The Importance of Local Listing Optimization
A local listing is your way of letting Google know that you are in business in the consumers particular search area. Local listings are a good way for small to medium sized businesses or franchises to put their company in front of a larger set of consumers searching for your industry. Think about this, you’re hungry, so you type in “restaurants near me” into Google to see what restaurants pop up. Or, you need your yard cut, so you type in “lawn services (your city)” to see what lawn care providers are in your area. The potential is limitless! So, how do you get your local listing to rank above other competitors local listings? This is where local listing optimization comes into play.
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It is absolutely imperative to optimize your local listing. In fact, why would you even bother making a local listing with Google if you’re not in the top three search results. After the top three, it is rare that anyone takes the time to seek out a company. Local listing optimization involves citations, reviews, high quality photos, and claiming of your business. Citations are what gives Google the go ahead to weight your local listing as more important than your competitor’s local listings. Reviews are self-explanatory. It is Google’s job to show their consumers the most relevant information possible, so why would they want to show a page with bad reviews over one with good reviews? They do not want to show the bad reviews, so it is important to always treat your customers the absolute best, and you should be focused on trying to get a good review! You should also have high quality photos of what you do in your industry linked to your local listing. Claiming your business lets Google know you are in business at this specific address.
There is a lot that goes into the optimization of your local listing, and it could really help pay off for you with new customers. At NextGen, we are getting one of our clients an extra 16 calls a month from optimizing their local listing! It takes a lot of time and effort to complete, but I promise it will be worth it in the end with the extra exposure your company will get. If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an email at Nick@NextGenMrkt.com . I’d love to hear from you, so tell me what you think!
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Consistency is Key & Sales is King!
-Nicholas Wolf- CEO of NextGen Marketing