Digital Marketing for Local Businesses

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In today's video we're going to share the essential ingredients for creating the best small business website design you possibly can.

We'll include 13 reasons why you might need a website redesign. What your business wants in a website. What consumers want in a website. And what Google wants to rank a website so people can see you in the first place.

Mark Ambrose with Video4Ttraffic.com here, we help small businesses grow using digital marketing strategies and website design. Check out our website and blog for more tips and strategies on how to grow your local business.

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35 Marketing Strategies for small businesses.

Check out the full blog post here.

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How to verify and setup your GMB listing.

Hello and welcome. In this post you're going to learn how to verify and set up your Google My Business listing.

Mark Ambrose with Video4Traffic.com here, stick around and we'll show you the first steps towards optimizing your Google My Business listing so you can get seen in more local searches in your area.

So once you have your listing and your postcard from Google you will go in to verify it.

You go into your Google My Business listing, which is google.com/business.

You log in with your Google My Business account and then you will be taken to your Google My Business listing.

Here you will click on 'verify now' over on the lower right.

Click on that and put in the code from your postcard and it will verify you instantly. You'll be all good to go.

I'm using a fictional account, which is not verified and is suspended because i've used an address in San Diego that belongs to a UPS store.

You continue on.

In the upper right 'complete your listing now.'

Go in and add your hours, a business description, and profile photos.

When you click on that you'll be taken over to the left to the "info" menu item.

We'll start and add our hours open. You go in and your hours will pop up, you click on which days you're open and which days you're closed.

Next are the hours, you would type in a number, 9am let's say to 5pm. Make sure you get the AM and PM correct. Triple check it. 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

And you would just repeat for each day that you're open and closed.

We'll just say we're closed on those two days.

Okay so it took that task away right.

Now we're 65% complete.

Next we would add a business description.This is extremely important!

This needs to be a keyword researched description of your business.

In our sample I don't have anything written already. You would have already had this written.

This would be a keyword optimized description of your company and the services you offer, in the cities or area you service. You have 750 characters to use here.

You want to highly optimized this description. I've just got this, which is not going to cut it. So don't be doing that.

Underneath your plumbing... if we go to the "info" section. The Info tab on the left of your menu.

It's your company name. Now you want to add your subcategories. So add another category. Perhaps heating contractor, etc.

Next maybe you would do air conditioning contractor.

Again, you should have done category research already. Go back to see our video on how to do customized category research and make sure you're getting all the proper categories. We would not go past four (4) total categories.

And don't add any categories that don't exactly apply to your company. Google will either just remove the category or they could suspend your account altogether if they thought you were trying to game the system and attract and get listed for categories and searches that your business has nothing to do with.

So use these wisely and intelligently.

Go do category research and then fill it out here and just click apply.

This here is your service area.

The days you're closed. You can add special holiday hours here, so Labor day.

You can add new dates from here, Halloween, Thanksgiving, all the holidays.

Your website URL, you would add that in there.

Services... now again this is a very important section. This has a list of your main product or services categories. Then an item underneath it and a description.

For us it would be like web design and development and underneath we would talk about custom web design, etc.

You can add a price or not.

It will have a further keyword optimized description. Click "add" and you can have many items in  here.

I'll do an example.

Again, this would be a keyword optimized description for your service in your city.

This is a plumber actually,I'm sorry, this is our plumber... so lets say sink leaks instead. My bad Mr. plumber.

Lets use kitchen and bathroom sink repairs, whatever. Got it? No price. We add it.

Then you'll see... now you can see we have a heading.

So a category and then products and services below that with or without prices, and then you add another category if it pertains.

Then products under that. Okay so maybe it was toilet and sink leaks, slab and underground leaks. Water heaters would be a different section etc.

Very important. Okay? It's very, very important. That's your services tab there.

If you are a contractor and you have claimed your listing, meaning it was there and you have recently claimed it, and you find in this services section when you look at your listing online, live as a consumer, if you see the places.singleplatfor.com link, a link to that under your products and services.

That link goes to a third party partner of Google's.

Look for our video on how to remove that. It's a "Google Alert" video and it says places.singleplatform.com and how to remove it.

Because it will not show up here oddly enough. You have to do some customization to get rid of that. It's not as easy as just logging in here and clicking delete unfortunately. Google is kind of forcing some service businesses to call or figure it out. So some of them are going to call that company and do business with them.

Okay, next you can add attributes.

If you're a brick and mortar store, or if you ship. So amenities like gift wrapping, wheelchair accessibility, amenities like if you offer WiFi. You can select if you're a woman-led or veteran-led business.

Next on this screen is again a brief business description of 750 characters. It's very important that this is optimized to your keyword services and location.

You can add what date you started business.

Then start adding photographs and we'll talk about photographs right now I guess.

You want to upload a profile photograph, a cover photograph, then some product and service photographs.

If you have a video 30 of seconds or less that tells your story or customer testimonial videos 30 seconds or less. That's awesome.

So Google wants to see your profile and your cover for sure.

Then if you have video.

They want to see about five to ten product or service photos.

If you're a service company just put pictures of the team at work. Same with team photos these can be profile type of photos of the owner, manager, the staff at work, or just posing for photographs.

You should have a minimum of five of those and then your identity is your profile, which is probably your logo, and a cover sheet which is sort of your best photograph that depicts what your company is about.

This could be also a graphic that your art department or somebody makes up for you, which is beautifully designed and lists your products and services available.

And this home section and what options you have available will vary depending on the type of business you are.

We're showing a service business. So these are the options available. There would be different options available, if you are different kind of business.

Going back over to the left, we're gonna go down to messaging, click on that and because our listing is not verified and it's also suspended this is not available, but you would simply click on that and allow, if you wanted customers to be able to text message you directly from your google listing, you would turn on this feature and put in your the phone number that's to receive those text messages.

If you're going to do text messaging you need to be ready, willing, and able to reply quickly. You will be judged by how fast you are replying.

Okay, so that's how you start your verification and setup of your Google My Business listing and get yourself on the road to optimizing this listing, which we will have follow-up videos on.

If you like what you heard, please hit the like button if you're on social media and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more tips and strategies on how to grow your local business.

Thanks for watching!

Create a great day!

P.S. Visit our website blog for more tips and strategies on how to GROW your local business.

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How do I add my business to Google maps?

How do I register my business on Google?

How does Google verify my business?

In this video we're going to answer those questions and provide step-by-step on-screen directions on how to find, claim, and create your Google My Business listing.

Google Maps is the first thing people see when searching their phones for a local business (after the ads, if any).

Is your company listed?

Do you have control over it?

Is it active and are you optimizing it?

Watch the video and take control so that your company has a better chance to get seen in local searches for your kind of products and services.

Check out the post on our blog at Video4Traffic.com.

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If you have a service-based business, you need to pay attention to this update alert for your Google My Business listing.

Mark Ambrose with Video4Traffic.com here. We’re going to show you how Google may be diverting traffic away from your Google My Business listing to one of their third-party partnerships and it may be costing you prospects and business.

Stick around, we’ll be right back.

okay if you go into Google, and we’re going to use plumber in san diego ca as an example. We’re talking about the Google My Business listing here so it’s in the map. Click on “more places” and if we got to a particular plumber, in this case Howe’s Plumbing, we see this listing right here under “products and services” to places.singleplatform.com.

And if we click on that link we get taken over to their site places.singleplatform.com, a generic listing for this plumber, and it’s unclaimed. Can you see the “claim this men” button down below?

and over on the right by the address on the right, is again a link to “claim this business.”

If we click on either one we get taken over to the places.singleplatform.com website with a form now to fit out. A lead generation form for them to contact you about selling you their service, which posts your product and services menu on Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor, Yelp, Foursquare, and YP, which might be a great service for you but, you didn’t ask for that, or at least Bill Howe’s plumbing, heating, and air didn’t ask for it. I’ve already spoken with them about it.

And this is happening on many other service based business listings. Here’s another one for Core Plumbing, etc.

If I go for HVAC san diego as a search term I can see it’s happening in the air-conditioning trade also. Here’s another one, right here the Greater San Diego Air Conditioning. Same thing we see places.single.platform.com and if we click on it we go to the same generic listing on singleplatform.com’s website and again it’s unclaimed. We’re going to click on to claim it, and again we’re taken to the form tasking us for our contact information so they can contact us about their services for this listing.

So, this is an unwanted link in their GMB listing and if I’m a consumer and get taken to that page which is unclaimed, I’m probably going to get our of there and hit the back button a couple times and go look for another plumber right?

So you are losing, or potentially losing some customers because of this and perhaps more importantly you are not taking advantage of this link yourself. This should be your own link with product and service descriptions, which actually just shows up on mobile currently. I’m on a desktop but this singleplatform link shows on up desktop.

I called Google. If you go to Google.com/business that’s the home page for Google My Business and you can call them right here at this phone number 1-844-491-9665. I asked them what’s going on? I made a couple of calls in there to make sure I got the same story, and they gave me a method of getting rid of that link, which is a little bit of work.

But I really didn’t like that method. I will share it with you what they said. But first I then went over to singleplatform.com’s website itself. I searched and found this partnership page they have with Google My Business. They have a partnership and this page talks a little bit about that and again it’s about syndicating your menu across this platforms.

And they had a phone number down here, direct to themselves. I spoke with them and they told me they could remove the link from the listing on their end themselves without doing what Google told me to do. Or so they claim on the phone, which is what they gave me today.

So you can call this number if you have that link in menu, or your GMB listing rather. You can call this number to have them remove it. And based on the answers I got today, I would recommend you do that. The number is 1-929-254-0250. Tell them you have that link in your Google My Business listing and would like to removed.

Now Google instructed me to so something I don’t think I recommend, and three different calls to them confirmed their answer.

Go into your GMB listing, click on the Info menu item, then go to your categories in the blue area, and delete them all and add just “restaurant” as your only category and click “apply.” When you do, you’ll be able to scroll down and under services you will see that link to places.singleplatform.com link and be able to delete it and click apply again. Then go immediately go up to the categories again and delete restaurant and add your proper categories back and click apply.

Now that scares the heck out my because I’m getting rid of my categories. You would be getting rid of your categories and tentatively you’re a restaurant. I would fear… I asked Google if that would interfere with search rankings at all. Of course they said no, but I just don’t trust that at all.

So the simpler route seems to be to go the singleplatform.com and call them at 1-929-254-0250. They said they do NOT do that category change because they have the ability on their end to just delete it  because of their relationship with Google (it takes 48 hours). And that would be my recommendation.

Okay, so if you find yourself with this link in your Google My Business listing, do some research, call both companies. Call Google and call single platform and make the decision for yourself. That’s recommendation #1 for today.

Part 2 recommendation is once you have that .link cleared out of your Google My Business listing go back into your GMB dashboard, click on “info” and scroll down and you should have a “services” tab and in there, if you click on that, is where you can put in keyword optimized descriptions to the products and services you offer. You can also add price. If I come down here and I click on “add a section” I can add a section name and a product or service under that with a keyword description and price.

Okay, so do that. Those help you with keyword searches on the Internet and help your Google My Business listing rank. You should coordinate those with your categories which should be coordinate with your products and services.

Okay so those are our two recommendations for today. We hope you found value in that.

Thank you and create a great day!

Original blog post found at: https://www.video4traffic.com/search-engine-optimization/gmb-singleplatform-link/

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In this video you’re going to learn what the top 10 factors are to rank high in Google for local searches, according to over 150 of the world’s most respected search engine optimization experts.

We’re going to show you what Google wants and where to concentrate your online efforts in order to rank higher in local searches and grow your business.

97% of consumers searched online for local businesses. Source: BrightLocal Survey 2017.

If your business is not concentrating on getting prospects and leads from online searches, you’re missing out on a ton a business.

Three our of four people use Google for local searches. 3 out of 4 people use Google to search online for local products and services. Source: Smart Insights 2018.

So your company needs to be where everyone is and optimize its online content to rank high and attract people who are searching on Google.

You still need to be sure your company has, optimizes, and manages its listings in Bing, Yahoo, Yelp and dozens of other major business directories.

But most of your content needs to be designed to rank in Google.

With that said, what does Google want in order to rank your business and website?

Well, every two years Moz.com, which is a leading SEO software and analytics company, takes a deep dive into exactly that subject.

They survey over 150 of the top search marketing professionals on the planet for insights into the inner workings and most important weighting factors of local search rankings.

The data is then published as the Moz Local Search Rankings Survey Results for all to read, analyze, and utilize to their advantage. It includes factors that industry experts think are becoming more impactful, and any that are becoming less so.

It divides the data into two sections. The first is what it takes for your business listing to rank in the ‘local pack’, which is top three listings of Google Maps.

The second part if what it takes for your website to rank in the organic search results pages (SERPs).

First let’s take a look at some of the components of a local search engine results page (SERP) on Google so we’re all on the same page.

A typical local search results page (SERP) on Google looks like this. Ads, if there are any, will be on top, followed by Google Maps showing the top 3 Google My Business listings. These three listings are often called the local pack, local 3 pack, or snack pack.

Then below the Map are organically ranking websites, directories, magazines, etc.

A local search on a mobile device provides a similar format of ads, maps, and organically ranking websites and directories.

On mobile those Map listings stand out even more and have some slightly different features and buttons.

Before we get to the study results…

The #1 thing Google wants, and more importantly that your consumers want, is a responsive website that automatically fits any size screen; mobile, tablet, notebook, desktop, etc.

Mobile is now a little more than half of all online searches and growing fast. Google also now indexes all sites as “mobile first” meaning your site better be mobile-friendly or it will start dropping in search results and perhaps disappear altogether.

If your company website is not fully mobile-friendly, you’ve lost more than half your prospects already.

Next is Proximity, which is hugely important now.

Where you are on the earth is a major factor in what search results you are going to receive from Google and others, especially on a mobile device.

Google has gone hyper-local now and wants to serve up the closest relevant results to your location.

They’re sort of treating all local businesses as if they were a local pizzeria and giving the searcher the closest businesses to them.

The searcher may or may not want the closest accountant, doctor, dentist, carpet store, air conditioning repair company, etc. But that’s how Google now treats all local searches for businesses.

A search for any local business, product, or service is going to return three very nearby businesses in the local pack in Google maps.

There are some strategies you can employ to extend that reach in Maps, but they’re still limitations to that reach when it comes to Google maps.

Okay, with the importance of a responsive design and proximity stated, let’s dive into the ranking factors study and look at the results.

A fully completed and optimized business listing in the Google My Business (GMB) directory is the MOST important factor to rank in the local pack in Maps.

And its the 6th most important factor for your website content to rank organically.

So complete your GMB listing with store hours, payment types accepted, your website URL, researched categories and sub-categories, a keyword optimized business description and product and service descriptions, optimized photos, encourage photos and reviews from customers, and more.

Depending on your industry, this GMB listing can allow users to text your company, see your menu, book online reservations, link to an appointment calendar, and more.

It allows for several simple and easy ways for consumers to learn more about your business and contact you directly.

Links from other sites and blogs pointing to content on your website (a.k.a. backlinks) are the 2nd most important ranking factor for your GMB listing to rank in the local pack and the #1 factor for your website to rank organically.

Lots of links to your site and even your GMB listing tells Google that other sites think you’re an authority on the subject matter.

According to the experts in the survey, this ranking factor is growing in importance.

How do you get backlinks? Great content that’s promoted well will earn natural backlinks.

Backlinks can also be earned thru press releases, infographics, guest posting, email outreach, etc.

On-page SEO or search engine optimization is the 3rd most important factor for your GMB listing and the 2nd most important for your website to rank.

On-page, or on-site SEO is the architecture and coding of your website. It’s how topics and your menu are setup, the keyword phrases being targeted, the page titles, meta descriptions, heading tags, and image tags being used, etc.

It also includes schema markup and structured data code that talks to search engine robots in the machine readable language they understand. This not only helps with rankings but also with voice searches.

Next are citations, which are mentions of your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) on other third-party websites and directories.

The most important of these are business directories people use every day like Yelp, Bing Local, Yahoo Local, Superpages, TripAdvisor,  etc.

Google wants to see your business is accurately listed in dozens of the most important directories relative to your business, industry, and location.

It’s important these listings are accurate.

Many studies show that incorrect, incomplete, and inconsistent citations are the number one reason why your GMB listing and website doesn’t rank well.

Consistent citations are the #4 ranking factor for your GMB listing and #5 for your website.

Your NAP should be in the footer of your website, on your contact us page, and in structured data code on your location and contact us pages also.

Customer reviews are the next most important ranking factor and this signal is also rising in importance according to all SEO experts.

Google wants to rank businesses that have good reputations and customer reviews are a major way of how that’s measured online.

Your company must be proactive in managing your online business reputation.

Ask for customer reviews and monitor the Internet for reviews of your company.

Create a testimonials page on your website that makes it easy for customers to leave reviews.

Display customer reviews on your home page and product and service pages.

It’s also recommended to use Structured data code for aggregate reviews on those pages.

Aggregate ratings structured data code will give you a chance to get those review stars to show up next to your listing in a local search (called rich snippets).

Above is an example of one of our pages that is using that code. This is how the listing looks on the search results page.

Those stars get you more clicks and calls.

Next is behavior signals, which is also gaining in importance to Google.

These are metrics Google uses to see how much people like your site. Did the searcher find the information, answers, or solutions they were looking for?

It starts with the click-thru-rate (CTR) How many of the people who see your listing in the search results, actually click on your title?

The title you use makes a BIG difference. Treat it like an advertising headline and use words that will  make people want to click on it

The same goes for your meta description, which is the description right below the title.

Write compelling titles and descriptions.

Next is the bounce rate, which measures how many of those who do click on your title and go to your site, quickly hit the back button to return to the search results page.

That’s your bounce rate and it’s influenced by several factors; page loading speed, the title and heading they see, the page layout, graphics, video, etc. Is the page topical and does it provide the content they were looking for? Etc.

Next is dwell time. How long did the visitor spend on that page? Did they click through to other pages? How long did they spend on your site as a whole? Etc.

A quick tip for improving all of these metrics is to add videos to your webpages. Videos can help keep visitors there longer and improve your metrics of this important ranking factor.

The last major ranking factor are your social signals.

Is your business engaging people on social media?

Do you have branded pages on most of the major social media platforms?

Are you pushing content through them?

Is that content engaging consumers? etc.

In summary, these are the factors listed side-by-side and in order importance for ranking your GMB listing in the local pack and your website in the organic listings.

For your GMB listing it's GMB signals, link signals which is going in importance, on-page SEO, citations, customer review signals, behavioral signals, followed by Personalization signals.

Personalization measures the searchers own personal search history, what sites they’ve visited before, what businesses they’ve “checked into” online, what their phone’s locations services says about where they spend their time, etc.

Next is social signals.

For ranking your website organically the most important ranking signals are backlinks coming to your site. Followed by on-page SEO, then behavior signals. Personalization is next - have they been to the site before, etc.

Citation signals are next, followed by GMB listing strength, customer review signals, and lastly social signals.

Of course proximity always plays a major role, and your site needs to be mobile-friendly and responsive.

Those are your secret recipe ingredients for more clicks, calls, and customers and how to rank and even dominate local searches for your kind of business, products, and services.

You can download a summary of this in our FREE Guide on How to Rank Locally in Google by using the form below.

If you’re looking for a done-for-you service, we’re a full service digital marketing agency and would be happy to help your company. Click on this link to learn more about our fully managed SEO services.

Thank you for watching, listening, or reading. We hope you found value and actionable advice in it. If so, leave a comment down below on which part you found the most value in.

Until then, create a great day!

P.S. For more detailed tips and strategies on local search engine optimization see our in-depth Local SEO Guide.

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How To Do Keyword Research for Local Business (w/video)

Learn how to do keyword research and analysis for your local business.

Are you creating website and blog content that just isn't attracting traffic to your site?

Are you bringing in good traffic to your site but it's not creating good leads for your local business?

Are you targeting the wrong keyword phrases and don't even know it?

Watch our video or listen to our audio file on how we do keyword research and analysis for ourselves and our local business customers.

We show you our step-by-step process using free online keyword tools.

There are links down below to the free tools we use in the video. We've also included links to some paid tools that can help you find the keywords your competitors are ranking for, which may be valuable targets for your company to write content about.

You can use these tools to identify high-performance keywords for blog content. Use them to zero-in on the keywords with the best commercial intent in order to find people who need and want your products and services.

FREE Keyword Research Tools

Ubbersuggest (uncovers all the Google suggestions on keywords you type in. Includes estimated search volume, CPC, and how competitive that phrase is).

KWFinder (another great tool to find related search terms. Data includes estimated search volume, cost-per-click ad prices, and keyword difficulty metrics). This tool offers a few free searches per day and also provides a paid version for unlimited searches.

Answer The Public (find the questions people are asking about your topics).

Paid Keyword Analysis Tools

SEM Rush - one of the best SEO tools on the market. SEM Rush does offer a few free searches daily before you have to pay.

Ahrefs - another powerful SEO tool. They offer paid plans only.

Question-Answer Communities for Keyword Ideas

Quora

Reddit

Do you prefer a done-for-you keyword service?

Click here to learn more about our professional keyword research and analysis services for small businesses.

Also click here to check out our Free Guide to Local Search Engine Optimization.

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Learn how to do category and subcategory research analysis for your Google My Business listing.

This search engine optimization strategy can help your business be seen for many more local searches and get more clicks, calls, and customers.

Check out our blog for the entire post and your FREE Spreadsheet Guide for Category Research. 

Video and audio versions are also available on the post.

https://www.video4traffic.com/search-engine-optimization/gmb-category-research/

Cheers!

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Why local businesses should use video marketing, what types of video to make, tips for production, and how to promote them afterwards. Plus a FREE Guide: 10 Videos that Grow Local Business.

Attract more clicks, calls and customers to your business using video marketing, which is the fastest growing sector of Internet marketing. 

Your small business can take advantage of video to rise above the competition, get seen, and increase leads for your sales team. 

Visit our website to learn more and for our done-for-you video marketing services. http://www.video4traffic.com/video