The first question we need to ask is why is it important to dominate Google, or any of the search engines today?
The latest statistics answer that question. There are over one billion local searches being done every day and local Internet search is going up by 50% per year. This is big news! In fact, it is now estimated that 85% of adults in the United States use the Internet when they want to learn about something and before they purchase a product or service.
In other words, there are a lot of people out there searching and this trend is going to continue.
So, how you are doing on Google? Don’t know? In order for you to find out, type in the name of your city, followed by a keyword, e.g., Miami chiropractor, and then start searching through the results to see where you show up. This is a good starting point because it lets us know where we have to go.
The number of practicing chiropractors will increase 20% over the next ten years according to the projections of The Bureau of Labor Statistics.
This means that the competition for the same patients is going to get even tougher. That’s why it is going to be important for you to start getting your head around this thing called “Internet marketing,” and get really good at it. Otherwise, you are going to be at a tremendous disadvantage. This is a huge trend, and it’s not going to be slowing down anytime soon.
There are three ways that your website can show up on the front page of the search engines. The first is the local search or Google maps (or Yahoo maps or Yahoo local). The next is the organic search. This is the regular search results or the results that come right underneath that little 7-pack of addresses and map locations. The third way to get on the front page of Google and the other search engines is through sponsored ads or pay-per-click ads. It’s basically paying to get on that first page. It’s similar to paying to be in the phone book.
In this article I will talk about how to get your business listed in the local maps.
Google maps:
What it is? Where it is? And, what are its components? Let’s take a look at the Web and an example of a local map, a local search.
Here is a Google search for “Miami chiropractor.” We’ve already done the search, and here’s what we see first, the Google maps. This is the 7-pack. Each one of the pins represents one chiropractor. So, for Miami chiropractor, these seven lucky doctors are able to be on the top of the first page. Google calls these, local business listings. Notice that it gives the website, the phone number, and a thing called “reviews.” Reviews are very important to google. All other things being equal, the one with the most reviews wins. Optimizing your local business listing is essential if you want to be on the front page of google maps!
In order to optimize your “local business listing” you will need a google account.
Once you have created your account you can claim your business. If you are unfamiliar with how to do this, my company, Chiropractic Masters has put together a free 10 part video course, Ten Essentials of chiropractic internet marketing, available on our website. These videos talk about the 10 essential aspects of chiropractic internet marketing and they walk you through, step by step, how to sign up for various accounts, One of the videos teaches you how to claim your business listing.
Once you have claimed your listing there are three vital areas you will want to focus on to optimize your listing. These are the description of your business, the reviews and the web pages or citations.
The description of your business: This is where you want to put some keywords that are related to chiropractic as well as “yourcity” chiropractor as part of the description. Don’t skimp on the description! The more information you give google the better. Make it long and detailed.
Reviews: Google gathers reviews from all over the internet so start asking patients to give you reviews on various different sites including the google maps site. Some popular review sites are citysearch, yelp, dexknows, and insiderpages. The more reviews you have, the more valuable you look to Google because people are writing about you, local people are writing things about you and reviewing you. To be honest, it doesn?t even matter if you have a lot of bad reviews. Obviously, it?s not good for the business, but to Google reviews are review, and the more, the better.
Web pages: Google looks for one more thing, and that is the number of webpages that mention you. These can be pages from your own site but also pages across the internet that mention you with your address and phone number. A great way to get citations are to apply to local directories. The more you add, the more important you look to Google, and the more authority you have. It takes time for Google to ?nd them, but once it does, Google will add them to your business listing.
To summarize, you want to begin your domination of the front page by getting into and moving up in the 7- pack. To do this you need to be working on these three sections for Google maps: reviews, citations, and the detail section.
In future articles I will be covering the other two ways to get on the front page of google, organic search and pay per click advertising.