How Optimize Your Google plus Page for Business

Would it make a difference to your business to have a listing on Google when prospective customers type in keywords associated with the products or services you provide your listing would appear at the top? You bet it would! One recent example is Anita's Mexican food restaurant located here in Wickenburg. A few months back I helped Sherry optimize her website and their Google Plus page and here are the results from the past 30 days! They had over 2457 page views And 20 Requests for driving instructions! In fact the manager Darren commented a few days ago that their business has increased significantly since the optimization their site and their Google local listings. So if you would like to achieve the same results, I will share with you 5 powerful tips to help you started. 5 Local Search Marketing Tips for Local Businesses 1. Claim and Optimize Your PERSONAL Google Profile The first step is to create a personal Google Profile page for yourself and then optimize it. Why? Because it's important first step to increasing your trust level with Google. If you don't have a Google account sign-up by pressing the red create an account button and fill in the form to start the process. If you already have an account, sign in and click on your photo (or icon if you have not added a photo) on the top right hand corner and press the view profile link. Next click on the About tab and begin editing your personal profile. Add as much information about yourself that you feel comfortable making public and be sure to add any links to your Facebook page, YouTube Channel your Twitter account. Next, if you already have a website make sure that you add a link to it in the Contributor to area of the links area. Here is a link to my personal Google Profile to get some ideas. 2. Claim Your Google Plus Page for Your Business Now once you've created and optimized your personal profile step 2 is to claim your Google Plus page if you have not already done this. The easiest way is to first search for your business to see if it's already listed in Google. In this example searching for Wickenburg Restaurants we can see that we triggered the Google Carousel instead of the typical Google 10 pack listing that you may be familiar with. Now for this example let's select the listing for Charlie's Steak House. Here we can see that: 1. The page has not been claimed 2. The page is not optimized 3. And they are NOT managing their reviews Why is this all so important? 1. Well number one some unethical person with some basic optimization skills could ultimately highjack the listing. 2. Other businesses that do optimize their listing will rank higher in Google. 3. And prospective customers who read these un-moderated comments may choose another business because of the reviews they read. So if your Google Plus page has the same Manage this page button, your next step is to go through the process by claiming this page by pressing the button. Now if your business does not show up for some reason, your next step is to enter it. So go back to your personal Google profile page and put your mouse over the Home tab and a window will fly out with a sub-menu looking something like this. Then press the Pages button. When that page opens press the blue button Create a page. Next you will select a category for your page, select Local Business or Place You will then be prompted to enter the telephone number of the business, type it in. If your business phone number is found in Google as in this first example then press on your business name. If it is not found, then press Add your Business to Google link. 3 -- Optimize Your Google Plus for Business Page The next step is to optimize your Google Plus Business page by pressing the blue Edit business information. Your goal is to get the green bar on top of this page to 100% as in this example If this is the first time you have edited any of the information on this page Google will need to verify that you're the business owner. Therefore they will send either a post card to the business address or call the phone number of the business and provide you with a PIN number. Once you have received this PIN number you will need to return to this page to claim it. 4 -- Increase Your Circle of Influence Next step is to increase your circle of influence by following people you know that already have Google + accounts. These maybe customers, family members, and other people you may want to follow. Now Google + is different then Facebook friends as if you're following someone it doesn't mean that they will automatically start following you. So to increase your circle of people that are following you, you need to start engaging potential clients and encourage them to follow your Google + business page both online and offline. This can be done by encouraging your present clientele to post reviews and by publishing new content on your website and Google + business page. 5 -- Optimize your Website If you don't already have a website, get one. If you do, optimize it. Because having a optimized website for your business is another important step in getting your business in front of prospective customers when they begin searching for products and/or services in your community. The Next Step to Your Online Success Now there is just way too much information I have which I can share with you on how to optimize your website to publish in one article or video such as this. And because of this I now hold a 2-day Local Search Optimization workshop twice a year. During this live event you will learn some of my other powerful strategies on optimizing your Google local listing, Google Maps listing, your website and even how to market your business through mobile marketing. To get more information about attending my next local search workshop just click on this link; The SEO Roadmap -- Local Search Workshop. Another option is to schedule your free, 30-minute consultation with me, either in person or over the phone. To schedule this free consultation call me at 800-881-8736 or use the contact page on my website. I look forward to speaking with you personally as you climb the ladder in growing your business using the strategies I have share with you.