More & more customers are looking to Google to help find local business and many of them are doing so from their smartphones. Customers have been spoiled by technology and demand instant results when they search for a product or service they need. What does that mean to you as a business owner? It means that if a customer doesn’t know you – or the name or reputation of your business – they’ll probably call one of the first two businesses that appear on the search results page. Google backs this up, nearly half of the clicks – or the phone calls that come from appearing in those top spots – go to the companies appearing in the number 1 or 2 position of search results.
How can you improve your ranking in Local search? There are dozens of things you can do but the big three essentials are:
1. You gotta get right with Google.
Google is top dog, Bing is second but it’s a distant second. In order for Google to include you in the search results for “Dover Landscaper” or “Parsippany Dentist” you have to play ball. This means you have to create a Google + business page that includes your correct company name, address, phone number. You’ll also want to list your hours of operation and other important facts a potential customer would want to see. Another Google property is the #2 largest search engine on the Internet and that’s YouTube. (surprised?) It would serve you very well to have a video or two about your company on YouTube then map it back to your Google + page – Google likes to see your info on different sites all linked together. Google Maps is another very important addition, does your business come up in Google Maps when you enter (whatever it is you do) near (wherever you operate your business)?
2. You gotta fix your website.
You probably have a website. It may be four pages, it may be 100 pages, regardless, if you have one you’re ahead of the game as Google cited in a December 2012 study, 60% of small businesses in New Jersey don’t have a web site! Why then do you have to fix your website? Recall how Google likes to link the multiple places your company info appears on the Internet all together? You have to make sure that every page on your web site has the NAP! The NAP is your (company) Name, Address and Phone number, a good place to put this is in a footer so it’s in the same place on every page of your site. Google likes this and will reward you with higher rankings. Your customers will like this and will reward you by calling or visiting because they won’t have to search your site for this very basic info. There are a few more adjustments you’ll want to make but getting the NAP straightened out is an excellent first step.
3. You gotta socialize your web presence.
By ‘socialize’ I don’t mean you have to Tweet 14 times a day about your company (although that’s not a bad idea…) there are a large number of sites that customers use to find companies like yours beside Google, Bing or Yahoo. A homeowner looking for a plumber might visit Angie’s List or a tourist visiting New York might look for a restaurant on Citysearch – the point is there are hundreds if not thousands of these sites that customers use daily to find companies like yours. Typically listing your business on one of these sites is simple, you create an account, enter your NAP, hours of operation, a little blurb about your services or products and you’re all set. The challenge is it’s hard to determine how many of these entries you’ll need to advance your rankings in search – might be 20 or it might be 200, there are a lot of variables. The ONE THING you need to be absolutely certain of when you enter your business into these sites is you always use the exact same Business name, address and phone #. That might sound obvious but it’s surprising how a different abbreviation (Avenue, Ave, Av) in different sites can throw Google off the trail.
These are three suggestions to help you advance in local search rankings, let me know if I can answer any questions for you by clicking the “Contact Me” button above.