Claiming (Verifying) Your Google Plus Local Pages
This is one of the quickest and easiest ways to improve your search engine rankings and gain more exposure for your business. Since many of your competitors may not have their Google Plus Local listings properly verified and optimized, it is a way for you to get an easy and quick advantage in your local market.
There are several advantages to claiming your Google Plus Local Pages and why it is so important.
- Your page must be owner verified in order for your customers to leave reviews and ratings.
- You will have the ability to add pictures, videos, hours of operation, offers, and other details. It is also important to choose the most appropriate and specific categories that apply to your business. This will ensure that your listing is complete and accurate.
- By claiming and properly optimizing your Google Plus Local listing, your business’s information has the potential to be displayed by Google’s other services such as Google Plus, Google Maps, and so on. This increased amount of exposure does not cost you anything. With your page verified and properly optimized, you can get your business in front of more qualified prospects looking for the products and services you sell, with no additional cost to you. It’s all about getting more customers.
- The major search engines, and especially Google, are putting an increased effort to match the search results with the user’s location to provide more relevant results and improve the end-user experience. This means that when someone in your local area searches for the products or services you offer, having your Google Plus Local listing properly claimed and optimized will give you a better chance of appearing prominently in the local search results. This means more prospects are likely to visit your business which means more traffic and more revenues for you.
Google places a great deal of emphasis on accurate and consistent name, address, and phone number (citations) whenever your business is mentioned. Of all the online platforms, their own properties of course are considered most relevant, so the Google Plus Local listing is a great place to start. If your local business information is incorrect or inconsistent, it can certainly make you appear less credible as well as decrease your local search engine rankings.
Other Important Advantages
There are other advantages to claiming your Google Plus Local business listing. Besides the potential for increased website traffic and visitors to your business, a verified local listing also prevents someone else, maybe even a competitor, from hijacking your local business listing. It is critical that you maintain control with regards to how Google displays your local business listing.
Depending on the type of search, Google may also display a horizontal strip of local businesses above the regular organic search results. This is THE best advertising spot you could ask for and it doesn’t even cost you a penny.
More importantly, it also displays the number of reviews that have been left by your customers and the average star rating. In order to be included, your business’s Google Plus Local listing MUST be claimed and properly optimized. It really is that important. In fact, Myles Anderson, CEO of Bright Local, stated in their findings from the 2012 Local Consumer Review Survey, that “72% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.”
Nearly Everyone Goes Online to Find the Products and Services They Want to Buy
There was a survey done nearly 4 years ago by BIA/Kelsey that indicated 90 percent of consumers use the search engines when looking to purchase a product or service. That number does not even include Internet Yellow Pages or similar types of directory sites. I’m sure those numbers are even higher today with the increasing number of people accessing the Internet through their smart phones or other mobile devices.
So the bottom line is your business MUST have a verified (claimed) Google Plus Local listing. You must also take maximum advantage of every available tool and feature that Google provides to properly optimize your listing which can improve your search engine rankings and get you more customers. You can certainly perform all of these important tasks yourself, assuming you want to take time away from your business to research how to do it, implement the changes, and hope they are correct.
Your other option is to hire the professionals at Your Marketing Crew to do it all for you. Our experienced team can verify and optimize your listing in the best manner possible, with very little of your time required. That way you can focus on what you do best, which is running your business and servicing your customers and/or clients. It just so happens you can get it done for less right now.
LIMITED TIME OFFER
We are currently offering a $100 discount on this professional service to help you gain more exposure, website traffic and customers for your business. Our normal price is $297 but if you visit our special discount offer page, we will provide this very comprehensive service for a one-time charge of only $197.
This special reduced price is part of a test marketing campaign and once we have enough data, it will revert back to our normal price, so we apologize in advance if you missed out on this great discount.
Your Marketing Crew provides web design, SEO and many other forms of Internet marketing services for many small business owners in the local Tampa Bay area as well as nationally. Give us a call today at 727-210-5046 if you would like to learn how you can use the Internet to get more leads, customers, and profits.
