I am pleased to announce the release of a new featured guide here on eCommerce Optimization. The guide features a categorized listing of popular local search engines and business portals that can be used by merchants to list, display and syndicate their business information or corporate data into different local/business listing services including Google Local Business Center, Yahoo Local, Windows Live Local, SuperPages, Dex, MapQuest, Yelp and more.

Categories for the different business portals include local search engines, yellow pages, local meta crawlers, business data providers and even local social networks.

Accessing The Local/Business Guide:

The Local Search Engine guide can be accessed by visiting the url location directly or from the merchant help and featured guides box located near the top of the sidebar on each and every page. I am also working on a main guides page which will appear within the main navigation below the header. The new guides page will list and link directly to every guide offered on our blog.

Local/Business Guide Categories:

Like other pages and guides on our blog, the local search and business listing guide feature navigation within the page for easier access to sections that appear further down the pages. Using the red colored navigation will make it easier to jump from category to category within the guide page only. You can also access each section of the page by visiting the corresponding links below.

• Local Search Engines
• Internet Yellow Pages
• Local Meta Crawlers
• Business Data Providers
• Local Social Networks

Using The Local/Business Guide:

Using the local search and business listing guide couldn’t be easier. Simply begin at the top and click the corresponding links for each listing to get your account, get your business listed or alternatively you can choose to find out more about the site you are listing with. In the future we plan on adding additional useful information or links within the individual sections for each site within the guide, but for now, all you need to get your business listings is available for you to view and use, if you choose.

We recommend listing with as many of the FREE sites as possible in order to gain an understanding of how they all work, what is required and as a way to foresee what purchased options may yield in return. Near the bottom of the guide you will find sections relating to help using this guide along with instructions on submitting feedback, updates, suggestions or praise (we appreciate them all, so be sure to share if you feel it will benefit our community).

I hope you get a lot of use out of this guide in the future and continue to share our resources with others who may be in need of them. Look for more featured guides to be released in the near future, along with updates to current guides, articles, features and sections.