David Mihm surveyed the responses of a number of experts in local search engine ranking. Using the responses, he covered forty-one bases, from most to least important!

The top ranked answer was having your business and address placed in a local business listing for your city. This recommendation is not without problems, however, as in some cases where your locale is in a satellite to a major city. Placement of one’s business in the proper category in the local business listing was also highly important, as was the presence of a business-relevant keyword in the listing. Not surprisingly, customer reviews (quantity perhaps more than quality!) and especially citations in major data providers sites were also featured among the most important.

For business data providers, actually his second most important, Mihm lists a number with which one can register. These are the following:

1. infoUSA
2. Superpages
3. Localeze
4. YellowPages
5. Yelp
6. InsiderPages
7. Niche Industry Sites (BBB, Vertical Directories)
8. Acxiom
9. Local.yahoo
10. Citysearch

One can of course also sign up at Google.com/local.

Surprising to me (although pleasant to read) was the low importance of local PPC advertising. See David’s excellent post for a lengthy and thorough treatment.

As a P.S.: Perhaps a helpful addition to local advertisement is meetup.com, where you can set up or join meetings relevant to your business in your area (US and international).