Many of these directories send updates of their information to Google or Yahoo or Bing depending on who the provider is, and the more relevant, accurate information you have out there – the better you can perform in local search.

Many of these directories offer free listings – you don’t need to pay for all the extra fluff they promise. I normally don’t post links within comments, but since this pertains to the post (and was actually just writing a guest post about this), you may want to check out my reference for business directories you should get listed in for local search: http://www.whole-seo.com/resource-library/business-directories-for-local-search/. These all offer free listings, and are good for getting those mentions your site needs.

This doesn’t however mean people should not concentrate on Google Places – its huge, its growing and if you are going to pay money to anyone – they are it.