While you may know the importance of claiming your business in top search engine’s listings, such as the Google Local Business Center, having your business found with multiple online references is also important as it is going to help increase your overall online presence. D.McKenzie at EZLocal writes:
When you claim or create your profiles on each of the smaller sites individually your profile will be more prominent on each of the sites. A more prominent place on these sites usually means you will be moved closer to the top of the link hierarchy on these websites which, in turn, increases the likelihood of your profile page being crawled and indexed by the search engines. When your robust profile is indexed by the search engines, you have another reference to your business. Keep in mind, there are around 16million businesses in the United States alone. If Superpages has 16million not-very-robust profiles provided by Localeze, how long is it going to take before your profile is crawled by Google? In short, claim your business profile on all of the smaller directories for the maximum effect.
For broader online exposure, not only claim and register your business in the major search engine directories, but also be sure your business is properly registered in at least five well known but smaller directory review sites like Insiderpages, BestOfTheWebLocal, and top sites niched to your profession, specialty or industry.