New features introduced on Google Local make it possible for business owners to customise their listings, provide further details about the business to users and improve precision of the listing.
These features include the ability to add photos, provide more detail via custom attributes such as price, specialty, areas served etc, tracking in terms of number of impressions and more precise positioning on the map. Details can be found on the Inside AdWords official Google blog:
Inside AdWords: New features for Local Business Center
Managing the Local search listing is now very important for all webmasters who rely on organic rankings to drive traffic to their site. Search engine optimisation for local search results and personalised results is different from generic SEO and requires more attention to localised factors such as geographic position and mention of location specific keywords.
