Local SEOs have another tool to add to the “citation belt,” as it were: MapQuest has announced its own Local Business Center, a place where local businesses can add and/or manage their listing(s) on MapQuest.

As the video below shows, the MapQuest LBC functions very much like Google’s and Bing’s and offers many of the same basic features such as photo uploads, videos, categories and so forth. MapQuest is also offering two premium listing levels at $99 and $399 per year — the latter of which includes distribution of business information to other sites like Yelp, Yahoo Local, SuperPages and others.

The MapQuest Local Business Center is currently available to US businesses only. Here’s the MapQuest intro video that shows how it works:

It’s been more than two years since Google Maps surpassed MapQuest as the number one mapping destination in the US, but MapQuest remains a healthy number two in the latest Hitwise travel category market share chart:

Aside from that, MapQuest is also a frequent source of local citations inside Google Maps, so I’d expect local search marketers to welcome the addition of this new MapQuest LBC tool.

Related Topics: AOL: MapQuest | Channel: SEO | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Search Marketing: Local Search Marketing | SEO: Local | Stats: Hitwise

About The Author: Matt McGee is Editor-In-Chief of Search Engine Land. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. His web career continues to include a small number of SEO and social media consulting clients, as well as regular speaking engagements at marketing events around the U.S. He blogs at Small Business Search Marketing and can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee and/or on Google Plus. You can read Matt's disclosures on his personal blog. See more articles by Matt McGee

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