google my business Archives

September 19, 2022 Ted Herman Search Engine Optimization, Website and SEO Tips

5 Things to Do Tonight to Improve Your Business Online

Do you have a small to midsize business but no minimum online presence? Have you been thinking about looking into SEO services in Omaha? Before you make a decision to invest in search engine optimization and web marketing you should get the big picture overview of the value. We’ll cover each of these topics in more depth in later posts, but for now, these are the main things you can start thinking about and doing to improve your business’s online effectiveness.

1. Update Your Website

First, if you don’t have a website you’ll want to get one to have an online business presence. A website is necessary for online advertising and gives you control over your business image. Google and Facebook aren’t guaranteed to be around forever, so banking on a Google My Business (GMB) listing or a Facebook page for presence and credibility isn’t a great long-term strategy. If you have a website, you need to make sure it’s modern and optimized for a good user experience on desktop computers and mobile devices.

Tips for a Good Website:

Use WordPress for a robust and flexible content management system.
Use professional photography as this builds credibility and assists in enhancing a beautiful design.
Have a clear message and readable content so customers know they can trust you and exactly what they need to do to begin using your product/service.
Add value to customers by educating them and they’ll be more likely to trust you… not to mention Google will reward you.

Simple Website Action Items:

Your listed phone number should be clickable
Add new photos
Teach customers something valuable

2. Claim Your Google My Business Listing

When people search for you or businesses like yours the majority of the time they use Google. If you don’t have a GMB listing the chances of them finding you are slim to none. A GMB listing tells your potential customers valuable information, like your website address, physical address, and telephone, and shows your reviews from past customers. It also features a map with a pinpoint showing your location.

Tips for Your GMB Listing:

Make sure the name, address, and phone number match exactly
Add photos to show what it’s like to work with you
Use the service area
Enable messages, if you can commit to immediate responses

Here’s JM’s free guide to setting up a GMB page.

3. Create a Facebook Business Page

Facebook is still King of the social media platforms. If you run a business you need a Facebook business page. People will actually search for you on Facebook. It’s also a way to post helpful information and make announcements to your customers and potential customers. You can link your website to your Facebook page offering another avenue for prospects to reach you. Once you’re on Facebook join local groups that have an interest in your industry. You can make connections, learn what people are interested in, and even offer solutions to common problems to establish yourself as an authority.

4. Search Yourself

Finding out how easy it is for your customer to find you is critical for your online success. If you’re online but barely visible, you’re leaving a lot of money and potential customers on the table. The best way to test this is by pretending you are one of your customers.

Google search for what customers are looking for

Start by making a list:

List your services & products
Add other names for those services and products
Add the names customers commonly use, especially when they’re wrong

Type your list items one at a time into Google search. Is your website at the top of the first page on the search result? Is your website on the first page at all? Who is ranking number one? Examine the number one ranking website and look at their information. What are the format and the content? Can you do better? Maybe you can’t be number one, but you should aim to be near the top, and it is doable with the right strategy.

5. Make A Content Plan

You can have the most amazing-looking website in the world, and it won’t sell a thing if the content is weak. Your business needs to benefit from your content, and your customer needs to know what you offer and why it’s going to make their life better.

Great content is a result of asking yourself the right questions and providing those answers to your customer.

Here are the questions you need to ask:

What can I teach my customers?
What questions do I answer repeatedly?
What’s new in my industry?
What information in Google search could I add clarity to?
What is my competition doing?
What search terms are relevant to my business that my website isn’t addressing?

If you Build it They Will Come

After you’ve answered those critical questions, you can start building your content machine.

Things to think about moving forward:

Content is text, image, audio, and video
Who is going to write your content?
Who will create, edit, and post your content?
How will you promote your content?
What will your content schedule be?

Where to Start?

Hopefully, you now have a sense of the online business landscape and where you should be focusing your energy. You don’t need to do everything overnight, but you should start taking action on the most important aspects. If you need help getting started give us a call and we’ll give you some advice on where you need to focus first.

April 9, 2020 JM Online COVID-19, Website and SEO Tips

Are You Open for Business? Let Your Customers Know

The invasion of COVID-19 into our lives has caused upheaval for so many and Omaha-based businesses are no exception. Between broken financials, new rules for physical storefronts, and determining what you can do for your employees, everything about your business probably feels something like a very blurry tornado.

Another factor to consider is your business’ local online presence. But this post will help you sort it out without having to spend hours Googling everything.

We’ll discuss in a few bullet points what you can do for each piece of your online presence, along with a link to the platform and relevant documentation.

Your Website:

Add a banner or other type of message that’s obvious but doesn’t disrupt the normal use of your site. Be as specific as possible. An example can be found here: https://www.mcallisterortho.com/
You could also create a site page specifically for COVID-19 related updates. (See related bullet point for Google My Business below)
If your site has eCommerce features and you’re not shipping anything at this time, disable the cart functionality.
If only some products (such as non-essentials) are not being shipped, disable those products or mark them as unavailable.
Do not pull down or disable your entire website. Even if it’s a short-term measure, that will negatively impact Google’s indexing and ranking of your site.
Further information from Google is available here: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2020/03/how-to-pause-your-business-online-in.html

Google My Business:

Most locations now have the option to “Mark as Temporarily Closed.” If this is the case for your business, select that option right away.
If your business is open but the hours have changed, update the hours in the “Special Hours” section of your business information. It’s the same area where you would mark holiday closures.
Google has made available a post type called “COVID-19 Update.” Make a post right now describing clearly how customers can do business with you. Make additional update posts as warranted. No need to post frequently but if you have new information regarding the future of your business, don’t be afraid to share it! This is a way to communicate with existing and potential customers who are searching for information about your business.
If you have a page on your website for COVID-19 updates, you can post that URL in the business information of your Google My Business property.
If you’re a health professional and have started providing your services through video conferencing, or telemedicine, you may now have a field to post your site page with information about this service.
More information is available at this heavily-updated post: https://whitespark.ca/blog/keeping-gmb-accurate-during-covid19-pandemic/

For more on setting up and configuring Google My Business, click here.

Facebook Business Page:

Make a post right now describing clearly how your customers can do business with you. Pin the post so it appears at the top of your Facebook page feed.
If applicable, update your Page Info, including changed business hours. You have options to select “Open With Service Changes” or “Temporarily Closed.”
You can use digital gift cards with Facebook partners to allow customers to support your business now and help encourage foot-traffic when the coronavirus restrictions have been lifted.
You could also use Facebook Live instead of canceling events or to stay in touch and continue delivering value to your customers.
For advanced users, the recorded Live video could later be edited into shorter videos and posted on Google My Business, Instagram, and other platforms your business might be active on.

My number one recommendation is to make a checklist. Some other suggestions can be found here. It can be easy to get lost in the whirlwind of issues to cover or possibilities to take advantage of. Try to identify each category or platform to cover, prioritize it from most visible to least visible, and then work through that list at least once a week. If you can do that, you’ll be putting your business presence in a good position to rebound when the time comes.

October 15, 2019 JM Online Website and SEO Tips

How to use Google My Business to Stay in Front of Your Customers

When people search for a business like yours, they’re using Google ~92% of the time. If you don’t have a Google My Business listing the chances of someone finding you diminish significantly. Not only does a GMB listing help customers find you, but it tells them valuable information about your company – like how to get driving directions to your location and opening a phone dialer to call you on mobile search. Let’s talk about the features of a Google My Business listing.

What is a Google My Business Listing?

Google My Business is a free tool for businesses and organizations that helps to manage their online presence across Google, with an emphasis on Search and Maps. When you verify your business information with Google, you’ll help customers find you and let them know more about your business. A GMB listing will allow you to control how your business information is displayed on Google.

For More information about the power of using your Google My Business listing, see our article, Why You Should Optimize for Local Search

Control and Manage Your Information

GMB gives you the power to manage the information Google users see when they search for your business. You can display and update your hours, website, phone, and address. GMB also gives your visitors the ability to get turn by turn driving directions to your location. Ensuring that your business information is up-to-date and having some relevant business photos ensures that your future visitors know that they at the right place.

Engage with Customers

GMB allows you to read and respond to customer reviews. You can post photos to keep your audience updated. Businesses that add photos to their listings receive 42% more requests for driving directions on Google Maps and 35% more click-throughs to their websites compared to businesses with no photos.

Track Your Visibility

Discover insights about your customers, like where customers who searched for your business are located. Find out how many people call your business directly from the phone number displayed on local search results in Search and Maps. .

You can even track how many of your visitors have been requesting driving directions to your business. In the Insights menu, there is a chart for customer actions that shows how many times driving directions have been requested.

Google Posts

Promote offers, news, events, product updates, and announcements by adding a post to your GMB listing. These posts show up on Google Search and Maps to provide another way to keep in touch with customers and prospects. Keep your description short, use good photos, and end with a call to action like “Buy,” “Call Now,” “Learn More,” or “Visit Us.”

Google My Business Messaging

A messaging feature lets you directly chat with customers. You can quickly respond to questions and assist current and potential customers. The messages can be directed to any phone number so a staff member can be tasked with these interactions. There is an option to turn messaging off if you’d prefer to keep communication channels more simplified.

Video Uploads

You can now upload videos to your listing. The maximum video length is 30 seconds. Videos lead to higher engagement and provide an opportunity to showcase your business products, service, and give visitors a more personal look into your business. These videos must be taken at your place of business. Google will remove any videos not related to your business location.

For more about optimizing your listing, see this blog: Benefits of Google My Business

Ready for Your Google My Business Listing?

Ready to get started? The first step is verifying your business on the GMB platform and customize each setting. See our step-by-step guide to getting started optimizing Google My Business. Happy optimizing!

June 27, 2018 JM Online Website and SEO Tips

Optimizing Google My Business for Multiple Locations

Google My Business has been around since 2014 and was intended to make local SEO efforts easier for local businesses. Recently, we wrote about the excellent FREE opportunity Google My Business provides to businesses amid a competitive Search Engine Result Page (SERP), and we provide a step-by-step guide for building a Google My Business page and how to optimize it.

In 2015 Google reduced the number of local results from 7 to 3, commonly referred to as the “3-pack” or “map-pack”, so it’s important to rank in the local Google My Business results. But competition is fierce.

google results 3-pack — The “3-pack” or “map-pack”

For businesses with multiple locations, how can you optimize for each location??

Optimizing each location

User proximity is the top local search ranking factor. This is often why results in the “3-pack” may have unclaimed pages.

Considering the number of searches that take place on mobile devices, and the visibility of the map on mobile search results, the value of multiple locations on Google My Business is clear. And the more locations you have, the more likely you’ll appear in results. But how can you get yourself positioned well for the “3-pack”?

You need to optimize for best results.

Verified listings: Each location must have its own verified and optimized Google My Business listing. Learn how to do that here. Each listing must link back to a corresponding location page, and not a main homepage. This means you need to have an optimized page for each location on your website.

Optimizing website pages: Each location of your business should have its own page. Each page should include the city and state of the location and contain unique content. Include a photo of the location with a good alt tag.

Gain reviews: For each location, gain reviews for increased online reputation. Unique reviews for each location will help you stand out, and positive reviews may help convert a prospect to a customer.

Consistency: Ensure your business name, address and phone number are an exact match, wherever they appear – including Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, etc.

Can we help?

Our SEO Omaha team highly values Google My Business as an excellent tool for local SEO efforts. And getting an optimized page for each location is only going to make you more visible and build credibility among users.

Don’t have time to create and optimize a Google My Business page for each of your business locations? Or don’t have time to optimize your website to assist in local SEO efforts? No problem. We can do it for you.

Get Help

May 22, 2018 JM Online Website and SEO Tips

Benefits of Google My Business

Updated October 2019

Google My Business offers businesses an incredible opportunity to be found in local search engine results. As Google’s algorithms undergo constant change to provide a better user experience, Google My Business becomes increasingly important for ALL businesses as they seek to have an online presence and seek to be found easily in a local search.

Google My Business lists your business location on Google Maps and local search results. The listing is free and is a necessity for both store fronts and eCommerce businesses, and lists important information about your business, hours, location, services, contact information and website link.

This is a simple and effective way to be found in local searches on Google. As Google accounts more and more for a user’s location in its algorithm, this local listing will help your business appear when users type in “[keyword] near me.” So, for JM, our listing will appear for a user in Omaha searching for “web designer near me,” because of our Google My Business listing. You’ll notice also in a query like this, Google returns three locations based on your current location.

Gaining access to or setting up a Google My Business page is SO EASY. Here’s a step-by-step guide from our web marketing and SEO team:

Set up Google My Business

Go to https://www.google.com/business/ and select “Start Now”. Sign up for a Google account or enter your current account information. You’ll then be able to search for your business. If you cannot find your business, simply “add your business.”

Create /Claim My Business Page

Once you’ve found your business location you can follow steps to confirm you’re authorized to manage the page. This part CAN be a little tricky, depending on the history of your page. We run into problems when:

A page has been created for your business, but you no longer have access to it
Someone else has access to your page, and you cannot retain ownership of the page directly from them

Sometimes, these circumstances require a direct phone call to a Google support tech.

Verify location(s)

Verifying your business with Google takes a few simple steps, but it important for appearing in Maps and Search. Google will provide you with a verification code through one of the following ways:

Phone
Postcard mailed to your business address
Email

Optimize and Manage

Manage and respond to reviews

Reviews can be powerful. And whether a Google review is positive or negative, responding to these reviews show you value your customers. Positive reviews will increase your visibility, so encourage customers to leave reviews.

Include services

Listing services with brief descriptions (maybe even pricing) can help Google return your business to a viable customer and can give users a general idea of your business.

Add photos

Photos can help you tell a story by showing your office space, employees and products, your giving users a look into your company culture. It’s a digital storefront.

Add posts

Google My Business has a posts option for each page. For each post you can upload an image, write up a little text, add a title and include a link. This area offers flexibility in promoting events, sales, new products, new services, highlight old services, blogs, etc. These posts expire after about 7 days.

Google My Business is one of the most simple and critical steps you can take to help your website be found in a local search. And it’s free! And if you don’t have the time to worry about this, we’re happy to help you in set up your My Business Page, optimize it and advise you on how to take advantage of all its benefits.

5 Things to Do Tonight to Improve Your Business Online