I’m sure most of you have done a search in Google and noticed a box with a map and about 7 different businesses. For those of you who were wondering what this is, how to use it, or more details, this is your lucky day. WhirlWind Creative, in effort to make your business as successful as possible, wants to make sure you know about Google Local Business Center, how to use it and how to make it work for you.

So let’s start of by just briefly explaining what Google Local Business Center is. In short, GLBC is a place for small and local business to effectively compete with their larger competitors in the area. Your bakery can compete with Panera Bread. Your restaurant can compete with Olive Garden, T.G.I. Friday’s, or Ruth Chris. This is possible because Google reserves a special section of its listings to show business in your area. It does this using one of two methods. The primary method is by looking at your computers IP address, mapping it and figuring out what city you’re in. Yes, Google is that smart. Once it figures out where you are, it references its list of businesses that best fit the search. Another possibility is through the inclusion of a city name in the search. For instance, if you’re in Harrisburg and search for “Charlotte electricians” or “electricians in Charlotte” it switches its local result to that city. Once it has made a list of business that are “local” it uses a combination of algorithms (similar to its standard search results) to rank the listings and then proceed to display the top 7. Why 7 you ask? Good question. Ask Google. We have no idea. The best we can tell is that 7 results lines up nicely next to the map, but we’re designers, we always think about what’ll look best.

Now let’s get to real question on your mind; “How does my business get on that list, and how do I get my company to show in the top 7?”

Let’s start with getting you on the “local business” list. As previously stated Google generates a list of local business and ranks them in accordance with secret Google algorithms. This local business list is generated two different ways. The first is by looking at the business registered in GLBC and the second is by browsing lists of addresses in listings and other articles. For instance, the Yellow Pages, and companies like it, will create their own listing of business which Google will piggy-back to generate its own. This practice was originally used by Google to display companies prior to offering companies the opportunity to register with GBLC and creating their own database. Obviously Google prefers its own data over others data, so it’s in your best interest to register with GLBC. The great part about registering with GBLC is that it is absolutely free, a great advantage for all business owners. In fact, if you’re web savvy, we encourage you to Google “Google Local Business Center” and go through the steps. For some of you, we know that you would much rather have someone set it up for you. Luckily you already know a great company to help you out! WhirlWind Creative will set you up an account in Google, register your business and work with you to ensure we have the most accurate information available to be displayed to the world. WhirlWind Creative charges a fee  to compensate for the time spent in assisting and/or consulting you with the set-up. The cost may vary for business with multiple locations, so please be sure to e-mail us for more information and an accurate quote.

Now, for the hard questions. “How do you get in the top 7?” Depending on the market, industry and terms involved, this can either be an easy task or something that will take time and financial investment. As mentioned before, Google applies similar algorithms to its local businesses as it does for the general search listing, shrinking SEO (search engine optimization) competition into a fraction of what it would normally be. Your ranking does not need to be higher than every competing business and website in the nation; it just needs to be in the top 7 for your local area. The other plus is that if you are in a small or niche market, there may not be 7 other companies registered with GLBC. In situations like that, business can easily get on the top of the results for little investment. For companies who are in much more competitive market, it’s essential to have a SEO-friendly website. In situations where there are several or hundreds of listings, such as “Car Dealers in Charlotte,” Google will look at things like how relevant it thinks your site is (which goes back to the SEO of your site), how often it’s linked on other sites, and a few other key variables. For some businesses, SEO investments are necessary to appear in the top 7. Each business will need to be looked at on an individual basis, so please feel free to ask us about your business in GLBC.

Lastly, the remaining benefits of being registered in GBLC go beyond a first page listing.

Analytics

Most or all of you have Google Analytics installed on your websites. If you don’t, give us a call or e-mail us and we will talk to you about another FREE service by Google. For those who do, you have access to statistics like how many visits you get, where they come from and a variety of other great information. Registering you business with GLBC allows the added benefit of analytical data about your company specific to its association with GLBC. For instance, Google will tell you what queries (searches) it showcased your local business information on, how many impressions your name made and how many of the impressions were converted into actions. Now, actions are where it starts to get really cool. Google, right now, has three actions that it tracks: click for more information about your business via Google Maps, looking for driving directions using Google maps and clicks on the link to go to your site. For example, if your site had 1,000 impressions in the past 30 days, and 500 actions, you would know exactly how many people asked Google for driving directions to you store. How cool is that? Also, Google knows where you are when you’re searching and with GLBC, they provide you with a map of your local area (i.e. Charlotte) and break the directions requested down to the zip code of origin. So now you know not only how many people asked Google how to get to your store, but what part of town is looking for you most.

Google may already know more about you than you know about yourself

As mentioned before, Google has some business listings that exist outside of the registered users in GLBC. So if you were do a search and saw your business name and some of your information, Google has already been tracking you and hoping one day seek them asking for all this great analytical data. If your business exists, we just need to “claim” the listing, which is normally a fairly easy process, and when you complete registration process Google will have data ready for you to search through in awe. We just claimed a listing for one company and that Google had been tracking them since approximately May.

Coupons

Google offers you (for FREE) to post coupons on its Local business listings. This is a great way to not only bring in new customers, but get a feel of how many are coming from online traffic.

Support of multiple locations

This is great for all of the companies with more than just one shop. When you set up your GLBC account you can have your stores under one big Google umbrella. This helps searchers on Google to quickly find their closest location as well as helps you compete in all the markets that you have stores. Plus, using the analytics system, you can even find out which store has the most people looking at it online and a lots of other great pieces of information.

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Now that’s just the basics. If you want to know how GLBC can work best for your business, e-mail us today and we’ll be glad to take the next step with you.

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