4 Things You Can Do to Improve Your Search Ranking + One Thing You Can Do to Start Seeing Results Today
Do you find yourself wondering if you’re doing everything you can to be “found” online by customers and clients? Your website is clean, up to date, and highlights your services. You’re active on all your social media channels, tailoring content specifically for each platform, and regularly posting rich, meaningful content. But are you doing enough? Are you thinking of everything? Do you think about Google? Chances are, you’re not. You should.
Every day, you use your phone to locate information on places to eat, definitions of words, lyrics of songs you can’t remember, etc. Most of us do this without ever considering how magical this is. I’m here to remind you, Google can be magical - but it takes a practical approach.
Google has one very straightforward objective for its users - “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” “Useful” is the vital term to focus on. Its sophisticated algorithms do a great job serving up search results. But, it turns out, they do a much better job when they get help from local businesses. This help comes in a few forms highlighted below, but let’s start with a quick example:
Let’s say you own a small Italian restaurant in a town where there is a fair bit of competition. A potential customer is hungry and searches for “chicken alfredo near me”. They don’t know how the locations are selected, they just want to eat. They expect that the locations presented to them in their search are the top choices nearest them. If your location doesn’t make the top 3 results, even though you’re located nearby and chicken alfredo is one of your top selling menu items, it will likely result in the loss of a potential new customer. This may be because you haven’t done one or all of the following to give your customers the best chance to find you.
The good news is Google rewards local businesses who provide accurate and meaningful data when trying to compete for search results plus they make it fairly easy to claim and edit your Google listing with a free dashboard. If you already have a Google My Business account log in and make sure you are doing all the steps below. If you have no idea what a Google My Business page is, you’ll want to start here: www.google.com/business.
Here are 4 things you can do to improve your organic search ranking:
1. Ensure all of your data is accurate and stays accurate. This includes: address, phone number, business hours, holiday schedules, amenities, services, website address
2. Encourage your customers to write reviews. You’ll need to make it easy for them - provide them with the link to your Google reviews (you can find this under the “Get More Reviews” section by clicking the “Share Review Form” button), make a sign, tabletop messages, whatever works best for your business, ask them to let you know how you’re doing.
3. Respond to every review. Let your customers know how much you appreciate their business and that you care what they think.
4. Post pictures on your Google page - a lot. Post pictures of your exterior, interior and your team/employees. The more pictures you have, the more legitimate you appear and your customers will be glad to know what to expect when they visit your business.
These four steps will signal to Google that your information is helpful, and your business is active and engaged online. It may not be overnight, but you will eventually start to see the results.
Bonus Tip to See Results Today:
Google Ads – They work and will provide quicker results than organic efforts alone. Get started here: www.ads.google.com
Keywords - Research keywords that you think are relevant to your business. Think of how people might search for your business online and make a list of those words. These are the keywords you want to include in the setup of the ad.
Budget - Google will suggest a budget after setting up the ad. Use it. They know what they’re doing to optimize your spend.
Analytics - Once you launch your ad, you will begin to see data about how well your ad is performing. If the data shows positive results, continue what you’re doing. If they do not show you positive results, you’ll need to revise.
If you’re not familiar with Google Ads, contact us, we can help and make sure that your ad dollars are being used efficiently.
By: Tony Caporale, CEO of TwinBear Management