Formerly Google Places, Google+ Local is an incredibly powerful resource for any business looking to drive traffic to their online properties. In a nutshell, it allows businesses to create a listing (via a Google+ page) which will appear next to relevant, especially local, search results. Google+ Local is to business on the internet what the Yellow Pages used to be to companies who wanted to be available by phone. If you are marketing your business to customers in your local area, you will want to make sure that your company is properly listed.
[ Related: Is Social Media Good for Your Business? ]
When a customer is looking to solve a problem or purchase a product or service, they typically use the Google search engine to find one that might help them. For example, if a potential customer needs a personal injury attorney they will look to the search engines to find a lawyer in their local area. Google gives that person a highly visible and convenient listing of personal injury lawyers in their local area to choose from.
How Can My Company Benefit From Google+ Local?
If you have a lawn care business, you would definitely want to be one of those first listings that showed up when people were doing a Google search. A Google+ Local listing will show potential customers your location, contact information, web address, photos, reviews and any other information that you choose to share.
Making sure that your company can be found when somebody is looking for a service that your company provides will help you to see an increase in calls and traffic to your business. One of the keys in making sure that this happens is to claim your listing and write your descriptions using the keywords that customers would use to find your company. You’ll also want to make sure that you have tied together your other promotional tools like coupons, videos, website and pictures. A complete Google+ Local listing is vital to making sure that local customers find you.
What Does Google+ Local Mean for SEO?
Unlike the older Google Place Pages, your Local+ business profile WILL be indexed and show up in the search results. That means you will have to think about how you’re going to optimize your Local+ page for search to gain higher visibility.
[ More: 5 Ways To Generate Website Traffic ]
Google +1 buttons are used to gauge how good a product or service is based on strangers’ experiences. However, the +1 button goes beyond “Likes” and “Retweets” because it takes recommendations from impersonal to personal, and ultimately, enhances users’ searches. When Google+ users are signed into their account and run a search with Google’s search engine, friends’ and contacts’ +1 endorsements show up in their search results.
To make it simple, a well optimized Google+ Local page combined with good & relevant content should lead to better search engine rankings.
If you having trouble claiming you Google+ Local listing or need some help optimizing it, don’t hesitate to contact us today!
What Is Google+ Local and How Can Your Company Benefit From It?
