SEO: Getting Traffic From Google Local

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

When you’re looking for a local business or service, do you use Google or the dusty copy of the Yellow Pages sitting under your stairs?

Almost all of us use Google, and yet businesses continue to pay thousands of dollars per year to advertise in the big yellow books that they themselves don’t use anymore.

So why the big disconnect? It’s simple. Businesses haven’t caught up yet, and they’re leaving money on the table. They are missing customers, for no good reason.

You can list your business on Google Local, get your pin in the Google Maps, and start appearing on the front page of Google search results. Claiming your listing in Google Local opens you up to a whole market of customers which used to be the sole domain of the yellow pages: people on your very doorstep who are looking for exactly what you offer.

Getting listed is free, and you can get started right now even if you don’t have a website yet.

Your first step is to register your business in the Google Local Business Center. You can do this at www.google.com/local/add. Fill in all the information you can. List your phone numbers, email address, operating hours, location, product description, and upload relevant images and videos too. Filling each available image slot is important because it really makes your listing stand out. Most businesses simply provide the bare minimum and expect to be above their competitors.

A successul profit-pulling Google Local Listing comes down to 2 key things. Optimization and Reviews.

1. Optimizing your Local Listings.

After your business name, location, product details and images, you’ll have the option of choosing some business categories. I can’t emphasise enough how important this section is. There are some existing categories you can choose from, but the real secret is that you can enter your own descriptive keywords to define your business.

The keywords you choose can have a big effect on your local listings, and if you pick them wisely, having performed all the relevant keyword research first, you may find yourself the only business listed on the map for some key local search terms.

The downside is you can only choose 5 categories/keywords, so plan this out carefully.

2. Reviews.

A Google Local listing is a very public place that you can use to collect and showcase customer reviews. Your business is a smaller part of a much larger company, but that doesn’t mean you can’t collect your own testimonials about the products and about your service in particular.

Collecting numerous 5* reviews will make your business listing look great, especially compared with competitors with no reviews, and will create instant credibility for you and your products.

Google is increasingly using social indicators of popularity and quality to decide in what order search results are listed. This means more reviews will most likely result in higher rankings above your competitors in the local listings.

The local traffic is there for the taking, and you have the products and local presence to take advantage.

Google is offering it all for free, so start getting found!

P.S. I am currently looking at Google Local to build my home businesses Look at the best online business here

Learn to do keyword research the right way in the Empower Network