You have taken the time to set up a quality site and perform all the details associated with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to maximize your chances for successful selling. Having done all that hard work don’t forget to register your site with either Google or Yahoo! Local listings to help online shoppers in your area to find your business in the local listing directory in time for holiday shopping.

You can signup by visiting Create A Google Account and Create a Yahoo! Account

You want to act on this sooner rather then later because address verification is required to list your business and can take a few weeks for the process to turn around from registering your business online to having it listed in local directories. For example, creating a Google local listing is 100% free but you have to register your business online now so Google can send you the address verification postcard (which you must validate) to complete the registration process. This can take a few weeks and time is getting short for the holiday season.

Acting on this tip can be important to your business especially if you offer products or services with wide consumer appeal. Whether you get listed in time for Christmas or not, being in your local listing directory can pay dividends over time.

Making online sales can be difficult and the more exposure you get for your website the better. It is my personal opinion that registering with Google is more important then Yahoo due to the enormity of Google’s online presence.

Another often-overlooked strategy to increase your site sales is local linking with businesses in your town, city, and county. Especially with businesses that have a natural relationship to your business. For example, if you sell deliverable pet food, you want to link with every pet store you can find in your neighborhood and online! The key is strategic link exchange, which not only helps expose your business, it expands your network and establishes B2B relationships and can increase your page rank (especially when you exchange links with high quality sites that have a high Google page rank).

While these linking activities can require a significant investment of your time, they can pay a spectrum of dividends over the long run.