Get Found: List Yourself
Perhaps you are one of the thousands of entrepreneurs that like to keep a certain hint of anonymity in regards to where your business is directly located. I’ve consulted hundreds of clients who are in this ‘bucket’ and there are even some who take it a step further and don’t even want their business phone number listed on their website. Given the times we are living in where internet trolls abide & artificial intelligence is making significant traction with the spam bots, these worries may very well be justified.
Alternatively, the other school of thought on this matter is the amount of business you are leaving on the table every month. If you could you quantify the numbers and if they were significant, would you re-think your stance on this tactic?
Being Invisible
While being invisible on the internet however yielding a certain measure of visibility through a website is perhaps appealing, it’s counter-measures are not flattering to your brand identity and image. You might say, “I’ve got enough business without listing myself” or your business model drives mostly virtual engagement. Perhaps you’re a writer with several published books, a consultant or an international speaker — or any combination of such. You might even think that there’s more caché for a web visitor to click the “Contact Us” page on your site utilizing the generic webform without any way of contacting you outside of that method.
Just Contact Us…
Did you know that “Contact Us” forms have the lowest conversion rates at approximately 1% when compared amongst other forms of website lead capture? The psychological factor that needs to be taken into consideration here is as follows: the more information you ask for, the less likely the web visitor will want to submit the form. This equates to significant loss of converting web traffic and minimizes your lead generation efforts.
A simple email opt-in capture embedded within your header, footer or side bar can capture upwards of 10% of all visitor traffic on your site, a ghastly comparison to the “Contact Us” tactic. To give you an example of this concept in action, I have a client in the legal industry where I added the simple email opt-in form in the header & footer of their site. For the last few years prior to this change, they had collected only a handful of web leads with email addresses utilizing the “Contact Us” page. In a week’s time after the addition of this simple strategy across their site, we had gathered just under 150 cold leads that were interested in “learning more” and were captured at the top of the funnel.
How many cold leads are you losing on a weekly basis due to web visitors bouncing off your site? The stats could very well surprise you…
The Art of Local Search
As of 2016, nearly 60% of all internet search is being done on mobile devices and in October of 2016 it was reported that 51.3% of ALL internet use was mobile, surpassing desktop usage for the very first time. One of the key take-away’s from MozCon 2017 was the fact that local based searches are the fastest growing segments of mobile traffic — growing 50% faster than any other type of mobile search. As Google likes to call it, the growing “Mobile First” ever-changing world.
So why is it so essential to be listed in the “snack pack” or local 3-pack if your business model is thriving as-is? For starters, mobile search is one key aspect of this principle. However, there are other key performance indicators in determining the health of your online brand imprint — Reputation Management now plays a primary role in the dynamics of every business model for engine search. It’s not just for spa’s & restaurants anymore, folks.
Review Me, Maybe?
What if every business interaction you have could be gauged for NPS (net promoter score), would you become a better leader or entrepreneur aspiring towards complete satisfaction for your end-user or audience? It’s fair to say that at the very least you’d know where you stand, no? We all receive one-question surveys from our favorite brands or services we are subscribed to asking us for this very score or rating. It’s also very simple to integrate an NPS capture into your lead funnel’s marketing automation campaigns. In order to take it a step further and launch your firm’s digital presence into the next level you MUST design a review platform that will favor your business — whether it’s a 2-part strategy including NPS or direct review model — this should be on your radar for search engine success in 2017 & beyond.
Let’s say you’ve published a few books and perhaps even given an amazing TEDTalk. Why should Amazon be the only vehicle that claims positive reviews on YOUR writing? If I read your book and it was truly transformative for me, I just might search you on Google to learn more about you or your brand. If I bought into the ‘review’ culture, I just might leave a 5-star review on your Google My Business profile.
Do you even have a Google My Biz listing? Start bolstering your search rankings & claim your GMB listing now, before a competitor does it for you.
Yelp — Yikes!
Many of us have either read nasty Yelp reviews or even helpful 1–3 star ratings that shielded us from making the wrong buying decisions at times. Why should you care if your business is listed on Yelp? You’re not a restaurant or beauty-based business and you don’t care about being the “Best” on Yelp. Understood.
Perhaps your school of thought is not wanting to ‘open a can of worms’ by exposing yourself to potentially damaging reviews on Yelp. Did you know you might be losing out on key search rankings by making this decision?
Here’s why: In 2016 there was a special partnership created between Apple Maps & Yelp where search from any iOS device would read from Yelp data versus Google or any other data aggregator on the web. Given the fact that iOS market share is a staggering 40%+ in the US and continues to grow every quarter, this can be a key factor to boosting search results for your brand overall.
Breathe Local — Get Tactical
In conclusion — Think Local & Get Listed. Not only will it optimize your brand’s overall search rankings, it will increase your mobile traffic and will open the hemisphere of reputation influence amongst your fans, peers & competitors.
Connect
Feel free to drop me a line to discuss your business listing’s potential increase or to ask me anything on optimizing your brand’s digital reach. Connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me on Twitter — @marketingmuseaz.
