Plant Your Local Business on Google Maps Today!

If you’ve ever driven through a busy business district, you have probably noticed a lot of creative signs that are meant to catch attention. In a very similar way, local businesses can catch a customer’s eyes by planting their virtual signposts on digital maps. In fact, logos and pins on these online maps can even connect map users to current promotions and other kinds of relevant ads found on Google Maps and local search.

One of the largest and most popular providers of these types of map advertisements is Google. Since local searches have become an important way for companies to market, it’s worth knowing about this innovative source of local search advertising.

Why Google Map Ads Drive Local Businesses Success

According to the company, ads on maps could appear on mobile and laptop versions of Google Maps. At the same time, the company has made it clear that they unveiled this kind of advertising with mobile users in mind. When their spokesman introduced this new part of the search network, he mentioned that local and location-based searches had grown more than any other kind of searches. As a result, local, location-based Google searches account for about 30 percent of total searches.

The company included Google Maps as another platform in their search network in order to take advantage of the popularity of their mapping system. In addition, Google released the news recently that the number of mobile searches had finally overtaken the number of searches performed on desktop and laptop computers. Thus, these ads provide a good way to target nearby customers who are searching for local businesses.

How Advertising on Google Maps Can Help Local Businesses

When a user searches for a certain kind of business in a specific location, companies that participate in the program can have both a company logo and pin that highlight the location on the map. When these pins and logos get clicked, the system will bring up more information about a business.

This additional information can even include search ads with current specials and other related advertising. These features help focus attention on these businesses and increase the chances that a customer will call or walk in the door. Of course, the additional information also includes basic details like a phone number, operating hours, and driving directions. In this way, AdWords integrates with Google My Business listings.

How Grassroots SEO Can Use Google Map Ads

To qualify for Google Maps advertising, follow these steps:

Enable the location-extensions feature within Google AdWords.
Ensure that the business listing within Google My Business has been filled out accurately.
Target locations for the advertisements.
Set bids for locations, and notice that these bids can even increase when searchers move closer to your location.
Create keywords that are likely to attract customers to your business.

Google offers pay-per-click ads on maps. Pricing includes charges for various kinds of actions that searchers might take. For example, a click charge could apply to a user who clicks to get directions to your store. As with other kinds of AdWords ads, it’s fairly simple to monitor the campaign’s performance within the system.

Will Ads on Google Maps Benefit Your Local Business?

Many businesses rely upon local search marketing in their grassroots SEO efforts to bring in new customers. If a potential customer searches for the products and services that you offer with Google Maps, these advertisements should get their attention. If you offer relevant deals or other attractive marketing within your advertisement, you’re likely to draw customers in. Google has made it easy for both small and large local businesses to get started with this innovative kind of local marketing. While different kinds of companies might have different success rates with these ads, they seem worth testing as a way to take advantage of local and location-based searches.

Professor SEO

A seasoned digital marketing professional with over 20 years of expertise in digital marketing, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, brand development, conversion optimization, lead generation, web development and data analytics. He is a strategic digital marketing thought leader in a multitude of business verticals including automotive, education, financial services, legal marketing and professional services.

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What Is Local Search And Why Is It Important?

There is no question that having an easy to find website with accurate information is of the utmost importance. In the quest for greater online visibility, an increasingly big player is local search.

What Is Local Search?

Simply put, it is searches done by a variety of search engines that provide results within the searcher’s area. These search engines are not unknown small engines. Some examples include Google Maps and Bing Places. The bare minimum information for your business is usually already on these engines. Users do not have to go out of their way to perform these kinds of searches: Try entering ‘food’ into Google and see what happens. In addition to the standard list of search results you will get localized search results. Every time someone is looking for something, modern search engines are usually smart enough to show the local results.

Why Is It Important?

With millions of people on smartphones, local search is quite literally at people’s fingertips. When someone is actually walking or driving around your town looking for a business, one like yours, they are frequently going to reach into their pocket and rely on something like Google Maps to find what they need. Ensuring that the information on these apps and websites is accurate and detailed is of the utmost importance. If prospective customers try and fail to call the disconnected phone line listed online, chances are they are just going to call someone else.

What Are Local Citations?

A local citation is when your business or website is mentioned on another local site. This can include pages with listings or pages for local government institutions. These citations of your business and website are taken into account by Google when attempting to assess your webpage. For that reason, it is important to get yourself on local listings and find opportunities to get more citations where you can.

If you have been doing what you can to optimize your site for search engines, local citations and search may be what you are missing. Pay mind to this component of your business and it can only help.

Professor SEO

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