Take control of your Google+ Business Listing

Did you know that if you are a local business, Google has (or will create) a page of business information findable by people searching Google? Check out this business page for a hair salon.

Did you also know you can take control of this page and its content for free?

Why take control of your page?

Google dominates online searches. With so many places where Google+ Business Pages show up, it is becoming more important than ever to give care and feeding to your page. There are currently four search destinations where Google+ Business Pages are found:

• Search on Google.com
• Search on Google Maps
• Search on Mobile Apps
• Search through Google+

How to take control

It is easy to get started! Learn how to claim your listing

Being found online by more customers

Online Directory Listings

Make sure your company is listed around the internet (Yelp, Yahoo Local, Bing Local, Citysearch, etc). These listings give you more exposure as well as more ranking points for your Google+ Business Page.

Reviews

Online Reviews are powerful and necessary for your business to rank well in a competitive market. Reviews on Google+ are worth extra bonus points. Try and get into the habit of asking people to leave you reviews. Do you have an email list? Use this list to ask for reviews.

Keyword Research

Targeting the words relevant to your business which people are actually searching for is crucial for a successful online marketing campaign. You can get alot of information by using free Google Keyword Tool

Competition Research

Research the competition to see what they are doing right (i.e. what keywords, categories and directories are they using?). Use this information to inform your plan. The secret to ranking better than your competition is to just do things a little better than them.

Optimize Information on the page

Using the keyword and competition research, make sure your business page has the most optimized information