The Search Engine Giant, Google, is always keen on delivering the best possible results to the users in the minimum possible time for their Search Queries. People looking for Services in the local area are lucky to have “Google 7 Pack” in its search results to get the detailed information about the service providers. Now, if you have a local business and are looking for more customers, it’s the high time you should create and optimize “Google Local Listing”. To create a Google local listing, just log in with your Gmail account and visit www.google.com/places to get started.
If you already have one but customers are still not showing up, it is likely that your Local listing is lacking optimization. Following are 7 Easy Steps to optimize your Local Listing to drive more traffic to your website and customers in your premises:
1- Follow the Google Places Quality Guidelines: Google wants you to meet all its Quality Guidelines for Google Places. You can find these Quality Guidelines at https://support.google.com/places/answer/107528?hl=en. Make sure you are representing the business correctly both in online and offline mode.
2- Completely fill all the Details about your business in the Local Listing: It is always recommended to make your listing as complete as possible so that you can attract the searchers. Your job doesn’t end by filling all the mandatory fields but you must also fill the optional fields.
3- List your business in proper business Category: Google’s Places Listings are categorized so that the users find the type of business they are looking for. It is very important to select categories that perfectly explain your business and that will resonate with your potential customers.
4- Write Meaningful and compelling business description in the listing: It is always important to write an enticing and attractive Description of your business so that whenever your business appears in Google Local Search Results, Users are compelled to click at your listing/website.
5- Include Rich Content like Images and Videos about your business: Rich Media like Videos and Images always play an important part in getting traffic and attracting visitors. Google now gives you the option to add three types of Images to your business listing. It is always advisable to take full use of these options.
6- Encourage Customer Reviews and Feedback on your Listing: Google takes into account reviews and feedbacks your business has got on the listing. You can encourage your customers to drop their experience in the form of reviews and feedback to increase the impact.
7- Integrate your Listing with Google+: Google is encouraging business with Places listings to integrate those listings with a Google+ for Business account. Integrating Places with Plus will give your business the ability to:
- Create posts that customers can read
- Respond to reviews
- Set a cover photo
The process is as simple as creating a Google+ profile with the email address associated with your Places account.
Drop your suggestions/comments in the comment box to share what you have got with your Google Local Listing.
