this post!. we get inspired from this post. By SEO & SEM we can organically and inorganically increase the page rank in google search engine. thanks for sharing information.
Nannie
May 24. 2014
I simply couldn’t leave your site before suggesting that I actually enjoyed the usual info a person provide for your guests?
Is gonna be again ceaselessly to inspect new posts
Debbie
Aug 26. 2016
Keep on writing, great job!