Small Business Internet Marketing | Small Business SEO | Free SEO Training » Google Map Optimization

Google Places – A Must for Local Businesses!

admin — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 04:38:00 +0000

For some of you this may be “better late than never” especially if you’ve already read my post on creating a Google Maps Listing. If so, you can still use this information to tweak your listing.

A great “over the shoulder” resource showing exactly how to set up Google Places can be found here.

LOCAL AND REGIONAL BUSINESSES MUST PAY ATTENTION — SET UP A GOOGLE PLACES LISTING IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY!

85% of people searching for local businesses choose the Google Places listings. While Google Places listings don’t
show up for every keyword, they do show up for the most fertile.

If you’re unfamiliar with Google Places (often called Google Maps) listings, type in “Auto Repair Charlotte NC” in the Google search window and notice the series of Google Places listings at the top with the little red upside down teardrop next to them.

Go here to set yours up: http://www.google.com/places/

If your business has multiple physical locations then set one up for each!

Include as much information as possible in your listing. Make it complete. Include your hours of operation, payment methods, actual address and phone number, etc.

Include a Keyword in your business name if possible – “Achieve National – An Omaha Training Company”

The easiest way to do quick keyword research for this purpose is to use the Google Keyword Tool: http://www.google.com/keywordtool.

While jotting down your keyword list, pay attention to:

1) Keywords that actually match what you do.
2) Local Monthly Searches
3) Competition (the less green, the better!)

An example of a local market keyword search is “Auto Repair Nashville” or “Nashville Auto Repair.” I would choose the highest volume keywords that pertain to your business first, and worry about the competition rating secondly.

Create categories based on your most searched keywords – ie/dallas collision repair or dallas auto painting. You can create 5 categories total, but just one has to be a Google specific. The others you can create using keywords and your city/state.

Obviously include keywords in your description. I recommend including your 10 best and make sure to end your listing with your city and state. Your description should convey what you’re going to do for the customer. Make it enticing and trustworthy sounding, not simply a place to boast about how long you’ve been in business and how successful you are.

Upload photos and videos.

Put in a “specialty item : ” in Additional Details at bottom of setup page.

You can add several specialty items. Whether you truly offer a specialty item or not ALWAYS add Areas Served..Kansas City, MO, Kansas City Metro Area, Overland Park, etc., all in a row in one blank within the specialty item area. This can help you gain regional coverage outside your city!

MAKE SURE TO HAVE AT LEAST 5 REVIEWS ADDED ONCE YOUR LISTING IS PUBLISHED! Bear in mind, publishing could take several days because Google will want to verify your listing over the phone or by a mailed postcard.

Once published, jot down the link to your listing and ASK YOUR BEST CUSTOMERS TO LEAVE YOU REAL REVIEWS – NOT FAKE REVIEWS: Google can tell by the IP address when reviews come from the same PC or office network. The reviews should come from individual customer’s computers!

You could even put this on your website, in emails to customers, or on your Facebook page.

“IF YOU LIKE THE WAY WE SERVED YOU TODAY, PLEASE GO TO AND LEAVE A REVIEW!”

Add a Google Coupon right on your Google Places page. Google makes this easy to do and it’s effective!

Create Backlinks to your Google Places listing

Use IMAutomator, OnlyWire, Reddit, Digg, FolkD, StumbleUpon, Mixx, Hubpages, squidoo, etc. Most people know to create backlinks to their site, but rarely to the Google Places Listing. So this little secret will give you a big edge over time.

Google Places Check List:

1. Keywords in Company Description
2. Add Photos
3. Multiple Reviews
4. Add a coupon
5. Add Video(s) – optional
6. Build Links to your listing
7. Keywords in Company Name (optional)

To make things easier check out #1 in Google Places in 34 Days for quick video training on how to maximize your listing.

Easy SEO with Business Listings & Google Map Optimization

admin — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:12:35 +0000

If you’re business competes at a local or regional level, failing to manage your Google Places listing is equivalent to throwing money in the trashcan. Getting listed on Google Maps is not only extremely effective, it’s free and easy! But for this to be at all worthwhile, you should have a very good handle on keywords. I highly encourage you to read our post on keywords if you have not already done so.

Optimizing your Google Maps listing has become one of the most most critical elements to any local SEO strategy. Why?

For starters, organic links (map listings & natural search results) are considered the most trusted, receiving 65-70% of all clicks versus the paid listings which show up to the side or colorfully highlighted at the very top of the search page. This makes your appearance in the Google Maps listing of the utmost importance and here’s why.

The Google Map listing physically covers up to and eye-catching 30% of the first page of search engine results for many keyword search terms, making it most likely for potential clients to use the map listings to connect with local businesses. Don’t believe me? Go to Google dot com and type in “Dentists Nashville TN” and see what happens. You want your business to show up high in those map listings!

The fact is 66% of Americans choose the Internet as their main source for local businesses information and up to 80% make it a point to choose businesses close to home. So, the odds of pulling in local customers are stacked immensely in your favor simply by showing up high on Google Maps listing.

Before we go any further, I want to share a priceless resource with you about how to get your Google Places listing to the top of Google Maps. I’ve met and studied under this genius internet marketing guru and have nothing but positive things to say about his products.

What is Google Maps Optimization?

When buyers look for services like yours on Google, the three to seven most relevant local businesses are displayed on a the map listings at the top of the Google search window for relevant keyword searches.

You want your business high on this list anytime someone searches for key terms that describe your type of business and that bring up a Google maps listing.

Before creating a Google Business Listing, pull out your list of keywords you’ve developed using the keyword tactics I presented earlier. Otherwise go back and review that section or at least brainstorm and jot down a list of potential keywords that come to mind. Then use Google Adwords tool for additional ideas and fine tuning. As discussed in my keywords post you want to focus on terms that have high search volumes but also low-medium competition.

Ten strong keywords are sufficient for your Google Business listing ad. Expecting to get listed in the Google Maps for more than that would be unreasonable. By using the Google keyword tool you can discover alternative keywords and check search volumes for each.

Within a Google search window, I like to check each keyword option out by doing a search with and without local modifiers (ie/ “Dentist” vs. “Dentist Nashville TN” or “Nashville Dentist”) to thoroughly evaluate whether or not a Google map will pop up or not. The ones that do should then be considered primary for the purposes of creating your Google maps listing.

“Chiropractor Nashville TN” has a high search volume and brings up a Google Maps listing.

“Sciatica Nashville TN” has a high search volume but does not bring up a Google Maps listing. Despite its high search volume, I would not count on the term “Sciatica” to help because it does not bring up a Google maps listing. It’s okay to include such terms in your description for viewers to read once they arrive at your listing but not with the expectation that a Google Maps listing will suddenly appear for that particular term.

Furthermore “Sciatica” without the local modifier brings up random sites irrelevant to local competition whereas “chiropractor” without the modifier does show some local sites in my area. To take away the guesswork, always always always test your search term with the local modifier in a Google search.

Once your list is in place, it’s time to create a business listing with Google also known as “claiming your listing.” Having a Google account or Gmail account is required to do this…setting up a new account is easy enough to do if necessary.

Note that there are very rare cases in which a competitor or or someone with devious intent may have already “claimed your address” which means you won’t be able to register your business with Google using that address unless you “reclaim” it. One way to check is to go to Google Maps, type in the name of your business and city (“Wal-Mart Nolensville TN), look for your listing on the side bar, and hit the “more info.” You can then click the edit link which will bring you to a new page. There is a “claim” link in the upper right corner where you can claim this as yours. Google will want to verify the change via telephone so be prepared to answer your phone when they call.

We can assist you with this process in addition to fine tuning your listing according to keywords (market trends) in your line of business. Including a group of quality keywords in your description is critical but you want to write your description in natural readable format. Here’s an example of a description that’s worked for one of my clients.

“Affordable pizza delivery in Nashville, TN. We offer gourmet pizza, gluten free pizza, and pizza catering to all local areas.”

Any time you complete any directory listing like this it’s important to complete the hours of operation, payment methods accepted, description of services you offer, categories, etc. The 5 categories you enter are also important.

Much like other aspects of SEO, Business Listing and Map Optimization takes 2-3 months and to take affect and requires patience. I’ve seen instant success with some businesses whereas other SEO efforts have taken several months. Stay true to the methodology and the results will come in due time.

To get a head start, we will highly recommend a cost-effective business directory discussed in more detail on our next post so you should definitely read on.

We also have a few other tricks up our sleeve so get in touch if you’d like us to optimize your map listing for you.

Never ever ever consider overstuffing your listings with keywords or trying to add multiple listings to cover two cities. Simply write the listing for a human reader and potential customer. Also do not change your business name or edit your listing to add seasonal or temporary keywords, multiple phone numbers, etc. Just leave it alone as is. Google considers these sorts of activities spammy behavior.

Always be sure to use your doing business as (DBA) name and be consistent across Google, Bing, and Yahoo, as well as any other directory resources you subscribe to online such as Manta, InfoUSA, Yelp, Merchant Circle, etc. If your business is located in a small town next to a big town where you prefer to be listed, then get a business PO Box in that town and use that address for every directory listing you post online. Otherwise count on the fact that searchers will ultimately search various areas for what they want. If your business has multiple locations, I suggest creating a Google account and business listing for each so as not to water down your listing. Google generally frowns upon creating multiple listings from the same account.

Always upload as many pictures and videos as you can in these listings. Using a keyword-rich naming convention (such as “ABC chiropractor nashville tn.jpg”) is important for pics and videos.

Yahoo and Bing offer similar business listing solutions which you should definitely check out. Come right back to this page when you’re finished because we have more to cover .

Next you’ll learn about one of the best kept secrets for improving SEO and gaining quality traffic. Let’s move on to the topic of sitemaps and indexing. This is one of the easiest steps to boost your positioning that many overlook.