Google Local Business Center: 5 reasons why you should put the power of Google behind your local business
Google Local Business Center: 5 reasons why you should put the power of Google behind your local business
The Google Local Business Center is a tool that allows business owners to more effectively connect with customers searching Google for local business information. It puts business owners in control of their business listings and helps them provide authoritative, useful and timely information about their businesses.
The Local Business Center (LBC) is useful even for businesses that don’t have websites, as Google’s LBC allows them to use their local business listing as their web presence.
Registering for an account with the LBC, and adding or claiming your local business listing, should be a priority for your business for five key reasons:
1- Your customers and competitors’ customers Search Google to find local businesses
The Google Local Business search engine – which you can find at local.Google.com or maps.Google.com (maps is by far the more popular of the two) – receives an average of more than 50 million unique visitors each month.
In other words, many people are searching each month for, among other things, local businesses to buy from.
And while it’s a good idea to sign up for local business accounts on Yahoo, Bing, and other search engines, a Google Local Business account should be your immediate priority because Google is the undisputed leader in market share search for local companies, with more than double the local share. business search market share of maps.yahoo.com, maps.bing.com and yellow.pages.com combined.
Please note that all links, images and videos can be found on the author’s website, whose address is listed in the resource box of this article.
Of course, despite Google’s best efforts to promote the LBC, and the use of maps.Google.com, there are many millions of people who still use the google.com website, even when searching for local information. And, as you’ll see in the next section, this gives local businesses a chance to capture some space at the top of Google’s “traditional” web search results.
2- A Google Local Business Listing can get you to the top of Google
Google’s launch of Universal Search in May 2007 meant that content from Google Images, Google Local/Maps, Google Video, etc., could be integrated into its “traditional” web search results pages.
This means that Google can – and often does – publish local business listings as part of web search results, even if the location is not specified (Google’s search algorithm appears to be able to detect “local intent”).
It’s becoming increasingly common to find Google Local Business listings on the first page of search results, often at the top, like the “Google Local Business Seven Pack” (a reference, obviously, to that Google shows the top seven searches for local businesses). results in a group of seven).
Alternatively, Google may display a search query box at the top of the search results page that asks searchers: Looking for local results for keyword?
Either way, a Google Local Business Listing can put a business on the fast track to a coveted position at the top of Google search results that might otherwise have been impossible to capture.
3 – People who search for local businesses on Google take action
A comScore.com study sponsored by Google that looked at the importance of search in influencing offline purchase behavior found that 25% of searchers purchased an item directly related to their search queries and that, of these shoppers, 37% completed their purchases online. while a further 63% completed their purchases offline after their search activity.
The results of the study underscore the fact that a Google Local Business Listing is not only effective at generating traffic, but more importantly, it is effective at generating traffic that converts.
4 – The advent of Google Local Search for mobile
As they become more sophisticated and the browsing experience continues to improve, access to the Internet via mobile phones will continue to increase. In fact, Gartner predicts that Internet access via mobile devices will overtake PCs by 2013.
Google has long clearly understood the synergy between local search and the mobile web, as some key developments suggest:
· Google’s July 2005 acquisition of Android Inc, a maker of mobile phone software (which began speculation that Google was looking to dive into the mobile phone market; the acquisition also eventually led to the development of the Android mobile operating system)
· Google’s September 2009 launch of enhanced local search for mobile allows users, among other things, to “highlight” search results on their computers and automatically appear on their mobile phones; also allows users to search by browsing local business categories without typing (the author’s website video provides a brief introduction to Google Local Search mobile functionality)
· Google’s November 2009 $750 million acquisition of mobile advertising company AdMob (after a fivefold increase in mobile search traffic over the previous two years)
· December 2009 Google distribution of Favorite Place stickers to over 100,000 of the most searched and searched US businesses on Google.com and maps.Google.com (see video on author’s website for learn more about favorite places)
· Google’s January 2010 entry into the mobile phone market that finally ended years of speculation about Google’s plans for the mobile phone market
Naturally, Google will continue to innovate in both the local search space and the mobile web search space. The key is that companies that get on board early will reap the best rewards. And all it takes to get on board is to visit the Google LBC and claim or add your local business listing.
5 – Google LBC is easy to use and free
If you already have a Google account, you can just sign in to Google LBC and get started right away. If you don’t have a Google account, just sign up for one (you can sign up on the LBC login page).
The video on the author’s website gives a short walk through the easy process to sign in to Google LBC and claim (or add) your local business listing.
As Google continues to promote local search, consumer use of local search will only increase. And given that consumers using local search are buyers, don’t you think you should sign up for Google’s LBC and put your local listing to work for your business today?
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