Take, for instance, the Batman movie series wisely ousting director Joel Schumacher and replacing him with Christopher Nolan.  Very good move, indeed.

And then there’s Yellow Bot.

Yellow Bot’s refreshing new spin on themselves has opened up new and improved ways for local businesses to connect with customers.

Reinventing yourself can be a great way to not only draw in new and old faces to your website, but by paying heed to Yellow Bot’s new design structure, you begin to notice a couple of subtle, yet possibly important ways for local business listings to say hello to consumer search:

1. Ease of Access: Right off the bat, Yellow Bot improves the one thing that escaped business owners from doing as soon as they got there: submission of business. Err, let me rephrase that: you could submit your business listing the whole time, it’s just for “user-friendly” experience, you kind of had to go Sherlock Holmes on the website before you could find the “Add Business Listing” icon.  Nowadays, there’s an icon at the bottom that’s big, blue and looking for you.
2. Speedy Exposure: Once you’ve claimed your business and added the proper information, Yellow Bot has always been very good about placing your listing up in a timely manner.  Only thing is, this time you’re the star of the show for a day.  By that I mean your newbie listing is given top-shelf treatment via any photos you’ve included.  You’re only given three picture slots, so make them as pleasing to the eye as possible, because the right picture just might turn in the lead you’ve been looking for.

Just like Google’s subtle change to their home page, the warm, inviting colors used by Yellow Bot make the site look appropriate for today’s web design pallets.  Oh, and it doesn’t hurt that Yellow Bot lets you run rampant with your business listing, allows you to add numerous tags and such.

So go on, embrace change and get active with your business listing today!

Some were about Bing’s listing center being down for too long, but to Bing’s credit, maintenance issues for a listing system that big can take a while.

But the more and more I looked over the complaints, the more this issue reared its ugly head. It’s a problem I’ve ranted about many times: The arduous wait for your confirmation letter.

Bing’s listing response time is equivalent to that friend of yours who responds to a text message question a day and a half later, where not only do you forget what the question even was, you’re a little peeved it took so long.

The only exception being that message is your business listing. And since you’re queued up waiting for the letter to be delivered on horseback, the opportunity to be noticed on a search engine that generates immense traffic is being held captive.

Why it’s taking so long to address this is anyone’s guess. It would be in Bing’s best interest to have a listing center that goes toe-to-toe with Google. Not only does Bing have a pretty and diverse home page presentation to draw people in, their listing center is very beneficial for helping small to large businesses get their face out there.

As for the solution, well it’s pretty obvious in some areas (get a better delivery carrier, create an extension number addition for phone verification), but the one area that’s in need of a makeover is the means at which to wrangle in Bing’s customer support.

There’s this method, but I’ve been waiting in line on that one, too. Here’s hoping someone breaks through to them…

Why’s he so excited?

Well, picture him riding in from the skies atop a link. Now put him aboard 1,000 more of those and his cowboy hat waving starts to be a bit more joyous, almost hitting a peak of excitement that makes you question his sanity. He knows the advantages link building can have on his business, and (pun intended) business is booming.

While there are a few minor annoyances to link building (i.e., some link directories have way too many guidelines, while others say it’s free to submit, only to queue your URL without further notice), you’ll start to see how much exposure your website can garner after obtaining a number of links.

Here are just a few reasons why you should stop worrying and fall in love with the link:

1. Google Ogles You: Not just them, but the other major search engines will start to take notice of your website with more links. More links to other sites, directories or mentions from an online blog can make you relevant and give you a rankings jolt.

2. Quality Links Earn Major Kudos: If Mr. Sellers’ cherry bomb helped quiet the mice problem in the basement of a local high school, the online student paper might reference his “heroics” and put a link to his website in the article. Getting links from well-established online websites like a school, your local government or any other major organization can push your presence up even further.

3. As Easy as 1,2, LSV: The process of filling out a link form is somewhat along the lines of entering your business into a local search directory.

4. …Or A Simple “Please”: Whether through email or over the phone, a simple request to a website for a link can get the job done.

In the end, link building can be seen as beneficial gossip for your business. It’s like a simple joke that gets passed around, and with each turn, new layers are added until eventually it ends up becoming a grandiose event that everyone’s in on.

There are numerous directories out there waiting for your gossip. Why not let them in?

How is that, exactly? Well, a citation is a reference to a listing’s credibility. How you gain that credibility is done in a number of ways—some by your own hands and some are even created outside your own doing.

David Mihm’s wonderful account goes into great detail about this. In fact, if you’ve clicked onto that link, you might have just helped create a citation. With that aside, here are two of my favorite guidelines to keep in mind when making sure your listing’s “citation-worthy”:

1. Exact Information – The biggest nail in your listing coffin can come about because your address is different on five different online directories. Not only does that hurt potential customers searching for your business, but citations will vanish into thin air because of it. Conflicting phone numbers and incorrect city/state entries might as well be replaced with a big, red banner that reads: “Out of Business”.

2. Reviews or Blogs – Even if the story about your business doesn’t have an in-bound link directing readers to your website, any mention of your name, address or phone number is seen as a tip-of-the-cap for your listing, and thus, a citation is born. For instance, you’re newly-constructed hot dog stand business has made headlines with every online news outlet or blog because Jimmy Hoffa’s body was discovered underneath it. Every mention of your business name or address within each online retelling can return a bevy of citations to your website.

First and foremost, it’s pretty important to take care of the first guideline. Afterwards, why not try and get creative with a blog about your business? Whether it’s Squidoo, HubPages or any other blog service out there, your stories (or some other author’s blog about your services) might just toss a very lucrative citation your way.

Here are a few reasons why iBegin can be your next local listing playground:

1. Fluid Categorization: Now I know I’ve talked over and over about how important keeping your business associated with the proper category is, but a categorization process that has multiple branching paths until you find the best one? That’s nearly customization at its finest. Plus, it’s almost too easy to navigate…which brings me to #2.

2. User-Friendly Layout: Entering in contact information is nearly identical to Google, but iBegin’s business description opens up more. Products, Service and Brand sections? iBegin finishes your thoughts for you by giving a bunch of options suited to your business.

3. One, Glorious Page: Everything you need to increase the online exposure of your business is all on one page. Short, sweet and effective.

4. Citation-Creating Machine: iBegin generates a number of important online citations for your website. With the proper contact information entered, a citation acts as a tribute from another webpage, meaning the more credibility your listing carries, the more search engines will start to love you.

After the dust settles, you’ll start to see that iBegin’s welcoming arms can be one of many perfect endings with local search marketing.

I was giddy with excitement today to find out the one area lacking in Local.com’s previous version, the business description’s limit, has been freed from the 155 character shackles and given room to breathe. How much room has yet to be determined, but so far, it’s more than enough to insert the necessary information about your business. With that much space, your description can be given some much needed SEO keywords, phrases and other strategies to call upon a customer’s keyboard stroke against the search engines. Not only that, but the general layout for entering information has dramatically improved, making it easier to fill every required category with ease.

For example, nothing creates a bigger headache than a local search site that completely erases everything you entered from the previous page of your listing. A majority of online directories are pretty good at saving your previous information, but for some reason, there’s a couple out there that love to play Houdini and just decimate the information you spent a good amount of time entering in. Local.com’s new version was never the case. In fact, if you took a break from finishing the listing, the session itself will time out, but one click backwards will happily return your ammunition.

Also, finding an optimal way to categorize your business has been cleared up. Nearly identical to Google’s outstanding setup, Local.com suggests a myriad of possibilities, letting you decide exactly which customers you’re trying to flag down.

Same goes for the Services, Products and Brands sections. The previous version gave you tiny boxes to cram in what your business offers, but the outcome looked like a bunch of fragmented words packed inside a sardine can. Now you have individual sections allowing you to easily see everything you’ve entered. Plus, the space itself is just as liberating as the business description.

Again, the format almost reminds me of Google Local, but imitation is a form of flattery. And seeing how important and effective putting your listing up on Google is, well that’s just another step in the right direction for visibility.

Update done correctly? That’s an emphatic “yes”.

Now, in the past I’ve written about how phone verification systems for local search sites are efficient at claiming your listing in a timely manner. That’s still true. The only minor detail pushed aside is the simplistic template for verifying your listing. In one corner, you have your complicated “Confirmation Letter” icon that mails your PIN number out to you—it’s just too bad you have to wait almost a week to two weeks for it. In the other, you have the straight and narrow icon to claim your listing over the phone—but, what do you do if a recording answers that line?

Okay, the first annoyance is very easy to fix: Speed up the mailing times! How come I can mail a birthday card to my friends halfway across the United States in less than three days, but some local search site’s letter will sometimes take nearly 10 times as long to reach a business? Think about it, that’s almost identical to the shipping times of a product you’d buy on T.V.

As for the latter issue, here’s my solution: Follow in the footsteps of Yelp. There are many businesses that have automated recordings running as their main line. That means more than likely you’ll have to enter an extension number to directly get to a specific person, which for some reason, only Yelp has figured out. Yelp’s verification system will effectively punch through the automated recording and end up right where it’s supposed to be: a human voice. The real head-scratcher is every local search directory is a high-tech force of nature for online marketing, yet they sometimes treat businesses as if their phone system hasn’t escaped the rotary dial age.

That being said, to all you other local search sites, please throw a helping bone to the business you help promote by polishing up your verification system.

Sure, you can close your description with clichéd phrases that consumers have been beaten over the head with for decades, but that’s not pretty productive in the end. For one, your listing might seem like HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey dropped by and threw a bunch of nonsense together. You know, the one where all those incomplete sentences are pushed next to each other: 100%Guarantee!While Supplies Last!Great Finish!Call TodayYippie!.

Or, I’ve sometimes run into what I call “Sequel Listings” where the description just ends without telling the customer how everything previously stated correlates into why they should come by or pick up the phone immediately. I know all the contact information is above, but your local search listing should grab their attention and never let go. Don’t pull the rug out from under your customers.

So, what are some ways to have your customers clamoring for an encore? For starters, you could end by appealing to everyone through geo-targeting. Let’s say you’re a carpet cleaning business in Ames, Iowa and you just expanded into five states recently. Success is hitting on all cylinders and you want more. Here’s how you could close your local listing: “There’s more to our carpet cleaning. From Ames to Austin, TX, come see how we’re spot-on with spot cleaning”.

You’ve done two things here. Rather than run off 50 cities that you service, you’ve come up with a concise geo-targeting system that reads well. Also, you’re smoothly transitioning your number one keyword, carpet cleaning, into Ames, giving the listing a little more added SEO meat to it.

Imagining new ways to close out your audience can make your business listing and your business prospects seem intriguing for going the road less traveled.

For example, let’s say you’re a small business trying to break ground in the crowded bottled water market. Your water’s taken from a beautiful local spring nestled up high in the Colorado Mountains. You’ve got your website up and running and want to start syndicating your online directories for more exposure. And on the website, you have a gorgeous layout complete with photos, videos and other tantalizing images for the consumer eye. Heck, even the label’s a wonderful mixture of soft color pallets with brilliantly executed fonts for the business logo. So, why wouldn’t you award the same treatment to your online listing?

The wonderful thing about nearly every online directory is that you have so many options to help increase traffic back to your website. It’s a “Use it or Lose it” option that simply cannot be overlooked. You’ve got a stockpile of photos just waiting to be posted on your Bing local listing. Bing allows you to insert a whopping 10 photos per listing! Not only are your photos compiled into a slideshow (a very useful eye-catching tactic), but you can continually return and swap out old pictures for new ones, which by the way, demonstrates business progression.

Let’s pretend your bottled water website even has a well-produced video capturing both the Colorado Mountains and the cool, crisp water flowing from your natural spring. It’d be a crime to omit this from your local listing. Google, Bing and other search engines want you to use as many resources as possible, because it can help push your listing higher up the search engine totem pole.

Who knows, with a more refined approach to online exposure, that same small bottled water business could be hydrating an eventual NCAA champion.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that some of these directories seem a little barren with how much information you’re allowed to add. Sites like Info USA act as a data pool for other online directories to fish out phone numbers, addresses and the actual business name itself. So then what happens if an old phone number or address hasn’t been updated? The other directories will simply hold those numbers until they’re changed, and quite frankly, that’s just not going to end well. Get in there immediately and change your old habits before customers think you’ve gone out of business!

Okay, now that you’ve done that, it’s time to search for that pretty little icon: “Are You The Business Owner?” Even if you update your listing on Yellow Pages with new products, more phone numbers and other cool tidbits of info, you still have a 30 day grace period before they go live. During that time, you could be vulnerable to competitors jumping in and dropping misleading data bombs. They could simply create a bundle of nearly identical listings that have a few changes here or there to the point your customers would have no idea which one’s relevant.

So where’s the love? It’s right in front of you. Or maybe it’s perched up in the right hand corner of the listing. Or maybe some directories like to make you jump through a couple hoops before you get there. Wherever it is, just know that a little security lies inside that simple claim. Once you enter that realm, you wait for that calming robot voice to give you a PIN number, tell you everything’s going to be just fine, and before you know it, the listing’s officially in your hands.

And now that it’s there, how does your listing stay on top? Well, with a little SEO touch, a few photos and other enhancing tools, your page can come off smelling like authenticated roses just waiting to be touched.