**please excuse our mess as we update our website ***
What does it mean to have a “Google Friendly” business?
A Google friendly business is one that has been optimized to take advantage of Google’s search engine capabilities. Above all, it means your business can easily be found for your most important keywords. It also means that when people do find your business online, they trust your brand – meaning, there is social proof from past people that have used your product or service. By understanding and properly utilizing Google’s platform for Businesses – you are creating the necessary visibility and credibility that your potential customers are looking for. The formula is simple, really: Visibility + Credibility = Profitability.
Benefits of having a Google Friendly Business
- Visibility- When your business is Google friendly you will show up at the right time and place when someone is searching for you. Since most consumers turn to Google Search before making a purchasing decision, it is critical that your business shows up for it’s most important (money making) keywords.
- Credibility – when your business has feedback from other consumers (i.e. reviews) it builds credibility. It shortens the sales cycle because potential buyers can see others have purchased from your business and you did a good job. Leveraging online reviews and feedback has become the new “word of mouth” marketing a business needs to convert traffic generated from Google.
Building Visibility and Credibility should be the foundation of your business growth strategy. Google is a great way to do this if you make your business “Google Friendly”.
7 Steps to becoming a become “Google Friendly” business
- Optimize your website for search engines.
- Plug your website into critical web monitoring platforms like Google Webmaster Central & Google Analytics.
- Create and distribute solid content (i.e. contribute to Google’s Search Engine Index).
- Claim and Optimize your Google Business Page – add an optimized images and virtual tour (where applicable).
- Claim and Optimize your business on critical 3rd party directory sites (sites like yelp.com, yellowpages.com, Local.com – there are hundreds of these directory sites).
- Claim and optimize your business on social media sites (and post content linking back to your sites).
- Build quality links on relevant (and high authority) websites (local news sites, industry websites and other highly credible websites)
- Get customers to post positive reviews to your Google Business Page (and other 3rd party directory sites like yelp.com).
- Use paid advertising to put your name in front of as many business keywords as possible (so you can immediately start attracting new leads).
