Introduction and Overview
Why should you be bother about having a Local Listing?
Research by the prestigious BIA/Kelsey Group shows that in the USA (with the UK not far behind) that 97% of all consumers use digital media to shop locally!
This doesn't mean that they are buying online, what it means is that consumers are comparing prices and looking for coupons online before they make a purchase, either online or offline.
Traditional advertising media is dying and is being replaced with online media, creating a listing in Google's Local Business Listings is just one marketing strategy (cheap and effective) that small businesses can use to promote themselves to a wider audience.
The balance of power in local shopping is shifting to online, you need to be in the race to win it!
This information, once you have gone through it completely, will enable you to comfortably and confidently get your local business listed in the top seven in Google local search listings. It will also show you how to get to number one, it's just a matter of more work!
I will go through each step one at a time from listing a business (Real Life Case Studies) to getting it to the top of the listings.
Many local businesses are missing out on a massive opportunity to advertise for free on Google, there is a search feature on Google which I am sure most of you have seen, that allows a business to have their name, address and telephone number appear on a map on the first page of Google's search results.
These results are show next to the map in a box of 3 to 7 listings and are triggered by certain types of businesses and keywords (some keywords don't trigger the maps like 'Website Marketing or Web Design which is ironic as we are the very businesses that promote Google!), also by location.
Although the exact algorithm Google uses to rank the listing is unknown, the observations included in this paper are the results of testing hundreds of listings for clients.
The map has information such as the website, telephone number, address, number of reviews and directions to the business.
Yahoo and Bing have also introduced this feature but for the benefit of this paper I will only be addressing Google's Local Search.
This paper is in two parts:
Part 1: Creating a Google Local Search Listing.
Part 2: Dominating Google's Local Search.
Please read the complete document fully first, before trying to gain a listing.
Part 1: Creating a Google Local Search Listing.
Before we get started you need to know which "keywords'' to optimise your listing for, these are the words that people would type in to Google to find your service or business. This is a subject that deserves a paper in its own right! If you have no idea how to find them try and put your self in your potential customers shoes and think what they would type into Google to try and find your service.
Some of you may find that your business is already listed in Google but you haven't put it there! This is because Google will have found your business while searching through the web from another source such as a business directory. If this is the case then you need to claim your listing (more later).
If you already see a listing for your business or you don't have a listing at all then the first step is the same, what you need to do is open a Google Account, this is very simple just go to https://www.google.com/accounts and look for the link to 'Create an Account Now' once you have signed up to an account the next thing you need to do is go to https://www.google.com/local/add/ and sign into your Google account.
Once in your Google account you then go to 'My Products >Google Places 'then 'Add New Listing'.
This is the first step and one of the most important, so it will pay dividends to spend a bit of time on this section making sure that you get it right.
First choose you country (There a few countries that Google doesn't provide listing for but not many).
Next you are going to input your Company/Organization, here you would want to have your 'keyword' somewhere in the title.
For example if you are an Accountant in Boston you would put your business title first then a dash then your location plus the keyword. Ex: "Henry Jones Accountants - Boston Accountants".
Make your keywords fit naturally. Blatant spam (using the keyword out of context or too many times) is not recommended.
The next thing to add is your address, if you have any other listings in any other business directories then make sure that the address you are using matches exactly, Google will search for other listings (known as citations, mentions or a web reference) that uses the same address and link these to your listing helping you rank higher.
In this case we are going for the keyword 'Secured Loans Hull', so we have searched Google to see if there is already a listing and found that there isn't, plus there are no local listings at all.
If by typing your address in Google you can't find your address on any other site then fill in the details as you would normally but make sure that you save those details exactly as you use them to get listed on Google as you will be using them later.
Google seems to use the location to the center of a town as a ranking factor (although I have no absolute proof) so if you are on the outside of a city/town it can sometimes be better to use a mail box service in the city/town center if you are going for a highly competitive listing.
Next you need to enter your main phone number, if you are using a 0800 number I would enter that as an optional number and put your normal number with area code as your main number, there appears to be some weight given to having the area code in the listing.
Now enter your website address, if you have one, if you don't tick the box below. Now enter a description. Use the keywords you are trying to rank for in the description, you have 200 words so make use of them, write a description that properly describes your business without trying to spam.
The last section on the page is the category's, you have 5 categories you can enter, make sure your main keyword is first and that at least one of the other categories is one that you have pulled from the options Google gives you.
Onto the next page!
When you hit that next button, Google will go out and search to see if there is already a similar listing in its database.
If it (Google) finds other listings then you will be given two choices,
1. Claim listing,
2. Add listing.
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