Tag Archive for: Google My Business Local SEO

Digital Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

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Small businesses should always be looking to find opportunities to stay ahead of the competitive market and reach their potential customers. With the right tools, you can create an effective strategy to have a big return in reach and awareness. 

The internet has become an indispensable tool for almost any consumer making a decision. Whis is why it’s always a good time for business owners to think about the most effective small business marketing ideas. 

Unsure of where to start improving your website or social media pages? Here are 5 quick and effective ways that you can jump start your digital marketing for your SMB.

1. Research Competitors and Differentiate Yourself

Competitor research is important because as a small business, you’ll want to be able to offer additional value in the market. One way to do this is by using Google Search Ads. Doing a search and seeing the results that pop up is a great way to start. For example, if you’re a plumbing company and you see the terms “No Call Out Charge”, “Fully Qualified Plumbers” and “1-Hr Response” for your results, they’re likely to be great selling points for other businesses looking to compete with these results.

How can you differentiate your company from other plumbers in the area who provide similar services? Most times, if you don’t have anything that differentiates your company from others, you can invent one. You can do this by giving your products, services, and reputation more attention and detail.

2. Get Your Website Basics Right

Users are increasingly demanding in terms of the experience they expect from a website. They want a fast loading website as a minimum requirement. As a local business, you may not have the budget of larger firms, but you can at least get the basics right.

Here’s a couple things you can do to fix this problem. You can start by test your website’s mobile speed with Google’s free tool and see how you could decrease bounce rates. If this doesn’t provide clarity you can move onto the following options:

1. Compressing Text and Images: Decreasing or converting your image sizing and scales can help dramatically, as well as removing any video content that isn’t critical to your site’s content.

2. Website Design: Over-designing web pages by adding loads of banners, images, icons, and other additions can lead to slower loading times.

3. Mobile Optimization: Last but not least, making your site mobile friendly is probably the most important thing you should do for your website. A majority of consumers now access the internet via mobile browser. So make sure your website is designed so that it is responsive per device and screen size.

3. Improve Google My Business Listing and Customer Reviews

When a customer searches for your products or services, your online reputation could be the deciding factor. Luckily, Google My Business gives you control over how people perceive your business.

Some of the common mistakes to avoid include:

  • Duplicate listings
  • Setting up unnecessary new listings after a change of address
  • Business name misuse e.g. adding unnecessary promotional messages

Customer reviews are not a new concept, but you might be surprised at how often they are overlooked. 30% of consumers said that reviews were a key factor in judging local businesses, so make sure this as a top priority in your digital marketing strategy.

4. Create Interesting Blog Content

In highly competitive industries, a content strategy is necessary to drive search results. When working with smaller businesses, it’s likely that they will not rank on the first page of Google for a broad term related to their product or service. Blog content plays a big role in creating and converting leads to customers. You can easily increase your organic traffic for local businesses through researching blog content that you can create in house. Here are a couple tips to amp up your blogs:

  • Putting the audience first
  • Making sure it’s SEO friendly
  • Correct tone of voice
  • Showing readers they can trust you

Final Thoughts

As a small business owner, you can use digital marketing to reduce barriers-to-entry in your industry by increasing the reach of your business through the Internet. But you need a plan to get there. A strong content marketing strategy and experimenting with different topics, measuring the results, and tracking your progress all help you develop an effective coverall content marketing strategy.

Onimod Global is your Chicago-based, in-house marketing team, your partner experts for specific marketing verticals or some nice balance in between. We excel in customer service and will teach you the most relevant and up-to-date digital marketing skills. From social media to SEO and paid search, you will have the tools to ensure your business succeeds online.

Have questions about creating your online presence and need help strategizing? Contact us here today.

What You Should Know About New Google Maps Local Search Ads

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In response to the recent Google Performance Summit, Google made several announcements on how their services will be changing in the months to come. One of the most important announcements included the introduction of new local search advertisements through Google Maps.

What’s The Difference?

Google already provides location based advertisement options in addition to the Google My Business platform, so what exactly is so special about these new local search ads? Well, these new ads will be available in several new formats including:

  • Promoted Pins
  • In-Store Promotions
  • Customizable Business Pages
  • Local Inventory Search

All of these options are meant to drive foot traffic to a physical location. Now, you may be wondering why businesses would be interested in brick-and-mortar stores when e-commerce is on the rise.

Google revealed during their summit that 75% of people who conduct a location based search on their mobile device will then visit that location within 24 hours with 28% of these visits resulting in a purchase.

Bridging The Gap

Clearly, mobile is not be the only concern. What advertisers should focus on is utilizing mobile in order to drive physical visits and purchases. To do this, the business must first be visible in every form possible across the Internet.

These new local search ads will facilitate this need of visibility by providing another dynamic platform on which consumers can find your business. While this new form of local search ads will not make all of your advertising dreams come true, it is certainly a useful tool to have in your arsenal of digital marketing services.

Process Pending

These new ads are only available in a beta form, and are not available to all advertisers. As such, there is little information currently available about these new ads, but one thing that we do know is how Google chooses which local search ads do and do not show through Google Maps.

Google has provided the following factors in regard to what will affect new ad rankings:

  • Location
  • Interests
  • Query Text
  • Search/Browsing History
  • Behaviors
  • Time of Day
  • Demographics

More From Onimod Global

For more information on the industry of digital marketing, please visit the Onimod Global News Page. Our content creation specialists are constantly producing new and engaging articles that keep you informed of the latest and greatest trends within the digital marketing world. Enjoy!

The Importance of Google My Business for Local SEO Rankings

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Google My Business (GMB) is a unique tool that provides local businesses with an opportunity to appear in Google search and map results to essentially increase local SEO rankings. Having a GMB listing and being active is critical in today’s digital world for local businesses in order to stand out from the crowd. Including important business information and images, optimizing your GMB listing, and frequently posting updates will greatly improve a business’s local search visibility. This post will explore the overall importance of Google My Business when it comes to local SEO and outranking industry competitors.

Google My Business Overview
Utilizing Google My Business allows your organization to take charge of what people see when conducting a local search for your business. Google states that “Google My Business gives you the tools to update your listing and engage with customers from your phone, tablet, or computer. All for free.” GMB enables you to update business hours, images, menus (restaurants), locations, have reviews, and now lets you add posts to highlight what’s happening. Moreover, it’s a crucial tool for businesses to increase online visibility so potential consumers can find you.

Setting up and Optimizing Your Google My Business Listing
Just simply setting up a GMB listing is a good starting point, but in a competitive environment you will need to go above and beyond to stand out. The first step to driving in new business is to claim your listing. This will enable your business to update all of the relevant information like location, hours, images, and contact information. A second step is to seek assistance from your customer base regarding reviews and making sure they are positive. A large number of positive reviews can increase the likelihood of ranking higher in search results. Once these initial steps are completed, the next plan should be to develop consistent posts to keep potential consumers engaged about what’s happening with your business. The GMB posting feature allows your business to display deals, events, or important company news. Ultimately, it should be noted that the more time you spend in the Google My Business interface, the better local SEO presence your business will experience.

Advanced Google My Business Optimization Strategies
In addition to the basic GMB optimization tactics previously listed, there are more advanced GMB optimization strategies that will improve local visibility even more. First, the importance of displaying intriguing images often times gets overlooked. Select photos that will stand out and grab the attention of online users to attract more website clicks on your listing. Another important tactic according to digital marketing expert Kevin Gibbons is to “check up on popular times of the day and create SEM or paid social campaigns to drive more visitors during times your business is open but not as busy.” In the end, Google My Business offers an excellent opportunity for businesses to enhance their local online visibility and create a better overall chance to increase both online and in-store traffic.

Contact Us
For more information regarding digital marketing expertise, visit the Onimod Global Website. We provide weekly news updates on the latest in the world of digital marketing. Enjoy!