How to Read Your Google Local Listing Report

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 | Internet Marketing, Local Search, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engines | No Comments

A listing on Google’s local business center provides much more than just a place to enter your company’s information; you just need to know where to look.

Have you viewed your local business center report lately? Do you know what it’s telling you? Below is a sample report, client information redacted, for the past 30 days. From this data you can gather which days were the best for triggering the client’s listing, and which days provided the most clicks.

Sample Google Local Business Center report

Using the date range filter at the top right-hand corner and working backwards in time, you just might be able to identify trends.  For example, Mondays are good for driving traffic, but Wednesdays provide the best click days. Or, generally you spot that the middle of the month seems great for “actions” which means that potential customers are trying to get as many details, driving directions, or visits to your website. You can use this data to tailor your advertising accordingly, and coordinate efforts with your sales team according to which days your customer base is the most active online.

Google’s Local Business Center report also goes on to tell you other exciting tidbits of performance information such as top search queries, and zip codes from IP addresses that searched for driving directions to your location.

Sample Google Local Business Center Report

Knowing this information affords business owners the opportunity to target advertising in extremely effective ways. To begin with, knowing the keywords that triggered your ad are imperative – if they keywords are off, you may need to re-categorize your listing or rewrite your description. The keywords should reflect any PPC or SEO advertising currently underway, and not distract from it. Knowing the zip codes that are searching for your business allows you to expand on advertising in a currently hot area, identify areas trending up, and save money from locations that may not be performing as well.

Your Google local listing report also provides a snapshot of the information that you have entered along the right-hand side of the reports page, and highlights areas where you can beef up details or add media for effect. If you’d like to read more on tricking out your Google local listing and making the most out of this extremely popular (and FREE!) product, read NetSearch Direct’s Top 5 Best Practice Tips.

Tweet This Post 

Tags: google local business center, google local business center report, google local listing, google local listing report, google maps report, local listings, local listings report, maps report

Local Business Show-Offs Prove Value in Maps Listings

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 | Internet Marketing, Local Search, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engines | No Comments

Google posted their top 13 favorite local business listing success stories recently. These lucky 13 were pulled from local business submissions across the nation, and selected for outstanding success brought to the business from being listed on Google’s Maps tool. Several businesses spoke of ringing phones and increased sales simply because customers could locate their listing easily.

Although business owners didn’t get too specific when it came to disclosing their winning formula, it goes to say that best practices were adhered to consistently among the top 13. If you aren’t seeing any traction from your local listing or  you’re wondering how to best work your local listing profile, here are NetSearch Direct’s top 5 picks:

1) Add Flair! Utilize the personalization that Google offers for your business listing. Got a logo? Add it. Have some pics of your location? Upload them to your listing too. Take advantage of this free way to set yourself apart from your competition.

2) It’s in the Details. The “Additional Details” portion of the local listing is a prime spot for the little extras that makes your business special. If you make appointments after normal business hours, are willing to travel, or have ample parking be suer to let potential customers know.

3) Maximize your Categories. If you can narrow your business into just one or two categories, by all means go ahead. But if you can step back and look at your business from a potential customer’s viewpoint, we encourage you to try out different category keywords and see what comes up. The more buckets your business can fit into, the more it will be served in searches.

4) Pay Attention. Make sure that you have your business name, street address, and other business information all spelled out with proper capitalization. Typos are no way to make that winning first impression. And with that first impression, paint as much of your business story as you can – list your hours of operation, website, contact email address, forms of payment, even languages spoken. The key is to pay attention to all of the fields that you can populate and be sure that this information is added typo-free.

5) VERIFY Your Listing! We have seen so many business owners forget to take this crucial last step in the listing process. Failure to verify your listing means that your listing will just sit in limbo and can’t be optimized or edited. Take the extra time to grab a verification call from Google or request a letter to be sent, and follow-up with that PIN number.

NetSearch Direct has been listing, managing, and optimizing listings for our clients for months now, and we have quite a few success stories of our own to share. Check out our blog soon for some of our own local business show-offs!

Tweet This Post 

Tags: google local business center, google local listings, local listing success, local maps success, optimize a local listing, optimize local maps listing

Yahoo Search Results Page tries on some Fancy Pants

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 | Local Search, PPC Advertising, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engines | No Comments

Yesterday, I opened up the Yahoo Search Page and typed in “home siding Richmond” and was pleasantly surprised.   Yahoo has revamped their Search Results page and while it looks very similar to Bing’s and Google’s Results Page, ‘Imitation is the best form of flatter’ isn’t it?  Its much cleaner and the additional search results on the left side panel that includes top sites with news and info is pretty sweet.  The placement and new design of the sponsored search ads are much easier to read and they have increased their character limit..  Local search maps are also now more evident on search queries.  Yay Yahoo!  Shout out to my homie Dar,  Yahoo Rep from the West Coast…

Tweet This Post 

Tags: Yahoo, yahoo representative

FAQ PPC Questions :Why cant I find my Paid Search Ad on Google?

Friday, August 28th, 2009 | Local Search, PPC Advertising, Search Engines | No Comments

Both Business Owners and Account Managers, like myself, ask this question often.  Before panicking, wondering where all your marketing dollars are going, there are a few reasons why one can miss seeing their ad on search engines.  Here’s a list of a few common answers:

1.  You are searching too much.  Google, Yahoo and MSN log your IP address, which is like your computers ID, and stops showing paid search ads to you after so many searches.   If you search “cheesecake richmond” 10 times in a row and never click on any links, search engines will assume you are not a valid searchers or even a robot.  Why? Its to prevent click fraud and inconsistent search data.  Try using Google’s ad preview tool; https://adwords.google.com/select/AdTargetingPreviewTool.  It lets you see ads as customers would while not affecting your adwords data.

2.  Your Budget is set too low.  Sure, we are all trying to pinch pennies here and there and unfortunately marketing dollars are usually the first to go. If your budget is too low, your ads will show sparingly throughout the day.  Search engines will your ad once in every 10 searches by customers.  Not good, this means only 10% of your customers will actually see your ad.  Lets put it this way, its like if you were advertising in a magazine and 9 out of every 10 magazines had their pages ripped out with your ad on it. What can you do besides increasing your budget?  Lots of things, but thats why you hired us right?

3.  Your ad is not running or has a low quality score.  Quality score is a tricky secret formula probably locked up in Mr Crab’s safe next to the Crabby Patty recipe.  We do know that your text and display ads need to match your keyword relevancy and have a successful landing page.  If your ads aren’t running, give us a call (804.228.4422) and we can help you.

Tweet This Post 

Another Google Test – Search Engine Image Ads

Friday, August 14th, 2009 | PPC Advertising, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engines | No Comments

Google has Search Network Text ads, they  have Content Network Image ads, but Search Network Image Ads?

Rumors have been floating around, that Google is testing images placed on the paid search results space with text ads.   Tests show (and you know we all believe in tests), that images placed next to paid search ads are more effective than plain text ads.  Check out Facebook’s paid search ads who are all over this;

Now check it out without an image…

Makes all the difference.  One things for sure, this is one blogger that’s excited to test the feature, if it ever goes public.

Tweet This Post 

Tags: paid search images, search engine image ads, search network image ads

Wanna Hunch.com?

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 | Search Engines, Social Networking Sites | No Comments

If you haven’t already heard, you no longer have to make decisions on your own thanks to Hunch.com!   Launched publicly June 15th, it has solved the problem that other search engines are still trying to figure out:  how to answer questions.  Sure, Bing prances around calling itself the “decision engine” but only Hunch.com has been making all my important decisions all week.   I recently asked it; What should i have for lunch? And by gosh, it told me exactly what i was in the mood for; Thai food.  Genius!  Still not a believer? Check out this answer when I had asked it; What is the  best profession for me?

Did hunch.com read my bio? (“…In her free time she likes to watch episodes of Lost, paint, play outdoors and daydream of living on a deserted island. “) or does Hunch simply have ESP?   Not exactly, it asks you a serious 5-10 questions about yourself and then displays an answer based on algorithyms, trends and other technical junk.   I still like to imagine that Hunch.com is my new best friend and knows me best.  Maybe we should start dating…

Hunch, should we go on date?

67% No, you should not

Tweet This Post 

Tags: hunch.com, what shoud i have for lunch?

Microsoft getting closer to nextgen Search Engine

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 | Search Engines | No Comments

Yesterday Bing annoucned it was “bringing a bit of twitter to bing” by pulling tweets from “select users” into their search results.  So when you do a search on Bing for “Shaq Twitter” you will now get the tweets from Shap himself on Bing.  Many people today in the social world should be excited about this added feature.  Although when I do a search for matt oliver twitter or @mattoliver10 my tweets are not shown.  Guess I am just not as exciting or important as Shaq!

It appears eventually you will be able to search for everyone’s latest tweets on Bing which is pretty cool.

Tweet This Post 

Tags: Bing, social media, Twitter