Google Places Optimization and Research
Is your business optimized so it shows up in Google’s 7 Pack on page 1?
The seven pack is the listings of 7 local businesses in your niche, along with a map placement on a Google Map embedded search listings result pages.
As you can see from the image to the right, if you want to be above the Organic/Natural Listings, you need to have a properly optimized Google Places listing. All your business needs is a real physical address to be listed in Google Places. But there is a lot more to it, than just entering a physical address.
80% of business comes from people who live 5 miles from your location. And with the decline of traditional advertising to bring in new clients and buyers, you can gain more exposure with an optimized Google Places page.
Buy claiming and optimizing your Google Places page, you’ll allow customers with smart phones to find you on the go, faster and easier. Don’t be a follower, be a trend setter by putting your business on the Google Map with an optimized page experience. Sad news is, only 7% of Google places have been optimized and are not found on page 1.
Most business owners do not know that Google in many cases, already has built a Google Places page for your business. And those that do know, have not filled out the data correctly so they are found by the searchers looking for a particular local service.
Another thing most businesses owners do not know is that having your business in multiple citation websites is considered to be one of the most important factors in getting your website to rank higher in Google’s newly modified local results section.
What are the Key Benefits of an Optimized Google Places Page?
- Offer coupons, discounts, and special offers on the fly, and change them as often as you like, for as long as you want
- Provide descriptive information about products and services, feed those hungry prospects with the information they are searching for
- List geographies served, such as cities, counties, and regions, in the mean time you consider opening another establishment down the road or closest town
- List hours of operation, show them that you are open on Sundays until 9PM or that your store will be open on the next holiday to better serve your customers
- Post imagery and YouTube videos about your business, with our help; you can give your business credibility and studies have shown that listings with images are preferred by prospects when searching online
- Customer testimonials and reviews, they will make your business stand out and we can show you how to ask for them and they will even help you make your business better
- Google Maps embed codes to add a Google Map to a website, trust me; your customers will love this one. They’ll be able to get directions from your Website or from your Google Places page
- Paying a fixed rate for yellow Google Tags to appear under the listing, this option is optional, but when used correctly; it can deliver amazing results because it shows different on maps and Google Places results
- Paying a self-determined rate for Google Boost Ads, where Google chooses which keywords your business will appear under
- Google AdWords offers an extension to local businesses, allowing an address to appear under an ad within Google-only search results
What does a Google Places Page Look Like?
Your business listing, also known as a Place Page, is a web page to organize all the world’s information for every place in the world. And we really mean every place: there are Place Pages for businesses, points of interest, transit stations, landmarks, and cities all over the world. As a business owner, you can verify your business and add content to your listing, or we can do research and recommend ways to optimize the site and do it for you.
Increasing Citations and Reviews
The key benefits to getting maximum results with Google places is to also be listed on other “citation” websites which collect reviews and post your address. These are secondary directory sites are Yelp, FourSquare, Yahoo Local, Local.com, Bing Local, GetListed, SuperPages, Infousa, and similar sites like these.
We can help spread your “link love” in these citation cites for you.
It takes a long time. As a matter of fact, there are DOZENS of citation sites (20 that really matter), that when filled in correctly, makes sure you are in the top of the 7 pack listing on Google search results pages. Doing this work yourself would take more than 10 hours and we know busy entrepreneurs don’t want to waste their time doing laborious tasks like this.
Have Negative Reviews or Citations – Can You Remove Them?
Seeing negative reviews on your places pages or citation pages does not make your business look good.
Review fraud is a problem as well, where competitors will post false reviews on your pages to make your business look bad.
And, you could have simply offered bad service (it happens) and a customer decided to post to the world about it, simply because they can.
So, what do you do about negative reviews and citations?
1. Ask your customers to give you POSITIVE reviews. Push the negative ones off the page, so no one sees them.
2. Reach out to those posting negative reviews and contact them. How can you make them happy?
3. Publicly respond to every single complaint you get in your places account. It shows you are trying your best to make people happy. Be nice, don’t get personal, keep it short and sweet, be a friend and thank the reviewer.
You can only flag inappropriate reviews (spam or incorrect locations), and Google will review them, but they say, most of the time, they won’t intervene. So negative ones need to be handled on a case by case matter.
Where to get More Help?
We charge a very reasonable fee for under $300 to do research and optimize for 20 citations, including maximizing the spaces that Google already gives you as a Google Places customer.
We’d love to get your business found, so you get more clients and more sales. Simply call us at 1-800-503-7563 or use the contact form below to request a call from us.