Maintain Consistency with Your
Online Presence
If you have different listings around the
Web, you want to make sure that they all
have the same information. This will make
your small business seem more reliable
and trustworthy. Check all of your listings
to make sure they contain the same phone
number, address and descriptions. If you’ve
recently moved locations or switched phone
numbers, update these as soon as possible.
The feel of your listings should also resemble one another, so that it helps to establish
you as a brand and gain you recognition for
it. Google doesn’t like to showcase profiles
of businesses that are closed or have indications of a changed owner or data discrepancies.
Remember, this is about drawing in traffic,
as well as building your online image. The
more listings you have pointing back to your
Web site, the better your rankings will be
-- and ultimately, your traffic and conversion
rates.
Search and Claim All
of Your Online Listings
The business listings you create online aren’t
going to be the only ones that you have to
worry about. Other databases will pick up
your listings and you’ll have to find these to
make sure that the information contained
on those listings are up-to-date. You’ll first
have to claim that the business is yours and
then you’ll be able to make adjustments to
the listing.
You can get this started by adding your business listing to the top five local directors,
which include Google My Business, Yelp,
Yahoo Local Listing, Bing Places for Business
and Manta. Then list in directories that are
industry-specific. Take time to build up your
listings on a regular basis and search for
those you have yet to claim. The larger your
network of listings, the better your search
engine ranking will be for related keywords
-- allowing you to dominate the local market.
Use Keywords to Optimize Your
Social Listings
The business listings you have on search engines and social media will need to be optimized with relevant keywords. Simply having
your listings all over the place isn’t going to
suffice -- not if you want to F