According to Google, 97 percent of consumers search for local businesses online. Let that sink in for a minute. Essentially, what Google is saying is that nearly all of your customers are searching for you online at some point. It’s a significant data point that should grab the attention of anyone running marketing or tasked with growing a business. But surprisingly, many business owners and marketers aren’t familiar with Google Places, how it is woven into local search results, and its relevance to their Internet search strategy.

In this issue of In Depth w/ Adept we answer some key questions about Google Places and share what you need to know about recent changes with this important search tool to make the most of your online presence.

What is Google Places?

Anyone who has typed a search query into Google that also contains an address, street name, or even a city or state, has benefitted from Google Places. It’s the function that millions of Internet users know and appreciate – that little red marker on the map that gives consumers critical information such as a business phone number, street address and directions. While it’s undoubtedly valuable for the end user, it also can be a strategic online tool for business owners. Google allows businesses to register with Google Places for free to help consumers find their location. Once registered, Google will identify a business on Google Maps and become accessible during searches that include geographic information.. But there’s more to Google Places than simple mapping that businesses need to know.

Your Google Places strategy: claim it, build it, monitor it.

Claim it.

Businesses can claim its presence on Google Places by registering with their phone number using a Google account. It’s possible that information may exist about a location based on information that Google pulls from other sources (e.g., Yellow Pages, third-party providers). However, information sent directly to Google from a registered account user will override any preexisting information. This is critical as existing information could be wrong and could impact how Google interprets the data, which impacts search rankings.

Build it.

Google allows businesses to use the Google Places more strategically than earlier iterations of the platform. Businesses can now add photography, video, detailed content descriptions and even ongoing specials. Smart businesses will think of Google Places as a customizable microsite, giving consumers quick access to critical information before they get to their site.

Monitor it.

“Hey, where did these customer reviews come from?” Many times this is how businesses are introduced to Google Places – through posted reviews of their business. Google Places allows consumers the opportunity to posts reviews of businesses and also aggregates reviews from other sites including Yahoo!, CitySearch, Angie’s List and so on. While reminding employees of the long-term social media ramifications of customer service is smart business, encouraging a loyal and satisfied customer base to write a review of their experience can influence consumer attitudes and work to offset the occasional lackluster review. Consumers want to spend with confidence, and a strategy to solicit that validating feedback could help serve as a game changer for businesses.

Say goodbye to double listings, hello to smarter SEO

Earlier this year Google made changes so that companies could no longer have the organic search listing of their website and the Google Places listing appear as two separate rankings on the first page of search results. Now most Google Places listings are combined with corresponding website listings. This leveling of the playing field puts greater emphasis on strategic SEO, encouraging companies to get savvier about original content, key words and descriptions, and alignment of that content from your website to Google Places. Companies that don’t connect these dots risk getting left behind.

Final Thoughts

Just as we discussed in our previous newsletter, Google again is saying that content is king, search is becoming more sophisticated, and change is the only constant of a rapidly evolving Internet. Google Places is just another example of this reality – and it’s relevant to all businesses.

This information is intended to help you and your business better navigate the changes on web and adjust your web-based strategy accordingly. If you need our help optimizing your online presence, feel free to contact us.

What’s the takeaway?

• Remember the data point – 97 percent of consumer search for local businesses online.
• Take advantage of Google Places. Claim your business listing and ensure content is accurate.
• Build content on your Google Places profile. Think of it as an additional microsite for your business to help attract customers.
• Monitor and ask for customer reviews. Positive feedback helps drive consumer impressions and influence their decisions.
• Ensure you have an SEO strategy in place. Confirm that your content is well aligned from your website and Google Places listing.

In the April issue of Compendium magazine, Danielle Walton of Adept Marketing helps dental professionals take the guesswork out of marketing their practice by presenting a clear case on why investing in their website and online marketing initiatives trumps social media engagement when generating new patients. In short, investing in time-consuming social media initiatives does not benefit dental practices as they strive to attract new patients. Adept outlines a smarter way to invest and track marketing dollars that get results.

Attracting new patients through targeted internet marketing

Together Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) comprise what’s known as search engine marketing (SEM) and it can accomplish what social media can’t – attracting new patients online with measurable results. Here’s what Adept has done for dental practices seeking to grow their client base and can do for you as part of your strategic SEM campaign:

Search Engine Optimization

• Align your value-added website content and page tags with the terms patients consistently type into search engines to find you.
• Adjust or build a new website to leverage your practice’s messages, services, products and location.
• Monitor key search terms and make necessary adjustments to get your practice to rise steadily in search engine rankings and get noticed by prospective patients.

Pay-Per-Click

• Leverage your search functionality by placing targeted ads before individuals who are searching for dental services in your area.
• Develop and place cost-effective ads on search engines such as Google that will direct potential patients to your practice.

THE PROOF

Loren M. Petry, D.D.S., operates a family dentistry practice in Northeast Ohio. In the spring of 2009 he began working with Adept Marketing on a strategic SEM campaign. During a nine-month period, Dr. Petry invested $11,500 to have his website optimized and monitored while simultaneously launching a pay-per-click campaign. The campaign generated more than 150 new patients with an ROI of 800 percent.

Read The Full Article In Compendium

How does a dental office consistently bring in enough new patient leads each month to sustain its practice?

By utilizing the right Internet marketing team to help implement targeted search engine marketing campaigns…that’s how!

Location: Columbus, Ohio

Industry: Dentistry

Challenge

This practice is Worthington’s leader in complex dentistry, which includes cosmetic, reconstructive, sedation, and implant dentistry. The challenge here is to increase the amount of qualified new patient leads for the practice moving forward. The goal is to leverage the Internet as a primary lead generation source.

Solution

Adept began managing the practice’s paid search marketing program in September 2010, focusing primarily on Google. In February of 2011, Adept added Yahoo and Bing into the mix.

Result

In the first month of taking the campaign live, Adept generated 14 new patient leads. As of January 2011, the practice was receiving 20+ new patient leads per month with the expectation of increasing that number significantly in the coming months through added exposure in all search engines.

How does a dental office triple its new patient lead count?

By leveraging a strategy for targeting new patients through a professional and streamlined website.

Location: Columbus, Ohio

Industry: Dentistry

Challenge

This office is a full-service, state-of-the-art dental practice serving communities throughout the Columbus, Ohio area. While they run an advanced operation, they didn’t have the online identity they wanted and needed to develop a more professional website presence. As every small business should do, they wanted to utilize their website as a tool to drive new customer leads.

Solution

Adept began working with the practice in February of 2009 and launched their new site in the summer of 2009. Once the website was launched, tactics for generating more traffic, and ultimately new patients, to the website were discussed. Adept started running paid search campaigns in January of 2010 and have been running them ever since. Adept ran campaigns on Google for approximately 8 months and recently added Yahoo and Bing to the mix.

Result

New patient leads have steadily increased since Adept began running the campaigns – starting with approximately 15 to 20 new patient leads per month. Now with a fully optimized campaign on all search engines, the practice is getting approximately 35 to 45 new patient leads per month.

The other way to interpret this headline might be – Three Google changes that will punish those who fail to embrace change. Sounds a bit harsh, but the reality is that search and being “found” online is all about relevance.  If you can’t be found online quickly, your relevance is going to be severely diminished.

But the rules of how sites get found are changing, and Google is applying new tools to help everyday users find what’s relevant to them. Obviously nobody wants to be on the wrong side of this coin, so let’s take a closer look at what these Google changes mean for your website – and your business.

Blocking undesirable websites

Everyone comes across bad websites while searching. Inappropriate, ineffective, unprofessional, or just not to your liking, there are many ways to define the “undesirable” website. It’s a universal truth that Google wants to improve by allowing people to block websites they don’t find appealing, much like you would “hide” the excessively chatty friend on Facebook or colleague on LinkedIn.
Blocking search results is currently available to individuals with Google accounts, but it’s not likely to end there. Google’s mission is to “organize the world‘s information and make it universally accessible and useful” – not just useful to people with Google accounts.

Ultimately, this has real potential to negatively impact individuals and companies that are too aggressive with keywords for SEO purposes. Up until now, casting a wide net was an acceptable yet frowned-upon practice to driving traffic to your site. Now it’s about using only the right keywords to attract only the right people who are actually seeking out your company goods and services. Failure to do so could get you blocked from a lot of potential traffic. As Google gathers data on what sites get blocked a lot, it will certainly become a relevance factor at some point that will impact your search engine ranking.

What’s the takeaway?

- Ensure your website is an accurate, value-added destination for your desired customer base.

- Use keywords appropriately and accurately.

- Ranking for keywords that aren’t super relevant to your company is a “red flag” that, in time, could backfire and actually hurt your search engine rankings

- Candidly ask yourself – could my site be an undesirable website?

“A pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking”

Words like these from Google should catch your attention. While Google openly admits tinkering with its algorithms to adjust for new content coming online, an algorithm tweak that impacts nearly 12 of all English language web queries is significant.

So what exactly is Google saying?

Translation:  when it comes to ranking websites, good content is rewarded, bad content is not.

And that begs another question: “what is good content?” Thankfully it is relatively simple answer.

Good content doesn’t imply the content on one site is superior to that from another. Instead it means the content is original – created and frequently updated by site owners. It has the end user in mind. It is less about you and more about your customer and the value (by way of content) that you provide.

Gone are the days when you could convert your static company brochure into a neatly minted website or conveniently recycle the ideas or opinions of others and pass it off as original content.

Through its algorithms, Google is making a conscious effort to reward websites that contain original content – such as research, in-depth reports and thoughtful analysis – with higher rankings. As a result, web users should see more robust content on the web and amenable web managers will be duly rewarded with quality traffic. Whether or not a site’s content is truly good and valuable will remain a visitor’s subjective and personal call.

What’s the takeaway?

Don’t get outranked by your competition. Reassess your web content and determine if it is:

- original and frequently updated; avoid being static

- relying too much on reposting of someone else’s content without original commentary

- thoughtful and relevant regarding your visitors’ needs and questions

- more robust than a promotional piece about who and how great you are

With +1, search gets social and applies

Just like applying a “like” to a friend’s status update on Facebook, now you can get the equivalent of a “like” with +1 approval from people you trust right in your Google search results. It’s this level of simplicity – a simple click of the +1 button if you like the search result – coupled with the recommendations of people both within and outside your social network that makes this relevant with a high potential for success.

As Google suggests in its rollout of +1, this is about relevance. Much like the blocking feature, people need a Google account to take advantage of +1… at least for now. In time, it’s conceivable that +1 data will factor its way into search rankings. In fact, we wouldn’t be surprised to see +1 supplement the current value of “links” in determining your search ranking.

All of this is to say that “social relevance” has jumped the tracks to “business relevance” in a new way, and the practices honed in the social forum will have greater impact regarding the visibility of your business website going forward. It also echoes with the consistent message heard in the blocking tool and ranking algorithm:  provide meaningful, relevant content to visitors, or else…

What’s the takeaway?

Revisit your website and scrutinize it like a customer would and ask:

- How relevant are you in comparison to your competition?

- Are you talking to yourself and about yourself, or are you providing meaningful, relevant information to your visitors?

- What would make anyone want to +1 your site?

Final Thoughts

To state the obvious, the web continues to evolve. But recent changes initiated by Google also signal that the website model we’ve all known and embraced is changing.

Staying informed is critical to remaining ahead of the curve. If you want to avoid being blocked, poorly ranked and without the +1s that soon everyone will be seeking to score in the months ahead, heed our advice in the takeaway sections. And if you need our help, remember that we live and breathe this stuff.