Google Places #1: How To Get A Red Balloon In 10 Steps

Google Places page. Formally known as Google Maps. This little profile can do wonders for you on many different levels in the internet marketing world. As an account coordinator at Search Engine People, part of my job is to make sure our clients have a fully optimized profile.

"Optimize Prime"

…did anyone get that?

In lieu of all the uploading of photos, input of information, and sending off recommendations, I have decided to write a series of blog posts on Google Places.

I will start with the optimization of Google Places. Follow this recipe and you will have a fully optimized profile that is 100% complete. Now that's fresh! It's extremely important to have a Google Places page that has been fully optimized so that it is 100% complete, because right now, it appears Google is giving priority to local listings that have Google Places page that is 100% complete. (See screenshot below.) The listings you see that are ranking have complete Places pages.

Who Wouldn't Want A Red Balloon?

So…how do you get there? I'll be honest, it's not guaranteed, but you should make sure you have a chance. Begin by claiming your page, or establishing one if you don't already have one. Then, follow these simple steps to ensure your page is complete:

Step One:

Your business or company name. Make sure your company / organization's name is listed exactly as it appears in the offline world. Do not include additional keywords such as the city because this violates the guidelines. And you don't want to violate the guidelines. We're talking black-hat Google Places tactics here…yes, that does exist…kind of.

Step Two:

Add your phone number. Make sure it is the phone number you want potential clients/ customers to reach you at. If I'm driving and I need to contact you, Google Places is the first place I look for contact information on my mobile device (yes, I pull over to the side of the road first…). Also, add any toll free and fax numbers you have as well. The more contact information – the easier you can be reached.

Step 3:

Your email address. Unless your personal email address is the main point of contact, add a preferred business email. example: caitlin@caitlinmelvin.com (that doesn't actually exist..so I wouldn't try emailing me at that address)

Step 4:

Add your website. Include http:// as well when you add your website.

Step 5:

Categories. Include all the categories that are relevant to your business. The more the merrier. But please, ensure they are relevant to your business. Do a thorough search through the categories Google offers, as there may be more than one that are relevant.

Step 6:

Hours of Operation. Ensure that you display the hours your company / organization is open for business. No one can drop by if they don't know when you're open. Alternatively, if your business does not allow people from the public to come to the location, there is an option you can select to show the public that you service customers at their locations, and you can also hide your address. That's Google looking out for you  Although…you should also list the areas you service regardless of whether or not customers come to you, or you go to them. Keep that in mind.

Step 7:

Payment methods. Do you accept Mastercard, but not American Express? That's something you may want people to know before they come to your business. Select the payment options your business accepts.

Step 8:

(Are you still with me?)

There is a section that allows you to display additional information about your business. Do you have a plumber on call at all hours? Is your business wheelchair accessible? Do you have parking? Little things like that are something you may want to display on your Places page.

Step 9:

Photos. I've written a blog post on the importance of photos in social media. Photos are also super important for your Places page. You can add up to 10, so add 10 to ensure the Places page is fully optimized. Plus, people love looking at photos, let's be honest here. And if you have a company video, upload it to Youtube, and copy the URL into the video option. It's not necessary, but it is great to have.

Step 10:

Reviews. I think we all know the importance of having a good review about your business online. Google Places allows people to write a review of your business on your Places page. Ask loyal or happy customers to write a positive review about your business, or the experience they had. But also note, that Google will also pull reviews from websites such as Yelp.

There are a few other items that you can use on Google Places to optimize your Places page, including the Live Posts section, and Offers. But that's for another day my friends. Happy optimizing!

I would like to thank my super smart colleague Martha, who implemented this strategy and has taught me everything I know about Google Places. 

From the series: Google Places

• Google Places #1: How To Get A Red Balloon In 10 Steps

4 SEO Steps To Follow When Changing URLs

In a perfect world every URL would be perfectly optimized from day one, but unfortunately this isn’t always the case.  URLs have to be changed for a variety of reasons, whether you are optimizing the page for the first time, reacting to a change in the way people search, or are forced to do it for other reasons, it’s something that we all have to deal with in the world of SEO. However, if the URL you are changing has a significant number of tasty links coming into it, you won’t want to lose that link equity. Additionally, you don’t want internal links pointing to an obsolete URL. If this is a problem you’re facing for the first time or just need to recap, following these four steps will help you to keep your URL structure tidy, maintain a solid internal linking architecture and retain your link equity.

1. URL Normalization

Best practice URL structure is to keep all characters as lowercase and to separate words with a hyphen. For example http://www.domain.com/page-name.html would be a well optimized URL. If you’re really fussy you may also want to drop the ‘.html’ as well, but it’s not essential. However, if you’re current URL structure is a combination of upper case characters and underscores, my advice is to follow the current structure. Whatever the case may be, ensure your new page conforms to the existing URL structure.

2. 301 Redirects

301 redirecting the old URL to the new URL is essential. This will help to pass the power from existing external links to the old URL across to the new URL. It’s also important as it will enable search engine spiders to effectively find your new page, index the new URL, drop the old URL from the index and help to transfer any existing power the old page has across to the new page.

3. Internal Linking

Ensuring all internal links point to the new URL and not the old URL is also very important. Internal linking is a very powerful signal that tells search engines which pages on your site are important. Neglecting to change your internal links after a URL change will mean that search engine spiders following the incorrect URL will be presented with you 301 page. By making life easy for the spider and correcting your internal links will help it to find the quickest route to your deeper page.

4. Legacy Redirects

Any legacy redirects that are present on your website pointing to your old URL will also need to be corrected. This is one house keeping job that is quite commonly overlooked when changing the URL structure of a page.
This is the basic list that I follow when a page URL needs to be changed. Do you follow any other steps then changing a URL? If so, add them to the comments below.

3 Step Marketing Foundation for Small and Medium Businesses

 

Being a part of an SMB myself, I can very well relate to what this type of businesses need in terms of marketing and promotion. Most companies have only short-term goals in mind and getting customers now is a top priority. However, there are a few steps you need to check first if you're to succeed in attracting more customers:

1. Find a niche. There are a few benefits when working a niche. For one thing, it's easier to spot and keep an eye on your competitors. You can also effectively identify your potential customers and address them in a more personalized manner.
2. Differentiate your products/ services from the competitions’. Make sure you're offering something different, of a higher quality to your target market. Find the thing(s) that makes your company better and focus on communicating that.
3. Find out where your target market is and reach out to them. They may have associations, online groups, and forums, participate at certain events and so on. For example if you are targeting moms, you might want to do a blogger outreach campaign to mom bloggers in order to get their support. Alternatively, if you're targeting other companies, find a relevant association and ask for their support. Most of them already have programs that to help companies communicate with their members (member lists, event sponsorship, banner ads etc.).

Obviously, the third point is the most interesting and it can be widely detailed. However, if you choose to skip right to the marketing tactics and ignore the first two points, your results will be mediocre at best. Maybe a full-blown marketing strategy is too much for your company to invest in. Nevertheless, you can still do some hard thinking yourself and check the first two points off the list, before you go ahead and promote your company or services.