Tag Archive for: Google My Business

The pandemic has completely transformed the business environment. As a result, companies of all sizes have adapted to meet the new challenges. Maintaining your interactions with remote customers is no easy task, especially for small shops and businesses that are more experienced with face-to-face practices.

The post-pandemic business world focuses on digital strategies. Your audience has learned new behaviors during the health crisis. Therefore, if you are going to digitize your company presence, you need to ensure you can meet the new expectations of your customers. Not sure where to start? Here’s a clue for you: Golden ISA. Indeed, business experts recommend the GISA or Golden ISA approach to bring your small company to the post-pandemic requirements.

Golden Google

G in GISA or Golden stands for Google. As the leading search engine platform, your Google presence needs to be part of your strategy. Indeed, Google is the holy grail of marketing and customer acquisition for small businesses. In a post-pandemic world, being visible online requires dedicated SEO. Experts recommend local SEO strategies that utilize the benefits of Google Maps, using Google My Business. Boosting your local rankings means that your business is more visible to local searches and mobile users in your vicinity. Additionally, your Google Maps presence can provide all the information customers need before committing to a visit or a purchase: Reviews, opening hours, photos, and targeted content.

I for Information technology

There is no going any further forward with dedicated IT services. For most small businesses, having an in-house IT team is not an option. Therefore, you need someone who can help manage cybersecurity risks, tech issues, and IT network to make the most of your resources. When IT is at the core of your business processes, you can’t afford delays or frustrations. SMBs need to compete with corporates in terms of IT effectiveness, reliability, and security.

S for Social media

People are looking online for your brands. They turn to your social media network for support, inspiration, guidance, and information. Your social media activity will help position your brand’s attractiveness and popularity. Unfortunately, social media channels are a crowded place. If you want to get noticed, you need to make sure your strategy differentiates your brand from your competitors. Don’t be afraid to start new trends rather than relying on the overused marketing content and campaigns. Ideally, partnering with a professional agency can enable you to be creative without committing a costly faux pas.

A for Almighty apps

A responsive website doesn’t match the functionality and ease of use of a mobile app. Indeed, apps can significantly increase your sales with unique features such as notification, discount, and simple payment methods. A business application doesn’t need to compete for visibility on search engine result pages. On the contrary, customers can have direct access to your products without the risk of competing brands affecting your reach. In an age where most people carry their smartphone everywhere and rely on it for most of their interactions, a business app is the safest way to always be by your customers’ side.

Your online presence must meet the needs and behaviors of a post-pandemic market. The smartphone is at the heart of many interactions, from information research to transactional exchanges. Therefore, maximizing your efforts to be visible and user-friendly to local users and smartphone buyers can go a long way. Finally, it’s crucial to maintain your tech up-to-date and safe for all in a digital environment. Without reliable tech, your business activities become less effective.

Do you know that by improving the Local SEO positioning , you will have the possibility of reaching clients who are close to your business? For several years, the main search engines and especially Google, show personalized results for each user. These results are based on our location or if we do a local search, and they will allow us to quickly find what we need. That is, if your business is in a certain physical location and you want to attract customers from your locality or nearby, you have no choice but to appear in the first local search results. Interesting, right? Well, let’s not waste any more time and let’s start by seeing what actions you should apply to optimize the Local SEO positioning of your business.

Why is it important to improve Local SEO positioning?

Do you remember the order in which Google shows you the results when you do a local search? First, the paid ads (if there are any), and then the Google Maps map with 3 location pins. Well, in one of them your business can be, therefore, it is very important to be well positioned in your city or province. For example, if we search for hotels in the city of New York, Google shows us this map and these results.

How to do Local SEO

I can tell you that, in order to achieve a good web positioning in your locality, and you must work on internal aspects , over which you will have full control and other external aspects, which will no longer depend only on you

1. Always use the same NAP

In order to properly work on Local SEO positioning, something very important is to always use the same and identical NAP (Name-Address-Phone) data on all the websites where you register your business. It is recommended that you write them down in a Word document or in Notepad, and from there you copy and paste them. This way, no characters will be missed ( this information must match letter by letter and point by point).

2. Create a profile on Google My Business

Now you can register your business in Google My Business. You just need to have a Gmail account and start filling in the data that the platform requests. Try to enter the maximum number of possible, real and updated data (no padding or irrelevant data). As such, it will allow Google to show your listing to potential customers in your area of ??action.

By creating and optimizing your profile in this service offered by Google, you will be providing the search engine with a detailed, personalized and updated file of your business. Without a doubt, this point is essential so that you can appear on the Google Map as a local result, and you will also appear in the organic results of the search engine itself.

3. Get reviews and comments on Google My Business

If a business does not have positive reviews, it will hardly be able to climb in the local search results. Truthful reviews and opinions will do nothing else, but demonstrate your good work and increase credibility and trust with the user. Given the importance of reviews, you must encourage your satisfied customers to leave their assessment about you and your business . It is a good method to contact them and invite them to leave their opinion and thank them for the high value for us that they do this action.

4. Register your business in local directories

If you register your business in local directories, you will be letting search engines know that your field of action is in a certain geographical area. In addition, another benefit that you will get when you register in the directories will be a link to your website, a factor that will undoubtedly help you improve the overall SEO of your website and at the same time the Local SEO positioning of your business. Once you have selected the most relevant local directories in which you are interested in being present, start the work of getting reviews, scores and comments from your users. As we have seen previously, this factor is one more in determining the position in the search results. Always use the same NAP. If there is a slight difference, in a punctuation mark or in an upper and lower case, it will be a reason for a penalty and all the work that you would have done so far to achieve a good local position could be ruined.

5. Add more information using Rich Snippets

Rich Snippets are micro data that provide additional information to Google about our website. In this way we make it easier for you to understand our content better. Google will show these rich snippets in search results if it thinks they can provide information of interest to users. Surely in searches that you have been able to do you have noticed:

• The stars that indicate the rating given by users.
• In the thumbnail images or videos that accompany the description of the content.
• Or in the information about the author of the content, events, opinions.

These are all examples of enriched fragments and just as they have been able to draw your attention, they do it with other users, do you see their importance now?

6. Optimize your business profiles on social networks

It cannot be said that the presence in social networks where your target audience is, is more than necessary and cannot be absent from your Digital Marketing plan. You will imagine that not only being present is enough, your profiles must be active and properly optimized . With this I want to tell you to publish regularly and include the maximum information regarding the description of your business. And remember, no fillers, just important information:

• Schedules
• The different ways a user has to contact you ( E-mail, telephone, etc.).
• And of course your location

Also make sure to include links that point to your website from each of the social profiles. This way you will soon be immersing yourself in the incredible world of local SEO and creating a successful future.