Being Found On Line – Where To Start

In the ‘good old days’, if a consumer wanted to find someone in their local area, they would go to their Yellow pages, flick to the appropriate section and there would be a list of potential suppliers.  Businesses could get extra exposure by buying bigger advertisements or even really go for it and advertise on the back cover. Nowadays, things are a little different!
People have substituted Yellow Pages and are using the internet to find their suppliers – and not only do they now get a list of potential suppliers, but they get much, much more information as well. Google claims that about 20% of all searches are locally based – which is an awful lot of searches.  By way of contrast, the yellow pages (and other directories like Thomson) have suffered massively.
What Google is trying to do with Google Places is similar to the way it approaches the web in general. Google is a business that ‘maps’ the online world and makes it easy to find things. Google Places is less about the online world and more about the real world. Google Places is about mapping the real world and finding all the points of interest that physically exist – and you can help it by claiming your Google Places account.

Well, first of all it’s free! But more importantly than that, it will help you get found online – and thus bring a whole new pot of customers to you. Customers who weren’t even aware of your existence! Google Places are listed on the front page of Google and so merely by completing your listing you can say you are on the front page of Google!  Anyone searching for the business area you supply will immediately know who you are and your contact details – surely that’s a great reason to make sure you have your Google Places account claimed?

Google has already done a reasonably good job of indexing local businesses, but it can only go so far and the more you can help them by completing your Google Places account and adding things like additional information, the type of business you are and other things like video and photos, the better.

Hopefully that explains the fundamentals of Google Places and you should now have a good idea of what it’s all about.  If you need more persuading, why not check out 10 reasons why you should seriously consider Google Places.

There is no special step by step solution or any guarantees with Google Places (or any other tool for that matter), as Google’s Secret Formula for ranking websites, be they local or in a normal search, is a closely guarded secret. However, through the application of a series of specific steps, you can give yourself a very good chance to succeed and improve your visibility:

1. Always Remember What Google’s Objective Is: Google is about helping searchers find what they want – so all activity is set up to help Google do their job better… if you are a family solicitor and someone locally searches family solicitor – to get found online, you need to let Google know you are a family solicitor…  as for who to do this…
2. Optimise Your Google Places Page: Your Google Places page has 2 main benefits (in fact everything online has 2 main benefits) and by completing your places page thoroughly you can:
• help People know who you are, where you are and what you do.
• help Google know who you are, where you are and what you do.
3. Align Your Website With Google Places: Although you can have a Google places account without having a website, a very powerful way of helping Google (and thus help yourself up the Google Places ranks) is to make sure you have a website aligned with your places account. Much as your Google Places information, a complete and relevant website will help both potential customers know more about you, as well as helping Google. Using ‘Search Engine Optimisation’ or SEO to fine tune your website will really help Google. (For more on SEO read – What is Search Engine Optimisation?)
4. Use Other Online Listing: Although Google Places is undoubtedly a very powerful tool (over 66% of all searches are done on Google), other listings online can again help Google, as well as help customers find you in separate online locations. Much like Google, there is a chance you are already listed there so claiming your listing and completing it will help get you even more visible. Listing engines include Thomson Local, Yell, Yelp as well as Yahoo and Bing (the other 2 main search engines used).
5. Work to Get Customer Reviews: Reviews are undoubtedly a very important part of Google Places and the more good reviews you get, the more Google not only gives you a push up the charts, but the more likely people will click on your business and get additional support in making the right decision (and choosing you). Asking for reviews on Google Places (and other sites) will set you apart from your competition and the more you integrate the process of getting reviews into every interaction with customers, the more you’ll get and the bigger the separation between you and the competition online. Once you’ve got a review, it doesn’t go away – so if no-one has a review and you’ve got 20, they need to work to get 20 to catch up (and while they are doing this – you’ll still be getting more!).

All of these are steps you can easily do yourself, but they can be time consuming and you may not be confident that you are doing things in the best way. If you feel you want to develop your online presence but want to hand it to an expert who can really make your online presence be as ‘loud’ as possible – then The Local Web Design Company Can Help. We are specialised in helping businesses get found online and our cost effective solutions will give you that solid foundation AND ensure that you know what to do to really make the internet work for you.

We truly believe that the best way for you to increase your chances of being found online is by working with The Local Web Design Company.