Google Maps and other map tools are probably the least utilized by many businesses. Some will provide reasons such as “my business is not a physical address,” or “that’s not how clients find us,” or “its not core to our sales funnel,” and the myriad of reasons is vast. But the real reason, is that no one has explained the benefits of a holistic approach to SEO and how maps is playing a part in search.
All the big players in maps have portals where you can claim your business listings and manage your information. Most medium size and beyond business at least have their name, address and website listed but it ends there, even for some bigger players. Google maps is not just about location anymore, with AI and machine learning search giants are pairing search intent with as much data as they can. A good example that many have seen is open/closed times for a physical business location – if you click for directions and the store will close before you get there or is not open due to a closure or holiday the app informs you of this and asks if you are sure that you still need those directions. Now take it a step farther as voice and AR searches become more main stream and they will be pairing information from your profiles and websites to complete a unique picture about your business.
Do they carry product ABC? Do they offer services XYZ? Do they have online chat or a customer support hotline? Your business profiles are more than just a way to maintain your google maps information, its a way to beef up and control your information to improve your lead generation funnel. Whether you are a lawyer, financial planner, B2B software, eCommerce, etc – do not take for granted the power of optimizing your profiles that are tied to various search databases.
How to properly optimize?
Just give us a call, but if you want to give it a shot yourself here are some tips:
- Ensure you have a high quality logo and background image
- Add images in your store, of your products, or of your services
- Fill in as much information as possible
- Connect it with your analytics tools
- Update often
If you have a marketing team or person responsible for your marketing – be sure to add in search & directory management to your strategy. If you are still unsure whether it is worth your time, pull up your numbers and look at the cost of acquisition. Let’s assume you make $500 per new client and it cost you $200 to acquire the new client (acquisition cost) through various means averaged out – that means an organic lead generates a $200 savings each and every time (assuming you do the work yourself). Now multiply that out by the potential; 2 a month, 10 a month and the numbers start adding up fast. Just optimizing your listings and maintaining them with us has a 4x or greater multiplier for our clients over the cost spent. For our lawyers, a new lead is typically worth several thousand dollars to tens of thousands. For our financial planners and RIAs, its worth hundreds a year generating thousands over the life of just one client. For general contractors, one lead usually brings in contracts worth $5k – $50k in new business. For our eCommerce or retail businesses, it helps to generate thousands of dollars in new sales per year. We know it works because we see it working, its not a hack, its just proper marketing. Since every business is different, take a look at what we usually see below.
Typical Results:
When we optimize listings for clients we typically see the following results.
- Increased traffic to website from directory/map locations
- Increase profile/company information impressions
- Increased brand exposure
- Increased directions
- Increased Click to Call
- Increased SERPs
- Best of all, organic search intent has a higher conversion ratio than anything on the market.
As you can see, the above items are all actionable and reportable things. So what are you waiting for give us a call today or get to work immediately and claim those listings and maximize your brands exposure. If not, you are leaving it up to chance and bots to decide who and what your business is and whether it should even appear in results. So get out there and make sure that your Google Maps, Business, brand and other portals are all optimized and start getting a boost with your lead generation efforts.