Local Business Ads Series – Part 4: How to set up your Google Business Listing
In the last post of the Local Business Ads Series we have introduced Google’s Local Business Center (LBC), a very important component for Local Search Marketing. Today we see how to register one or more business in the LBC.
1. Adding One Business Listing
If you only want to add one or a few businesses to the Local Business Centre click on “Add new business”. In our example we want to set up a business listing for an online marketing company in Madrid called Fantasy Inc.
a) Business contact details and description
On the upcoming page fill in the requested information like in the screenshot below. Please note that it is wise to not only include your company name but also the most important keywords in the text field called “Company/Organisation”. As you can see in the screenshot below the text entered in this field is the title that will later be shown to the users in bold letters as the name of your business and will be automatically used as the title in LBAs for the business. Filling in relevant keywords here can be seen as a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) effort which will help your business listing ranking higher in the natural search results when users do a local search for keywords that are relevant to your business. In our example we choose the title “Fantasy Inc. Madrid – SEM, SEO, Social Media and more” and include like this our most important keywords – Madrid, SEM, SEO, and Social Media – in a prominent location. Furthermore fill in your address, phone number, email address (optional), website (optional) and a meaningful description of your business. Then click on “Next” after you have checked the preview on the right hand side.
b) Business Categories
In the section called categories you can choose up to five categories and sub-categories your business belongs in. Try to choose as many meaningful categories as possible to improve your visibility when users search for local businesses within on of these categories.
c) Hours of Operations
If you would like to indicate your operating hours in your business listing you can do it like indicated in the screenshot below. If this is not the case select the radio button entitled I prefer not to specify operating hours.
d) Payment Options
In the next section you should specify the payment options which you offer to your clients. Again, try to select all possible options so your potential customers know which payment methods you accept before they come to your local store.
e) Photos
If possible use the functionality to include up to 10 photos of your products or your store in your business listing. In order to upload a photo on your computer click on “Browse” and select the image file from your computer. Then click on “Add Photo”.
f) Videos
Additionally to the possibility to include photos you can also include up to 5 videos. In order to show videos in your listing, these videos must be uploaded to YouTube. Having done this, copy the YouTube video URL, paste it in the text field, and click on “Add Video” like in the screenshot below.
g) Additional Details
This section gives you the opportunity to include a multitude of information that you want customers to know about your business. The screenshot below gives you an impression of the possibilities.
Check all your business information which is displayed on the right hand side and hit “Submit” if it is correct.
h) Validation
You have now finished the set up of your local business listing but before your local business location will be listed you will need to validate it. Google offers three ways in order to verify your information:
- If you choose the validation by phone Google will call you to your business phone number. In the meantime a new page will load and display a PIN that you have to enter on your phone’s keypad when requested. This is a very fast and easy way to validate your business information.
- If you choose the validation by SMS (only available if you entered a mobile phone number before) you will receive a text message including your pin to your mobile phone. You will be requested to enter this PIN on the web page. Also very fast and easy.
- Validating by postcard is by far the slowest way to verify your information. Therefore it should only be chosen if the other two methods are not available.
Using the phone or SMS validation method the added business should be verified and the listing incorporated into Google Maps within 48 hours.
i) Business Listing Status
After the validation has been completed you will see all of the businesses that are registered with your Google username. Next to each business name there is a column that displays each listing’s status. Several status are possible, among others active, pending, awaiting approval, flagged, marked as inappropriate, etc. For a full list of status please visit the Google glossary which provides detailed information about this topic. As mentioned before it can take up to 48 hours after validation till your listing is approved.
2. Adding More Than 10 Business Listings
If your business has more than 10 locations, you can add listings or change existing listings at once by submitting the information in a spreadsheet. This is called a “feed.”
These are the types of feeds you can provide:
• Complete Feed: Replace all existing listings with new information
• Addition Feed: Add listings or edit some of your current listings
• Deletion Feed: Deletes the specified listings from Google Maps
In case you want to use the location bulk upload please read the instructions at http://www.google.com/local/add/helpFeeds?hl=en-US&gl=US#b.
As we now have a Google Business Listing, in the next post we can go through the set up of Local Business Ads. So stay tuned.
Related posts:
