Want a break? … Create an unfair advantage? …you must take action to stay ahead of the masses…
1 in 5 Google Searches has Local Intent
That’s 100 million local searches on Google per day
… and there’s very little competition if you take action and do this right…
With recent changes in Google, there’s an opportunity to claim free traffic for your local business.
Who this is for: Businesses that have face-to-face transactions either at your office or in their homes. Applies to both retail and service businesses. This is not for you if don’t do face-to-face sales or if you only do online sales.
There are over 10 million businesses in U.S. and only about 20% have claimed this. This is only going to get more competitive and Google will probably start charging for this. Might as well take advantage of this mini gold rush while it lasts.
Here’s the scoop: Approximately 20% of searches are local searches. Google has now segmented searches down to a local level and it’s wide open. Most local businesses have no idea how to market themselves to take advantage of this. At this moment, the potential is huge.
You can get free traffic to your website by using Google Places. Don’t have a website, not a problem. You can put coupons, offers, incentives. You can put reviews in. And you have the freedom to change these at any time.
How it works:
Google wants to reward searchers by finding local businesses that are relevant to what they are looking for. Google looks at your IP address and gives you searches based off of where you are located.
This is how Google explains it: “Each business listing on Google is in fact a giant ‘cluster’ of information that we get from a few different places: Yellow Pages, for example, as well as other third-party providers. However, the basic information that you submit through Google Places is the information that we trust the most. This means that it will appear instead of any basic information that we get from anywhere else. Google Maps and Google Places are a free service, so there’s no way to request or pay for a better ranking. We also can’t provide additional details about our ranking algorithm. We do our best to keep the details of the algorithm confidential in order to make the ranking system as fair as possible for everyone.”
3 key points:
- It’s relatively new
- It’s free
- It’s a great way to gain first page rankings… even if you don’t have a website
If you’re wondering what the heck I’m talking about, see the picture below. It’s the 7 businesses showing up next to the map. (Want to sound smart? – this is called the “7 Box”)
This is limited by Google: Only 7 people will show up in your category in this box.
Your competitors can eat your lunch if you’re NOT there!
Yes, that’s right, you can get ranked on Google pretty quickly with or without a website.
How? Get a Google Places page, optimize that page and rank on Google for your keywords. The key qualifier is your business location. You can only rank where you have a physical location.
This is still fairly new for both Google and for businesses. Google is trying to rank local businesses and they are experimenting with their algorithm. Local businesses are coming in and don’t know what to do. Google is recommending categories and search terms and people blindly accept them. There are lots of holes. And with lots of holes, there are lots of opportunities.
When setting up your page, keyword research is important. If you are not familiar with Google’s External Keyword Tool, then go over there and look for keywords that are a match for your business are getting traffic on. Also look at what others in your industry are ranking for. Look to see where the holes are.
Go to Google Places. Google will create a place page for you. Fill out your information. Take control of it or “Claim it”.
You can also put in photos and videos on your Google Places page. Put a picture of your business, description of what you do, a picture of you helps (unless you are not photogenic!). Remember to do your keyword research and rank for what’s most relevant to you.
They also have built in analytics so you can see your performance over time.
With this free tool, you can go from 0- 10,000 impressions in a month and start getting 5, 10, 100, 1000 clicks and visitors to your website in 30 days depending on your business. You can even see if people are clicking for driving directions.
It’s a cool tool. Go check it out. Go to Google Places and get started easy as 1-2-3…
- Get your listing claimed
- Do keyword research – critical step. You can only go after 5 keywords at a time. Google has suggestions, you don’t have to go after these. Most people mess up here. Go after keywords that are highly relevant to your business that are being searched. Also pay attention to how much it costs per click. This is an indicator of your ability to make money with that keyword
- Monitor and adjust
Your listing also shows up on smartphones now. Imagine what can happen.
The world will catch on soon.
Here are some of the biggest problems:
- didn’t set it up right
- can take a few days to a few weeks to get it setup
- didn’t do keyword research right
- 1st people to go after this are the map spammers. Google is going after these. If you setup your page wrong, they will flag you as a map spammer and you have to wait weeks until they have time to get back to you. If you are flagged as a spammer, you will get tagged and deleted. Google is understaffed. You will have to wait weeks. And they are not known for their customer service or responsiveness.
- if you use tracking numbers, like 800 numbers, Google doesn’t like that
Ever said “I wish I knew then what I know now”? Well, a little bit of planning and research now will shortcut the system, avoid getting slapped by Google, and get you free targeted local traffic.
To show up will take 1 week – 1 month depending on competitiveness.
If you want help with this, you can get a free 15 minute consultation to help you get started. Or if you want this done for you, contact me and I can get you on the first page within 30 days for only $197.
Blessings,