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How Local Search Empowers Small Businesses to Compete

Last Updated: February 9, 2017

How can a small business like yours compete with big brands? Four words: Focus on local search.
The fact that you operate on a local level can be your biggest strength in the battle against large corporations. Many big names rank nationally in organic search results; however, they don’t necessarily have the upper hand when it comes to local search. So if you leverage local search the right way, you can stay competitive with larger brands and come out on top. Here’s what you need to know.

Local Search May Be Replacing Organic

First of all, what do we mean by “organic search” and “local search”? Maybe you’ve seen these terms tossed around but you aren’t quite clear on what they mean. Here’s the gist, without putting you to sleep:

Organic search gives you results based solely on their relevance to your search terms. The opposite of organic search is paid search, which promotes paid advertisements that match your search terms. Learn more about organic vs. paid search here.

Local search, on the other hand, is a search that targets places in a specific location. On Google, you’ll see local results on the first search results page in what’s called a “local pack,” which shows a nearby map and several local businesses. Local searches can also be done on Google Maps itself.

Historically, organic search has been the cornerstone of search engine optimization (SEO). However, organic search rankings are now slipping in value. In 2016, the top two organic search results received, on average, only 25% of the clicks on search results pages, as compared to more than 50% in 2006.
This trend is significant, and it makes sense. Typically, when people are on the hunt for a nearby store, restaurant, or service provider, they’re not looking at organic results. Instead, they’re perusing local Google listings to see which businesses fit their needs, have good reviews from past customers, and are closer in proximity. The days of people walking down the street and exploring their neighborhoods for good businesses are, by and large, over. Now, people do a quick search before they leave home so they know exactly where to go.

Mobile Devices Are a Strong Force in Local Search

The uptick in local searches applies to people who are looking for local businesses on the go, as well. Instead of wasting time driving around aimlessly when looking for the closest gas station or coffee shop, they search their phones to find the nearest one.
As Jayson DeMers writes for Forbes,

In general, I suspect local search will rise in importance, and more local businesses will step up to take advantage of this. Mobile technology will become even more mobile with wearable devices and similar technologies, and cumulatively, user preference toward local results will grow. As most “local” businesses are small- to mid-sized businesses, these trends will work in their favor.

Here, DeMers draws a clear parallel between local and mobile. And it’s supported by Google’s own data, which shows that an entire one-third of all mobile searches are for local places. With more people using their mobile devices for local searches on the go, your small business’s Google Maps listing is increasingly likely to become visible.

Optimize Your Local Search Listings

Here’s the main takeaway for you: Corporations don’t have the monopoly on proximity anymore. Local search is a more democratic platform than organic search, giving small businesses a fair shot at appearing in local results—so long as your local listings are optimized.
Here are some ideas for making your Google listing as strong as possible:

And if you need any guidance on local search strategies, please don’t hesitate to reach out! Prospect Genius is always happy to help. Good luck!

How to Get More Customer Reviews Just by Asking for Them

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Your business can’t have an effective online presence if it doesn’t have any customer reviews.
Why? Because when people are hiring a new business, they want to be sure they’re making the right choice. Reading about other people’s experiences helps them decide which business will best align with their needs. They’ll be able to see which companies are pleasant to work with, which ones are punctual, which ones deliver good results, and so on.
In fact, a 2016 Local Consumer Review Survey by BrightLocal reports 84% of consumers trust online reviews as much as recommendations from friends! And 74% say positive reviews make them trust a business more.
It’s one thing for your business to appear prominently all over Google Maps and local search results. It’s another thing for your business to actually grab customers’ attention and get them to hire you. Customer reviews help close this gap.
In short, if you want your business to stand out and appeal to local consumers—essentially making all of your online marketing efforts worthwhile—then you need to get more customer reviews for them to read.
The best way to get more customer reviews? Just ask for them! Keep reading to discover how.

How to Get More Customer Reviews Just by Asking for Them

 

Ask and You Shall Receive

Did you know? According to BrightLocal’s 2016 survey, 7 out of 10 people will leave a review for a business if they’re asked to. This is a super promising sign that you’ll be able to get the customer reviews you need, as long as you’re proactive.
When trying to get more customer reviews, keep these three tips in mind:

  • Ask customers directly.
  • Make leaving a review foolproof.
  • Act quickly before customers forget.

There are a lot of specific tactics you can use to ensure better responses from your past customers. Read “Make Your Presence Known: Get More Customer Reviews Online” for further suggestions!

How to Get More Customer Reviews in Five Easy Steps

  1. First, identify your best customers—the ones who loyally come back to you, and the ones who you’re confident will give you a good review. These people are more likely to help you out.
  2. Next, contact these select customers by phone or e-mail and ask them directly if they would please take a few minutes to leave you a review online. Tell them your preferred platforms. Google Maps, Facebook, and Yelp are best. This should give you an initial boost in your number of customer reviews.
  3. Then, develop a plan for future customers so you can start getting a continuous flow of reviews. Add an on-page feedback tool to your website (available through Prospect Genius). This way, customers can write a review in one place and the tool can disseminate the review to other platforms.
  4. In the future, ask customers at the very beginning of your service, before you’ve even started the job. Say, “If you’re happy with our work once we’re finished, please consider leaving us a review on Google.” This will plant the seed in their minds early on.
  5. Finally, remind customers again as soon as the job is complete. Attach links to follow-up e-mails, mention it in follow-up phone calls, and even add it to the bottom of your invoices. Customers are more likely to leave you a review while the experience is still fresh in their minds.

If this sounds like too much work on your end, you may want to look into a service like Customer Lobby. An automated service that follows up with previous customers on your behalf, Customer Lobby can do all the legwork for you. Prospect Genius refrains from officially endorsing specific products and services; however, we can say we’ve had good experiences using Customer Lobby ourselves.

Get More Customer Reviews Now!

As we’ve explained previously, having a large number of customer reviews can potentially save your business. Not only is it good for your online reputation, but it’s also helpful for improving your local search performance.
So if you’ve already invested in any type of online advertising, it only makes sense to strengthen it and give it the best chance possible to succeed. By following our advice, you’ll be able to get more customer reviews online and increase your business’s appeal.
If you have any questions or need a little guidance, don’t hesitate to reach out to us!

Are You Aware of This Threat to Your Google Maps Listing?

Last Updated: January 19, 2017

Do you have a Google Maps listing for your local business? When was the last time you checked it? Google Maps listings are under constant threat of being altered without the manager’s knowledge or consent. In this blog post, we’ll examine what’s behind this chronic problem, how it can impact you, and what you can do to protect yourself.
Let’s jump in, shall we?

Anyone Can Edit Your Google Maps Listing

First things first: How can your listing be changed without your say-so? It’s surprisingly easy these days.
Google essentially allows all of its users to edit other business’s listings with the simple click of a button. When a user clicks “Suggest an Edit,” they submit proposed changes to Google regarding any piece of information, such as phone number, street address, business hours, website URL, and business name. Google then decides whether to accept the changes or not. Typically, Google keeps a suggested edit when multiple people submit the same one, but there doesn’t appear to be a hard-and-fast rule for how it makes its decisions. However, no matter the case, Google does not involve the listing owner whatsoever in its decision. Furthermore, when Google decides to sustain an edit to your listing, it will not notify you.
Making matters worse, these community edits don’t show any information about the user who made the change. In other words, Google offers no accountability for random, unsubstantiated edits from anonymous users. Desperate businesses can easily sabotage their local competitors with zero consequence.

It Can Happen to You

In fact, a nightmare scenario played out back in November when nearly 60 listings for insurance companies all had their phone numbers changed to the same one—which had no connection to any of those companies. Instead, this new phone number directed callers to a lead provider, who would then sell these leads back to the insurance companies who owned the edited listings. Effectively, the victimized companies now had to shell out money for their own leads.
You can read all about this debacle over on Search Engine Land.  Hopefully, it proves to be an extreme fluke. However, it’s a cautionary tale of the damage that can happen when you’re not paying attention to the information on your Google Maps listing. Your listing may be displaying the wrong information to your visitors while you’re none the wiser.
When Google shows users the wrong information about your business, they won’t be able to get in touch with you. You’ll lose customers as a result. Plus, since this information will now conflict with the rest of your business information on the web, your rankings could be negatively affected. When your listing is edited by another user without your knowledge, the damage can be far reaching.

Protecting Yourself Is Easy

The above example is exactly why we urge business owners to actively and regularly check on their Google Maps listings. If you check your listing just once a day, you’re likely to catch any incorrect changes, fix them, and minimize damage to your rankings and daily business operations.

1. Don’t Google Yourself

But beware: Do NOT google yourself to check your Maps listing. Few people know this, but regularly googling yourself actually causes significant problems for your search rankings. As we explained in our blog post, “The Ins and Outs of Googling Yourself”:

In your own, individualized Google results, you can drive your placement down in the listings by repeatedly searching for—and not clicking on—yourself. This certainly happens for your own personal search engine results, but if you do it enough, it’s also conceivable that you could impact your rankings when other people search as well!

Googling yourself is equally damaging to any PPC or AdWords campaigns you’re running. When you google yourself without clicking on anything, you spike your number of impressions without adding to the number of clicks. This lowers the click-through rate (CTR) of your ads, which drives down your Quality Score as a result. Read more in our blog post, “When Pay-Per-Click Becomes Pay-Per-Search.”

2. Use Your Google Account

Thankfully, getting around this problem is fairly easy: Just sign in to your Google account and peek at your Maps listing through the dashboard, instead. The whole process only takes a couple of minutes, and it’s well worth the effort when you consider the alternative and its downsides.
In addition, the majority of small business owners rarely ever check on their Google Maps listings. This is what leaves so many of them vulnerable to sabotage. So if you start checking yours on a regular basis, you’ll be way ahead of the competition!

No Excuses

Too busy or can’t remember to check your listing every day? For less than $10 a month, Prospect Genius can do it for you! Check out our MapTrax™ service to learn more.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Now that you’re aware of this problem, which is facing local business owners everywhere, you have what you need to prevent it from hurting your business. Good luck!

One Easy Way to Boost Your Google Maps Listing in Local Searches

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Feeling a bit wary about allowing us to manage your Google Maps listing? We understand the hesitation. In this industry, it’s hard to know who you can trust.
But what if we told you that your Google Maps listing is heavily affected by your website ranking? While there are certainly other factors at play, having your website and Google Maps listing work together is an essential part of getting your business to the top of local search results. So if we’re handling one, we should also be handling the other.
What does this mean for you? It means that if you’re paying us to advertise your business, withholding this key component—your Google Maps listing—is going to get you less value for your dollar.
When you allow us to optimize your website and Google Maps listing simultaneously, it’s a win-win. Here’s why.

How Your Website Impacts Your Local Maps Listing

A few months ago, Google came right out and announced a handful of factors that influence a local business’s ranking on Maps. Here’s a quote straight from Google’s help page:

Your position in web results is also a factor, so SEO best practices also apply to local search optimization.

You’ve probably heard the term synergy before. It refers to when two or more elements interact and produce a total effect greater than the sum of their separate effects. It’s when 2+2=5.
In the case of local online advertising, the synergy of traditional SEO and local Maps optimization is what makes your business visible in Maps results. Ranking in Google Maps is not as simple as having a Google Maps listing. Without a website, and without SEO for said website, your local presence wilts away. When you’re found at the top of local Maps results, it’s because of this synergy.
That’s why Prospect Genius is always stressing the importance of letting us manage your Google listing. It’s not because we’re control freaks—it’s because we want to align your listing with our ongoing SEO work and provide you with the best results possible.
However, we understand you have concerns about relinquishing control of your listing and/or website. Those concerns are well founded. Below, we take a look at common concerns and explain the safeguards we put in place to minimize your risks.

“If I let you manage my Google Maps listing, I won’t be able to get it back.”

This may be true with other online advertising companies, but not with Prospect Genius.
First of all, it says right in our terms of service (item 14) that if we end our working relationship, we must return control of any listing you turned over to us initially. This makes it as easy as possible for you to transition away from us.
There’s also the fact that it’s not super difficult to reclaim your listing from Google after we give it up. Sure, you’ll have to go through a few steps to do so, but it’s a straightforward and well documented process that you can definitely handle.

“You guys will just take credit for all the calls I would’ve gotten from my Maps listing, anyway.”

This understandable perspective is probably the most common misconception out there. As we explained above—and as Google itself stated—your listing’s performance is directly impacted by the SEO of the website tied to any given listing. 
So, while it might feel counter-intuitive, if you let us work on your local SEO and you start getting lots of calls from your Maps listing, it’s because of our behind-the-scenes work. It’s not because you simply had a Maps listing already.
So, since you’re paying us to improve your SEO, it would be illogical to sabotage the effectiveness of your own campaign by withholding your Google Maps listing. It would also be illogical to tie your listing to a less optimized site.

“I already have my own custom URL and website that I like. I don’t want to give it up.”

We sometimes hear this when we’re trying to connect a client’s LeadTrax site to their Google Maps listing. You may be resistant to letting us do this because you want your listing to showcase your own custom URL and spiffy website design. You want your own website to be what people see when they come across your listing.
The problem here is that people are unlikely to come across your listing if it isn’t ranking. And it’s unlikely to rank if we don’t tie your Google Maps listing to your LeadTrax site (which we’re optimizing and promoting).
If you signed up for our Core package, which includes a LeadTrax site, and you’d rather promote your own website instead, then we recommend switching to our BYOS (Bring Your Own Site) package. In order for our work to succeed, we need to be promoting one website across the board. We can’t do SEO for your LeadTrax site and leave a different website on your Google listing, because that Google listing simply isn’t going to rank. The bottom line is that our SEO work needs to focus on whichever website is in your Google Maps listing if you want to be visible in local searches. So if you want that website to be your own existing website, then we’ll need to plan our SEO strategy around it.

Sync Up Your Website & Google Maps Listing Today!

Your main takeaway should be this: Connecting your SEO and your Google Maps listing is a simple, super-effective way to boost your visibility in local searches. Why wait? Whether you just need to make us the manager of your listing or you want to switch over to BYOS, act now!
As always, call or e-mail us with any questions.

Don't Believe Us About the Importance of Accurate Listings?

Last Updated: June 23, 2016

We tell our clients over and over again that the accuracy of their online listings can make or break their advertising efforts. If your listings don’t have accurate, consistent information across the board, then you’re fighting a losing battle.
Our lectures are often met with skepticism. How important could all these little listings really be? 
In Moz’s latest “Whiteboard Friday” video, George Freitag explains why listing accuracy is vital. Here’s an industry leader repeating exactly what we’ve been saying for years:

Google takes trust very seriously. So how does Google determine trust? That is where listing accuracy comes into play. Listing accuracy is Google’s method for determining whether or not it can trust a local business search result.

How Does Google Use Listings?

When we talk about “listings,” we’re referring to any webpages mentioning your business name, address, and/or phone number. These could include review sites like Yelp, directories like Whitepages.com, and even local news sites. Google uses these to figure out how credible your business’s information is. If the information in these listings all match what’s in your Google My Business profile, then Google will be more inclined to present your business as a local search result because the information seems trustworthy. However, on the flip side, if there are several online listings with information that clashes with your Google profile, then Google will be less likely to display your business. It won’t feel confident it can trust your information.
At the end of the day, it comes down to the reliability of information. Google wants to keep its users happy. The only way to do that is to provide them with information that’s consistently correct.
Therefore, keeping accurate listings across the web is a vital element of local search optimization. You have to keep your existing listings updated with all the right information. You also have to fix any other incorrect data floating around on the web. You may not know about this incorrect data, but Google will.

What If I Can’t Find Every One of My Listings?

Because it’s so difficult to find incorrect data in obscure places on the Internet, many small business owners have trouble asserting their presence in local searches. But this is how you can benefit from working with a local SEO company like Prospect Genius. An SEO specialist can do a deep audit of your existing web presence, find the errors you can’t, and fix them. This will give you the highest level of accuracy possible and boost your presence in local searches.
For all the details about listing accuracy, we strongly recommend you watch the full video over on Moz.
And, of course, reach out to us if you have any questions!

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