This post was mentioned on Twitter by jwmunsell: New blog post: GOOGLES Free Tools Every Restaurant Needs to Use http://bit.ly/aRumjf...

I do agree that Google’s local listing is something that a local business needs engage and embrace. This is probably the first time the Internet will help the local business and provide a marketing tool that will reach the local consumer.

What I am most concerned about are small and local businesses having to contend with multiple websites when it comes to their local listing.

Afterall, there are over 60 websites in four different categories specifically geared towards local listings. How can a local or small business have the time resources to cover this space.

Even if you made a conscious decision to not manage all 60, there are well more than Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Ask. The space goes to Local.com (they went public), Yelp, Merchant Circle, and many others.

Consumers will be the ones deciding which of these local listing websites they will go and post their experience through consumer reviews. This adds to the burden that no one single local listing website will do the trick. Certainly restaurants are prime targets for consumer reviews.

Something we recently read at KillerStartUps are companies that are offering a low cost service to update then manage these listings for companies. You can read about this at KillerStartUps here:

http://www.killerstartups.com/Search/smartfindslocallisting-com-be-found-online

It is a changing world and the local business will benefit. There will be some adjustment to this space needed.

Good information from your post and hopefully it will help raise the awareness of this new and free marketing tool.