One Easy Way to Boost Your Google Maps Listing in Local Searches

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Feeling a bit wary about allowing us to manage your Google Maps listing? We understand the hesitation. In this industry, it’s hard to know who you can trust.
But what if we told you that your Google Maps listing is heavily affected by your website ranking? While there are certainly other factors at play, having your website and Google Maps listing work together is an essential part of getting your business to the top of local search results. So if we’re handling one, we should also be handling the other.
What does this mean for you? It means that if you’re paying us to advertise your business, withholding this key component—your Google Maps listing—is going to get you less value for your dollar.
When you allow us to optimize your website and Google Maps listing simultaneously, it’s a win-win. Here’s why.

How Your Website Impacts Your Local Maps Listing

A few months ago, Google came right out and announced a handful of factors that influence a local business’s ranking on Maps. Here’s a quote straight from Google’s help page:

Your position in web results is also a factor, so SEO best practices also apply to local search optimization.

You’ve probably heard the term synergy before. It refers to when two or more elements interact and produce a total effect greater than the sum of their separate effects. It’s when 2+2=5.
In the case of local online advertising, the synergy of traditional SEO and local Maps optimization is what makes your business visible in Maps results. Ranking in Google Maps is not as simple as having a Google Maps listing. Without a website, and without SEO for said website, your local presence wilts away. When you’re found at the top of local Maps results, it’s because of this synergy.
That’s why Prospect Genius is always stressing the importance of letting us manage your Google listing. It’s not because we’re control freaks—it’s because we want to align your listing with our ongoing SEO work and provide you with the best results possible.
However, we understand you have concerns about relinquishing control of your listing and/or website. Those concerns are well founded. Below, we take a look at common concerns and explain the safeguards we put in place to minimize your risks.

“If I let you manage my Google Maps listing, I won’t be able to get it back.”

This may be true with other online advertising companies, but not with Prospect Genius.
First of all, it says right in our terms of service (item 14) that if we end our working relationship, we must return control of any listing you turned over to us initially. This makes it as easy as possible for you to transition away from us.
There’s also the fact that it’s not super difficult to reclaim your listing from Google after we give it up. Sure, you’ll have to go through a few steps to do so, but it’s a straightforward and well documented process that you can definitely handle.

“You guys will just take credit for all the calls I would’ve gotten from my Maps listing, anyway.”

This understandable perspective is probably the most common misconception out there. As we explained above—and as Google itself stated—your listing’s performance is directly impacted by the SEO of the website tied to any given listing.
So, while it might feel counter-intuitive, if you let us work on your local SEO and you start getting lots of calls from your Maps listing, it’s because of our behind-the-scenes work. It’s not because you simply had a Maps listing already.
So, since you’re paying us to improve your SEO, it would be illogical to sabotage the effectiveness of your own campaign by withholding your Google Maps listing. It would also be illogical to tie your listing to a less optimized site.

“I already have my own custom URL and website that I like. I don’t want to give it up.”

We sometimes hear this when we’re trying to connect a client’s LeadTrax site to their Google Maps listing. You may be resistant to letting us do this because you want your listing to showcase your own custom URL and spiffy website design. You want your own website to be what people see when they come across your listing.
The problem here is that people are unlikely to come across your listing if it isn’t ranking. And it’s unlikely to rank if we don’t tie your Google Maps listing to your LeadTrax site (which we’re optimizing and promoting).
If you signed up for our Core package, which includes a LeadTrax site, and you’d rather promote your own website instead, then we recommend switching to our BYOS (Bring Your Own Site) package. In order for our work to succeed, we need to be promoting one website across the board. We can’t do SEO for your LeadTrax site and leave a different website on your Google listing, because that Google listing simply isn’t going to rank. The bottom line is that our SEO work needs to focus on whichever website is in your Google Maps listing if you want to be visible in local searches. So if you want that website to be your own existing website, then we’ll need to plan our SEO strategy around it.

Sync Up Your Website & Google Maps Listing Today!

Your main takeaway should be this: Connecting your SEO and your Google Maps listing is a simple, super-effective way to boost your visibility in local searches. Why wait? Whether you just need to make us the manager of your listing or you want to switch over to BYOS, act now!
As always, call or e-mail us with any questions.

Reminder: Traditional SEO Is as Influential as Ever

Last Updated: April 21, 2016

With the growing emphasis on local rankings in Google Maps, it’s easy for business owners to forget about the significance of traditional SEO and organic search rankings.
Thankfully, a recent article by Christopher Ratcliff reminds business owners of the enduring importance of organic SEO—especially as it relates to local rankings. The article discusses how Google revealed the top factors in local ranking. And, as it turns out, organic search ranking is one of those factors.
In addition to geographic proximity, topical relevance, and customer reviews, “prominence” is a factor that influences where a business ranks on Google Maps. According to Google’s own explanation (which is linked to in Ratcliff’s article), “prominence” has multiple meanings. In some circumstances, prominence is dictated by real-world popularity; thus, well known establishments like museums, departments stores, and places of worship will appear high in local search rankings. In other circumstances, prominence refers to the amount of information Google is able to collect about a local business. Therefore, lots of articles, links, and directory listings will lead to higher local search rankings.
And then Google comes right out and says this:

Your position in web results is also a factor, so SEO best practices also apply to local search optimization.

That’s right: Your organic rankings directly impact your local rankings.
This should clear up any misconception that Google Maps and mobile search have rendered traditional SEO obsolete. Moreover, online marketing companies like Prospect Genius and countless others specialize in making organic and local work together for optimal results.

Avoid the Land Mine of Conflicting Information

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Conflicting information is a hidden land mine that business owners step on repeatedly.
We’ve talked at length about how the success of a campaign is a result of synergy—all aspects of your online presence working together to generate greater results—but this synergy can be inverted, as well. If there are aspects of your campaign that don’t match or work together, your entire online presence will sink. Small mistakes like spelling errors and mismatching addresses on different listings may not seem like major offenses, but the synergistic effect of these mistakes could spell disaster for your Prospect Genius campaign and online presence as a whole.
In this post, we’ll outline some common causes of conflicting information and what you can do to avoid it.

Did Your Company Recently Move?

A recent relocation or change of address is a frequent reason for conflicting information. When your business moves (whether physically or just on paper), traces of your previous address and/or phone number could remain on old directory listings—some of which you might not even be aware of. Unless these traces are cleaned up, your online presence will be haunted by the conflicting information floating around the web.

Did You Recently Switch From a Different Advertiser?

If you worked with another online advertiser before hiring Prospect Genius, then you might have some old, conflicting information out there. This happens pretty frequently with our clients. Usually, when you quit working with an advertising company, they’ll just leave all of your old information up without giving you any resources for cleaning it up (e.g. names of directories that you’re listed on, login information for those accounts, etc.). If any of that information is outdated or incorrect, it’ll follow your company until you take the right steps to fix it.

Have You Not Been 100% Honest With Us?

This is a big one. Sometimes, clients are reluctant to tell us that they used to work with a different advertiser or that they previously made mistakes with their marketing efforts. Whether it’s because they’re embarrassed or don’t want to upset us, we’re not sure. But the truth is, we don’t care about the past—we only care about the future and how we can make yours as successful as possible. That means we need to know the whole truth about your past activity so we can take the necessary steps to clean up any messes that could come back to bite you.

How to Clean It Up

In your line of work, you may be familiar with the concept of a little elbow grease being the only fix for most common problems, like appliance malfunctions, plumbing leaks, and drafty windows. You just have to buck up and fix them with your own two hands. It’s the same for the problem of conflicting information. The only solution is for one of the Internet marketing specialists at Prospect Genius to manually find and delete or correct all of the conflicting pieces of information out there about your company. It takes some time, but it’s the only way.
Thankfully, we offer two different tools that are designed to streamline this cleanup process as much as possible: WebFax^® and CleanSlate. A WebFax report will find and flag any potential problems; then, with our CleanSlate program, our specialists will fix all of those issues and wipe the slate clean.
Think of using CleanSlate like getting your tires changed. You don’t have to do it very often, but the need for it does grow over time. While the signs of wear and tear aren’t always obvious, if you fail to change your tires at all, your vehicle will have serious performance issues down the road. Similarly, if you never use CleanSlate (especially after relocating or switching advertisers), you can expect lots of difficulty finding traction in the local search sphere. It may only be a one-time chore over the life span of your campaign, but it’s absolutely essential if you want to stay on track.

How to Keep It Neat

Once you’ve cleaned up your messy information, it’s crucial to maintain that tidiness. That means you must refrain from going into your Google listing (or any other listing) on your own and changing bits and pieces after we’ve already worked on it. If you need to change something, let us know. That way, we can make sure all of your listings are changed uniformly across the board.
As we said above, if all the parts of your campaign aren’t working in sync, the whole thing can come crumbling down.

Does Your Mobile Site Give Users What They Want?

Last Updated: October 12, 2015

By now, you fully understand that having a mobile website is essential to your local search success. However, do you know what your mobile site should look like or what kinds of features it should have? In more general terms, do you know what mobile users want from your site?

As reported by Adam Stetzer of Search Engine Watch, the experts at HubShout recently did a study in which they polled 450 mobile users about their mobile-browsing habits. Their intent was to find out exactly what consumers are looking for in a mobile site.
Their findings were not shocking. According to the study, 94% of mobile users have used their phones to search for local businesses at some point. Of those people, 61% search for local businesses frequently or daily. Obviously, this proves what we and every other online marketer have been saying for the past couple of years: Mobile search optimization is crucial for local businesses.
But we already know this. Those stats are just the jumping-off point to demonstrate the large number of customers you would be neglecting if you didn’t incorporate the following pieces of information:

93% of users use a smartphone, which means drop-down menus and click-to-call capabilities are significant.
88% of users want to see business hours displayed clearly.
85% of users want to see a phone number clearly (with a click-to-call option being a plus).
82% of users want to see an address and/or driving directions easily.
70% of users want to see product pricing.
67% of users want to see a product/service menu.

As you can see, mobile users aren’t looking for a flashy presentation. They just want to find your company’s basic information quickly and easily (i.e. without much navigation). This is because mobile users are performing local searches on the go more often than not.
If mobile users don’t see the info they need right away or get annoyed because they have to zoom in to read text, they’re likely to navigate back to the search page and look for another site. So if your mobile site doesn’t meet the above criteria, you could be driving your customers straight to the competition.
Check out the full article over on Search Engine Watch to see all of the study’s findings and corresponding charts.

Take a Behind-the-Scenes Look at Prospect Genius

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

When you hear us talk about SEO and lead generation, do you feel like Charlie Brown listening to his teacher go, “Wah wah-wah wah wah”? If you’re not someone who specializes in online advertising, it’s perfectly understandable to feel confused—and, frankly, a little bored—about what it is we do. However, it’s important to know a little bit about what goes on behind the scenes so you can appreciate exactly how our services are benefiting your web presence.
Here’s what you need to know.

We Amplify Your Existing Presence

There’s a good chance that you had already set up a Google My Business or Facebook account before joining our program. If that’s the case, you may be misled into thinking that any leads coming from Google or Facebook are a result of your existing presence instead of our work. It’s a logical assumption, but it’s incorrect.
Instead, local search optimization functions as a multifaceted machine, with a series of gears, levers, and wheels all working together to create the final output. The phone call or e-mail inquiry that came from your Google listing is actually a product of the search optimization machine. Your company information ranked well in Google’s local search results, thus leading the customer to contact you thanks to all of the behind-the-scenes work we did.
For proof, take a look at two examples of clients whose Google traffic skyrocketed after signing up with Prospect Genius.
Company A:

Company B:

As you can see, after signing up with us, these two clients saw huge increases in their views and clicks. That’s due to all the work we’re doing for your campaign. But what does that work entail, exactly?

We Build the Machine

Prospect Genius’s job is to design and build the local search optimization machine that powers your campaign. That means making sure each individual part works perfectly in addition to fitting all of those parts together seamlessly.

Here are the four main parts:

Google listing
On-page SEO
Citations
Inbound links and social signals

Google Listing

Local search rankings improve when your Google listing is thoroughly optimized and populated with lots of customer reviews. That’s why Prospect Genius optimizes every client’s listing and provides a handful of tools to help you increase your number of reviews.

On-Page SEO

To appeal to Google’s search algorithms, all of your website’s pages must be optimized. You must have valuable content that’s targeted at specific search terms and is generally informative. All of our LeadTrax™ sites are written and designed for on-page SEO to further boost your company’s rankings.

Citations

Citations refer to all of the instances in which your business name appears alongside your contact information (e.g. address and phone number), and they must be consistently accurate. Citations most often come from online directories and Internet yellow pages, but they may also occur in newspapers, magazines, local blogs, and social media posts. Many of Prospect Genius’s packages add your business info to numerous directories, ensuring accuracy across the board and driving up your citation score.

Inbound Links and Social Signals

Inbound links are links that exist on another website and link to a page on your website. They indicate that your page contains valuable information. Along the same lines, social signals are data points that tell Google how appealing your website is on a human level. If lots of people are sharing links to your website on social media, and your company’s social media account has lots of “Likes” or followers, then those valuable social signals will boost your local search ranking. That’s why Prospect Genius sets you up with Facebook and Twitter accounts (if you don’t already have them) and promotes you on social media.

It’s All About Synergy

Did you make it to the end of this post without your eyes glazing over? Good! Hopefully, you now have a much deeper understanding of what drives your campaign and keeps it successful.
With your cooperation, we’re able to create a uniform front to fortify your company’s online presence. We achieve substantial, organic results by creating a well-oiled machine that runs flawlessly. While your Google listing is significant, you can’t give all of the credit to a single cog.
As always, don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any questions you may have.
Photo credit: Linda Buquet, localsearchforum.com

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