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All 3 major search engines have local search results, these local results are mixed into the normal ranking pages. These local search can be a major benefit if you know how to use it. However, if your not using this guide you loosing traffic.

When does a search engine show a local result?
Typically, Google, Yahoo! and Live will show a local result if a region name is in a keyword search, like ‘Camas feed stores’, and if it’s clearly a locally-focused business. The search engines may also check the users IP address. But the search engines won’t say for sure.

Register with the search engine
Google, Yahoo and Live all have webmaster logins. If you don’t have an account, you’ll need to register with each one first.
On Google, go to Google.com/Accounts.
On Yahoo, go to Yahoo.com and set up a ‘my Yahoo’ account. On Live, go to Webmaster.Live.Com
Fill out all the required information. That gets you an account so that you can add or edit local listings.

Add/edit your listing
On Google, go to Google.com/local/add .
On Yahoo, go to listings.local.yahoo.com/account .
On Live, go to llc.local.live.com .
Follow the instructions there. Make sure your address is correct!

Hit the directories
You also need to get your site listed and indexed in the third-party directories the major search engines use to inform their local search rankings.
Those directories include Yelp.com , SuperPages, YellowPages.com, and a host of others.
Click Here for the full list.

Don’t forget plain old optimization.
It’s still a search engine! Make sure your address appears in at least a few places on your site, as crawlable text. Also make sure your city name shows up in key places like title tags and headings here and there, and that you’ve got a good, crawlable contact us page with all your information on it.

Good Luck…

Plugins are a must!
I’m just going to briefly point out a much-needed plugin, All in One SEO.  Go to http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/.  Do a search for SEO.  The first plugin that pops up should be All in One SEO.  You must get this plugin.  Simply download the plugin, extract the zip and then upload the complete folder to /yoursite/wp-content/plugins.  Once everything is uploaded, you need to return to www.yoursite.com/wp-admin and click on the Plugins link on the right side of the screen.  The SEO plugin should appear near the bottom of the screen under Inactive Plugins.  You need to click on the check box beside the SEO plugin, then press the Activate button. Once active, you can go to the Write/Post page and press F5 to re- fresh the page.  You should now see a new drop-down option for All in One SEO Pack.  Simply click the arrow and then fill in the blanks.  The data you enter here will be placed as meta tag content for each individual blog entry. There is one last thing to check out with the SEO pack.  Click on the Settings link on the top right of the screen, and then select All in One SEO.  From this page, you can set all the meta tags for the home page of your blog.  I’m certain you know how important this stuff is if you want your blog to be found in Google, so don’t skip this step. Have fun and happy blogging.  Stay tuned for more information on great plugins in the upcoming months.