For small businesses selling goods or services locally, having a strong presence with search engines is becoming more of a “must have” versus a “nice to have.” More than 75% of searches on mobile devices are made with the intention of finding a local resource. For companies who haven’t harnessed the power of local search, it could be the kiss of death. Okay… maybe that’s a tad too dramatic. But at the very least it’s an incredibly important avenue for finding new customers.
So much so that small business owners and marketers alike are spending more time making sure that they’ve claimed their rightful place in local search results. It’s sales and marketing 101. Customers have to find you to buy from you and “finding you” usually starts with an online search. Sounds easy enough, but it’s not always so thanks to the way search engines rank sites. Even if you’re the number one seller of widgets in the Kansas City area, you may not necessarily be in the consideration set for new prospects if you can’t crack the top half of page one for “widgets” when that phrase is punched into someone’s iPhone as they’re heading out on a spur-of-the-moment shopping spree.
But, as is often the case, business owners are long on overdue tasks and short on free time to make sure their online presence is intact. So where to start?
The Value of Google Places for Local Search
If you have a physical location (or several), start with claiming your Google Places listing. It takes about five minutes to claim your business’s information, pick your primary categories and write a brief description. Notice that “categories” is plural. You’re allowed to select several, although you are restricted to existing categories as defined by Google. Think about what customers are searching for and how that relates to the services that you provide. For example: widget repair. Although your bread and butter might be new widget sales, there’s additional business to reach by selecting widget repair as a category. Whatever your niche, there’s a category (or several) just for you. And if you don’t see that perfect fit, just select the closest match and make sure that your written business description is full of the keywords and phrases that best describe what you really do. These descriptions can impact local search results as well! The image below will give you a better example of just where these listings appear in search results.
Keep in mind that you’ll still have to verify this information once Google sends you a postcard. It can take up to two weeks, but normally comes in less than five days. Once verified, you’ll populate in local search returns within 24 hours. For most businesses that don’t have more than a few competitors in their general area, this is a golden ticket to Page 1 ranking for at least one or two of your most important keywords.
Google Places gets all the attention, but don’t forget to do the same for Bing Places for Business and Yahoo Local Listings as well. For most clients that we’re engaged with, anywhere from 80% to 90% of their search traffic comes from Google… but a one-time five minute investment can net you incremental search traffic for years to come from these search engines (and, for what it’s worth, we’re betting that more and more people slowly migrate to Bing due to their focus on privacy and and an improved user experience). It’s definitely a worthwhile use of your time.
The Hidden Power of Google+
Now, back to Google. Once you have your Google Places account in place, you can use this same dashboard and interface to create a Google + page for your business. In terms of social networks, most people don’t prefer to use this outlet and instead focus their time on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. These are all great outlets that drive engagement, promote your brand and connect you with important decision makers. However, a sure-fire way to improve your rank on Google’s pages is to set up a Google+ account, start adding contacts to your circles (groups of people or companies that you’d like to follow) and spend just a few minutes each day hitting “+1” on the content you like and posting your own interesting links or comments.
To really capture the value here, you’ll need to do just a little work with your website’s HTML code. If you’re capable of doing it yourself, set up rel=publisher code in the header of your home page. If you aren’t sure how to do this, contact your webmaster and have them handle this crucial step. Basically, this verifies that all the content on your website is tied to your Google+ account and makes you a “known commodity” in Google’s eyes. The more you use the network, the more valuable you are as a subject matter expert. You’ll see incremental gains in your search results simply by staying active on Google+. Again, just 5 minutes a day can have a very positive result for your local search presence. There’s some confusion about the difference between rel=author (for people) and rel=publisher (for business). A fairly clear-cut explanation is given in the short video below.
Speaking of sharing… reach out to other businesses, websites or online communities that are aligned with your business. Connect with others in your industry and city. If you create content regularly (insightful blog posts, detailed case studies, informative whitepapers, interesting infographics, etc) offer to share it with them. Since content is a hot commodity, chances are that you’ll get a positive response. Offer to guest post on their site or create custom content for them. Not only will you look like a superstar in your field, but you’ll also gain relevant backlinks that show value to search engines. Links are still an core driver for search rankings – primarily those that are from sites that are relevant either to your line of business or your geographic location. Looking for some good places to start? Your local chamber of commerce. Industry associations that you’re a member of. Local or regional business publications that you read. In the spirit of full disclosure, the outreach here should only take 5 minutes. Actually developing great content that’s worth sharing will take significantly longer. But the groundwork is laid with just a few minutes a day.
Admittedly, acquiring backlinks is a bit of an advanced concept. Getting it wrong does more harm than good when it comes to improving your search rankings. Trying to manipulate links to your site by stuffing anchor text into a bunch of free to acquire link sources or buying links from link networks can have severe repercussions. Hey, we’re all about making small gains in 5 minute increments… but creating junk links every day will eventually get your website in the penalty box. The risk far outweighs the potential rewards. If you want to purse an ongoing SEO strategy to beef up your local search results, hire a professional (or at least spend five good minutes a day reading up for a few months before attempting any manual work on your own site).
The Growing Role that Video Plays in Search
Want to get ahead of the curve? Start thinking about how to leverage the second largest search engine used today…YouTube. Many small business owners are surprised to learn that more search happens on YouTube than happens on Bing and Yahoo combined. Want to spend 5 good minutes? Search for your business terms on YouTube, and see if there are any local competitors. If not, this could be a competitive advantage. If there are, check out what they’re saying and how they’re saying it, and see what you can replicate. Again, the act of creating a video for your business and harnessing the growing power of video search is going to take some resources – both time and money – but educating yourself on the capabilities here is a worthwhile investment. It’s not uncommon for businesses to have video assets that live on their site, but have never made their way to YouTube. If that’s the case, this is another great use for a few minutes of your day. The infographic below paints a pretty interesting picture of just how valuable video is to search.
Don’t forget the people who are the reason for what you do – customers. More often than not, people who are thrilled with your product or service are willing to toot your horn. Sharing opinions with the world is what has woven social media into our social fabric. Many times, they’ll share what they think of you without you asking, but it never hurts to encourage those you know who love you to support you by submitting online reviews. Yet again, Google+ is an outlet that houses online reviews. Another site that exists solely to share user reviews is Yelp! A lot of people consider this a tool for restaurant reviews only, but virtually any business in your city has a Yelp! profile. Use this link to learn more about how and why this is an important tool for your business. Google is making great strides in compiling reviews from multiple sources and using this to provide aggregate reviews for businesses.
The Importance of Considering User Experience
Now more than ever, impacting local search results means getting back to the basics of user experience for your website. Websites that load fast, aren’t bogged down with meaningless code and offer superior mobile experience are gaining preference. Want to spend 5 good minutes that might impact the next 5 years of how your website operates? Research the topic of “responsive design” and see how this functionality might relate to your site. It’s still in relative infancy, but early adopters are seeing some benefits in search rankings, and more importantly in conversions (both in terms of customers submitted their information and those purchasing products online). During this process, take another five minutes to think about what your website says and how it says it. Can you expand some copy to have more details? Can you use existing printed materials as online collateral? Anything that keeps people engaged on your site longer, or leads them to a path of conversion, will ultimately improve your search results.
The bottom line here is that improving your local search results is a process. It takes time. And small business owners are notoriously busy people without a lot of free time to spare. So tackle things one step at a time. Start with claiming your “place” on Google, Bing and Yahoo. Systemically move down the list and the results will come. And if you need help managing any or all of the above, from reputation management to video creation to implementing a Responsive Design for your website, please drop us a line. We make small business miracles happen every day for all sorts of businesses both in Kansas City and nationwide.