Google: Marking a Business ‘Temporarily Closed’ Doesn’t Impact Rankings via @MattGSouthern

Google’s Danny Sullivan confirms that marking a Google My Business listing as temporarily closed will not harm rankings or visibility.

As businesses shut their doors to mitigate the spread of coronavirus, Google introduced a “temporarily closed” indicator in Google My Business.

Initially there was concern about this indicator negatively impacting search rankings.

A concerned business owner reached out to Sullivan suggesting Google should introduce a solution that wouldn’t lead to reduced visibility in search.

That’s important as some businesses are still operating online even though their physical location in closed.

Here is Sullivan’s response:

Temporarily closed doesn’t impact ranking or visibility.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) March 30, 2020

Previously, Google’s guidance explicitly stated that closed businesses will appear on Google with reduced visibility.

As captured in this screenshot from Tharindu G, a warning would appear before marking a business as temporarily closed.

As of March 30, Google has officially updated its guidance regarding temporary closures of businesses affected by COVID-19.

A temporarily closed business will now be treated the same as an open business:

“If your business is affected by COVID-19, update your Google My Business profile to provide the most accurate information to your customers…

Marking your business temporarily closed will not affect search ranking and it will be treated similar to open businesses.”

This is a brand new change that Google just rolled out. Sullivan says the company plans to have better messaging about it soon.

For now, the most important thing to note is you can mark a business as temporarily closed without consequence.

After doing so, Google will display the following message on the business’s profile in search results.

Now that you know there’s no impact to search rankings, here’s how to mark a business as temporarily closed.

Google My Business: Temporarily Closed

To make a business profile appear as temporarily closed on Google Maps and Search, follow the steps below:

• Sign in to Google My Business on desktop.
• In the menu on the left, click Info.
• To the right, point to the section “Close this business on Google.”
• Expand this section and click click “Mark as temporarily closed.”

Source: Google My Business Help

FAQ

What should I do if my business is temporarily closed due to COVID-19?

Update your Google My Business listing to keep customers informed as to the actions you’re taking in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/google-marking-a-business-temporarily-closed-doesnt-impact-rankings-via-mattgsouthern/

A Beginner’s Guide to Ranking in Google Maps

For local businesses today, there are numerous different ways to market your brand online. The majority of your potential customers still use Google to find local businesses near them — businesses where they will spend their hard-earned money. In fact, 80% of searches with “local intent” result in a conversion.

This begs the question: “What’s the best way to catch the attention of local searchers on Google?”

The answer: through Google Maps marketing.

What is Google Maps marketing?

Google Maps marketing is the process of optimizing the online presence of your brand in Google Maps, with the goal of increasing your brand’s online visibility.

When you search a query on Google that has local intent, you often see something like this:

Google Maps marketing utilizes a number of strategies and tactics to help your business become one of those three positions on local map packs.

Why is marketing important for Google Maps?

The reason every local business should care about ranking in Google Maps is simple: potential brand visibility.

It’s no surprise that Google is by far the most popular search engine. But what about Google Maps specifically?

One study found that nearly 70% of smartphone users say they use Google Maps most frequently. On top of that, out of the 3.5 billion searches that happen on Google each day, more and more are considered to have local intent. According to Google, 83% of U.S. people who visited a store said they used online search before going in.

Thus, any business that is serious about getting found in this day and age needs to utilize the power behind Google Maps marketing. This is why we at Ratynski Digital focus much of our local SEO time on getting our clients to rank both in Google Maps AND organic search results.

Before you can rank in Google Maps, make sure you have first set up and optimized your Google My Business profile.

What is Google My Business?

Google My Business (GMB) is a free platform provided by Google where local businesses can create a profile that is displayed across a variety of Google products.

In order to qualify for a GMB profile you must make in-person contact with your customers during your stated business hours. This may mean that you have a brick-and-mortar location where customers come to see you, or perhaps you travel to see your customers.

A GMB profile can display a variety of information about your business such as:

• Business name
• Business description
• Reviews
• Phone number
• Address
• Website
• Business category or industry
• Locations that you serve
• Business hours
• Products and services
• Photos

And much more depending on your industry!

The purpose of creating a Google My Business profile for your brand is to increase your rankings, traffic, and revenue.

How to set up Google My Business

Step 1: Head over to the GMB Page.

• Click on the blue button that says “Manage now” (be sure you are signed into your Google account).

Step 2: Create the listing and name your business profile.

• Name your new listing and start adding all of your important business information.
• It’s important to note that before you create your GMB profile, you should familiarize yourself with Google’s guidelines. And please, don’t create GMB spam. Not only will creating fake or spammy listings offer a horrible user experience for your potential customers, but it also puts you at risk for penalties and suspensions.

Step 3: Add as much relevant information about your business as possible.

• Remember all those different types of information I mentioned above? This is when you get to add those to your profile. Take advantage of this free platform and try to include as much relevant information as you can. Keep in mind, you will want to avoid adding GMB categories that are NOT relevant to your business. You should also work to keep all of your Google My Business contact information accurate, and make sure that it matches your website.

Step 4: Verify your profile.

• If this is a brand new account, you will need to verify the physical address with a postcard that will be sent via mail by Google.
• If you are claiming a listing that already exists on Google Maps but is not verified, you may be able to verify the profile via email or phone.

Step 5: Pop the champagne — you did it! Easy peasy.

Now that we are all set up, let’s dive into Google Maps SEO.

Top Google Maps ranking factors

It’s important to have a firm understanding of Google Maps ranking factors before you can expect to see high-ranking results. Once you understand how it works, Google Maps marketing becomes as easy as operating your 7-year-old’s Easy Bake Oven.

Okay, maybe not that easy, but everything will be much more clear. For a deep dive, I recommend checking out Moz’s 2018 local ranking factors study, but I’ll cover the top factors here.

In a nutshell, there are eight ranking factors that contribute to ranking in Google Maps and the local pack:

1. Google My Business signals
2. Link signals
3. Review signals
4. On-page signals
5. Citation signals
6. Behavioral signals
7. Personalization
8. Social signals

It’s important to keep in mind that the local algorithm works differently than Google’s organic search algorithm. SEO queen Joy Hawkins does a beautiful job explaining these algorithm differences in-depth in this Whiteboard Friday.

Google’s local algorithm analyzes all of the signals listed above and ranks listings based on the following three areas:

• Proximity: How close is the business to the searcher?
• Prominence: How popular or authoritative is the business in the area?
• Relevance: How closely does the listing match the searcher’s query?

Now that you have a handle on how the local algorithm works and its many ranking factors, let’s talk about specific ways to optimize your GMB profile to improve your ranking in Google Maps.

How to optimize for Google Maps

To kickoff your optimizations, double check that ALL of your business information is filled out in full and 100% accurate. This includes adding the many services that you might offer as well as descriptions of those services.

Sherri Bonelli wrote a comprehensive post on optimizing the information on your GMB listing. She did a great job covering that topic, so I am going to focus instead on three more factors that will make the biggest impact in the shortest amount of time:

1. Get more online reviews

Reviews continue to be one of the most important components for ranking in Google Maps, but the benefit of building more reviews is not purely for the purpose of SEO (not by a long shot).

Reviews offer a much better customer experience. They help to build up social proof, manage customer expectations, and they can sell your product or service before you even get in touch with your customer.

With 82% of consumers reading online reviews for local businesses, every business owner needs to understand the importance and power of reviews.

Google understands the customer’s desire to read reviews before they visit a store or trust a brand. They have heavily factored reviews into the local algorithm because of this (reviews from both Google and third parties).

Keep in mind that the “review factor” is not simply a measurement of who has the most reviews. That is certainly a piece of the puzzle, but Google also takes into consideration many other aspects like:

• Whether a review has text along with the star rating or not.
• The words chosen to write the review.
• The overall star rating given to the business.
• The consistency of reviews.
• Overall review sentiment.

Business owners must regularly train themselves (and their team) to ask their customers for reviews. It’s important to set up systems and processes to make review generation a regular occurrence.

I also recommend setting up a process or purchasing a service that helps with review management. For example, Moz Local offers the ability to monitor the flow of reviews as well as comment and reply to those reviews as they come in (all in one cohesive dashboard). Always reply to your reviews!

Pro Tip: Don’t ask for a review too early. Too many businesses ask for a review for a product or service before their customer has had the opportunity to fully experience it (and actually benefit from it). Only after they have had the chance to solve their problem with your product or service should you ask for a review.

2. Build local links

Links are still one of the largest ranking factors in Google’s algorithm (both in organic ranking and in Google Maps). In fact, building local links is especially important if you want to rank in Google Maps.

It’s true that any link that isn’t marked as nofollow will pass “authority”, which will likely help with rankings. However, local links are especially important because they have a much higher probability of driving actual business.

One of the best ways to start building local links is to utilize your local relationships around town. Think about other businesses that you work closely with, organizations that you support, or even companies that might qualify as a “shoulder niche”.

For the highest success rate, start with businesses that you already have a relationship with or know well. You could offer to write or record a testimonial in exchange for a link, or perhaps you could co-create a piece of content that benefits both of your audiences.

Here’s exactly how to do it:

1. Create a list of niches that offer services that compliment (but don’t compete) with your business.
2. Consider how you might be able to incorporate these other companies into your content outreach.

For example, a carpet cleaning business may decide to create a really helpful piece of content about cost-effective ways to increase a home’s value in a specific market. They might include advice about landscaping, painting, and of course, carpet cleaning. Before writing the content, they could reach out to a few local painting, landscaping, or home service businesses in the area and ask if those businesses would be willing to collaborate on the content and perhaps add a link to their resource pages.

This process can also work even if you don’t have an existing relationship with the business currently. Here’s a basic outreach template you can use:

Hello ,

My name is from . We are actually business neighbors in a way, as we are located not too far from you in . I often pass by on my way to .

I thought it was finally time to reach out and say hello, and let you know that if there’s ever anything you or your team need, please let us know.

Also, I am working on writing an article about . Since our businesses both serve a similar audience and compliment each other nicely, I was wondering if you’d like to be featured in the article?

I am going to include a section about , and would like to use a sentence or two with your advice coming from the . It might even make a great addition to the resource page on your website. Please let me know if this is something you’d be interested in.

Either way, thanks for your time, and great to meet you!

Pro Tip: If you are working to build links on a budget, it may help to get approval for the link before you invest the time and resources in content collaborations.

3. Fight off GMB spam in the map

This final optimization is less of an “optimization” and more of a tactic. This tactic is powerful because unlike most GMB optimizations, the goal is not to do something better than your competition, it’s to remove the competitors that are trying to cheat their way to higher rankings.

Just how powerful is this approach? Very.

Let’s take a look at this Google Maps SERP as an example:

At first glance, all of these listings seem legitimate. However, after about two minutes of investigating you can quickly discern that a few are fake. One of them doesn’t have a website and links to Nerdwallet, some are using fake reviews, and some are even using fake addresses (one is using the DMV’s address).

Now imagine you are DCAP Insurance (a real company) and you are trying to rank higher in Google Maps. If you successfully remove the top four spam listings, you have now jumped to the #1 position without making any additional optimizations.

Starting to see the logic behind this approach?

Unfortunately, Google Maps still has quite a bit of spam throughout its ecosystem. In fact, out of the top 20 spots in the example above, I was able to find seven fake listings and three more that were extremely questionable. This approach can work whether a listing is using an improper business name, keyword stuffing, or is a fake location entirely.

How to remove or edit Google My Business spam

Create a detailed record of each GMB listing you find and what edits are necessary. This will help later on if the changes keep getting reverted back.

Next, head over to Google Maps, find the listing, and click on “Suggest an Edit”.

Depending on the issue at hand you can either select:

• “Change name or other details”
• “Remove this place”

If you’re trying to remove keyword stuffing from a listing’s business name, you simply select “change name or other details” and make the necessary edits.

If you’re dealing with spam of some sort, you will need to select “Remove this place” and then select the exact issue from the drop-down list.

When suggesting an edit doesn’t get the job done

Unfortunately, submitting an edit about spam doesn’t always cut it. When this happens the best way to handle these spam listings is to use Google’s Business Redressal Complaint Form.

When using the redressal form, you’ll need to provide evidence before the required action takes place. For more information, be sure to check out this helpful resource.

Google Maps SEO checklist

At this point, you likely understand the importance of filling out your Google My Business profile to completion. But that’s not all it takes to rank in Google Maps — ranking requires comprehensive optimizations on a variety of levels and there is often not just one magic thing.

To help you cover all your bases, I created this Google Maps SEO Checklist that will help you pinpoint specific areas for improvement.

Tracking results and GMB analytics

Tracking your results is crucial in every aspect of SEO and online marketing, and Google My Business is no different. Most of your profile analytics will be found in your Google My Business account.

You can find this information by logging into your account and selecting “insights” on the far left side. Here is an example of what that looks like for Roadside Dental Marketing’s Google My Business account.

From there, you should be able to see things like:

• Which specific search queries triggered your listing.
• How often your listing appeared in Google search.
• How often your listing appeared in Google Maps.
• What kind of customer actions were taken (e.g. visiting your website, requesting directions, phone calls).
• Where customers are requesting business information from.
• Which days of the you week get the most calls.
• How many photos have been viewed, and how that number compares to your competition.

The one thing that GMB analytics does NOT offer is any sort of rank tracking. Thankfully, the brilliant people at Moz are working on Local Market Analytics (beta). LMA not only offers rank tracking on a local level, but it also contains a plethora of competitor information within a target market.

Conclusion

While covering the GMB basics is fine and dandy, comprehensive optimizations coupled with making ongoing improvements is what truly separates the wheat from the chaff. Regularly test different optimizations within your industry and market and closely monitor your results. If you’re ever in doubt, do whatever is in the best interest of your customer. They must always come first.

By investing in Google Maps marketing, you’ll be able to drive local leads to your business on a consistent basis. If you find yourself with any questions, let me know in the comments below or on Twitter and I will happily answer them!

https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/a-beginnerrsquos-guide-to-ranking-in-google-maps/

Why Google Maps Is Going Incognito & What It Means For Yo

At its May 2019 I/O developer conference, Google announced that Maps is going incognito. Concerns over privacy and how user data is managed by digital organizations have led to this, but what does it mean for you and your business? Changes to your opening hours, a potential loss of revenue, and more are covered below.

Recommended reading: Assistance from Assistants — Local Business Get Ready to Accept Calls from Google Assistant

Why is Google Maps going incognito happening?

Privacy, to put it simply. Data security has never been a hotter topic and the temperature isn’t going down any time soon. The backlash from Facebook’s data farming has been severe and deep for the digital industry – users have real concerns that their privacy isn’t being respected and are demanding that companies are transparent, or cease to hold their data.

As the world’s largest public collector of data, Google has been placed under renewed scrutiny. Google has already added incognito modes to both Chrome and YouTube, and adding the same function to Maps is a logical way of addressing user concerns about privacy. So, how will this change make maps more private?

Incognito browsing stops Google from permanently holding user activity during a web session. What this means is that it cannot retain searches, cookies, or downloads. What this doesn’t stop is other, third-party sites retaining your data.

People have been able to browse incognito using Google Maps since the launch of the function on Chrome (by accessing Maps via Chrome) and before (by manually deleting their data). However, adding incognito allows them to sidestep these methods by having private sessions directly via the Google Maps app – basically, the update is a timesaver.

What does Google Maps going incognito mean for you?

If you’re a user, it’s simple to know what Google Maps going incognito means for you – it’s either a quicker way of having private browsing sessions, or a chance to have privacy when using the app. The result of this is that your location won’t be shared across Google’s channels and you’ll cut away locational advertising.

If you’re a business owner, or work for a company that’s listed on Google, it’s not yet certain exactly what the change means for you. We can say for certain that less user data will be passed on from Google, but can’t yet be unanimous about what areas of your business will be impacted and how much they’ll be affected. However, there are some areas that we’re confidently predicting to see an impact and we cover these below.

Google Maps going incognito will affect your marketing strategy

Geolocational marketing works via Google Maps, taking user data and passing it on to businesses that can then target nearby users with promotions.

With users keeping hold of their data, your pool of customers to reach via geolocational marketing will shrink. This will mean a lot to local businesses, such as florists, restaurants, and bakeries, as they may not be able to catch as many tourists.

Could Google’s changes cause staffing inefficiencies for your business?

One of the ways Google uses the data it pools from people using Maps is that it decides what the popular times for a business’ opening hours. With Maps going incognito, it will lose access to this data from users who keep their sessions private.

The knock-on effect of Google being unable to establish the popular opening times for businesses is that it may mean you have less visibility over when your customers are likely to visit. This could mean that you are either over or understaffed. The result is that your business could either lose money by having too many staff in, or by not having enough to cope with customer demand – customers go to a different store where they can get served.

It may cause you to lose business

For your business, the most valuable benefit you get from Maps is that Google recommends local companies based on a user’s location. If a user goes incognito their location won’t be shared and they will not get these recommendations. The simple arithmetic of Maps being unable to recommend locations to its users is that your business may not get as many customers.

Why keeping up with updates from Google is essential

Google constantly carries out updates to its services, with many changes happening seamlessly and without its users realizing they’ve happened. But every so often big alterations made to the services Google provides, ones that can alter the way companies do business and individuals go about their lives by impacting on their searches. It’s essential that you keep pace with these updates, as this is how they can affect you.

SEO changes cause companies to lose search rankings

Using SEO contravenes Google’s user policy because it’s a threat to the search engine’s goal of getting people to click through to its paid adverts. But SEO is also a vital part of the digital strategy of countless online businesses. The biggest update Google makes to its services is changing its search results ranking algorithm and failing to keep pace with this could be disastrous for you.

Google’s algorithm rules SEO and, as Search Marketing Consultant Marie Haynes explained on an SEO podcast: “If your site winds up on the wrong end of a Google Algorithm update, watch out. You could see your rankings, traffic and revenue plummet.” This isn’t scaremongering, it’s a real concern that affects the revenue of every online business – even global corporations.

To ensure that you minimize the damage that can be caused by these changes, keep up to date with Google’s search guidelines so that you can understand how alterations to its algorithm can affect your business.

Google has a history of privacy concerns

As Google’s success is dependent on trust – users need to trust that their data won’t be compromised – it takes a very serious view on any suggestion that it doesn’t look after sensitive information properly. To tackle this, it makes changes to its services to make people feel more comfortable when using them – hence the reason for Google Maps going incognito.

However, despite working to keep users happy that their data is being managed responsibly, since it was founded in 1998, Google has been subject to regular privacy concerns from users and commentators. While there is too much detail to cover every privacy issue in-depth, we’ve covered some of the key areas underneath.

Gmail & privacy

• 2004: Google receives a letter from 31 organizations that asks the company to halt the service until privacy issues were resolved.
• 2013: Microsoft created a campaign to make people aware that Google scans emails of its users so that it can send them targeted ads.

Google Docs & data leaks

• 2009: Google announces that Google Docs had allowed outside access to users data due to a bug.

Lifespan of cookies

• 2007: Google advises that its cookies expire after two years, but that this lifespan is restarted every time someone uses a specific Google service.
• 2011: Google says that the link between web access and cookies is anonymized after 18 months.

For some people, Google Maps going incognito will be nothing more than a timesaving device, but for others, it will be a new method of keeping their sessions private. Google is doing this to give greater transparency, but what this means for your business is that you could lose access to some valuable customer data.

At the moment a lot of the comment on how big an impact this will have on your business is speculation. What we can say, though, is that we’re confident it will have an impact and you’ll need to keep an eye on updates from Google to see precisely what this means for you.

https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/why-google-maps-is-going-incognito-what-it-means-for-yo/

How To Optimize And Take Full Advantage Of Your Google My Business Listing

Optimizing Your Google My Business Listing

Google My Business itself is not a public-facing, searchable directory (such as Yelp), BUT  your listing on Google My Business is what many other public-facing, searchable directories pull from.

This includes Google Maps, which has become its own hybrid form of a review site/business directory/navigation service.

Your Google My Business listing can also impact your rankings in search results on both Google Maps and regular Google searches.

If that’s not enough to convince you, here are some compelling stats that highlight its importance.

Businesses with a Complete and Accurate GMB Listing:

• Are 2.7x more likely to be considered reputable
• Get 7x more clicks

Complete and Accurate GMB Listings:

• Are 70% more likely to attract location visits
• Are 50% more likely to lead to a purchase

Here’s how you can optimize and take full advantage of your GMB listing.

BASIC LEVEL

1. Set up your Google Business listing

The first step is to set up (or claim) your Google My Business Listing. Go to Google My Business page and click “Start Now” in the upper left corner.

Did you know that anyone can list your business on Google? That’s a little scary, but fear not—you as the owner can claim your listing which grants you the access to edit and update your information, to post timely information, and to manage reviews. The claiming process requires a few steps, but it is a must.

1. Complete your listing

Fill in every relevant field that Google offers. You want to make sure the profile is as complete as possible and that every piece of information is accurate.

The impact of inaccurate or inconsistent listings is not one you can afford. A complete Google My Business listing includes:

• Business name:The legal / official name of your business.
• Address:Full address of your business.
• Phone number:A number with a local area code is recommended. That’s one extra signal to Google that you are actually local. Make sure the number you use for your Google My Business listing is also displayed on your website.
• Category:Choose a relevant category. This will help Google decide which searches your local listing belongs in.
• Website:Your website URL.
• Hours of Operation:The hours your business is open. For days when you have unusual hours, like holidays or special events, you can set special hours.
• Description:What you offer, what sets you apart, your history, or anything else that’s helpful for customers to know. Allowable limit is 750 characters. Keep in mind that only the first 250 characters show up in the Knowledge Panel, so prioritize your information. Finally, no links or HTML.
• Photos:Showcase your products and services to people who are looking for what you offer. Consider hiring a Google approved photographer to create a 360-view virtual tour of your business for customers. According to Google, listings that have a virtual tour and photos generate twice as much interest as those without.

Depending on your industry, there may be additional fields such as menus for restaurants.

A complete listing makes it as easy as possible for potential customers to find and contact your business. In addition, the more complete your listing is, the more favor you will receive from Google when ranking you in results.

1. Make sure your information matches everywhere else

One thing Google’s algorithm looks at to verify the legitimacy of a listing is a consistency in how it’s listed across different websites. While that seems simple enough – your address is the same each time you enter it somewhere – it’s easy for little differences to slip in. Maybe you wrote out the Road part of the street name one time, and shortened it to Rd another time, for instance.

Pick a standard way to write out your address, a consistent phone number to use, and make sure all your listings match both each other and the information you provide on your website. And work on getting your website listed in as many relevant directories as possible.

1. Avoid penalty-inducing offenses

Any work you do to optimize your website or local listing will be for naught if you incur a penalty. Google suspends business listings for a range of offenses. Getting suspended is stressful, confusing, and bad for business, so it’s best to avoid doing anything that puts you at risk of it.

Read through Google’s guidelines for Google My Business listings so you have a full understanding of what not to do. Some of the main things to avoid are:

• Using a URL that redirects to your website’s URL, rather than the actual URL itself.
• Trying to awkwardly add keywords into your business name field.
• Having multiple local listings for the same business location.
• Using any address for your business that isn’t a physical storefront or office space where you meet with customers.

Use common sense and don’t try to play the system or get extra listings and you’ll probably stay on the right side of Google.

1. Encourage reviews

You’ll notice that the local businesses listed in the map snippet of a local search usually have star ratings next to their name. Google wants to provide the most useful information to its users, and users want to find the nearby business that seems the best. In both cases, it benefits your business to have a high star rating.

Ask your happy customers to take a few minutes to give you a review on Google. Include an encouragement on promotional materials you hand out or put up in your store. A gentle nudge or a reminder of how much it means for your business can make your loyal customers that much more likely to take the time to say a few kind words about you.

Utilize our proprietary Dashboard Review Widget as well as our Survey Module to get positive reviews for your business listing on Google and Yelp.

1. Make sure your website and content is optimized for search

All the usual SEO advice that helps strengthen the authority of your website in the eyes of Google matters here too. So don’t focus on optimizing just your local listing. Optimize your website as well.

Make sure that you:

 

• Incorporate relevant keywords into the meta tags and copy on each page, where you can do so naturally.
• Add schema markup to your website.
• Create content with a local focus i.e. locally relevant landing pages.
• Look for local linking opportunities.

A strong website that’s optimized for both your customers and search engines will be that much more likely to make it into the list of the top three in a local Google search.

ADVANCED LEVEL

1. Post to Google My Business

Just like with other social media platforms, you can now post directly to Google My Business. Your posts show up on the “Posts” tab of your listing, but might also become visible on your Google Maps or Google Search result, depending on relevance.

Through Google posts you can make announcements, create events, highlight products, and run promotions. The information in these posts is that which customers need in order to stay engaged with you, which is ultimately what leads them to choose you over competitors. In addition, each post type has a call to action button, making the experience from discovery to engagement seamless.

If you’re not already convinced the impact Google Posts can have on your audience, check out this quote from Google:

“Seventy percent of people look at multiple businesses before making a final choice. With Posts, you can share timely, relevant updates right on Google Search and Maps to help your business stand out to potential customers. And by including custom calls-to-actions directly on your business listing, you can choose how to connect with your customers.”

1. Utilize Questions & Answers

Questions & Answers is a great feature for Google local search. It’s very cool! Just like it sounds, Q&A allows people to ask questions about your business and you can answer those questions.

The Google My Business Q&A feature is the perfect opportunity to hear directly from “the people” and you can respond to them. Win-win.

One thing you should do is be proactive and create a Frequently Asked Questions list to preempt people’s GMB Q&As. Check with your sales reps and your customer service staff to identify the questions people most often ask, then put those Q&A questions on your GMB listing.

TIP: Google has said that upvoting questions can make them more visible. If someone has a particularly important question, go ahead and upvote it.

1. Google My Maps Syndication with Driving Directions

Google My Maps Syndication is an advanced level strategy to gain local With Google My Maps Syndication, you can get:

• Map mentions from top ranking GEO locations
• Locally optimized Tier 2 links and embeds
• Driving directions to your location from serviceable areas
• Improved local search rankings

Here’s how an optimized Google My Map with driving directions (embedded on the website) looks like:

1. Respond to Customer Reviews. Even Negative ones

The reviews on your GMB page can be a deciding factor in whether or not a buyer engages with your brand. Just check out some of these statistics about Local Consumer Reviews:

• 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations
• Positive reviews make 73% of consumers trust a local business more
• 68% of consumers left a local business review when asked
• 30% of consumers say they’ve judged a business based on its responses to reviews

When making a purchase decision, people look to others for their opinions. We all do it. And we do it often. We want to learn from the experiences of those who have purchased before us. Always respond to your reviews. Positive reviews give a good impression of your business and should be easy to respond to.

But what do you do about the inevitable 1-star rating and the scathing negative review?

Many businesses shy away from them, hoping they’ll go unnoticed. But you need to respond to those reviews. The people leaving them deserve it, and the people reading them need it.

Conclusion

There are many ways customers can find your business, but there is no denying that Google My Business is an incredibly powerful gateway to your website.

It positions your important business information in front of the eyes of potential customers who are looking for your product, service, or experience.

It helps with your local SEO, offers a chance to engage with your customers via reviews or posts, and provides useful insights on your customers’ purchasing paths.

Edward Lott, Ph.D., M.B.A.
President and Managing Partner
BusinessCreator, Inc.

Ed can be reached at

edl@businesscreatorplus.com
855-943-8736
610-437-8822
www.BusinessCreatorPlus.com

https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/how-to-optimize-and-take-full-advantage-of-your-google-my-business-listing/

Forget About SEO and PPC Ads and Get Mapped

Google Maps will bring you more new law clients in a week than any other source can in a month.

What do law firms we work with that have switched to our Google Maps marketing have in common?

The answer is simple.  Many of them made it to the TOP OF GOOGLE MAPS and their phones began ringing with leads.

Is This You?

• You tried expensive paid ads through Google AdWords.
• You threw a ton of money in search engine optimization to get your site ranked.
• But something still wasn’t clicking, something was off and low revenues showed it.

Edward Lott, who makes his living by doing search marketing and lead generation for lawyers, is about to tell you something you may have already thought about.

“Stop buying into the hype that SEO alone is the answer to your lack of clients. The online world has changed dramatically in the last 5 years and SEO alone is not going to grow your business.”

Ed wants you to know, as an SEO provider for the past 20 years, he has seen what works and what doesn’t work.

“I have reached the following conclusions about what lawyers BELIEVE works to bring new business online and what ACTUALLY works.

First, many lawyers spend massive amounts of money every month on paid ads such as Google AdWords with each click costing $15, $30 or even $100, and with some cost per click even reaching $500.  We have attorneys telling us they spend $30K per month on AdWords campaigns!

Second, lawyers have been told if they just do regular SEO and have their site ranked highly organically, their phones will ring.  There is only so much space in the search results and there are clearly more attorneys in a given geography and practice area that Google can accommodate on the first page.

Third, the real truth is that 60-70% of all searches occur on a mobile phone or mobile device and that the first place your potential client looks is your Google Maps listing.

Many lawyers have a Google Maps listing, but it’s buried and no one ever sees it. It is very important people need to find you quickly and you must stand out when they search Google.  And you need a good reputation …..If not people move on.

What’s worse, many of these lawyers have hired SEO firms and paid massive amounts of money to them and many SEO firms themselves have no idea what it takes to get their client ranked on Google Maps.

I have come to the conclusion after all my testing and conversations with attorneys that most are spending too much for little in return because they or their SEO firm have no clue how to get ranked in Google Maps.

AND Google purposely lists Maps ON TOP of organic listings, so organic listings now have less value than they once had.

For lead generation, Google Maps is the place to be!

High Maps Placement And Visibility Has Never Been More Important To The Growth Of Your Practice.

It’s estimated that if you are in the top 3 positions on Maps with the major keyword terms searched by your potential client, you stand to take down 50% or more of the traffic with that keyword. 

Compare that with the measly 3-5% traffic you have to share with every other advertiser on Google Adwords.  Have you measured your cost of client acquisition lately?”

Many SEO companies promise that they can get a law firm on the first page of Google for very competitive keywords.  Every law firm that has hired an SEO company in your geographic service area are trying to rank for the same keywords.  To make that happen, many of  these SEO companies often have to resort to shady SEO tactics.  The result?  Your site or pages on your site get banned from Google search.

The other problem, few companies are optimizing for voice search, which is crucial if you want to get found where your next client is searching, on mobile devices.

Our goal is simple.  We want to make sure your firm:

• shows up everywhere potential clients search
• provides higher quality content than any other firm in your practice and service area (which means Google will trust you more than other attorneys and rank you higher)
• stands out as the obvious choice to hire

Why Not Let Google Maps Do The Heavy Lifting For You?

Not only does a highly ranked Google Maps listing get 10x or more the amount of traffic as paid ads and organic search results, but it converts the position for you if you do it the right way.

The Process:

• Start with a highly optimized listing then build hundreds or thousands of optimized listings on authoritative sites, preferable with a quality video embed. Work hard to get all of your onsite website factors dialed in to create trust with Google that your listing is worthy of being on Page 1.
• Then, month after month, you have to work to keep it there.

It’s No Wonder that most SEO Providers Do Not Know What They Are Doing When It Comes To Consistently Gathering Page 1 Maps Listings For Lawyers.

Most SEO firms will promise law firms a top maps listing and it just never happens.   Why? Because ranking high on Maps is a science.  It’s completely different than SEO.  It has its own set of rules.  It’s literally a battle, and the best armed people win.

We focus on what we call the money keywords.  These are keywords and phrases used by people with an immediate need for your service.

We also focus on voice search phrases.  Voice search is a growing part of how people use their mobile devices.  Mobile search volume continues to rise and you better be found where your next client is searching or you will lose to your competition.

Now once that listing is ranked, we aren’t done!

You have to make sure it stays there AND you must frequently get good reviews to stand out among your competitors to help with conversions.

When you have a high ranking, “new clients” are yours for the choosing. New potential clients, searching for an attorney are going to pick you. A consumer looking for your professional service sees your listing, sees all the positive reviews, clicks through and reads your reviews.  They will hire your firm.

It’s not an easy task to get lawyer listings ranked on Maps and it’s no easy task to keep them there.  It requires persistence and someone who knows exactly what they are doing.”

Ed Has Become The “Go To Person” For All Things Related To Lawyers And Google Maps.

In fact, he was just asked to contribute to the top online course teaching other SEO’s how to properly build and maintain maps listings in highly competitive niches.

This course has helped thousands of SEOs, and Ed has now been overwhelmed with requests for interviews and private coaching.

But what he really cares about is helping his clients drastically increase their revenues by flooding them with leads and new clients all from Google Maps.

For years, you could not hire an expert in Google Maps Ranking in the legal industry unless you paid $4,000 – $5,000 or more per month.

BUT NOW…

For a very limited time, you can get a top Maps listing for your top keywords in your City.  This means more leads, more phone calls and more closed business for you.

We are offering special pricing for a limited number of clients.  Pricing is based on your market (service area and practice type).

We simply do a review and provide you a quote. 

Guaranteed to Increase Your Online Visibility

Because we are so confident in our Google My Business optimization and local maps SEO strategies, we offer every campaign a rock-solid guarantee.

Because Results Matter…We have created a holistic GMB optimization process that combines advanced listing optimization, off-page relevance, local brand building and brand prominence strategies that are guaranteed to increase your firm’s visibility.

Our guarantee to you. Our Google My Business SEO 180-Day Campaign will increase your online visibility by the completion of the campaign or we will give you another campaign for free. 

And while no one can guarantee 3 pack rankings the vast majority of our 180-day campaigns do garner spots in the coveted 3 pack.  

We measure online visibility two ways.  First, using our local SEO audit tool we monitor and rank your brand’s presence on top local listing sites like Google Maps, Bing Places, and Yelp, and monitor and rate your visibility on the top directory and review sites.  And second, we monitor GMB Insights to determine increases in views, searches, and actions.

And, you can cancel any time. There are no lengthy contracts beyond the initial 6 month campaign.

Who Is This For And Not For?

Only lawyers who are tired of waiting for other options which don’t seem to be working at this time.  Is that you?

Also, lawyers who never thought about the importance of Google Maps and the difference it can make to your firm.

So What Does This Cost?

Considering that once you have a top lawyer maps listing, you can drastically cut your ad budget down and even slow your SEO efforts.

We thought about charging $3,000 per month or more for this service.  We’d be crazy not to right?

I mean we have achieved Page 1 rankings for EVERY lawyer we’ve ever worked with.  Period.

We routinely get paid $5k per month to just do maps in bigger cities for highly competitive law niches.  So we could easily charge that much.

But we decided we wanted to make this affordable for the small law firms of the world, the solo practitioners who are ready to take action and start seeing their phone ring off the hook.

So for a limited time, we are offering our program for starting at $1,500/month (fee depends on service area and practice type)

$1,500 is a drop in the bucket when you stop and think that just one more client per month covers your investment.

One new client will easily cover the $1,500, and once the machine fires up and you are ranked high on Maps, you have reviews…only one new client per month from our Maps program is very unlikely.

AND, we are including Reputation Marketing (we normally charge $300 setup and $200 per month for the management fees)

No one, and I mean no one makes a decision without reading reviews about your online firm.  It is why we include our reputation marketing service.

AND we will include a testimonial video and market it to help grow your reputation and ranking (we normally charge $500 for our testimonial videos)

Don’t Take Our Word For It. See What Some Of Our Clients Have To Say:

“Our law firm hired Ed Lott to generate business on the internet. The return on investment was fantastic. We estimate over $500,000 in new business was a direct result of Ed’s efforts. I have never found a better marketing strategy and we had literally tried everything before we found Ed.”  Philip B., Orange County CA

“I was a sole practitioner with a limited budget. Ed devised a custom marketing program for me that has helped me grow my firm in a few short months doing his internet magic. I have taken on two associates and I am adding on a paralegal this month. I am increasing my marketing budget and anticipate opening another location by the end of this year.”
Kristina M., Esq., San Francisco CA

“We were no where to be found on any of the search engines in organic search. We hired Ed and his team at For Law Firms Only. Ed convinced us to start with the basics, which included an updated web site to help with conversions.  We added a Google local search program and within a few months, our firm appeared in the top 3 in the maps area. We were able to reduce our pay per click budget and will soon be dropping it in favor of adding more locations to the map ranking service. Our firm is growing quickly. Thank you Ed and the entire team at For Law Firms Only for your awesome marketing and your customer support.”
Leanne R., Marketing Director, Woodland Hills CA

“Ed and his team at ForLawFirmsOnly really know the legal market. Their staff is extremely responsive. They also offer all the online services a law firm would ever need. We just added in their Google Maps marketing program and within 90 days our firm is in the top 3 for most of our keywords. It is indeed a pleasure to work with one vendor and know they will take great care of my firm’s online marketing needs.”
Jacob B. M., Esq., Warrington, PA

“Thanks to Ed’s expert marketing skills, the phone at my law firm started ringing again and I just landed a $7,500 client.” Shasha W., Baltimore MD

“If you are looking for someone to do marketing for your law firm you need to call Ed Lott. His skills will ensure you get results fast. He is very knowledgeable, ethical, and sincerely wants you to succeed.”
Harold J., Tampa FL

Here’s What To Do NEXT

Contact us –  we invoice you –  you pay – fill out kick off document and we get your campaign started.

I would say then sit back and relax but you will be too busy with your new clients to relax.

Then do us a favor and let us know how you are enjoying all of the new leads and business coming in.

Call us at 855-943-8736 or email us at marketing@forlawfirmsonly.com and Ed will contact you to review the process.

Looking forward to working with you to help you grow your law firm.

100% Guarantee!

We’re ready to prove everything we claim. Let Ed and his team of experts increase your online visibility and see it for yourself within the next 180 days what happens.

https://www.forlawfirmsonly.com/forget-about-seo-and-ppc-ads-and-get-mapped/

Google Local Maps Ranking

If your business doesn’t rank on Google’s Local Maps for the services that you’re offering, there’s sure to be a lot of traffic to your site that you are losing out on. Depending on the niche and the geographic location, the local pack or the spots that show up on Google Map results could be considerably competitive. One of the factors is local ads on Google.

You can now set up local ads for Google searches that will increase traffic to your site, increase the number of calls and let people know about your business. Now that’s sure to heat up the competition for a place in the local rankings.

If there is more than one business in the same niche located in close vicinity or even the same building Google will only choose one and the others will be filtered out. This shouldn’t come as a surprise as the search giant the same thing with organic search results too. To add to that a virtual office with no human presence during normal office hours isn’t eligible for Google My Business listing.

To put things in perspective, Google had 7 spots on Local Map Rankings prior to 2016, after the Possum update it’s down to 3. So, the question is how do you secure a spot in top 3?

According to Google’s guidelines the 3 factors that contribute to local rankings are:

• Relevance
• Distance
• Prominence

Structured Citations Through Standard NAPW (Name, Address, Phone Number and Website):

Having a consistent NAPW and verifying it is essential. Make sure you own the business listing that shows up against your name. Also, make sure the Name, Address, Phone Number and Website URL are current and up to date. If not, follow the prompts to make necessary changes.

Search for your business name in Google and make sure the NAPW is consistent across all other directories where your business is listed. If the information is not consistent across directories, Google might get confused and drop your business names from Local search results.

Location: It’s very obvious that shared locations don’t help your business. And relevant results show up in the vicinity of where the search is performed from or the location where the visitor is looking for businesses. It’s easier to track the location of a mobile device than that of a desktop computer.  If your business is being filtered, you will have to make sure your listing has stronger signals and that your GMB listing is unique to win that filter.

Reviews on Google My Business:

Reviews left on the Google business platform are considered trustworthy and are important for your Local SEO strategy. Though there are exceptions, the general trend still remains biased towards positive reviews on Google. It’s natural to trust these reviews as Google is a neutral source of information.

Other third-party review sites like Yelp also help customers make up their minds. But a potential visitor would only go to a third-party site if there aren’t enough reviews on Google Local Listing for the business. Did you know people can filter reviews based on ratings? So, in order to increase your CTR ask customers to review your business on Google My Business and make sure they leave good ones.

According to Google, more than 60% of organic searches are for local businesses. That’s a significant amount of search traffic. If you haven’t already started creating a strategy to help your business dominate local search results, it’s high time to start right now.

If you want to dominate the competition on Google – and turn your SEO campaign into an almost endless source of leads, sales, and revenue – the time to get started is now. Contact us today so we can put our expertise to use for you!

Edward Kundahl, Ph.D., M.B.A.
CEO and Founding Partner
BusinessCreator, Inc.
ed@businesscreatorplus.com
www.BusinessCreatorPlus.com
www.ForLawFirmsOnly.com

https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/?p=7824