Help Your Clients Reach the Top of the Search Engines with Google Local Search
Posted by Craig · 5 Comments
A few days ago, in our VAClassroom Members Forum, one of our members posted this question:
My new client has a question that I know one of you can answer. He is an independent insurance agent in Dallas. When you google "Dallas Insurance" the top listing is a map of Dallas and above it it says "Local Business Results for Insurance Near Dallas, TX" along with ten insurance agents and their locations on the map. I've seen similar maps when googling other things in Houston. How can he be listed in those top ten? Is it simply a search engine ranking thing, or do those ten people pay big bucks to be on that map? I'd like to help him do it.
Great Question!
To be honest, this one initially stumped me - How do those businesses get listed over others for local business search like "Insurance companies in Dallas, Texas"? Well, after some research and a chat with one of my SEO buddies, I found the answer.
For those of you Virtual Assistants who are working with Brick and Mortar clients, this is a great tip to help them increase their Search Engine Exposure as well as online and offline traffic to their business.
I found a great blog post that explained the whole process much better than I could so take a read of the post and wow your clients by getting them top placement in Google for local business searches:
How to Get to the Top of Google Listings
Hi Craig...great post! I have used Google Local along with Google Webmaster Tools for clients with a "brick & mortar" presence of some sort (doesn't have to be retail). It's great for law offices, financial, healthcare, etc.. I can attest that it increases visibility overall and has helped speed indexing as well. You can even add a coupon to a listing!
Google Local & Webmaster Tools don't seem to be that widely known (clients are always surprised when I mention them). I have yet to figure out how Google prioritizes the listings within Local (maybe has something to do with click traffic or listing age).
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What a super-fantastic tip! I have often wondered about how that works. I want to thank my fellow VAClassroom student who took the initiative to ask! I've already passed this on to all of my clients who have brick and mortar businesses. Thanks for sharing Craig!!
Hi Mary,
Thanks for the comment about Google Webmaster Tools. Would you mind sharing a bit more how you utlize webmaster tools for this purpose?
Thanks!
Craig
Hi Craig - Webmaster Tools has two great features I think are really helpful to any website owner: First, some diagnostic tools to see if there are broken links, lists inbound links and basically an overall "searchability" check on your site. The second is the ability to submit an XML file of your website's pages - which (at least appears to me) to speed Google's indexing of a new website.
Submitting an XML file is easy and not at all as "glamorous" as it sounds ;-D. I use a website called (appropriately enough) XML-Sitemaps ( http://www.xml-sitemaps.com ) - you simply type in the web address and it literally gives you a valid file to upload. Larger sites require a modest subscription fee.
I'm no SEO expert, but it does appear to speed indexing by Google. It may have no impact on SERP ranking, but it certainly doesn't hurt! ;-)
I probably don't scratch the surface of Webmaster Tools... but that's how I use it. If anyone else has tips - I'd love to hear about them! :-)
Mary Motz's last blog post..Skype Now Supports Caller ID in USA
Mary,
Great information - I am going to digg around further to see if submitting that XML file does infact speed the indexing - I would imagine it would.
Thanks again!
Craig