Getting More Clients With Google Local

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Google Local is an awesome tool for searching on a local level. It is good for many people in business, including brick-and-mortar as well as online business owners and bloggers alike. It is well worth checking out and using the tool to benefit your business tremendously.

The ins and outs of Google Local

Google Local is a social media tool that allows businesses to interact personally online with their clients. It is a very powerful and effective tool when it comes to drawing new clients to those businesses. Additionally, there is a very strong possibility that you will rank higher on the search engines once you are involved with Google Local.

How do you go about signing up for Google Local?

There is a good possibility that your business is already listed on Google Local and you are not aware of it. If, in the past, even one person reviewed your brand and your offerings, you will probably have a listing on Google Local. One issue,  however, is that you won’t have any control over that listing in Google Local, at least, not until you approve it.

The first thing that you need to do is to search in Google Local for your business’s listing. If you immediately find your listing, you need to click on the link that you find there. Once you have done that, you will be able to edit your information and you will need to verify that you actually own your business. You accomplish this by supplying your telephone number to Google. That will be a regular mode of communication that Google will use. You also have the option of communicating by mail. Of course, the telephone is quicker and more efficient. If you see that you are actually not listed yet, it will be simple to make it happen. You need to create a Google ID and then follow the appropriate steps. If you happen to have another Google account that is already in existence, you can login using that account.

Getting the most out of your Google Local listing

Once you have established your Google Local listing, it is time to start leveraging it. When it comes to your profile (or your business’s information), you should approach it as though you were writing a blog post. In other words, you need to pay close attention to keywords and key phrases, your information should be informative (you should let everyone know about your business, including mentioning all of the areas that you cover). It is important for you to remember how important your branding is to your success with Google Local. For added excitement, you can add a graphic element to your profile, which will make your brand even more memorable. Make sure that you use the same information consistently wherever you have profiles. The consistency will make your clients remember you better and you and your business will be top of mind when someone is looking for what you offer.

What not to do with Google Local

As amazing a tool as Google Local is, there are some things that you should try not to do because those actions will not yield positive results for your business.

  • Don’t populate your Google Local listing with keywords: If you do that, your listing will seem like spam and it will not be received well.

  • Don’t be inconsistent with your address: Your address must appear exactly the same each time. You need to pay extremely close attention to that. That includes using abbreviations, etc. Also, it is not a good idea to use PO boxes.

Your status update must be effective every time

When you are on Google Local and you wish to update your status, it is easy enough to do. You can actually add an incentive right there, which will remain there for a month. During that month, the effectiveness of your business and your offerings will become apparent. That is the reason for that amount of time. If you use that feature in Google Local, you can track the effectiveness of your business easily.

Conclusion

Google Local is an amazing online tool. You should start to use it as soon as possible for your business and it is very important that  you become acquainted with all that it has to offer your business. It will help you to step up your local search visibility and effectiveness. Google Local has a great deal of power behind it and it is there for you to use so that your business can become stronger and more successful.

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Author

  • Michael Cohn

    Michael Cohn is the founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of CompuKol Communications. He has decades of experience in IT and web technologies. Michael founded CompuKol Communications to help small businesses and entrepreneurs increase their visibility and reputation. CompuKol consults, creates, and implements communication strategies for small businesses to monopolize their markets with a unique business voice, vision, and visibility. Mr. Cohn earned a Master’s degree in project management from George Washington University in Washington, DC; and a Master’s degree in computer science and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, NJ.