Local Search: Location, Location, Location

It's not just about real estate anymore (then again, even real estate is not just about real estate anymore but more on that in a future post.) If you're a business that trades in a defined local market area, your location is becoming the critical factor in customers finding you in the search engines, particularly Google, who over the last several years has been elevating local results displayed on the map.

And now, with Google+ Local (formerly Places) that emphasis is even greater. If those reasons aren't enough, more than half of Americans now own smartphones (a percentage that's expected to grow rapidly) and some projections say that in a couple of years nearly 75% of all searches will be conducted on smartphones. Local search results dominate the returns on these devices.

Now that I have your attention (or have at least inundated you into submission with facts) here are a few simple things you can do to improve your performance in local search:

• Claim your Google Places/Google+ Local listing here if you haven't already done so. Don't let the changing terminology confuse you, everything you will see still says Places when you work with your listing, even though Google has "transitioned" these listings to Google+ Local. It's free, but you'll have to open up a free Google account if you don't already have one. Google will also take you through some steps to verify that you're the business owner. 
• Whether you're just claiming your listing or are updating an existing one, fill out the listing as completely as possible, even though some fields, such as the additional information fields, for now don't appear on the Google+ Local listing. 
• Choose the categories that most closely relate to your business. Although you can enter a custom category, you're better off going with the existing Google categories. 
• When describing your business, use the words that you want your business to be found for, the words that people search on. And that's not to be confused with your business name. It's what you do, not who you are that counts here. 
• Upload several photos if you have them and also video if you have any into those sections. Get your customers to review you on Google+ Local, ideally they should be positive ones. 
• Update your listing from time to time; adding new photos is a great way to do this. There's also a "share an update box" you can use but currently that does not appear on the Google+ Local page either. 
• On your website, it's best to have your address and phone number in text on your home page. Having variations of the city you're in combined with your keyword variations won't necessarily get you there. 

Or you can have us do it. We'll set up and optimize your Google+ Local/Places page for just $149 or we can optimize for local search both your Google+ Local/Places page and your website for just $399. Click here to learn more about our local marketing special.