BendTech

This is a repost of this G5 article

Why They Matter, Why They’re Worth Your Time and How to Create Them

By Devin Davis, Director of Marketing, G5 Search Marketing

Let’s start at the beginning. What are Google Local Business Listings?

Google describes it as a way to customize business listings on Google and Google Maps. These listings differ from organic or pay-per-click listings as they typically only show up when the user types a service oriented business followed by the city for their search.

Example: Assisted Living, Dallas.

What then appears is a large map from Google Maps which includes up to 10 URLs with phone numbers by each. If more than 10 listings are needed, the user can click in “More Results from Dallas” and be taken to a map with an alphabetical listing of each registered Assisted Living service on Google Maps.

Why They Matter

Local online search is huge. According to Search Engine Land 2009 data:

• 14 billion queries were posted per month on major search engines
• 20-40% of those search queries had “local intent”
• That’s 300-600 million local search queries per month on search engines – and that doesn’t include Maps

Numbers aside, Google Local Listings matter because
1) Searching for Senior Housing is usually tied to a specific geographic location
2) They are displayed more often in search with up to 7 listings before organic listings even start

Why They’re Worth Your Time

Creating your listing will help your prospects find you online. After developing your website, Google Local Business Listings effectively jumpstarts your online presence by getting your community found on the Web. While the process takes time to do properly, the benefits are worth the effort:

• Places your business in the Maps section of Google, helping tie your search results to your offline location
• Boosts your search engine optimization (SEO) rankings in the organic section as well, where more than 80% of searches take place
• Improves your Page Rank, increasing your chances to reach more prospects with online paid advertising

How To Create Them

1. Title

Your Local Business Listing title should contain only your community name, your location and a single keyword that best describes your community.

For Example: “Senior Care, Inc: Omaha Senior Housing”

2. Categories – A few “musts” before creating categories:

Know what words your prospects will use to find you (or your competitors)
Use these words (or the closest thing to them) for your categories
You can create your own and/or use predefined ones
Keep your categories short but descriptive. Be specific but leave the granular level for the additional details section.

What not to do:

3. Description – The description of your community is limited to 200 characters. Mention unique selling points for your community – awards, certifications, or a history of excellent care are all highly relevant here.

Starting Points for Developing this Section

* Press Release Boilerplate
* “What We Do” from your website

4. Contact Information – A few mandatories in this section:

* One listing per community address
* Opt for a local telephone number for your listing instead of an 800 number, if possible
* Make sure that phone numbers you use for your local listings match those numbers listed for your community in other published materials

5. Photos and Video – Uploading visuals to your Google Local Business Listing will positively impact your local SEO results through Google Images and Google Video.

6. Multiple Reviews – It’s important that these be from real customers. You can not have too many.

7. Create links to the listing – Add a link from your homepage to the listing and encourage current customers or website visitors to review your company.

In summary, Google Local Business Listings is an important component of the SEO process, but it’s just a component. Regularly updated Web optimization (typically through a third party expert) invariably leads to more prospects contacting you and an increase in your occupancy.