Ever wondered how to get higher in the Google Map Listing? Follow these steps for more Leads
Unless you have been living in a cave or using only Bing you will have seen what is called the Google Map Pack. It appears when you search for a specific business or some business type + location.
So in the image above I searched for “Gas Engineer Walsall”. Google are always experimenting with the layout of this and in some cases have been trialling out paid listings (eg if you pay Google enough money they make you #1).
There are some easy things you can do improve your prominence and hopefully increase the number of leads. If you don’t have a Google map listing yourself we will cover that too with some simple steps.
Google My Business (GMB)
If you don’t have a Google My Business listing you will need to set one up.
https://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/business/
It’s simple process, you just answer all of the questions. If you don’t want your home address listed, you need to tick YES in the box that says
“I deliver goods and services to my customers at their location”.
If you don’t have a listing already you will need to verify your address with Google. This tries to stop fake businesses setting up. Google will send you a letter, with a special code on it. When you enter this, Google now know you have a valid reason to be listed with them at that address.
Citations
A citation is an online mention of your business that can have a link to it or not. This tells Google you are real. If you imagine, hearing about a great pub and the more times it get’s mentioned the chances are it’s a great place.
In its simplest form, that’s how Google works.
When Google first started there used to be a list of websites they they worked from. To stop people abusing the system, they now no longer say which ones they look at. But some of us grabbed these lists 🙂
The citation must be formatted in the EXACT same format to your GMB format. So if you are listed as “InTheTrade” you need to make sure your citations are are same. This is the same for the address part too.
Getting Citations
When Google first started there used to be a list of websites they they worked from. To stop people abusing the system, they now no longer say which ones they look at.
Well some of those lists still exist. Scroll to the bottom to see a list. Some will come and some will go.
You will have to login to each one, find most suitable category and add your business details. It’s a hassle.
TIP : Use an as service where someone will do this for you likely for a fraction of your time costs.
We can help you with this, Get in touch.
Depending on how competitive your business sector is you might only need 50 listings, but for the extra cost it can be worth just going with a larger package.
Something to note here is these websites are trying to make a living, so they are going to call and email you to try and sell you extra things. This is just how it is, there is nothing you can do but politely refuse.
Once done you will have to wait for these listings to go live and then be found by Google as the crawl the web.
Reviews
When you are buying something do you look at reviews? Yeah, of course you do. Well you need reviews for two reasons:
-
- Google like them
- When customers search for local businesses in Google they are going to trust businesses with good reviews. So you will need to ask people to give you reviews. They will need a Google account.
Tip : Only ask happy customers to review you and never fake your own reviews.
Making it Look Great / Real
This comes down to trust again. When you buy online for example do you feel better knowing the company is real, has an address and looks legit? Of course you do. So add images, for
- Logo and Header
- The product if you have them
- The Team or just you, to show you are real. Maybe your van, it all adds trust.
Social Signals
It’s trust again here, but you don’t need to got crazy. Just get business pages for the main social networks. Make sure they have a link back you your website if you have one. Remember to keep the format and name the same as mentioned above.
Don’t panic, you DO NOT NEED to be active on these social networks (unless you want to), but you need to own the page. Start with:
Your Website
To help the citation listed above if you own a website make sure the name and address are formatted correctly. If you have a website it will appear in the map listing, so make sure it has your main details on.
Ask your website developer to:
- Add links from your website to the social media pages
- Add “structured data” that matches the GMB Data
(Geek link >> https://schema.org/LocalBusiness)
Get a Geographical Phone Number (01 / 02)
It’s a fact, many people do not like calling mobile numbers. So ensure you have a landline listed and do not miss out on calls by setting up an answerphone for when you are not about.
Or get a landline that can be redirected to your mobile.
Summary
Broken down, each one of the items above steps is not that hard, and will almost certainly see you getting more enquiries.
Good luck 🙂
If you want some help getting it all sorted for you, get in touch.
Local Business Directory Starter List
192.com
2findlocal.com
about.me
accessplace.com
adeum.com
approvedbusiness.co.uk
ask-christel.co.uk
bizfo.co.uk
biznessdirect.co.uk
bizuk.org
bizwiki.co.uk
bridgat.com
brightedge.ca
britishproductsdirectory.co.uk
brownbook.net
business-directory-uk.co.uk
businessnetwork.co.uk
bview.co.uk
callupcontact.com
citiservi.co.uk
cityvisitor.co.uk
city-visitor.com
communitywalk.com
companylist.org
consumermotion.com
cylex-uk.co.uk
desktoppages.com
dierenartsgids.nl
digibritain.co.uk
directory.independent.co.uk
directory.thesun.co.uk
epage.com
everymerchant.com
favecentral.com
fonobiz.com
fonolist.com
fonolive.com
fonolocal.com
fonopages.com
foursquare.com
freeindex.co.uk
gethuman.com
gofalk.com
growetsy.uservoice.com
guardian.co.uk
hotfrog.co.uk
hotfrog.co.uk
hot-web-ads.net
ibegin.com
ieyellow.com
iformative.com
iglobal.co
igotbiz.com
in-britain.co.uk
infignos.com
justpaste.it
lekkoo.com
linkbyme.co.uk
list.co.uk
List-company.com
listedin.co.uk
listomera.co.uk
local.trueknowledge.com
localdatasearch.com
locallife.co.uk
localstore.co.uk
londondirectory.co.uk
londononline.co.uk
lookuppage.com
near.co.uk
opendi.co.uk
pageze.com
placereference.com
qype.co.uk
recommendedcompany.co.uk
retrieva.co.uk
scoot.co.uk
searchme4.co.uk
smartbusinessdirectory.co.uk
smilelocal.com
solicitors.co.uk
teloos.co.uk
thebestof.co.uk
thetradefinder.co.uk
thomsonlocal.com
tipped.co.uk
touchlocal.co.uk
touchlocal.com
ufindalocal.com
ufindus.com
uk.99nearby.com
uk.bizadee.com
uk.simapages.com
uk.tradeford.com
ukcities.co.uk
ukdatapoints.com
uk-local-search.co.uk
upmystreet.com
usdatapoints.com
usnetads.com
whatsonnetwork.co.uk
whats-where.co.uk
wheresbest.co.uk
whoseview.co.uk
ww1.highlandclassifieds.com
yell.com
Yelloyello.com
yelp.co.uk
yourtowndirectory.co.uk
zeemaps.com
zipleaf.co.uk