This is a very common question I get all the time and if I was an SEO specialist looking to make a fast buck and not build valuable long lasting relationships, this avenue could quickly be taking advantage of. Watch out small business owners for SEO’s trying to win your business doing this very method! Making your small business name #1 in Google and other search engines is very easy to do unless your business name just happens to have a competitive term in it like, “Computer Store”. Most sites in the small business world have little to no competition in the search engines for their business name which makes it very simple to rank for. As a result of little to no competition in search engines, making some simple adjustments to your websites title tags, and scoring a local backlink or two will do the trick. Actually, most of the small business sites just need to adjust their title tag to make their business name show up #1.
I also want to stress that there is much more value in SEO then ranking #1 for your business name. Actually your business name will only be searched for by people looking for your business specifically. What brings additional value is when people search for industry related terms without your brand name in them and then that brings them to your website. That is search engine optimization.
The best return on your investment with search engine optimization is in finding a specialist that can see the whole picture and will focus on driving traffic to your site from your target audience with converting them to a sale in mind.
Getting your business name listed out on the web is important for brand awareness, but the question to ask is; other then the value of brand awareness, how much traffic and sales did getting my business name #1, drive to my website?
Quick tip: Although Google Local Listings is not organic in the context I am talking about here. I suggesting your company sign up for a Google Account and list your business name in Google Local Listings for additional search value.