The Four Keys to Having a High-Performing Google+ Local Page
The importance of reaching Google’s 1st page becomes more apparent. 59% of consumers use Google monthly to find a local business. If you are not actively trying to climb to the 1st page, then you are neglecting a major piece in the digital marketing puzzle. The truth is that you should have been improving your local SEO yesterday. As more business owners become savvy, the competition will only grow more fierce. Today is the best shot you have to reach the 1st page, as waiting until tomorrow will only make it more difficult. But if you’re reading this, you may be a little foggy on the best ways to improve your local optimization.
What’s clear is that Google + Local is one of the most important tools for optimizing local optimization. It’s very easy to get started with it.
If you haven’t, set up and verify your Google+ Local listing at this page. If there are any duplicate listings remove them, because you want all of the traffic to go to your official listing.
- You must make your profile as personal as possible
If you create a Google+ page, you need to personalize it. Don’t create the page and let it deteriorate into generic blandness.
Use custom banners, pictures and videos to boost the uniqueness of your page. You should also try to be specific with your business categories. Since the category of your page is absolutely essential for your local rankings, it is important that you choose the right category and you create a customized business description. Though keywords should be incorporated into your description, it should ultimately be written as natural as possible. Write for the humans that will visit your page and the search engines. This means that you shouldn’t overstuff your description with keywords.
- Remember that Google+ Local is a social network
You must push for engagement. The content that you share on your Facebook or Twitter should be shared on your Google+ page. This is especially important if your customer base has Google+ accounts. If the people who are in your Google+ circle are engaged with your page (meaning that they will share, comment on posts, etc), your listing will get preferential treatment when they search for local businesses like yours.
As an example, let’s say that there’s a coffee shop in Scranton. This coffee shop has people in its Google+ circle. Some of the people have interacted with the coffee shop’s page in some way (sharing content, commenting, whatever). Google will recognize this. If that person Googles “cafes in Scranton”, the coffee shop that was in that person’s circle will appear near the top, since Google remembers their interactions with that page.
Are you seeing the importance of active engagement? Just like with other social media platforms, engagement is king, and if you don’t recognize this your rankings will get crushed.
- Collect as many reviews as possible
Google+ Local is very review-driven. Trust is important in marketing, and Google’s algorithm adheres to this basic principle. Businesses that have the most positive reviews (in quality and quantity) will get preferential treatment in the search rankings.
Don’t be afraid to ask for reviews. If your business or service is good, people will not mind leaving a positive review.
As you accrue more positive reviews, you can expect your rankings to improve.
- Measure your results, tweak your performance
When you really think about it, good marketing relies on this simple formula: Implement something, wait for the results, then test out a variation. Google+ is no different. If you change or update something on your page and you’re not seeing the results that you want to see, then you simply must try out another variation until you find success. Constant implementation will ultimately lead to better, more optimized results. If you’re not in the #1 position, then you should be trying to find out how to climb the rankings.
Cultivating your presence on the Google+ platform will pay off in dividends in the future. Each passing day the competition will begin to catch on, and it will get more difficult to make noise with Google+ if your page is not already established.
