Google Local Business Listings

[Brendan]

Over the past 12 months we have been listing our clients in Google Local Business listings and in particular over the past 3-4 months they have seen a massive increase on the amount of customers that are contacting them.

Now most of them have ditched the usual yellow pages and are relying on Google Local Business and other types of search engine marketing to get customers.

Its not surprising really, with new tools like location based searching (http://geotags.com/script/geosearch-g?center=%280%2C0%29&zoom=1) on pretty much all mobile phones now, and most people turning to google to find what they want, most businesses want to be ahead of the game.

I found a cool article over at Smart Company about how to set up a Google Local Business listing..

Check it out - Google Local Business Centre tips - Business news, business advice and information for Australian SMEs | SmartCompany (http://www.smartcompany.com.au/online-sales/20100108-google-local-business-centre-tips.html)

So is your business listed there.. and if it isnt.. why not? Its free..

[one]

Yep, I'll be launching my first 'bricks and mortar' business next month and have this as my first piece of marketing to put in place! A few of my competitors have already done the same thing, but you can't knock back free exposure.

[HWT]

Oh that article was absolute GOLD.

Our yellow pages listing is out of date (we moved) so we don't come up in the location listing for our area, we're at the bottom under 'other'. There's actually noone else *in* our area so I'd say now we've claimed our listing, we might actually be findable.

And I thought it was hilarious being rang by a google bot half a nanosecond after I hit "submit" :)

Yay!

[thirdisa]

Yes, the listings are pretty effective and cool because since you appear on the first page when people google your company name. And I was surprised with how fast the people from Google contact you too.

[HWT]

Takes them a while to update your listing though. I did this on the 24th, still waiting for our details to change. They said 24 hours, I guess that is give or take a week.

Until this listing is changed, I guess we just don't come up in Google at all at the right address *sigh*

[Brendan]

Seems like Google are really making headway in the local business listing arena.. I found a great blog post over here that goes into detail about where GLBL has come from and where it is headed..

Google Local Business Listing Enhancements (http://www.smartfindsmarketing.com/blog/2010/02/04/google-local-business-listing-enhancements/)

Goodbye yellow pages.. that's for sure.

[HWT]

I think you might need to update your listing several times to get them to change it.

"24 hours" my ass. Its been weeks and our listing is still wrong.

And some new company has popped up in our area - now the only listing as ours is wrong - which leaves us even further behind than we were before.

The funny thing is, when you search for "computers our area" you don't even get the business listings and the google map come up like you did when I searched last week. You have to search for computer singular not plural and we're buried down the bottom of the "more results".

[JamesGG]

"24 hours" my ass. Its been weeks and our listing is still wrong.


That seems rather strange. We've adjusted ours a couple of times now and each time it's been almost instant.

[HWT]

Did you just modify yours or completely change the phone number and address to a different area? I can see why they say it is easy to "claim" another business. I could have changed any business listing to my new details.

[JamesGG]

Did you just modify yours or completely change the phone number and address to a different area?


Yeah, both. I started working from home, with a mobile number. Then I had an office in another area (still with the mobile) and now we have a landline. We also added a picture somewhere along the line.

I hadn't heard of claiming another listing. That doesn't sound very pleasant at all.

[HWT]

Well, updated it yet again. Still irritates me the google listings don't come up for "computers", only "computer". I thought google was smarter than that. At least our website comes up as the last hit on page 1 for "computers", after all the non-google business directories (most of which don't have us, let alone computer listings)

Much cheaper than the yellow pages though. We got barely 2 or 3 calls from there last year - ie nowhere near enough work to cover the cost of the ad - and let our ad lapse in favour of flyers and the local paper. The yellow pages has also given us hundreds upon hundreds of interstate telemarketing b2b phone calls, all of which I have to pay for as our old number is redirected.

[HWT]

Oh. Found out what is up.

The listing I claimed remains as a first hit, at the wrong address/phone. The two listings where I made changes come up after all the not-very-local businesses 100-200km away, a few pages of listings later.

What do you need to do to get an ACCURATE business directory listing on google and get rid of an inaccurate one? And why does it put listings for place X 30 results after the one other results for place X, after listing every other place in the entire of northern SA first?

Argh!