Why Your Local Business Needs Google Plus
From 10 ‘classic’ search results, to Google Places, to blended results, to personalized results, the way that Google displays and ranks websites has undergone some major changes this last 18 months. Perhaps the most significant change for Local Business owners is the shift from Google Places to Google Plus Local. It’s a pretty impressive power move to get a large portion of the internet ‘forced’ into Google’s own Social Network – and while the mechanics and process of getting Google+ setup properly remains a bit ambiguous, there’s one thing that’s certain: Google+ is here to stay, and it’s arguably the single most important Social Network for SMB’s online for more reasons that one. Newly bearded Dave explains why in this video.
Video Transcription –
Hi there! Dave Forster with Adster Creative. And in this video, we are going to be talking about Google Places. Now (BEEP – VIDEO RESTARTS)
Hi there! Dave Forster with Adster creative. And in this video, we are going to be talking about Google + (BEEP) Google Plus (BEEP) No, Google Places. No, Google Plus…
(INTERMISSION SCREEN – Flashes back to Dave – Then back to INTERMISSION SCREEN)
Hi there! Dave Forster with Adster Creative, and in this video, we are going to be talking about Google + Local. (CRAZED LAUGH) So, if you are a local business owner and you are interested in finding new prospects online, and are interested in positioning your business where it needs to be for the future, then I would submit to you that Google + Local is arguably the single most important social network that you are going to want to be using. And the reason that Google + Local is such an important social network is, there’re two real big reasons for that.
The first of which is that Google + Local, or just Google +, is the kind of the bridging point, or the connection between the traditional algorithmic driven Google that we’ve come to know and love, and the new, emerging, socially biased, people driven internet that will be powering the online world of tomorrow. So, Google + Local is a very, very important connection between these two philosophies of search. And, as our own young Nathan Gould pointed out in a Google hangout video a couple of months ago, Google + Local, or Google +, rather, is probably going to be the new look and really the new way that Google as we know it will operate in the future. So, very, very significant social network.
The second group of reasons that Google + is important, really, kind of pertain to you today. Google is obviously very interested in providing its users with relevant search results. With the abundance of users searching on mobile devices, and users typing in search queries that imply that they’re looking for something local like “plumbers in Calgary” or “Edmonton dentists,” Google wants to make sure that it’s providing you with results that it knows are truly local. And the way that Google can verify these local results is through Google + Local. This is because of the verification process, which is very confusing at the moment, if you’ve been dabbling in that at all.
A Google + Local page will require you as a business to manually verify your location and your phone number via postcard. Google will actually mail you something to confirm that you are who you say you are, and you are located where you say you are located. And when you get this connection point of your website and your Google + page, it’s going to allow you to rank in these pure local results. They’re typically situated at the very top of these Google search results, of course, underneath Google Adwords. And speaking of paid — speaking of Google Adwords — another advantage to having a Google + Local page is that you can attach this Google + page to your Google Adwords ad as an ad extension, giving you more real estate and more clickable area in your Adwords ad, which is always a good thing.
Another great feature with Google + is that it has some really unique and interesting social sharing features, like the Google hangouts that I mentioned earlier, which are really, really cool. It also allows you to publish content very easily and intuitively, and in a way that other social networks really don’t allow you to do. And in a way that can provide a very substantial SEO benefit if you know what you’re doing, as Google allows you to link your website via different pages from within your Google + Local profile. So, there’s a lot of powerful SEO potential in a Google Local + page. And, finally, as far as your Google + Local goes, it’s going to allow users to leave reviews, and of course, interact socially, which is the entire point of the Google + platform. Google wants to merge the traditional website SEO philosophy and the new social philosophy together.
Google + Local is a very, very important social network for your business to have. And if you have any questions about Google + Local or social media advertising, our door is always open.
We’ll see you back here soon.