Business Listing Optimization
Ensure your business information is correct across hundreds of directory sites.
Why Business Listing Map Optimization?
“Why is my business not showing up on Google?” seems to be the most common complaint today. There are countless of websites now, and the competition for visibility has become exponentially steep. If your small business is aiming to be seen by your local audience, the first step is to invest time in Google map optimization. With this tool, local results appear for people who search for business within their searching areas. If you are finding that your business does not appear in relevant searches for your local area, you are missing out on valuable audience reach and traffic. Providing the bare minimum amount of information about your business will cause your business to have poor visibility and poor Google map rankings. Luckily, with assistance from our internet marketing team, you can achieve so much more.
**ABOVE, CLICK THE HANDLE AND DRAG FROM LEFT TO RIGHT**
Local Places Research
Duplicate Google Places Analysis
Duplicated listings for a single business can be problematic when they appear in Google search results or in a business owner’s Google Places account. There should only be one listing per business location, both in the Google Places account and in search results. We will develop the best solution should your business appear more than once in your account or in search results. We will present the proposed changes before implementing any modifications.
Duplicate Foursquare Analysis
Foursquare is one of many secondary local search engines where you will need to list/claim and verify your business. Listing and claiming your business properly with Foursquare is an essential step to improving your local presence.
One can’t create duplicate listings in Foursquare. If there’s an existing listing, we will report it to you so you can decide if you would like us to claim it. Otherwise, should Foursquare creation be part of your package, we will create and optimize a new listing for you.
Duplicate Facebook Places Analysis
Facebook allows people to share where they’ve been, where they’re headed and where they are now. This feature is an opportunity for businesses to promote their products and services within their local area.
We will find duplicate Places for your business by searching for its name or locations where people made when they checked in. If we found duplicates, we will claim and merge the duplicates to keep your customers’ likes and check-ins in one place.
Duplicate Bing Local Analysis
Having your business added properly in Bing Business Portal is an important step in improving your local presence. Bing is one of the major search engines where you can have your business listed and verified.
We will find duplicate listings in Bing by searching for its name or locations and report it to Bing if we find any duplicates.
Competition Category Analysis
We conduct Competition Category Analysis to see how you’re performing and to acquaint you with the existing competition for your category. We will then compare our analysis with that of other advertisers in your niche/category. With this data, we can make informed decisions on which types of optimization changes are suitable for your account. This is important because “categories” in Google places are not selected from a drop down menu, they are typed in. Therefore the options of what to enter as a category are limitless.
Ranking Comparison Report – Google, Yahoo, Bing
This service triangulates search results gathered from leading search engines. We will analyze your business website’s rankings based on their positions on these search engines in relation to your chosen search terms. The comparison is made by looking for your details on the three largest search engines today (Google, Yahoo!, and Bing). Local search results (Google Places, Yahoo! Local, and Bing Local) will also be part of the report and shown side by side of your organic rankings.
Current Directory Listing Analysis and Overview
We will be running a report to analyze your current Local Directory Standings:
What business directories is your business currently listed in? What type of information is the directory submission site using? Is your listing using a description or photos? Does your listing currently contain any reviews or have a star rating?
Local Online Directories are the modern equivalent of the Yellow Pages. As more local consumers turn to the Internet to find information about local businesses, these directories are seeing a huge growth in users. Directories can be a direct source of new customers but they can also boost your local SEO ranking. Therefore it’s important that your business is listed on all these leading directories and that your business information on them is correct.
Business Address Consistency Check among Existing Directories
It’s important for your Business Name, Address, and Phone Number to be recorded consistently across all the main search engines and local directories. Inaccurate information can be confusing for customers and more so for Google. Google likes to verify the information it holds about your business with other sources such as local online directories.
It is ideal that your Name, Address, and Phone Number are the same on each site. If there are any discrepancies, appropriate measures should be implemented. Updating the inaccurate results by claiming your listing on those directories and correcting the erroneous information effectively resolves this issue.
Google Places Competition Profile Page Analysis
This process efficiently analyzes your performance on Google Places. Google Places is Google’s local search service and contains listings of local businesses, organizations, and places. Google often shows Google Places results for search queries that contain a location (also known as a Geotag). It is also used in Google’s local applications for mobile phones. Google Places is a very powerful local marketing tool and should be utilized by all local businesses.
This research compares your Google Places listing to your top 5 Google competitors. These competitors are the top ranked companies for your target search terms. We will be analyzing your competitors quantity of photos, reviews, videos, star rating and other factors such as their categories, description, and verification status.
Local On-Page Optimization Analysis
This section analyzes the On-Site SEO factors that affect your ability to rank high in search engines and specifically the Google Places/Maps. On-Site SEO factors comprise the fundamental elements on your website, either visible on the page (which you can readily see) or seen only in your website’s code (which search engines scout for). It’s easier to improve SEO factors on your own site because you have control over them. Listed below is a quick bullet list of some of the components we will be analyzing:
Meta Tags and Page Titles
Heading Tags
Robots.txt
Error Pages
Keyword Visibility per Target Page
Primary Location Visibility Check on Website
Internal Site linking structure
Sitemap
Contact Us Page Analysis
Microformat Analysis
Google Places Compatibility Check
This section analyzes your performance in Google Places. We will examine your website’s categories, rank, verification status, number of reviews, and Google’s star rating. We will also pay close attention to your current listing if it includes any type of coupon promotions. In doing so, we are able to quickly analyze the flaws in the current Google Local Listing. Should one exist, we will immediately determine if it matches your company name, phone number, and address.
Business Information
Business Information Intake
This form is provided to gather all the necessary information to facilitate the optimization process and should be filled out in full and returned so we may proceed with the optimization process.
Business Information Validation
It is very important that all company information on the Internet is consistent with your website. We will use the pieces of information on the form and verify them against the target website and any other directories we can find online. We do this to ensure that the information we are using is updated. This also guarantees that all information about your business on the Internet is consistent.
Business Address Verification (if applicable)
We check to make sure the address given for the business location matches a verified location in the USPS official database. It is not confirmed but heavily believed that Google cross references the USPS official database to check the validity of the business location. We will be able to tell if the address is residential or commercial. Note this is only for USA clients.
Email Account and Logo
Unique Email Account Creation for Local Listing Creations*
If an email account and its password are not provided once the campaign launches, we will create a unique email account for the Local Business Listing Creation process.
Turn Over of Email Account
We will be providing you with the email account and password upon delivering the monthly report. Please note that we would like to be notified if the email account’s password is changed while the campaign is still in progress so we may update our records accordingly.
Uploading of Logo for Linking into Local Listings
In order to upload a Logo to a Local Business Listing, the logo must first be hosted online and assigned a corresponding URL.
Primary Local Business Directories
Google Places – Creation and Optimization
Our Google Local services includes the creation, optimization and submission of a Google Local Business Listing. The listing must be claimed by receiving a PIN number. This PIN number will be sent to you within 2 weeks of us making the request. Once you receive the PIN number on the post card, you will need to email it to us so we can claim the listing for you.
Google Plus User Account Creation
If a Google Plus User account and its password are not provided once the campaign launches, we will create a Google Plus User account for you. This is required for us to create your Google Plus Business Page.
Google Plus Business Page Creation
Your Google Plus Business page is your brand’s home on Google. When your customers search on Google, the results may include relevant posts, photos, and videos from your Google+ page. Get found across Google, right when your customers are most interested.
We will create and optimize this page for your company to have maximum exposure in Google Plus. We will help you stand out from the competition by including compelling online content such as photos and logos. We will also add your business hours, services, and other information.
Bing Local – Creation and Optimization
Our Bing Local services include the creation, optimization and submission of the Bing Business Portal. We will help you stand out from the competition by including compelling online content such as photos and logos. We will also add your business hours, services and other information. It typically takes two to three weeks for a Bing Local listing to be published.
If your business is located outside of the US, we will be creating a Yelp listing instead since the Bing Business portal is not available in your location. As with Bing, it will typically take two to three weeks for your Yelp listing to be published.
Facebook Places – Creation and Optimization
We will set up a Facebook Places Page on your behalf. People can check into this Page when they’re nearby. We will make sure that your Facebook page contains accurate information. We will add your company description, phone number, location, hours of operation, specialties, services, payment options, etc. Facebook Places requires phone verification.
Foursquare – Creation and Optimization
Claiming and verifying your listing in Foursquare is the first step to get discovered and be successful in Foursquare. Foursquare has millions of business listings, all submitted by customers who go to those places.
We will find your business and make sure that the information for your claimed business is accurate. We will add your company description, phone number, hours of operation as well as links to your website and social media profiles – Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Verification of Foursquare will require a credit card payment of $1.
Additional Top Local Business Directories
Top Local Directory Account Creation and Optimization
While setting up your listings in Primary Local Business Directories, we will also submit your business information to top local directories such as Yelp, Judysbook, and Insiderpages. As more and more local consumers turn to the Internet to find information about local businesses, these citation directories are witnessing a huge growth in popularity. These citation directories can be a direct source of new customers, but they can also boost your local presence.
Top Niche or Geo Related Directory Account Creation and Optimization
We will conduct a research to find niche specific or geo related directories. Using this data we will be able to not only target the directories that is niche specific or geo targeted for better local presence, but we will be also able to find directories where your target market hangs out. Our ability to use specialized research and citation/directory tracking resources will give us a leg up on your competition.
Image Creation, Optimization, and Publication
High Quality Image Sourcing
We will find compelling, high quality, relevant images to represent your brand. Finding the right image is crucial in increasing your sales, market share and brand recognition.
Image Optimization and Publication
We will optimize the branded images without changing their look or visual quality. These images will load fast which increases the likelihood of being exposed to consumers in the world wide web. Images will have the ability to index in the search engines when your clients type in relevant keywords describing your business. Images are often times part of the first page search engines results.
Image Geotagging and Backlink Generation
After uploading your branded images online, we will write optimized descriptions and insert BB Codes to generate backlinks pointing to your website. We will also geotag these images to help improve your local presence and pin point the images location on a map.
Image Uploading/Publishing in Major Local Business Directories
Branded images will be also uploaded to the primary 4 local business directories in a form of an update. This will help in increasing brand awareness which could later lead to sales and conversions.
Misc. Service Items
Dedicated IP Services
We will provide a dedicated IP for each campaign for use when accessing your accounts.
Reporting and Auditing
Internal Report Auditing and Analysis
All Reporting is subjected to a monthly routine auditing and assessment process. We perform this auditing on a monthly basis to assure that all reports are up to date, error free and properly formatted.
Work Reports
All tasks will be tracked throughout the whole month and are reflected on the monthly report which includes all progress and final outcomes. MONTH 2 & ONGOING MONTHLY
Custom (Citation) Building
Directory Research
You may choose between Blog and Forum Comment Posting AND Review Publication
For the Blog and Forum Comment Posting: we will conduct research to find blogs and forums that are relevant to your business, and perform posting of relevant comments with reference to your business.
For the Review Publication: Upon being furnished with reviews you have collected, we will publish each of them to one of the top review publication websites.
Internal Report Auditing and Analysis
All Reporting is subjected to a monthly routine auditing and assessment process. We perform this auditing on a monthly basis to assure that all reports are up to date, error free and properly formatted.
Specialized Directory Creation
Collectively, Local Online Citation Directories are the modern equivalent of the Yellow Pages. As more and more local consumers turn to the Internet to find information about local businesses, these citation directories are witnessing a huge growth in popularity. These citation directories can be a direct source of new customers, but they can also boost your local places rankings.
The directories we decide to built new listings in will be determined by the “Directory Research” as described in the above line item. Another way to gain prominence on these citation directories is to enhance your listing with more detail about your business.
We will create directory listings using (limited to) the below information.
Company Name
Website
Address
Local Phone Number
Services
Categories
Email Address
Products and Brands
Logo
