Don’t Fall Off the Map: How to Ensure Local Customers Find You From Their Phones
You have one goal with your SEO campaign. You want people to find your business online.
But what about the people who need to find you in the real world? What about those who are driving around town looking for a good place to eat lunch or need to pick up a gift on the way to a birthday party?
These individuals are still looking for businesses online, from the small screen of a smartphone that can track a userโs location.
You can cater to all of your customers, whether they are sitting at their desktops or out on the road, with a local business listing.
Weโll show you how to add your business on two of the most-used platforms, Apple Maps and Google Maps. If youโve already found a listing for your business, learn how to claim it and control what future customers discover about your product or service.
Apple Maps
Most Apple users have less-than-positive opinions about the companyโs buggy and often inaccurate mapping service that began in 2012. Leaving travelers stranded in the middle of the Australian Outback will do that to your reputation.
To make matters worse, the company did not offer a reliable way for users to add a business storefront to the map. As a business owner, your best bet was to add your information to Yelpโor other providers where Apple got its dataโand hope your listing would show up.
Then Apple came up with a solution. In October of last year, they launched a service to give business owners control over their company listings: Apple Maps Connect. Use these steps and give millions of iPhone users access to your business information.
- Sign into Apple Maps Connect using a free Apple ID.
- Select โAdd My Business.โ Once you agree to the Terms of Use, you can enter the name of your business, plus your city and state, to see if Apple Maps already lists your business. You may want to try variations of your business name if you donโt get a result the first time.
- If you see your business, select that listing and click โClaim This Business.โ If your business listing does not exist, click โAdd New Business.โ
- In either case, the website will direct you to a screen to add or edit your business information, including the address, the phone number, and your relationship to the business.
- Continue through the prompt to pin your location, confirm your office hours, and add links to your business website and social media pages.
- When you are ready to submit this new information, click โVerifyโ next to your phone number or โSubmit to Appleโ at the top of the page. A small screen will pop up. Hit โCall Me Nowโ if youโd like Apple to call immediately and give you a PIN for verification.
- Enter the code, and claim your business!
Your new listing or the changes you made should appear within a week, although it may take a little longer since the service is new. Apple Maps Connect is currently available for small business owners in the U.S.
Google Maps
Although Apple products now have a separate mapping system, 64.5 million people still use Google Maps as of June 2014. Donโt ignore those numbers. Sign in to Google today, and make sure potential customers can find your business on the worldโs most popular application for smartphones.
- Go to Google My Business, and sign in using your Google account.
- Click โGet your page,โ and choose your business type.
- Google will direct you to a map, where you can search for your business name and address. Select your business from the drop-down menu. If you donโt see your company, click โAdd your business.โ
- If you are creating a new listing, youโll need to enter some details about your business, including the street address and phone number. Hit โSubmit.โ If your business listing already exists, you will need to verify that you are the business owner before you can edit information.
- Verify your local listing by phone or by a postcard sent to the address you have listed. Once you receive your verification code, enter the number into your dashboard.
- Review and edit your business information. Choose a category, update your contact information, and select the hours your business is open.
Once you have completed the steps above, your Local Google+ page is instantly live.
With either platform, add all the information you can. Some customers wonโt call you to figure out the address for your new office or the price range of your restaurant; they will simply move on to the next company. Donโt give them an opportunity to leave your listing by leaving a section blank.
You can also take this advice a step further and look for other listings online. Monitor your business on Yelp, Foursquare, or other websites more specific to your industry, like TripAdvisor, Urbanspoon, and Angi.
At the very least, start with the basics and claim your local listing on Google and Apple Maps today.
A quality local seo campaign should include map listings, and not just Google Maps.
That’s true. I feel like that is something Shannon covered here – multiple directories, multiple maps. For Google, it is all one in the same since Google upgraded to Google My Business last April. Anything that was previously on Google Local or Google Places now has a listing in their directory which includes a Google+ page. Any local Google+ page now has a map listing. Likewise, many other directories can be considered great for SEO – especially local directories, BBB directories, and other similar directories.
I agree with Caz. Any local listing you can put yourself in is going to be beneficial. I think the standard place that people go now is Google+. They see the local listing come up in the results page, and tend to flock to that listing. We recommend that every business have a Google+ page, especially local businesses! This is SUCH a huge impact on how people find you. Smart phones now will automatically offer to give you the best directions to the business, and include multiple options for routes. I honestly don’t bother much with businesses that don’t have a maps when I am out and about and end up needing a service. This could be a coffee shop, restaurant, or even a car service location. It is so much easier to click the button and go.
One thing that you always want to remember is to THINK like your users. What will they want. Also, if your competitors have it, you want it. Thanks for the post, Shannon! You’re always so helpful.
Having consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) information can also have a tangible impact on your organic SEO rankings as well. It’s critical for a number of reasons but I think we can all agree it’s important to focus on getting your business information listed as many places as possible!
Yup! Absolutely agree.
Really great job engaging in conversation and getting questions answered Becca and TJ!
Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. Anywhere that a local listing can be posted is going to benefit your company. A nice rounded out SEO Campaign is going to include at least a few new listings a month for a local business. Even if someone has filled them out themselves, SEO Firms should go back and double check to be sure it was done to the best quality available. Good point, though. The point is not only to provide the information for search engines, but to ensure that an end user can find you for the right information and services.
Having a Google My Business Listing can help get a lot of visibility
and lead to a lot of people directly call because the found the maps
listing.