Lets take a look at how a typical consumer would use Google to find a product or service. As an example, we will try to find an electrician in Ottawa.
This is what Google displays when I type “Electrician Ottawa” into Google. On the left-center you can see a list of the top 7 most relevant electricians according to Google. If you are an electrician in Ottawa this is where you want your business to be.
In the top right corner you see a map of every electrician that Google is aware of in the Ottawa area. This is what you see when you click on the map:
As you can see the top 7 (A – G) are listed on the left. You can easily see their address, phone number and website. How convenient for us trying to find an electrician. Those are the first places the majority of people searching are going to call.
All of the small red dots are electricians in Ottawa who are not in the top 7. In order to move up into that spot you need to have your Google+ Local page active, update all of your information, and optimized for search. The more active you and your customers are in Google, the higher Google rank you, therefore more customers will see your business more readily.
The ultimate goal is to get your business listed in the top 7 and have customers leaving reviews about your business on your Google+ page. If you take a look at the electrical company listed at “A” they have 4 reviews. Getting your customers to leave positive feedback here is critical. If people feel like you’ve provided quality service for their money they don’t have a problem leaving a good review for you, as long as they know how. Your potential customers can read what people are saying about all these company’s including yours, and make their purchasing decisions based on this information.
Lastly, if I click on more information this is what shows up about company A. You can see that they have claimed their Google+ Local page because there is a quote from the owner. They have neglected to upload any pictures so it doesn’t look very professional. More importantly the first two reviews I see are “poor to fair.” With so many electricians in the Ottawa area virtually all consumers who found this company would move onto the next. The sad thing is that this company services thousands of people a year, most of which are probably quite satisfied. Unfortunately, of the 4 people that took the time to leave a review all 4 are negative. It’s pretty obvious the importance of maintaining your Google+ Local page.
John Shaw
Latest posts by John Shaw (see all)
- Why you need to link your Google AdWords and Google Analytics Accounts - January 16, 2015
- How to Raise Quality Scores in AdWords - August 6, 2014
- Why you need a full time SEO working for your business - June 15, 2014
- Google+ Local – An Absolute Must for Any Local Business - April 9, 2014
- What is Online Reputation Management? - March 12, 2014
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