As with anything that directly relates to the world’s most popular search engine, Google Plus Local can be a useful tool for your small business to engage prospects in the surrounding area. Here are a few tips from Vedran Tomic that will help you establish a presence on Google Plus Local for your small business.
- Training. When deciding how to manage a Google Plus Local account, a franchise must choose to handle the account in one of two ways: they can leave it up to the franchisee or they can handle it as the franchisor. Either way, there are a few training methods that will help to strategically increase search rank. One thing that’s important to keep in mind is that Google is not limited to the information you provide them in your business information section. As the world’s most popular search engine, they pull information from a number of sources that can affect your ranking. Among other things that could affect your ranking, Google will look for brand consistency. This means that your company information should be consistent everywhere that it appears on the internet. Another thing that will affect your ranking is company reviews. Google will favor companies that receive great reviews from Google Plus Accounts.
- Dig Into the Details. More than anything, Google is well aware of the technical aspects of your business. Be sure that you keep your ranking up by following a few basic guidelines. Remember that Google wants to see data consistency, so ideally your business will have one phone number rather than several to increase your ranking. Also, local numbers should be used whenever possible as Google prefers them to toll free numbers. Also be sure to watch out for banned words that will hurt your listing. Finally, be sure to avoid something that could render your business ineligible: if you do not have a permanent address or if you do not provide on-site customer assistance then Google does not see any reason to list you on local search.
- Seek Help. There are several ways you can help yourself as a Franchise by seeking third party assistance for dealing with Google search optimization. For starters, consider using a data aggregator such as Acxiom, Localeze, or InfoGroup. Although these services aren’t free, their service is the best way to ensure that your business’ data is being accumulated by Google in the most effective way possible. There is another tool called allLocal, which does a great job of synthesizing data and review, which will help you further optimize your Google Plus account.
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