A Comprehensive Guide to SEO-Friendly Web Design

In today's digital landscape, having an online presence is no longer optional for businesses - it's an imperative. However, more than simply having a website is required. To drive traffic, leads and sales, that website needs to be discoverable and visible on search engines.

This is where search engine optimization (SEO) comes into play. SEO encompasses the strategies and techniques needed to improve a website's rankings on search engines like Google. A strong SEO strategy leads to increased organic traffic, greater brand awareness, and higher conversion rates.

For most small business owners, SEO seems complex and out of reach. However, the reality is that the foundations of SEO-friendly design are quite intuitive. By incorporating core optimization principles into the website design process, businesses can build a solid SEO base that will fuel sustainable growth for years to come.

This comprehensive guide covers the key areas that web designers need to address to create SEO-friendly websites that capture attention and climb to the top of the SERPs (search engine results pages).

Navigating the SEO-Design Interplay

SEO is often treated as an afterthought—something to be retrofitted onto an existing website. However, SEO needs to be an integral part of the website design process from day one to harness the true power of optimization.

The interplay between design and SEO may seem complicated at first glance. But in essence, it boils down to a few core principles:

Putting the user first: An SEO-friendly site provides a seamless, engaging user experience while catering to search engines' indexing needs.

Content-focused architecture: The information architecture and overall structure should revolve around organizing content to match user intent.

Code optimization: Lean, clean code enhances site speed and search engine crawlability.

Responsive design: Creating a seamless experience across devices is non-negotiable.

By keeping these principles in mind from the outset, web designers can craft websites that balance aesthetics, functionality and optimization.

Crafting Compelling Meta Descriptions: Capturing Attention and Driving Traffic

Meta descriptions, those concise summaries of a web page's content displayed in search engine results, play a crucial role in attracting organic traffic. They provide a glimpse into the page's content, enticing potential visitors to click through.

In just a few short lines, meta descriptions must communicate what users can expect to find on that page. Use these five strategies to formulate captivating meta-descriptions:

1. Clarity and Relevance: Accurately convey the page's essence and emphasize its key selling points. Summarize the content clearly and highlight the most relevant information.

2. Keyword Integration: Incorporate targeted keywords naturally, ensuring they seamlessly blend into the description's flow. Avoid awkward placements - keywords should fit into the context.

3. Search Intent Alignment: Tailor the description to match the user's search intent, ensuring it aligns with their expectations. Address the searcher's most pressing questions.

4. Engaging Language: Use captivating language that sparks interest and encourages users to explore further. Ask clever questions or highlight unique value propositions.

5. Call to Action: Close out with a call to action that redirects visitors to the site. For example, "See our flooring application guide" or "Browse kitchen cabinet options."

Remember, the goal is to provide users with a preview that compels them to click. Craft meta descriptions that deliver an irresistible invitation to learn more.

Embracing Schema Markup: Enhancing Search Engine Visibility

Schema markup is a semantic vocabulary that provides search engines with additional context about a website's content. Typically embedded in HTML code, this structured data enhances a website's visibility in search results and improves its click-through rate.

By helping search engines better comprehend the underlying meaning behind website content, schema markup transforms a site from a simple collection of words and images into rich, machine-readable data.

Here are some key benefits of implementing schema markup:

Featured Snippets: Schema can help pages earn the coveted featured snippet position, where key content is displayed prominently at the top of search results.

Enriched Search Results: Markup enables search engines to showcase additional information like images, reviews, or ratings directly in results.

Improved CTRs: The added context drives more specific targeting, increasing click-through rates.

Speaks to Voice Search: Voice assistants like Siri and Alexa rely on schema markup to improve responses.

Overall, schema markup enhances websites' visibility and discoverability. For SEO-focused sites, implementation should be optional.

Mastering URL Structure for Search Engine Crawlability

URL structure is the foundation of a website's navigation and search engine crawling. Well-structured URLs make indexing and understanding a website's content easier for search engines.

Meanwhile, more than confusing, overly complex URLs can undermine all other optimization efforts. Follow these six tips for creating clean, crawler-friendly URLs:

1. Meaningful Names: Use descriptive, relevant page names that accurately reflect the content - for example, "services/kitchen-remodeling."

2. Avoid Excessive Symbols: Keep URLs simple, minimizing using symbols and special characters. Lengthy, complex URLs are hard to decipher.

3. Parameter Management: Use parameters sparingly and only when essential to convey additional information. Excess parameters create unnecessary complexity.

4. Consistent Structure: Maintain a consistent URL structure across site sections to support intuitive navigation.

5. Responsive Design: Ensure URLs adapt responsively across devices without breaking.

6. Case Sensitivity: Use only lowercase letters in URLs to avoid duplicate content issues.

By optimizing page URLs during the website design process, businesses give their sites the best chance of ranking well in searches.

Leverage Internal Linking: Guiding Users and Search Engines

Internal linking is linking one page on a website to another. It creates a network of interconnected pages that enhances navigation, improves user experience, and strengthens a website's authority for search engines.

Here are five tips for balancing internal linking with natural site navigation:

1. Strategic Placement: Strategically place internal links throughout the website, ensuring they are relevant to the user's context.

2. Natural Links: Integrate internal links naturally within the page's content, avoiding forced or unnatural placements.

3. Link Vocabulary: Use anchor text and labels that accurately reflect linked content while incorporating target keywords.

4. Outbound Link Balance: Offset internal links with reputable external links to trusted sources where relevant. Keep users from being confined within the site.

5. Avoid Overlinking: Don't overdo internal linking; excessive links can appear spammy and disrupt the user experience.

Used judiciously, internal links guide users to useful information while mapping site architecture for search engine crawlers. Keep internal linking helpful, not disruptive.

Optimizing Page Speed: The Key to Smooth Browsing and Higher Rankings

Page speed is a critical SEO factor impacting user experience and search engine rankings. A slow-loading website frustrates users and signals to search engines that the website needs to be better-maintained.

Follow these seven-speed optimization techniques:

1. Image Optimization: Compress and optimize images to reduce their file size without compromising quality.

2. Minification: Minify CSS and JavaScript files to reduce their size and improve loading speed.

3. Code Optimization: Eliminate unnecessary code and optimize the website's code structure for efficiency.

4. Caching: Use caching technologies to store commonly accessed components, avoiding repeat resource loads.

5. Content Delivery Networks: Use a CDN to distribute content globally and serve it to users from nearby servers.

6. Lazy Loading: Only load visible content first, then asynchronously load the rest to accelerate the initial page load.

7. Performance Monitoring: Continuously monitor page speed using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and address bottlenecks.

Fast page speeds lead to lower bounce rates, better conversions, and happier search engines. Make page speed optimization a standard operating procedure.

Embracing Responsive Design: Adapting to Every Screen Size

In today's multi-device world, responsive design is required to deliver a consistent, frictionless user experience. It ensures that websites dynamically adapt to optimize layout, content, images, and navigation for every screen size.

Follow these five tips for creating seamless mobile experiences:

1. Mobile-First Approach: Design websites with mobile devices as the primary focus, ensuring they are optimized for touch-based interactions.

2. Responsive Layout - Use flexible layouts, images, grids, menus, and buttons that automatically resize without horizontal scrolling or disturbances in visual flow.

3. Accessible Navigation: Keep navigation friendly for touch devices with ample touch areas, avoiding nested sub-menus.

4. Mobile-Friendly Elements: Utilize responsive images, fonts, forms, and buttons that scale appropriately for smaller screens.

5. Performance Testing: Thoroughly test site performance on both desktop and mobile to address speed bottlenecks.

With Google now indexing mobile-first, embracing responsive design is business-critical. Ensure that mobile users never feel like an afterthought - prioritize their experience.

Conclusion

Designing an SEO-friendly website is an investment that pays off exponentially in the long run. Businesses give their content the maximum possible exposure by incorporating these best practices around metadata, internal linking, site speed, and responsiveness.

While staying abreast of constant search algorithm changes may seem overwhelming, focusing on the core technical and design principles outlined here provides a stable SEO foundation. Use this guide as a roadmap, and ensure that onsite optimization informs each stage of the web design process.

With the right SEO-focused design strategies, businesses can transform their websites from static brochures into adaptable digital storefronts that engage customers while organically attracting qualified traffic 24/7. Commit to continual evolution and refinement, and your website will serve as an invaluable partner in driving sustainable growth for years.

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in 2023

Takeaways:

• SEO is an important marketing strategy for any business

• SEO has evolved into quality content over quantity

• Voice search optimization is rising

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a term that some people are familiar with.

It is important to understand the basics of SEO in order to be successful in the search engine results pages (SERPs). This post will walk through what SEO is and what it isn't, why it's still important for your business to take advantage of SEO and how you can become successful at it. By the end of this article, we'll show you how to implement these best practices into your marketing strategy so that you can bring more traffic to your website!

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving your website's visibility in search engines. This can be achieved through a variety of techniques such as:

• Increasing the number of pages on your site

• Improving the quality and relevancy of content found on your site

• Making sure each page has an accurate title tag, meta description, and keywords

Is SEO dead?

So, is SEO dead?

It's definitely not dead. But it has been revitalized and changed by Google in recent years, requiring marketers to adapt their strategies accordingly. As a result of these changes and the ever-present threat of algorithm updates, SEO can no longer be considered a set-it-and-forget strategy. It's now more important than ever for marketers to keep up with the latest developments in SEO if they want their sites to rank well on search engines like Google.

What are some of the latest trends in SEO?

The world of SEO is constantly changing. It's important to stay up-to-date on any new trends in the industry. To help you do that, we've compiled a list of some of the latest and greatest developments in the field:

• Voice search is extremely popular among younger people who want information from their phone instead of having to type it in.

• Quality content is still king for search engine optimization, so don't skimp! That said, there are some other things you can do to set yourself apart from your competitors—like using long-tail keywords or writing blog posts about topics related but not directly covered by your site's main keywords.

• Mobile-first design allows content creators and site owners alike to maximize their reach by optimizing their pages for mobile devices first and then scaling back down as needed based on screen size (rather than vice versa).

Why is it useful for your business to take advantage of SEO and how does it benefit your customers?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving your website so that it ranks higher in search engines. To use a technical term, it’s the art and science of getting your website to rank higher than everyone else's on Google.

Most people don't know what SEO is and they're confused by all the jargon, but they do know that you can't find what you want on Google if it isn't there! For example: "I want to buy a car" OR "I need to find a mechanic." If you don't get the results for either search query above then there's something wrong with your website or how much time you're spending optimizing it for search engines like Google.

How can one be successful at SEO?

Search engine optimization is a long-term commitment. If you're looking for quick results, then you should probably be looking at another article. The best way to approach it is by making sure that your website is optimized for mobile and has a good user experience. This will help people easily find the information they're looking for when they visit the page, and not waste time having to scroll through endless pages of content just to find what they need.

You'll also need high quality content with unique keywords in order for Google's algorithms (the software used by search engines) to index your site properly. Think about how people are going to navigate from one page on your website to another: if there's nothing useful or interesting about what's on each other page of yours, why would anyone want follow links? For example: let's say I'm searching "how do dogs bark" on Google because my neighbor keeps waking me up every morning between 5am-6am due my neighbor dog barking uncontrollably outside their house - which happens quite often - but lately it seems like it has gotten worse than usual...

The future of SEO includes voice search, quality content and mobile-first design.

In the future, there will be a lot more voice search. Voice search is more natural and easier to use than typing, which means it can be used on both mobile devices and smart speakers like Amazon Echo and Google Home. It's also not just for your phone: People are already using their smart speakers to control connected home appliances like thermostats or lighting systems.

Voice search isn't new, but it has been growing steadily since its inception in 1996 (and yes—that was long before Siri). The technology behind voice recognition has improved tremendously over time thanks to major advancements in computing power and machine learning algorithms. In fact, many people think of Alexa as "the future" of technology because she's so convenient!

Conclusion

SEO is an important part of any business looking to grow, but it’s not something that should be taken lightly. If you are serious about your business and want it to succeed, then you need to take advantage of the latest SEO trends and techniques so that you can be successful.

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5 Marketing Strategies for Local Service Providers

Every local business owner has the same concern – how do I get customers?

It is a common problem because with no customers you have no income.

Revenue = barbeque on the patio. Less revenue = less barbeque. You know where this is going...

Below I want to highlight 5 marketing strategies that local service providers should consider implementing.

1. Provide a service people need.

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The first step to success is making sure your product or service is a necessity. When someone needs something, they will be more likely to pay for it.

If you provide a service that people can't live without and have no other way of obtaining, then you'll have a better chance at building a successful business.

In addition to providing a useful service, it's also important that the service be valuable in some way. People need many different things throughout their lives: from laundry services and pest control solutions to plumbing repairs or real estate consultation services.

There are plenty of opportunities out there if you're willing to put in some hard work and creativity!

2. Establish a target market

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Before you can start marketing, you need to know who your target market is. This will help shape the types of marketing strategies you use as well as how much effort and money is spent on each strategy.

Start by determining who your customers are. Are they single mothers in their 20s? People between the ages of 35-45? Business owners? Seniors? Once you know this, consider what services they need and how often they need those services (for example: once a month or every six months). That’s when it gets tricky: You have to figure out who your competitors are!

Competitors include other local businesses providing similar products and services, but also people within the same community offering complementary products/services or even other industries that might cross over into yours (such as restaurants serving food). Don’t forget about online options too—your competition could come from anywhere!

3. Create a professional website and online identity.

It's not enough to be on the web. Your website design needs to be professional, and it should reflect your brand.

In a few steps, you can turn your website into an online identity that will help customers find you easily and build trust in your company:

• Use a professional email address – like name@companywebsite.com.

• Use a professional phone number.

• This could be your business line or a dedicated cell phone number for marketing purposes only. Make sure this is listed on the site so that customers can call if they have questions or concerns about service before they schedule an appointment.

• Make sure there is consistent messaging across all of your channels.

It should be clear what they can expect when they interact with you online or in person through communications like social media posts, blog articles or newsletters.

4. Build a reputation.

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The next step to building a thriving business is to establish your reputation. Your customers need to know they can trust you, and that's why it's important to give them reasons why they should both love you and keep coming back. There are many ways you can do this:

• Quality: Make sure your work is always done right the first time around.

• If there are any problems with a job, fix them immediately so that no customer will have cause for complaint.

• Reliability: If someone needs something taken care of by a certain date or time, make sure it gets done on schedule

• And if there are any delays along the way (e.g., weather or other factors), let your client know immediately rather than leaving him hanging in suspense while waiting around for his lawn service guy who might never show up at all!

This helps build credibility by proving how reliable and trustworthy you truly are as an individual or business owner/operator—which in turn will attract more potential clients over time (and probably make current ones happier too!).

5. Get involved in the community and local organizations.

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In order to be successful in any local business, you have to be a part of the community. Just like a person cannot run for public office without first establishing their credibility within their district and earning the trust of voters, a service provider must also establish themselves as being committed to helping out in some way before they can expect people to consider buying from or referring them.

The best way for local service providers to do this is by getting involved in events that have nothing whatsoever with marketing or sales.

A great place for this would be volunteering at local schools; many teachers are short-staffed and could use help on field trips or at school functions outside of class time.

Another option would be joining one of your city's business associations, such as a chamber of commerce.

This gives you the opportunity meet other professionals who work in similar industries and learn about upcoming opportunities such as grant programs or tax breaks that may benefit your business (but which won't usually come up during general conversations).

These marketing strategies can help bring new customers to your local business

When you're starting out, it can be hard to find new customers. The good news is that there are a few things you can do to help bring them in.

• Identify your target market. You need to understand who will be interested in what you provide, and why they'd want it. If you're selling hot dogs on a street corner for $0.50 each, then everyone should have hot dogs! But if you're selling luxury cars for thousands of dollars each, then maybe only wealthy people will buy from you.

• Provide a service that people need (or think they need). If no one needs your product or service enough for them to pay for it, then no matter how many ads or marketing campaigns or promotional events (like parties) you throw at them—they won't care about coming over!

• Create a website that is professional and has a clear message

• Build your reputation, be known for quality work and being reliable

• Get involved in your community

Conclusion

When it comes to marketing your local service business, the key is to be flexible and creative. You’ll need a solid marketing strategy in place before you can implement any specific tactics.

If you want to find new customers, then it's important that your company finds ways to connect with them by partnering with the right marketing agency.

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5 Ways to Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly

Hey, is your website mobile-friendly? Just because you can pull it up on your phone doesn't mean that it's mobile-friendly.

Exactly five years ago today, April 21st, 2015, Google released one of the biggest search engine algorithm updates that ever impacted websites. It was commonly referred to as mobilegedden.

Basically what happened was Google no longer gave search priority to websites that did not have a mobile-friendly or mobile optimized website. If your website was not mobile-friendly, they’re no longer going to show your website in search results when people are searching from a mobile phone.

Now, that was five years ago in Google wanting to put an end to these non mobile-friendly websites, but they still exist today. We still have websites that are not mobile-friendly. Why isn't this even as such a big deal?

You know, mobile browsing is not for just teenagers that are on their phones, it's everyone. Everyone is primarily using their mobile phone to browse the web and interact online.

Now to clarify one thing here, web designers in the past from April of 2015 and on have been making websites that were for desktop – mobile-friendly. But all they were really doing was making it mobile compliant.

They weren't really designing with the mobile user experience in mind.

So this is what I'm really going to be talking about today is ways to look at your website and kind of do a mini audit of your website to see if it passes these mobile-friendly barriers, these mobile-friendly checks.

So I've got five ways that will just tell you whether or not your website is actually mobile-friendly or not.

You just follow along with me through my client's website for a restaurant here. So that way I can show you what components go into making a mobile-friendly website.

Optimize The Mobile Header

The first thing you'll notice is this, a kind of what we call the header. The header is basically the very top part of a website. It often stays there throughout your scrolling experience.

Sometimes it doesn't, but that's actually a sub little thing is, is making, especially on mobile, making sure that the mobile headers, what we call sticky, which basically means it sticks to the top of the page.

That way the menu easily accessible at any time. If you have perhaps a longer homepage or a longer menu page you don't want to have to have that person scroll all the way all the way back up to the top just to get to the menu basically.

But the other part of this header is that you want to make it smaller. I often see websites where the header kind of takes up like half the phone. Every time you go to a new page, you have to immediately scroll because that header is taking up most of the space on the phone. I think that's a big no-no.

It's subliminal, but I think it's enough to make people frustrated. It makes me frustrated anyways, and that's how I usually look at things. If it gets me frustrated, it probably gets someone else frustrated.

Easy Menu Navigation

The second thing is an easy navigation. So if you'll notice here, if I hit and tap on the menu here, this is super easy to navigate around. I don't have to go looking through a whole bunch of things, um, to kind of get what I want to.

Again, this is a restaurant site. I mainly deal with small business website design.

Another thing to consider is, if you'll notice in the top right here, there's a little phone icon that makes it easy for me to call the restaurant. If I tap that call button, it's basically gonna prompt me to open that phone up or phone number up in my dialpad without first having to copy the number down. Or remember the number

Legible Text on Mobile

The third thing to consider is easy text or that the text is legible. So one thing we don't want to do is place it on backgrounds that are very hard to read. So if you'll notice here where it says best sports bar, it's in larger bold types.

Even though there's an image there, it's easier to read. And there's also a bit of what we call an overlay on top of that image. So it kind of darkens the image up basically, so that it is a little bit easier to read that text.

No PDF’s For Your Menu

The fourth thing that is super irritating, this probably drives me more nuts than anything else, is not using PDFs or images to display content.

I'll give you an example here for a restaurant. If I go to their menu, you'll notice here this is super easy to read. I can close or collapse different sections of their menu. This is what I call an interactive menu.

But this could be a services list if you're a service based contractor, or if you're just like a brick and mortar place and you just have like a bunch of images of like your promotional signs and stuff like that.

To me, this is a huge no-no, because when you're viewing on a mobile phone, you often can't read that and you're thinking that everyone's viewing this from a desktop and they're not.

Now what happens is I have to now kind of pinch and zoom my way around that photo, especially if it's a menu. It is by far the most frustrating thing viewing a website is when you use PDFs or images to display your content.

Re-type it, do something, just get it into an interactive form like this menu here.

Use Call To Actions (CTA) That are Mobile Specific

And the last thing is using call-to-action buttons that are specific to the mobile experience. I touched on a little bit ago with the call with the phone call button that was at the top there.

You'll also notice here on the homepage, I have a couple of buttons. One of them is tap-for-GPS and the other is tap-to-call-us. Those buttons do not appear on a desktop.

Viewing this from a desktop, you will not see those buttons there. This only appears when they're viewing it from a mobile device because that's where you're going to be calling from.

Just consider the type of call to action that you want a customer to make device specific.

All in all, what I would just say, go through those five things I just mentioned to check your website out.

Ask: Is your website easy to get around from mobile device. And don't look at it yourself, perhaps have someone else look at it because you're too close to it, you know exactly where all this stuff is.

Give your website to someone that's never viewed it before, like a friend or a family member and just kind of say, Hey, is this easy to browse? Is this easy to get what you would be looking for if you are shopping for my service or product.

If it is then great and leave it alone. Don't fix what's already working.

But if it's broken a little bit, then considering evaluating the content that's on your website and the design and layout.

I offer content strategy services where we can go through your entire website line by line and really discover the broken pain points of it and the things that are working.

Content Strategy vs Content Marketing

Contrary to the opinion of many, content marketing and content strategy are not the same thing. In fact, they are interrelated but serve separate purposes. Something essential to understand if you are to be as effective with your business's marketing as possible.  

Robert Rose writing for the Content Marketing Institute uses the great metaphor that content marketing is like drawing on the wall with magic markers. Whereas content strategy is like writing things down in a fine nib pen.

What he means is marketing takes a more macro view, whereas content strategy is focused on the micro, a subject that will be explained further in the post below.

Content Marketing in the MACRO

Content marketing takes a macro approach because it is concerned with three main things:

1. Telling the story of the organization or product

2. Engaging an audience

3. Using content to change behavior.

Telling a story

There are two critical aspects of telling a story that content marketers focus on. The first is who they are speaking it to. That is the specific demographic of people that they are looking to appeal too. Something fundamental to get right, if the marketing they create is to be effective.

Additionally, the ‘why’ of telling a story is important here as well. That is why you are creating the content, who it will help, and why your business is in the best position to offer something to customers that no one else has.  

Engage an audience

Another part of the macro content marketing approach is a focus on engaging the audience. That is, getting the demographic that you want to appeal to, to sit up and notice what you are trying to say.

Of course, there is a range of techniques that content marketers use for this purpose, including things like using engaging and emotive language or images, ‘and hooking’ consumers in with controversy or subversive content. Many content marketers also use more traditional storytelling methods for this purpose.

Additionally, content marketers need to stay ahead of the critical trends of how consumers access the content they are creating. For example, the rise of subtitled soundless videos is enormous at the moment. The reason being that many people watch them as part of a social media feed without actually clicking to fully open them.

Content to change or enhances a behavior

Finally, content marketers are concerned with the way content can be used to modify the behavior of those that consume it. In fact, in most cases, this is a matter of either enhancing a current behavior or changing a behavior entirely.

A great example of the latter being the governmental health warnings on Covid-19 behavior, as these are designed to reinforce social distances and enough people to stay in their homes. These being things that quite obviously fulfill the overall goal of why the content has been created.

In summary, therefore, content marketing can be described as a form of strategy in itself. That is an approach that uses content to engage, appeal, and create a relationship with consumers. A condition that can be used to change or enhance behavior as the business in question requires.

Content strategy in the MICRO

On the other hand, content strategy is a much more micro approach. It is the bread to the bakery of content marketing if you will.

Creation

To that end, content strategy is concerned with the actual creation of content. Of course, as you would expect from such a well-established tradition, there is a recognized process used to do this.

Generally, such a process will start with the organization working out what they want from their content. That is what the overall goal of creating it is. Whether that is to save lives as in the example above, increase sales, or anything else as defined by the parties involved.

Once an organization has defined its goals, it must then do the work of getting to know their audience. This means market research and lots of it. Something that should help to inform you of the type of content to use. Of which there are many, including podcasts, videos, silent videos, blog posts, articles, games, and images. Additionally, your market research should also inform the platform that it is best to publish on.

The next stage is to actually start to craft the content your business will be releasing. Something that should include reaching the right keywords, tags, and long-tail phrases that are most likely to get your content in front of the people you wish to target.

Publication

Next, it's time to publish the content that you may choose to do organically through one of the social media channels mentioned below, or by paying for its display. In fact, many organizations use a combination of both of these tactics. Although, whatever they choose will be backed up by research into what will most appeal to their target demographic. With some of the most popular platforms for content publication, including Twitter, YouTube, and Google Images.

Managing content as an asset

Finally, another micro aspect of content that strategists concern themselves with is helping organizations to manage content in the right way.

This is because to be as effective as possible, your content needs the correct metadata classification for you to be able to access and use it right away. That is, you need to know what consumers its aimed at and what is within the content. Then you will be able to deploy it most successfully. Something that the content marketers will thank you for because it will make their more macro tasks easier to complete.

Next Steps

In summary, content marketing and content strategy are linked, but definitely not the same thing. In fact, content strategy is concerned with the finer points of creation, publication, and management of content.

While content marketing, on the other hand, is all about the macro functions of telling an organizations' story, engaging an audience, and using content to change behavior.

Yes, they are inter-linked as we have seen, but they are most certainly not identical. A fact that it's well worth knowing if your organization needs to utilize content effectively, as most in the current market do.

Why You Should Update Your Google Hours

Hey, good morning, everyone. So this is kind like a bonus of Facebook live episode we're doing here. So just wanted to talk to you about updating your Google my business hours. So what? Google my business basically, as is your Google map listing for the business. So if I go look up right now, Bear City Impact and I just Google that it's going to give you my address, phone number and then the current hours for Friday and then you can see more hours. So nothing is more frustrating than when I go to visit a business. And I looked up to see if they're open currently. And I see it says, oh, hey, they're open till 6:00 p.m. on Friday. And so I go there perhaps at 5 0 5 and they're closed. And this is because that business has not updated those business hours on Google. Perhaps those are old hours. Maybe they took the business over. Who knows? Who cares? The hours are wrong. And what's even more frustrating is when I've talked to different business owners about this to help them out. Often the comment that I get back is like they're very frustrated with Google or oh, that's just what Google. It's wrong. And that's true. So fix it. It's not super complicated. It's actually not complicated at all. Basically, all you need to do is just go to business, dot Google, dot com. I'll leave it in the descriptions business that Google dot com and you go there and you may need to claim your business, which basically means there is an auto-generated version of your business on Google that you just need to claim as, hey, I'm the representative for this business, or you may have already claimed it some time ago, but you've just neglected to look at the current information and just need to update it. 

In either case, you want to log into business that Google dot com and update those hours. Now on the other side to it. So that was the first example where you're saying you're open later, but you are really closing earlier. So that creates a super frustrating experience for people on the other side. You might be losing out business because you might say that you're only open till 5:00, but in reality, up until 6:00. So I might have looked up your business and go, oh, while they close at 5:00, I'm not going to have a chance to get there. In reality, you're open for a whole nother hour, twiddling your thumb, waiting for people to come in your store. But you've told Google and Yelp and Facebook and Apple Maps and all these other places that you're not open told, you know, the time that you're actually open, what it says on the window of your store. So Google Maps is by far the most important one to get updated and get accurate. But you can update other ones like Apple Maps, Yelp, Super Pages, Yellow Pages, Foursquare, those different directory listings. It's kind of a pain in the butt to order them each individually, one by one. You can use different services. Bear City Impact does this as well, where we'll go through a client's business and do a kind of a sweeping update across all the directories or the ones that they choose to update business information across the board. This is known as creating a universal name, address, phone and business info across Apple Maps, Google Maps, super pages, all those different directory listings. But the most important one to do right now is business that Google dot com, which is your Google map location. 

You know, there's about 12 days left in the holiday shopping season, so it's probably too late to talk about this. But since there is a couple of weeks, I thought it was important. Anyways, you really don't want to miss out on people that might want to be coming to your business later in the evening. If you're open later, you know, for your holiday hours and certainly you don't want to irritate people that are looking to shop during the holiday season and they find that you're closed even though it said you're open. So that's just a quick little tip. Hope you enjoyed that and hope that was beneficial. If you did find it beneficial, feel free to share this post on your feet or your business page feed. That would really help me or tag another friend in the comments here that owns a business. And don't be afraid to do like a shameless. Hey, your hours are wrong. This is how you can fix them. So, you know, some fun banter is always good. But otherwise, again, I hope that was valuable to you. And if you did like this, by the way, just drop a quick comment if you like this. You know, I'm considering doing these like a little mini live sessions that are like two to three minutes with just like a really quick like. Just one tip. You know, I could perhaps do this every day. It's just a couple minutes or just a couple times a week. But just let me know if this was something that was interesting or not. So I don't certainly waste my time. I just want to be able to help you. That was it. That was your morning impact for Friday. December 13th.

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For a more complete article on Google and SEO, check out the article 9 Tips To Rank Number One On Google Maps.

Can You Get More Web Traffic From Twitter?

Hi there! This is a slightly newer video format for me. I've been offering marketing coaching services for a while now but have recently begun to record my sessions with clients. 100% of my coaching sessions are done in-person.

In this first episode of coaching sessions, as I'm calling it, you're watching a segment of consultation with Bob Laverty, a wedding DJ in North Carolina. He's been in the business for several years and is now trying to increase his presence online through social media and SEO.

In this style of video, I'm jumping back and forth between the coaching session and adding some commentary for deeper context and explanation of what I was saying to my client.

I hope you enjoy this, if you do, please hit the like button and consider subscribing.

5 Ways To Turn Warm Leads Into Hot Leads

Congratulations, you did it! You got those leads. It took a while to build the right infrastructure to get those leads pouring in, but now your business has more leads than it knows what to do with… quite literally in fact. A lot of businesses pour their efforts into generating leads in the hopes of buoying their sales. But here’s the thing...

Lead capture is only half the battle!

Being able to capture leads doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re able to convert all those leads into sales. In fact, statistically, the vast majority probably won’t convert… Ever. Depending on the industry, average conversion rates fall somewhere between 2% and 10%. Still, that doesn’t mean that the majority of the leads you’ve worked hard to generate need to go to waste. 

A strong lead qualification criteria is essential in separating the “hottest” leads and ensuring that your sales team get to work on them as quickly as possible to avoid a loss of momentum that could cause them to go cold.

But what about the rest? They may not be the cream of the crop, but that doesn’t mean they’re not still of value to you. Warm or even lukewarm leads that score medium to low-medium on your lead scoring rubric can be turned into white-hot leads that practically zoom through your sales funnel. 

Here are some effective ways to heat things up!

Give them highly targeted content

Any marketing executive will tell you that content is king when it comes to moving leads through your funnel. High-quality content delivered on multiple channels helps to build both familiarity and value in your brand for the lead. This content has to be about giving the lead something they want and is of real practical use to them. 

Deliver this kind of value-rich, high-quality content and you can establish your knowledge, credentials, and authority in ways that will help to build the lead’s trust. But in order to deliver the kind of content that motivates warm leads, the personal touch is all-important.

Deliver a “drip campaign” of highly targeted content in your email shoots and social media engagements. Deliver offers that will appeal to them or blog posts that will help them to solve a problem that they encounter regularly. Address them by name. Help them to realize that the content they’re getting is just for them. 

Highly targeted content can generate the kind of value that converts a casually interested lead into a loyal customer.

Let them know, it’s all about them

Why do consumers rail against marketing and advertising content? Because they see it as brands trying to get something from them, whether it’s their time, their money or their attention. And nobody likes giving to brands without getting anything in return. 

Thus, if you want to make warm leads hotter and prevent them from going cold they need to realize that you’re all about them. Enter them into a competition to win something that you know they want. Reach out to them with a free gift or a special discount on their birthday. Have they been looking at a particular product on your website but never pulled the trigger? Give them a personalized and exclusive offer that’s only for them.

Combine this with your highly targeted approach to content and you can make the lead feel truly valued. 

Build that relationship

A warm lead can start to cool at any time, which is why it’s important to invest real and genuine effort in building your relationship with them. Leads are more likely to warm to your brand (and, thus, move through your sales funnel) if they feel that you have an interest in them as a person and not just as a consumer. Seek them out on social platforms. Like things that they post (assuming, of course, that they align with your brand’s values). Respond when they tag you or @ you in their posts. 

Yes, it can be painstaking, yes it can take a while, but it’s certainly a more sustainable strategy than plowing efforts into generating leads which only go to waste.

Create a network

Warming up leads isn’t just about helping them to find the products, services and content that’s of value to them. It’s also about helping them to find each other. If your leads (and social followers and customers) feel like they’re part of a community, they’re much more likely to engage with your brand.

Identify beneficial connections between leads and you might just find that you increase the value of your brand and your network exponentially. You see that one of your leads has a nascent startup that’s just gotten off the ground? That’s so cool! You can’t help but notice that another is an accountant who specializes in small business taxes. They should get to know each other. 

Casting yourself as a professional and social matchmaker can help leads to build a personal connection with your brand… And that’s the kind of value that simply can’t be bought!

What’s more, if you can make this network into an elite club where members get exclusive access to special offers, discounts and promotion, that’s a little extra added value which will help prevent the lead from cooling.

Get them in the same room as you

When all’s said and done, no matter how high in quality your targeted content or how much you agonize over getting the wording of your email shoots just right, there’s no substitute for good old-fashioned face-to-face contact. 

Get a lead in the same room as you and you stand an excellent chance of keeping them interested and engaged. Try to convince them to join you for a coffee (or maybe a spot of lunch) and a chat about their needs. While this might not be a viable strategy for every business, it can be a fantastic way of heating up lukewarm leads and creating meaningful and valuable early interactions.

Although it goes without saying that this is not an opportunity for a hard sell. Think of it as a networking opportunity and a chance to get to know the lead and their needs a little better.

A combination of these strategies can seriously reduce your risk of warm leads going cold and help you to gain maximum momentum on the leads you’ve put so much effort into capturing!

7 Local SEO Tips for Contractors

As a general contractor, you’re accustomed to handling many of the same problems as many other businesses. You face stiff competition from other businesses, who are competing with you for the same local seo attention of customers.

You know that you need every inch of inside track you can get when it comes to making yourself visible to the people who need your services. Unlike many other businesses, however, contractors cannot rest on the laurels of repeat customers.

Your customers either need building, repairs or maintenance work carried out… Or they don’t.

Of course, if you make a great impression, customers may well contact you when they next have need of your services, but that may be months or even years down the line.

Thus, a contractor who hopes to gain a leading edge in a highly competitive field must ensure that their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) game is strong.

Here, we’ll look at some SEO tips that will make you more visible to local customers when they need you most, positioning yourself above your less proactive competitors and ensuring ongoing success for your business.

For contractors, it’s all about the local game

As a contractor, you’re largely (or even wholly) dependent on your ability to attract local business. Yet, what many small businesses don’t realize is that you need to adopt a subtly different strategy if you plan on dominating your local market.

“Unlike many other businesses... contractors cannot rest on the laurels of repeat customers”

Local SEO is slightly different to national SEO. That’s why we’re going to spend this post discussing the subtle art of local SEO and how you can master it to provide a steady stream of customers for your business.

Keep your NAP data up to date

One of the simplest, yet most effective local SEO tools is your NAP data.

Your NAP data is:

• Name

• Address

• Phone Number

Keeping this up to date on all local directories in which you are listed is crucial in ensuring that you remain visible to prospective local customers.

When first starting out it’s likely that you submitted this data to a host of relevant local directories. Nonetheless, if any of these changes, it’s vital that you update this information in all directories in which you are submitted.

Local directory listings are like a vote of confidence in your business to search engine crawlers, and inconsistencies in this data will be off-putting to search engines and frustrating for customers.

BONUS: Get your free Local SEO report in less than three minutes.

“Your Google My Business page is also a fundamental building block of your local SEO.”

Get Google verified

Going through Google’s verification process is a relatively straightforward procedure but can go a long way towards legitimizing your business not just in the eyes of local customers but in the metaphorical eyes of the search engine giant itself.

List all your services

Your Google My Business page is also a fundamental building block of your local SEO. However, some contractors sell themselves short by only submitting their primary specialism, thereby limiting the number of search terms in which your web page pops up. It’s a good idea to list yourself in 3-5 categories e.g. general contractor, home builder, bathroom remodeler, kitchen remodeler.

Optimize your homepage

Your homepage should give prospective customers all the information they need to place their trust in your services. However, it should also be a calling card to search engine crawlers, helping to ensure that your services are a good fit for the needs of local customers.

There are certain tricks to getting your homepage noticed by the search engines. One of the most important aspects of your homepage is the title tag you use. This is like the chapter title of a reference book; it tells you what the content therein will be about.

Optimal title tags are usually around 50-65 characters long. If you’re struggling for ideas, “General Contractor in {Name of City} - {Name of Company}” is an effective format.

Next, you will need to turn your attention the the homepage meta description. This should be 100- 150 characters long and is essentially a blurb for your business. Try to end it with a Call To Action (CTA). For example;

{Name of Company} offers the very best {Name of Services} in {Name of City}. Call {Phone Number} today for a free quote!

Your homepage will also need a visible headline, (known as the H1), which is a brief description of the business and the services you offer. The page copy below is your opportunity to tell prospective customers all about your business.

This is your opportunity to earn their trust. Provide a little background information, describe your services, and sign off with a compelling CTA. Try and squeeze this into around 500-1,000 words. Anything longer may be off putting to prospects.

Leverage your service and landing pages

Your service pages offer you a better chance to describe your services to local prospects. These should be optimized in much the same way as your homepage. Use intent rich keywords to ensure that your page gets noticed by prospects who have a specific service in mind.

For example, “Kitchen renovation in Austin TX”, is the kind of keyword that will ensure that your page reaches the eyes of prospects who are looking to pull the trigger on the work they need doing.

Develop citations and links

A citation is any listing on a local online directory for your business. Anything from your Facebook page to the Yellow pages or your local Chamber of Commerce websites. The higher authority these sources are, the more credible your business will appear to search engine crawlers.

What’s more, if you can get local newspapers, other trusted businesses and other high-authority sources to link to your business, this can also be extremely helpful in upping your local SEO game.

Incentivize customer reviews

Social proof is a hugely important aspect of conquering your local market. It proves the legitimacy in the eyes of local prospects when your previous customers have nothing but glowingly positive things to say about your business.

Customer reviews are one of the most effective forms of social proof you can get so it behoves you to take steps to incentivize reviews from happy customers.

Take these simple steps, and conquering the local landscape with your SEO prowess becomes a cinch!

If you haven't already done so, get your free Local SEO report. In less than three minutes you'll see exactly how you stack up against your competition for your top keywords.

Click here to get your free Local SEO report.

How To Get Your Own Kitchen Remodeling Leads

If you’re a contractor or remodeler, generating leads can be a timely, costly and aggravating experience. Which is likely why you’ve ended up on this page in the first place.

Word of mouth and reputation can go a long way, but when the phone isn’t ringing like you need it to, harnessing the power of the internet to grow and position your company for long term success is critical.

Where to Start Getting More Remodeling Leads

One of the key problems faced by kitchen remodelers is knowing where to start with their online lead generation efforts. The internet is wrought with scammers, and full to the brim of shiny “new” and (allegedly) effective ways to make you millions.

Because of this, most kitchen remodeling business owners have a hard time discerning what methodologies represent the best use of time, energy, and hard earned dollars for their unique business. 

Do you focus on your website, social media, search engines, or pay per click ads (PPC) like Google AdWords? You don’t have to do everything, but the best plan is usually a combination of the above, leveraging each to bolster the next with a holistic and well-rounded game plan.

Funnels

It’s not a great idea to pick a favorite child, but if online marketers did, it would probably be funnels. If that term is new to you, don’t worry. A funnel is essentially just a series of steps prospective customers take to find your business and take some sort of action leading up to a sale. 

But just because you build a funnel doesn’t mean anyone will come to it. Below we’ve included a quick rundown of how the tools mentioned above can work together to “funnel” new remodeling leads to your business. 

The Game Plan – How To Get Your OWN Remodeling Leads

Let’s say you want to generate kitchen remodeling leads. If you can just get prospects to call you, you know they’ll love what you have to offer, and will become satisfied customers for years to come. 

But how do you get them into that funnel in the first place?

1. PPC – Pay Per Click Advertising

When someone is looking for kitchen remodeling, they usually start searching for contractors on Google. One way to get their attention is to use Google Ads, formerly known as Google AdWords.

Your ad will show up at the top or bottom of the search results page and, hopefully, get more attention than the regular results. 

• Pros – If you’re willing to pay a bit more, you can get results quickly and a treasure trove of data that can be used for other marketing channels like social ads and SEO

• Cons – Some people ignore sponsored ads, and commonly searched keywords are very expensive to advertise. There may also be a testing period while the campaign is “fine-tuned”, during which you may experience a lower ROI, or even an initial loss.

How to make it work – Targeting and ad grouping is key. If you can target very specific keywords and demographics, the ad will be shown to people who search for those specific keywords in a geographic area that you service. Further segmenting this traffic into various demographics and interests will also help you find which type of visitor converts best.

Targeting and fine-tuning campaigns is imperative because you pay for every click, whether they buy from you or not. You don’t want unqualified or uninterested people to click your ads just because of a catchy headline only to realize the offer isn’t for them.

2. Social Media 

Setting up social media pages for your business is another way to generate remodeling leads. It takes a little more time than advertising, but can be very cost effective and great for building a trusting and interactive relationship with your target audience. 

It’s better to focus on one or two social media sites (like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or Pinterest) and build a solid presence rather than spreading yourself too thin trying to be on all of them. 

Pros – A free or low-cost way to build your reputation and connect with clients. Most of your prospects are already on social media daily. 

Cons – It can take a lot of time to build your presence enough for people to find you. 

How to make it work – One great way to use social media is be providing helpful and valuable content. If you have insights on kitchen remodeling, you can create videos, how-to articles, or share pictures of recent projects or DIY suggestions. People love to share this type of information with friends, which can quickly spread your name and reputation if you play your cards right.

Another way to use social media is to ask your existing clients to review your business page or recommend you on social media. As you know, testimonials and reviews mean a lot in this business. Positive reviews on social media have extra power because they are shared with people your clients already know, boosting the credibility of the reviews. 

3. Your Website and SEO

Your website is a powerful tool for reaching new clients, as well as growing your relationship with current clients. In fact, your website is likely your best performing employee, and you don’t even give it a raise.

Your company site is a 24/7/365 digital representation of a physical store and showroom. It is your sales team, helping to convert new visitors into paying customers, as well as your customer support staff, answering questions by providing information to those that need it. 

But gone are the days when slapping a website up was a guarantee that traffic will appear from the ether. With competition as fierce as ever, the “if you build it they will come” mentality just won’t cut it.

Unlike social media or paid ads, people don’t run across your website during the course of their normal day to day activities online. Rather they generally find service sites like yours with a “Google search”. And if you’re not ranking on page one, you’re missing out on the 97% of web traffic that never bothers to click past the first page.

The simplest way to grow traffic to your website is to tell everyone about it. Print the URL of your site on your business cards and at the bottom of all your marketing materials. Put it on invoices and receipts, so your current customers can check it out. Place a link to your site on your social media pages and anywhere else you can think of. 

But the most effective way to bolster your website’s online visibility and ranking is by employing a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy that focuses on website optimization as well as high quality link building and content.

Putting it All Together

Here’s where the rubber meets the road and you really start making progress.

By effectively employing the above tactics, either in part or as a whole, you can leverage the power of the internet to drive more remodeling leads faster than ever before. 

Remember the sales funnels from earlier? At the very top of the funnel, you’ll bring a fairly wide group of people into your world. Sharing great content on social media is one way to do that. People see the value you offer and even share it with friends. 

Paid ads are another way to get your business in front of people who aren’t already in your circle. In either case, you don’t want to go TOO wide with the funnel, so make sure your ads and content are relevant to the ideal client you want to attract. This is especially true with ads, where you will pay for the traffic whether they are a good fit or not. 

Next, you can bring those remodeling leads further down your funnel and closer to becoming customers by getting them to your website. With ads, this is as simple as linking them to the appropriate page on your site when they click the ad. With social media content, you can provide a link to more information or start a story on social and let them click to finish it on your website. 

The final stretch of this basic funnel is to make sure your website contains all the info they need (in the most compelling language possible) to convince them to do business with you. This is where can sell your services, and what makes you the best choice for their remodel, without spraying sales pitches all over people who haven’t yet shown an interest. By the time your readers are on your website, they are more likely to be receptive, interested prospects who are seriously seeking the best contractor.   

Not Sure Where to Start? – We can help

Our agency has helped countless kitchen remodeling companies just like yours drive more traffic, generate more leads, and boost sales and revenue month after month, often for a fraction of what you’re spending on “traditional” marketing methods.

Give us a call today for a free consult to learn how we can help. We’d love to hear from you.

Best Ways to Get Your Own Construction Leads (Updated 2020)

The average consumer today is nothing like who they were just 10 years ago.

They want to feel connected with the brands they shop with.

This means they want you to share the same values, desires for the future and solving problems that mean something to their everyday well being.

This is the direction of marketing you need to be heading in if you want to gain qualified construction leads that understand and like what you do. 

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, but you need to reinvent your narrative as the world changes around you. This is perhaps why content marketing has become the focal point for millions of business owners.

Changing with the times means you have longevity, i.e. staying relevant in whatever kind of consumer climate you’re in.

Never forget those who have been loyal to you, and produce content that will show them how you have advanced and improved your services and products for them too.

Importance Of Lead Generation For Construction Businesses

Leads are the oxygen your business breathes.

As more and more people enter into the middle-class, the world will begin to see millions of micro and small business owners.

Without a constant stream of new customers such as these, you won’t stand a chance against the competition.

• They want to see what kind of offices, warehouses, retail stores, high-rise buildings and event halls you are creating.

• They want to see with their own eyes, what kind of materials, styles, designs and interiors you create from scratch.

But only if they click on your content, read your story and watch you at work, will you convert your leads.

Leads are the oxygen your business breathes.

Construction Lead Generation – The Correct Approach

Say it with me now, “content is king”. This is a term that was used sort of a funny joke in the early 2000s. But sweet heaven above! Now it's like a battle cry or a mantra you must chant in your sleep every night! Well, okay, perhaps not that serious. However, you have to realize that consumers are no longer falling for clickbait, what they want is emotional marketing. They want to feel as if the products and services they use, matter in their lives; more than just pleasure, they want to feel a part of the growing world.

Let’s Have A Look At The Best Ways To Generate Construction Leads:

Blog Posts    

Business blogs have become part of consumers’ daily lives.

They read them as frequently as you used to with a newspaper.

This means that the average customer who knows who you are will read your blog posts once a week at least. This could be at home just browsing before sitting down for dinner, it could be on the train heading into work or even as a dedicated read because you’ve just released some jaw-dropping news.

The best part of blogs is, they drive completely organic traffic to your website and can be from SERPs and social media.

On the other hand, you have new consumers who are not quite sure what you do. They should be seen as a juicy lamb to a wolf.

All they want to know is, how on earth will your products and services make their lives better? 

If you’re wondering how to get construction leads, write fun posts about how your products have been used in the past, what your desires are for the future

For example, how people will use your products and services and how you intend to design them in the future.

Be honest, talk about the troubles you’re having when making or improving products. Consumers are very understanding and just like a rambunctious puppy, they wag their tail when you show them more about things that are normally ‘behind-the-scenes’. 

Helpful Videos

Video content is by far the most popular of all the contents. Why? Well, it's kind of like audiobooks, why read something when it can speak to you?

This is why you need to have videos on your landing pages and homepage, to show customers exactly what you do.

On your services page, you need to have short videos, preferably around 1 minute or so, that show what it is you do.

Cover the process from start to finish

• How do you plan things

• How do you design things

• How do you then set about achieving them, etc.

YouTube is the obvious platform where you should be uploading but also, using your 5-second to 15-second ads to drive leads from the traffic. Post your video content on your social media pages and watch direct messages from your accounts come rushing in.

Podcasting

One of the most underrated techniques for how to get construction leads. Podcasting shares the same value as blogs.

Everyone thought they were going away and that they were just a fad from the 90s. Wrong!

Now, a podcast is one of the best ways to become an industry authority. People listen to podcasts to chill out, listen on the way to work or just while they’re doing their laundry and ironing.

They are, however, nice relaxing places where you build a rapport with your customers by talking about fascinating insider-details about the industry you work in.

You should bring guests on to talk about their experiences in the same field you work in and have a genuinely interesting conversation.

It also gives you a chance to inject your personality into the content, which consumers love!

Photography 

Photos are used even to this day but they have to be high-quality. With commercial photography, you’re trying to showcase your products in great detail, from all angles and show the customer what they would be getting. It also gives them a chance to see the dimensions, colors and style of what you produce. Higher quality images are shared more often on Instagram, than low-quality blurry embarrassments. 

Remember, content is king. Don’t be afraid to be quirky, show your personality, talk honestly about the troubles and challenges you face in your business, but also, inspire your customers to be hopeful about the future with great blog, podcast and video content. 

9 Tips To Rank Number One on Google Maps

You search for your business industry. You get a search result with three map locations.

But… your competitors are all showing up and they’re physically nowhere near you.

Ugh! That sucks!

Well you’re not alone. Since, Google maps only shows three locations in the search results preview, knowing how to optimize your Google My Business location will help you rank higher on Google Maps.

Being on the first page of a Google Map listing is highly competitive for any business, because let’s be honest - no one goes past the first page for any search result – but you already knew that.

Google Maps Ranking Indicators

Google Maps used to be based on proximity and business category, almost exclusively. As Google (and it’s users) get smarter, the ranking indicators for Google Maps have become more involved. Each ranking indicator has its own method of optimization. Consider implementing them one at a time.

Google Maps gets most of its data from your claimed Google My Business location, so while we are using the term Google My Business throughout this guide, it’s interoperable with Google Maps.

Bonus: Download The Ultimate Guide To Google My Business and Crush Your Competition

1. Claim Your Google My Business Location

Claim your Google My Business page

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Knowing is half the battle. Don’t leave it to Google to make computed guesses about your business location. You especially don’t want to leave it up to anonymous users (or competitors) that will ‘suggest edits’ to your location, that may end up auto-applying if there is no input. So, your first step to ranking higher on Google Maps is to claim your Google My Business location, which is right where Google pulls your Map information from.

You want to make sure your Google My Business is completely filled out including:

• Contact information including your address, phone number, and your website. If your business is based out of your home, that’s ok – Google offers an option to place your business in a ‘service area’ instead.

• Business hours. Nothing is more frustrating than having your website display one set of hours, and Google Maps showing another set of hours. Plus, Google Maps will let users know if you are opening or closing soon based on the time of day they are viewing your listing.

2. You Need More Google Reviews

Get More Google Reviews

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Did you know that 84% of people trust online reviews just as much as a personal recommendation? If your business is lacking reviews on Google Maps, now is a good time to start getting more reviews. How do you do this? Just ask your customer when the project or sale is finished. Consider setting up email automation that can send out an email with a review link when the project is complete.

Keep in mind you won’t have control over which reviews get posted. It’s best to reply with kind words to any and all reviews. You should give careful consideration to any negative review that’s left for your business – your reply is publicly viewable. You won’t want new, potential customers getting a bad taste before they learn more about your business.

In reality though, unless you’re the worst business on earth, chances are the bad reviews will be few. Just get more reviews from your best customers and the good will always outweigh the bad. Also, a slightly imperfect score will actually make you appear more authentic. A company with many 5-star reviews may seem like the reviews were paid for.

If you’re not sure where to start, take your existing customer email list (the loyal ones that you’re sure will rave about your business) and send them an email just asking to write a review based on your past work.

3. Choose The Right Google My Business Category

Did you know that there are over 2,300 different categories on Google My Business? You’ll want to make sure that your primary category is very specific to your main service. For instance, you can choose Kitchen Remodeler as your primary category. Don’t stop there. You can add up to five additional categories. These additional categories should include your other keywords that you want to target.

For instance, in the case of a Kitchen Remodel company, you might want to choose bathroom remodeler, contractor, home builder, and countertop store as your additional categories.

4. Place Your Google Map on Your Website

This is a simple method to let Google know that the address you have claimed on Google Maps is the actual address of your business. (Service areas OK also). You’ll want to at minimum, embed the Google Map on your contact page, sometimes also called a locations page. Make sure you list the address exactly the same way it’s listed on your Google Maps location.

Embedding a Google Map is very simple. To embed a Google Map on your website, search for your business name in Google Maps. Click on the “Share” icon and then select the tab that says “Embed a map”. Paste this code into your website per the instructions of your website CMS.

‍Place your google map on your website

5. Optimize Your Google My Business Description

Google My Business has a 750 character limit, but only the first 250 will show up in the knowledge graph area. (The area on your preview).

This isn’t the place to keyword stuff. Choose your words wisely. Write a description that answers a question you can solve, rather than just a list of your keywords you want to rank for.

6. Use Your Actual Phone Number

Call tracking is good to have, but if your system utilizes toll-free numbers (800, 888, etc), this isn’t the place to use that number. You should either obtain a local tracking number, or just forgo separate tracking all together. Google doesn’t like toll-free numbers, since they are very easy to obtain and are very often used for SPAM. Also, nowadays, toll-free numbers are being recycled, so chances are your number might have been connected to another business previously.

Speaking of tracking, no need to worry about that. Google My Business tracks all clicks made from your search listing, including phone calls places, directions, and clicks to your website.

Lastly, Google is looking for uniformity as a ranking indicator. So, having two different numbers listed between your Google My Business page and your website, or other social media profiles is an indicator to Google that these are two different businesses – which they obviously aren’t.

7. Add Photos to the Listing

Most people who take the step to claim their Google My Business listing will add a profile picture, which is the preferred thumbnail picture Google uses for your location. However, few will take the additional step to include several more pictures and place them in the categories that Google has set up.

You can add photos into their categories of team, at work, identity, or just the overview tab. Recently, Google My Business added the option of adding your own video.

8. Write A Post Using Google My Business

Google My Business recently added a great business marketing feature, Posts. They work very similar to other social media networks like Facebook and Instagram. There’s one very valuable difference: they have a longer expiration date. While the half-life of a post on Facebook or Instagram can be just one day or less, Google My Business posts will stay current for up to 7 days. Posting on a weekly basis will help your location show up higher in search results.

9. Add Messaging To Your Contact Options

Long gone are the days where your customers would just pick up the phone and call you, or just drive directly to your showroom. There are a plethora of options businesses have to connect with their customers.

Google My Business lets you add a special messaging number to your profile. When you add this option, you will set up a forwarding number – so you have to make sure that it’s a real, active cell phone. When someone clicks on the message option from your business listing, they will be texting a different number than your actual cell phone, so it stays anonymous.

By adding messaging to your Google My Business profile, you’re giving Google yet another indicator as to why your listing should show up in front of your competitors.

Implement These Google My Business Strategies

A good plan executed today is better than a great plan never executed.

Set a goal of putting these 9 steps to ranking higher on Google My Business into place. It may seem overwhelming to do all of these at once. My suggestion is to try a couple of these per month.

You will need to start by claiming your Google My Business listing. Next, try emailing your current customers and ask them to send you a review. Next month, start making posts to Google My Business, even if you only do this once or twice a month. You’re establishing a routine here, not perfection.

What other suggestions do you have for Google My Business? 👇