Claiming your Google Listing in 20 minutes or Less
[su_row][su_column size=”1/2″] [youtube_video id=”hU1ZmVFlW3A#t” ][/su_column] [su_column size=”1/2″]With over 80% of potential buyers searching online for information about products and services, it’s clear that keeping in step with Google and search engines is a vital tool in your marketing arsenal. One way to leverage Google’s magic is to claim your Google Places for Business listing. In addition to setting up your Google+ profile, taking the time to fill in key information about your business on Google Places gives you a better shot at showing up in the maps listings and getting you seen by local searchers. [/su_column][/su_row]If you’re not sure how to get started, find 20 minutes out of your day and take these three steps: 1. Set Up an Account with Google In order to access Google’s free tools, you need to have an account. Once you’ve completed this step, make your way to the Google Places icon within your account profile. 2. Add or Complete Your Business Listing Google may have populated your business listing with data they’ve found from reputable sources. That said, it’s important to add or modify your listing with more specific information coming from you. Include your business name, description of what you do, contact information, your business categories, hours of operation and photos. 3. Verify Your Listing Google offers two ways for you to prove you’re the owner of this listing – by phone or by mail. If you select phone, Google will call you with an automated message sharing your unique PIN# to verify your listing. If they require verification by mail, please note it may take a week or two. So what will Google do now that you updated your business listing? According to their support page, they state the following: “We use listing information to help us understand more about a business, so relevant listings appear in search results across Google, such as in Google Maps, Search, and Earth. We’ll continue to provide information about your business in these different searches.” – Google In other words, claim your listing and you’ll increase your chances to connect with more people searching online! If you would like a more detailed step-by-step guide to walk you through this process, please contact us.
3 Questions to ask yourself when building your website.
Are you thinking about building a website? Do you have an idea for what that might look like? Before you start to design, hire, or even build the site yourself there are a few things you should think about. 1. Who is your audience? This may be an easy question or a complicated question, so it might help to break it down a little by also asking yourself. Who are your current customers? Who do you want as customers? Who do you think will be visiting your website? What motivates them? What is important to them? How comfortable are they with technology? What do they typically do online? Understanding who is going to your site is crucial to making sure you giving them what they want. Because if you don’t know what they want it will be that much more difficult to get there attention and get them to do what you want them to do. 2. Why would customers visit your site? Now that you have determined who your audience is, it’s time to start thinking about why you want them to come to your site. Once again you want to break down this question into parts. Is your potential client looking for something? Do you want them to buy something ? Do you want them to sign -up for something? What information will they need to make a decision? If you are not meeting the needs of your audience, they will most likely leave – quickly; leaving you with a lost opportunity. On the other hand, if you are providing an easy to navigate and understandable site that gives them what they want, Your users will thank you by participating whether its signing up for information or purchasing products. 3. How do you going to know if you are meeting your users needs? Now this is a question you have to ask yourself every once in a while after you have your site up and running. This is both an internal and external questions and you will get answers by looking at internal and external metrics. Internal metric and site analysis tools like Google Analytics or Heatmaps. These tools assist you in figuring out how long your customers are remaining on you site, what links they click on why they are leaving your site. While gathering external metrics can be as simple as creating a form to gather candid user feedback. Take any opportunity you get to ask folks who have visited your site about their experience. Ask the customer: Does the site provide all the information you were looking for? Does the site do a good job of reflecting the business? Is there anything I can do to improve the website? These few things will help you start to build your site with a clear direction and focus your voice, ensuring that the message you want your users to get is the message you are actually sending. In the end, that means more success for you and your business. Feel free to comment or ask questions below.
Planning Makes It Better
Welcome to our first post. Today we are talking about why it’s important to plan your site and web strategy before you begin to build. The first step in creating anything on the web is the most important and perhaps the most difficult step. You have to decide what to do and why you are doing it. It’s not enough, to know you need a website or social media real estate. You have to think about why. Price Is Not The Most Important Thing. Too often, companies simply hire someone to build something similar to what another company has, and while said company might get a usable product, they miss an opportunity to really move their business forward and create momentum with their vision. In the biz we often hear, ‘How much is this going to cost?’ before anything and everything else. But the real question isn’t how much should I pay to get my company online, it should be: What do I want my web presence to do? How can it help my company. Answering those questions will help you create a better tool for your company and in the end will also inform how much you end up spending on a web solution. Goals Set The Tone Don’t begin to build your web presence just because you think you aught to have one. While we think you do 🙂 , its more important to have a goal for the site and other web application than to actually have them at all. So whether you’re launching a new site, rethinking an old one, or trying to add to your web real estate, you should start with two questions that will crystallize your goals. Why does my organization need this web solution? What do my visitors/prospect need out of this solution? If you answer these questions everything else should will fall into place.