Are You Making the Most of Google Local?

It has been almost 4 years since Google launched the Google Local Business Center, but it still amazes me that many businesses, small business in particular, and not taking any steps to boost their profile here.

Considering that for many searches now, there are 10 Google Local results listed before the rest of the results, see here for example,  it seems that far too many people are ignoring this huge potential source of traffic. Free traffic, no less!

So, if you’re one and you don’t know where to begin, here’s a few tips to get you started:

Find or Add Your Site.
Head over to http://www.google.com/local/add and sign in with your Google Account info. Click Add New Business, and start completing the info – name, address, etc.
Once you click Next, you may well find that your business is already listed. Just click Claim Listing. If it’s not there, select Add New Listing instead.

Take Control.
Obviously you don’t want just anyone to be able to change your listing information, so Google has a couple of ways to verify that you have the right to edit this account. By far the easiest is the phone method. If you are sitting by the work phone, Google will give you a PIN on the screen, and then call you at the phone number they have. Enter the PIN and you’re all set.
If that’s not possible the alternative is to have them mail you a postcard with the PIN. This can take a couple of weeks.
It is worth telling everyone in the office to keep an eye out for this card. It’s easily mistaken for junk mail and tossed, which will require you to start again.

Build Out Your Listing.
This isn’t the Yellow Pages. It doesn’t cost you any extra to make your listing an all-singing, all dancing ad that shows off how great your company is. You can add up to 10 photos, so do so – not just a logo, but anything else that you think may help. Put in your office hours, types of payments accepted, even add in up to 5 Youtube videos. Really take some time and add in all the bells and whistles that you can.

Monitor the Results.
As well as seeing the traffic on your website analytics reports, Google also provides rolling stats of the last 30 days, with the number of impressions and clicks that your listing generated. You might very well be amazed at just how much traffic is now coming your way. As an added bonus they even offer the ability to show coupons. These are branded with the Google logo and a bar code so when your customer requests their free cup of coffee with any sandwich/car wax with any full service wash/website evaluation/whatever, you’ll know just where they came from.

Have you had any success with Google Local? Please let us know.

Google’s Ambitions are Out of this World

It is said the when Alexander realized the size of his domain, “he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer” – Google, however, just moves out to space.

Yes, having won the search engine wars, dominated the pay-per-click sphere and, presumably, it’s just a matter of time before becoming the number one browser, Google has taken the next step and left Earth’s orbit.

Well, OK, not quite, but they did launch their own satellite today, from a rocket emblazoned with the Google logo.

The Delta 4 rocket owned by GeoEye will provide Google with exclusive satellite imagery for Google Maps. According to the press release,

“GeoEye- …(is) designed to take digital images of the Earth from 423 miles and…the satellite camera can distinguish objects on the Earth’s surface as small as 0.41-meter or 16 inches in size.”

However, U.S. Government restrictions mean that Google will only be allowed to use resolution of 50cm – but with most commercial mapping right now at 60cm, it’s still a big improvement.

So, Google will have at least one satellite capable of reading your license plate from space.  And to think, some people are still worried about Google tracking their online behavior!