Let’s disect a local 10-pack result on the search term ‘insurance agency saint louis’ that I queried on Google. Here is the result:

Notice that both the #1 and #5 result are from the same insurance agency and will both direct you to www.amfam.com. What should be immediately troubling to Mr. Robert Ware (the unfortunate owner of the satellite branch of American Family Insurance in the #5 position) is that, although he is undoubtedly closer to the city center he is not ranking higher than Mr. Paul Manganelli’s branch located in one of the northern counties of Saint Louis. Additionally, Mr. Ware (the 5th result) is enjoying 13 citations from different sites including most of the 7 citations that Mr. Manganelli (1st result) has wrangled.

How can we explain this?

In David Mihm’s exhaustive post on the factors of local search, the importance of having the product or service keyphrases in the Local Business Listing. In this case we have the following Local Business Listings:

Paul C Manganelli Insurance Agency

and

American Family Insurance: St. Louis

The presence of the term ‘insurance agency’ in the Local Business Listing catapults Mr. Manganelli’s insurance agency into the Local-10 pack spotlight.

Do: Include targeted phrases in your Local Business Listing.

Don’t: Use generic phrases that aren’t being searched by your potential customers.