First step to ranking a business in local search

Hi everyone, I've been coming to warriorforum for years, so thought I'd give back. I work for a local search optimization company in Santa Barbara and have learned tons, so I'll share the first step every business needs to take to rank well in local searches. Also, if you are being paid to do SEO this should be part of how you would rank a client, but I'm sure you already know that

1. Claim or create your Google Places page (or Google Plus page as of recently)

2. Make sure your Name, Address, and Phone (NAP) are correct. This step is crucial, if Google sees different names, addresses, or phone numbers, it gets confused and lowers your rank. google knows it can't display the highest accuracy information if there are multiple NAPs, and you are penalized for it.

3. Add a description of your business with relevant keywords. So if you are plumber in Topeka, make sure to include "plumber in Topeka" or "plumbing in Topeka" or some type of variation.

4. Make sure you are in the right category. If you are a plumber, but in the dentist category, Google will get confused again. Don't confuse Google!

5. Add relevant keyword tags. This allows Google to gain an even better understanding of what you really do so they can put you in the right places for local searches.

6. Upload images and a video. A fake, scammy business won't take the time to do any of these, so in Google's eyes, these legitimize your business a little bit.

7. Ask customers to leave reviews. Not only do reviews look great in the eyes of potential customers, but it adds relevant content to the page so Google can even better place your business. In addition, higher reviews have been linked to higher positions in the local search results.

So there are some steps you can take to start ranking your business in local searches. I hope it helps!