Many of us use online tools such as Google Maps to find local businesses. Have you looked up your business lately? If you are a sign company in Orange County for instance, when people search for “signs in Orange County” does it come up? How do you look compared to the competition? Do you have a website?
Some people charge businesses to do this for them... which is silly since it is easy and free! Here is how to update your listing for the first time…
- Navigate to http://www.google.com/local/add to get to the Google Local Business Center. This is where you can manage your business listing.
- Register for a Google account if you do not have one.
- Sign in to the Google Local Business Center
- Follow the prompts… Make sure to provide as much information as possible, including images and categories.
- Google will then try to verify your listing by phone or postcard to make sure you are actually supposed to be making changes to that business.
Now that was Pretty painless (if not give me a call) and free…and possibly worth thousands of dollars to your business!
To really outshine your competition your business listing needs a few things:
- A link to your website so they can find out more about your business.
- An image that strengthens your branding and helps them remember you, or that portrays a positive emotion.
- Positive testimonials - you can send the link to your business listing to your happy clients to add a review.
- Connected to as many categories that fit what you do.
- Your business name includes what you do (ex: Fred's - Amazing Neon Signs)
- Make sure to remove any old listings that contain old addresses or old phone numbers for our business.
- Make sure your website has your business address and phone number as text at the bottom of your website.
- If you have several locations add (or take control of) each location as a separate listing.
Any other ideas on how to maximize your listing? Let me know in the comments.
