How Does Your Business Rank?
Now you can instantly see if your business shows up in the most highly search local sites on the Internet for the most popular keywords and phrases your customers use to find you. Our new Business Listing Ranking tool will not only save you a ton of time, but it will show you which of your competitors are garnering all the new business from the Internet … and what you can do to take it back.
Notice on the far right column of every page there’s a category entitled “Industry” where you can quickly see how you rank for your keywords in your community. (We’re adding new industries every day.) You can either do the search by city and state or zip code. If you live in a small to medium sized community, do the search by city and state. If you live in a large urban community, use the zip code feature as well, because this is a common way people in large cities search for local business services.
Where Do Your Customers Look For You?
The tool will show you how you rank on sites including Google, Yahoo!, Bing, Merchant Circle, Yelp, Super Pages, Local and Yellow Book. It will also show you how you rank for the top 6-8 keywords people use to find the services you offer in your industry. (If your industry is not listed, please go to the comment section below and make a request.)
For example, if you’re in the appliance repair business you can see how your business ranks for the following terms.
- Appliance Repair
- Refrigerator Repair
- Washer Repair
- Dryer Repair
- Dishwasher Repair
- Oven Repair
- GE Repair
- Maytag Repair
Search Trends Rock
We also added another feature that will help you promote your business. You can see the search trends for each term to help you decide the very best months of the year to get the most out of your advertising and marketing efforts.
Give it a try.
I’m hearing more and more business owners complain about their business not being seen on GPS devices like Garmin, TomTom and other in-car mapping programs. Not to worry. You can easily get your business listed on these devices. Here’s how.
There are three primary ways you can get your business listed on these GPS devices. I encourage you to do all three.
InfoUSA is a data aggregation company … among other things. They acquire business data from multiple sources and then make that data available to the world. Just go to InfoUSA and add your business information. If it’s already there, check for accuracy and allow them between one and three months to get the information out to the GPS manufacturers and mapping software companies.
It’s important to remember that once a GPS device is installed in a car, it’s up to the cars owner to update the data file. This does not happen automatically. All future devices will/should include your updated location information however.
My next stop would be the NAVTEQ Map Reporter site. Actually, if my only concern was getting on GPS devices, this would be my first stop.
Navteq provides their information to Garmin and other sites. They also make this information available directly to the consumer who wants to pay for and update their mapping software.
Go to NAVTEQ and follow their three easy steps. They will even keep you informed of when your POI (Point of Interest) location, your business, has been included in their software update.
My third and final stop would be TeleAtlas. They make it very easy for you to add a new business location or point of interest. Again, go to TeleAtlas and add your information. The process is quick and painless.
All of these sites will do research to insure that the information you provided is accurate. Expect a call from InfoUSA and a delay before hearing from TeleAtlas and NAVTEQ … if you hear from them at all.
If you provide your business location and information to all three sites, there is a very good chance you will start to show up on GPS devices within a few months. And as you know, visibility translates into profitability. Do it today.
All things being equal, the number of reviews and the quality of your reviews will attract more customers. Studies show that 40% of the buying population pays very close attention to what others have to say about your business. Truthfully, I think the number is much higher than that.
You Get A Gold Star
There is a really cool thing that happens on Google Maps when you generate 5 reviews. Once you reach that magic number, Google shows little gold stars next to your business listing. It’s another way reviews help you stand out in the crowd.
Look at this example for the term “Event Photographer Maui.” Notice how Nancy Nelson Photography stands out. It doesn’t hurt that she’s in the top spot either, but honestly, even if her business was in the last spot on the map, I would still be more likely to click on it first.
I Like What I’m Reading
Standing out is not just about generating lots and lots of reviews. You must have as many 5-star reviews as possible. The better the reviews, the more likely people will be to contact and hire you. I encourage you to read my article on “5 Star Business Reviews: How To Get Them” before you get started.
If you have a bad review on Google or on another site, there are a few things you can do to get them removed from your listing. Please read my article on “Getting Bad Reviews Removed” if this is an issue for you.
Get Their Attention
One of our customers is Regal Car Rental in Ft. Myers Florida. The owner knows the importance of getting great reviews and he does a wonderful job of generating them. To date, all of his reviews are 5-star reviews.
Regal Car Rental is in the number one spot for the term “Cheap Car Rentals Ft. Myers FL,” not because Tom rents cheap cars, but because this is a highly searched term and he wants to get in front of the people looking for inexpensive rentals.
Recently Tom received a review on Google that was titled in all capital letters: THERE IS NOTHING CHEAP ABOUT THE SERVICE. Even though this review was a five star review, it caught my attention because I thought it might be a customer complaint. The review went on to read as follows. “The one and only place to rent a car in Ft. Myers. Friendly service good selection and willing to go the extra mile.”
After seeing this review, it gave me a wonderful idea. People tend to look for bad reviews first to insure that they don’t get ripped off. A great way to give these people what they’re looking for is to encourage one of your happy customers to title their review in such a way that the reader doesn’t know what to expect … but is delighted once they read the review.
I Contacted You After Reading Your Reviews
I can’t tell you how often we hear this from our customers. Once you generate a significant number of positive reviews, you will hear this from your customers on a frequent basis. It’s my top reason for selecting a service provider and it’s the decision making process used by millions of others too.
Get To Work
If you’ve been putting off generating positive reviews from your customers, don’t delay any longer. Reviews may or may not help you get top placement in Google or any of the other highly searched sites, but there’s no question that great reviews will convert lookers to buyers.
