Google Local Searches – Be On Top

Google local helps customers find what they’re looking for within your town or immediate area. When someone looks for a nearby business, ten local results appear next to a map, right at the top of the Google page. That is because these businesses are listed in Google Local Business Center. If you’re a customer, Local Business Center tells you where to find what you want nearby. If you’re a business owner, it’s where you want to be highly visible.

The following are steps that play a very crucial role in getting you to the top of the Google local search results.

Step 1: You will need to submit your business details to Google Local Business Center, such as name of the company or business, its physical address, the phone numbers and other contact information.

Step 2: Make sure that you include your keyword and company name in the field asking for name of business/company. You can either use your keyword as the name of the business or add the keyword with the name of the company for acing in the local position.

Step 3: Mention the name of the city with the keyword in the title of your website.

Step 4: Enter the full physical address of the company or the business along with the zip code and contact numbers. It is better to write the address and zip code in the text format rather than graphically as it becomes easy for the crawlers to crawl in the text.

Step 5: Submit your website and business details in the popular local directories of the targeted country or local area.

Step 6: Request your clients or customers to post the review about your company or service in the local directories where your business details are displayed. The biggest advantage of this is that the Google crawlers go through the reviews posted in the local directories and take it from there to display it on your local listing in the review section.

Step 7: One of the most important things to remember is that you should submit the website in the same category in Google Local Business Center as well as the local directory. Google will definitely match your business details along with the details of your business in the local directories.

Having given out all the points, it is necessary for you to know the biggest advantage of this activity. Google local search results will get you better chances of getting business and most of all it will save you from blood sweating organic ranking activities of SEO. This is because your competition for the ranking will be limited to the local area only.

Google local business searches show results based on targeted geographic regions. When you type an address in Google Maps, or change to a satellite photo all you will get is a map of that specific location you typed in. No business information is being displayed. But there are options near the Search button and you can choose the button that says “find business.” You will then need to type a specific business type like daycare in the search bar. In the left column where the business listings are, advertisements will now appear.

These ads come from Google AdWords, Google’s pay-per-click advertising platform, which allows businesses a way to target ads to specific geographic regions and geographic-based searches.

How to Market your Business:

1. Go to Google’s Local Business Center and make sure your business information is listed correctly. When you register your business, Google will send you a PIN code in your mailing address via snail mail. You will need to enter the PIN code at the Google Local Business Center before your listing will be accepted. Once you do this, Google says it’ll be up to six weeks before your listing is added. You can continue to use the Business Center to update your business information, add a new business, etc.
2. Sign up for a Google AdWords account and create an ad campaign targeted specifically to your local area. This will allow your ad to appear only when people in your geographic area are using Google. It won’t show up when someone across the country does a search for the keywords you’re bidding on.
3. You are now able to create a Local Business Ad. This is basically an improved version of your AdWords ad. As Google explains:
   

   The ads display in two parts: a highlighted listing in the search results column and a map marker that expands to show additional business details when the user clicks on the ad title or the marker itself.

4. One other opportunity that may be coming in the future is a click-to-call advertising service. Google is currently testing this.

Google local searches uses Google Maps to display the links and other details of local businesses. Google local searches feature previously used to appear as a clickable link but Google has made it an integral part of search results. The narrower the search term, the better is the result. For instance, if you are listed under seo services in Nashville then your link will appear at the top along with a map of your area, in case someone looks for “seo services Nashville”.

Google local searches help online marketers?

Google local searches help online marketers. When people are looking to hire local service providers or buy from local vendors, they look for them in the internet rather than scouring the streets. It is so much easier to log on to Google and simply search for “seo services Nashville” rather than flipping through the pages of a directory and then calling various SEO in Nashville. Your listing appears with the map of your area and a balloon graphic indicating your exact location, and if you have provided some photographs the searches can go through them as well.

How do you appear in Google Local Searches?

Getting listed in Google local search is not a crawler or a spider thing. You need to enter your business details on the Google Local Business Center page. Then Google will send you a confirmation or activation code by snail mail. You have to log into your local business center section and enter the code there. Once it is verified, Google takes around 6 weeks to add your listing.

You can also appear on Google local searches by signing up for Google AdWords and then creating a campaign specifically targeted towards your geographic area. Once you do that, your link appears only when people search for your service in that particular area.

Does Google Local Searches Affect SEO?

Google local searches in some way affect SEO. Some search engine experts say that when the local ads or links appear along with the map they take up space of three links that could have appeared there. It means if the local ads or links show up then the last three links on the search results page are pushed to the second page, significantly affecting your exposure. But I don’t think it has significant effect if your business is not limited to your local market. The local links only appear when people are specifically searching within the locality, otherwise they don’t appear.