If at all, you are aware of what customer appeal and retention means for a small-scale business on a local basis. Creating a Google My Business listing and optimizing your site for local search is one of the best ways to achieve this goal. You may consider these steps in order to enhance your online presence and boost your local rankings for increased traffic and sales into your business.
This blog post will talk about Google My Business Listing and its creation its optimization with respect to local SEO services. Additionally, we will provide some advice and give a few pointers about how best to make use of websites.
What is a Google My Business listing?
A Google My Business listing is an easily accessible, free resource that lets you control how your business shows up on Google search and maps. There, you present to the public your company’s name, location, contact number, website, business hours, services, photos, and reviews. It can also enhance your relationships with the customers by enabling you to answer questions posed, provide feedback on the available products or services, post offer updates and other updates, and book an appointment, among others.
A Google My Business listing can help you:
Appearing on page 1 or page left of a Google search result will increase not only your visibility but also your credibility if someone searches through your business address in your area.
• Your listing information will be used by Google to figure out how relevant you are in respect to your locality, whereby proximity to a search user and credibility is taken into consideration.
• Ensure that more people and potential buyers can access your listing because this will drive more traffic and, hence, sales to your business.
Creating a Google My Business listing
It is easy and straightforward to create a Google My Business listing. Here are the steps you need to follow:
• Visit the Google My Business[cite:pagenum=“1”], log out from Google account. You can do this even if you haven’t got one as there is a possibility of making one for no fee.
• Enter your company name, then hit “Start Now”. You can also claim that business which is already on Google and then confirm your ownership. Otherwise, you can make a new listing and choose the category that reflects your business.
• Provide your physical address, delivery policy, delivery distance range as well and service radius and then proceed to the next page. You’ll be able to choose your region of work and possible delivery options.
• Please provide your business phone number as well as a link to your website. In case you do not own a website, use Google My Business free of charge, with which you can establish a site.
• Select one or more of the following ways to prove your ownership of the company. Your listing and confirmations are through call, email, postcard, or instant verification. After verifying your listing, you can now manage to optimize it.
A Guide to Promoting Businesses using Social media on a local Scale
Utilize social media to build some buzz in your local area and connect with your clients. Here are some ways to use social media to promote your business locally:
Develop and improve your social media pages on such commonly used platforms as [Facebook], [Instagram], [Twitter] or [LinkedIn], based on relevance for your business. Ensure that your profiles have completed and similar information such as the business name, address, phone number, website, logo and description. In addition, you can connect your profiles with your Google My Business listing and your site if you want to draw more viewers to your page.
Post informative and interesting material about you, your company, the items and services you offer, the deals you make, events, stories, as well as the consumers and clients you serve. These various kinds of content include photos, videos, stories, live streams, polls, quizzes, and testimonials. You can also take advantage of hashtags, keywords, and tags to get your content out there for everyone to see and be able to search easier. Some of the available tools that you could utilize for the same purpose are Canva and Lumen5.
Be active with your followers and potential customers – respond to their comments, messages, and reviews, answer their questions, and address problems. Additionally, you can participate in local communities, groups, or forums, where you can prove your competency and earn credibility as an expert by sharing your solution ideas. Additionally, seek collaboration and partnership with other local companies, influencers, or institutions, for the purpose of joint promotion of your products/services and reaching for their clients.
You can also track and gauge social media performance using Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, and Hootsuite. Such tools may assist in measuring and analyzing social media indicators, e.g., reach, engagement, traffic, conversions, and revenue. Similarly, you can use them as they help determine your strong points and shortcomings on social platforms and then improve your plan.