How to list your Business on Google For Free

How can you get more calls from local customers, in real time, looking for your service at no cost to you or your business? The answer is simple. Google Local Listings.

In this post I'll teach you exactly how to use Google's local listings and map's pack ranking to generate more local phone calls, more profit and higher conversion rates for your business but first, lets get the ball rolling with an inside look at the facts behind generating traffic in your local area.

Benefits to Local Lead Generation.

Imagine starting a business in your area. You have an awesome service and a competitive rate to offer people looking for your services. If your going to market locally you have a few options to kick start your business.

Option one, You get social.

Facebook is one heck of a marketing platform. With some time spent networking in the right groups you can reach a local customer base and start building relationships trust and sales. This is great in the beginning producing a few sales and helping you work out any kinks to your pricing and processes however it takes up a vast amount of time getting initial results.

There is also the latest information about Facebook's algorithm which makes it harder to reach other people on Facebook unless they are on your friends list, a page you liked or a group you have joined.

You can try Facebook advertising which is a great method to generate more traffic at extremely good rates but ill leave that for another post. We are going to learn how we can access a greater number of local customers for free.

Option 2, Pay a big company like Sensis or True Local for local traffic.

This option is something explored by far to many unsatisfied customers. A quick look around the forum's, talking to business owners and genuinely helping people grow their business and you start to see a pattern.

These big directories get lots of traffic, Their is no doubts there. With thousands of pages they can get listed in the front page of google for many long tail phrases that together bring in a portion of traffic. The issue appears when you look at how many business listing are actually on the yellow pages.

Its great to get traffic from the front page of google but picture this. 33% of people click on the first listing on the front page of google. We are lazy and we tend to skip the ads pack at the top subconsciously meaning 1 in 3 of us will choose the first listing. So out of 100 potential customers 33 have landed on the Yellow pages website with your listing.

Out of those 33 about 33% will click on the first listing on the page. about 18% will go for the second listing and the rest go between listings 3 and 10. Mix this with the fact that there are hundreds and thousands of business listed in the yellow pages and your likely to be one of 30+ listings and you will start to see why the yellow pages and other directory website just don't provide a return on investment.

Option 3, Create a Free Google My Listings Page.

Option 3 is by far the best choice reaching all the right people at the right time.

With a Google Local business listing you have access to a large majority of local customers. There is no better way to reach more people than getting in the first few spots on google.

If you own a start up business, local business, if your an owner operator or even have a couple full time staff working for you, local lead generation works and the google local listing is the perfect place to start.

When you market in your local area you have the benefit's of less travel and time wasted in traffic as well as giving better prices and securing a higher percentage of jobs. These two points alone should give you reason enough to start a local marketing campaign in your spear time.

From here there is no fluff, no crap, just an actionable guide to help you gain local customers with Google's free service.

Creating a Gmail Account.

The first thing we need to do is create a Gmail account.

If you have one already you may use that but take into consideration Google will associate the Gmail account with your business listing. Google is a smart cookie!

You can use this to your advantage by creating a Gmail account with your name (the business owner), your business phone number, and your business address. This is beneficial because it reinforces your band and identity online while creating more trust with Google and ticking one of the many search engine optimization box's.

To get to Gmail you can follow this link, or type "Gmail" into another browser.

If you already have an account associated with your computer you will automatically be signed back into that account. If you need a new account simply sign out in the top right corner and when you get to the refreshed page click on the button that says "Add Account" as seen below.

If you're not signed into an account right away then simply click on the create account button below the sign in form.

Account Creation.

Creating your Gmail is quick and easy once you have done it once. If your unsure, use the guide below.

Go through and fill out all the information in the sign up form.

This is going to give you a Google account you can use as a base for all future online marketing taught here on the blog. If you want to take control of your marketing and follow through with future training this Gmail account is an important step at the start of the process.

Pick a username and password for your account, set your age, sex a current email you use and a Phone number that you have access to right now (I use my business number here).

Once you are happy with all the information you've provided fill out the captcha pick your country and move onto the next page for verification.

Account Verification.

If you got lucky and landed in your Gmail account inbox congratulations, you now have a Gmail persona to integrate with your business persona. If however you landed on a page like the image below you have another step to take before moving on.

This step is simple. All you need to do is enter a phone number, (preferably the one you entered previously) and set it to either txt or Voice call. I like to use the voice verification as the call comes through right away and I can continue on to the next part of the process. Creating our Google Local Listing.

Get On Google

Now we have a Google account we can create a listing for our business by registering your local business on Google.

While still signed into your new Gmail account open a new window and type "Get On Google" into your browser. If you signed up in this browser window then click here. You should land on a page that looks like the image below.

Click on the big blue Get On Google Button.

You will be taken to a page with a map and a search bar like below. Click on the search bar and start typing your business name. Hit enter and wait for Google to bring up its results.

Google will ask you if similar business's are yours. If your business has been around for a while chances are it will pop up here and you can simply click on it and follow the process along by claiming it as yours.

If you website doesn't show, (most likely), click on the button that says "Add your Business" as illustrated below.

Using the Right Information from the Start.

Up next we add our business information. Don't take this information lightly, there are things that need to be considered before proceeding to the next step.

Having a consistent N.A.P (Name, Address, Phone Number) is one of the most important things you need to adhere to when marketing locally with Google. Every time your business appears somewhere on the internet you want to make sure the business name, business address and business phone number are exactly the same.

If you mix these up it can have a big effect on your efforts making future marketing more difficult. The more synchronized your business is online the more money you are going to make.

Another hugely important piece of information is the location of the address you use for your business. If your business is located in the western suburbs on Melbourne and you want clients in the eastern suburbs you will need to list your business in the eastern suburbs.

The way it works is simple. When you register your business on Google they send a post card to the address you provide. This verifies you're in that location providing the right services, and thus, a good choice for Google to send local traffic looking for your services.

If you don't want your exact location to show up on Google Maps you can select the "I serve customers at their location" button at the bottom of the page. This will hide your address like two of the three listings below.

One last section is to choose your category. Pick the one that best suite's you business. You can add extra categories in a couple more steps.

Once your happy, all information has been added and you're confident the business information you entered is correct and in your target location hit the continue button at the bottom.

Next up you get to choose the area you serve. This will help you show up in different location's within the vicinity you choose as your operational area. Pick the service area that suits you and your business.

If you serve customers at your location and want to show your address make sure to select the "I also serve customers at my location" check box before continuing.

The next step will be Google's a last ditch effort to make sure there are no duplicate listings. Click "None Of these Match, Keep the Information I entered" to skip this step and continue to the next page.

TIP: Copy the name, address and phone number on this page so you have a copy of the exact format Google uses. This will come in handy when creating other business citations across the internet.

Next select "I am authorized to manage this business and i agree to the terms of service"

Next select "I am authorized to manage this business and i agree to the terms of service" and hit continue.

Verification By Email

You should have landed on a page that looks similar to the image below.

Before google trust that you own a legitimate business they want to verify your address. To do this they will send out a post card to the address you just listed.

This card will have a 5 digit number on it that will need to be entered on your Google my business listing page before it is ever published in the public eye.

Select the blue "By Mail" button, add your name to the "attn" section and hit "Send Post Card".

The post card will normally turn up within 5 to 14 business days. As soon as it does log into your Google account, navigate to your My Business profile and enter the 5 Digit code and your business will start to appear in Google Maps and Google Business listings.

Optimizing Your Google My Business Listing

Congratulations on creating your Google My Business listing. Your business is one step closer to more local customers through your own efforts.

Now you have a Google listing, its time to start telling google more about your business and showing good reason for your business to be placed above the rest. To get this done we need to have the best local listing page in our industry for the area your targeting. Going the extra mile is what will give you the edge over other competition in the area.

After applying for the verification card the page would have refreshed and you should now be looking at something similar to the image below. This is where you can edit and make changes to your listing from here on out but remember, changes to the name, address or phone number will mean re-verification by mail.

As you can see we are only 45% complete. We want to make that 100% Click on the Edit button next to home and photos in the navigation bar.

Completing Your Google Listing

• Add your Website. This is a strong link that will help with your business website ranking's. If you do not have a website for your business, I hope this listing can show you why a website is one of the most important assets in any business.
• Add your hours of operation. Remember what these are and try to keep them the same across platforms as well as your NAP.
• If you have special hours you can add them here as well. Usually I do not worry about this section.
• Adding a description about your business is important. There are lots of ways you can optimize this for better results. Add 300 - 600 words describing your business, what you offer and why you are the best choice.
• If you have any other categories to add to your listing now is the perfect chance to do so. The more you have the more potential customer you will have access to. It is important to keep the main category as the primary.

Next up we want to add photos to the listing.

In many cases this is over looked and completing this section will help boost your rankings and increase your visibility. It will also help potential customers trust your business.

People often check out Facebook pages, websites, maps listings and more to justify giving money away for a service. Making the time to complete all profiles completely shows the potential customers as well as google your serious while adding a third party verification to the experience and giving your brand more authority, helping sales.

• Select the photos tab in the navigation.
• Add your logo. This gives your profile more professionalism and helps increase the trust potential customers will have with your brand.
• Add a profile photo. Its up to you what you use but making this memorable and unique is always a good option.
• Change the cover photo to something that suits your brand. TIP: Make all profile cover photos an effective call to action.
• Lastly is to add the rest of your photos. Make sure to use real photos about your business here. Take some photos of work, staff and completed jobs to help the searchers understand your services better. I aim to ad 20 - 30 photos with about 10 in each category (Work, Teams, Additional).

 

Conclusion

Congratulations again. You stuck through the whole blog post and as promised you now have the ability to list your business in google for free.

Through out the post I have given reasons why listing your business on Google is important but you wont realize how important it really is unless you apply it.

Talking to local business owners on a daily basis it still amazes me how many times thousands of dollars are spent on marketing to get result's that could have been achieved for 10% the cost. I have created Digital Estate to provide a backbone of information you can use to actively promote your business at whole sale rates.

Thanks for reading. Join me next time when I share how to amplify your marketing results and grow your brand at no cost.

The original post was Here: How to list your Business on Google For Free