Tuesday 11 September 2012

Pros and cons of Google Maps Listing and Optimization


Google Map Listings and Optimization, when considering all aspects of this strategy, is overall a great tool to implement in one's business. In order though to make an educated decision on whether Local Map Listings is the solution to your company marketing needs, it is important that you evaluate for yourself both the positive and negative aspects of Google Map Optimization.
In order to help you make a decision and address some of your concerns lets answer some of the most common questions that business owners have when learning about Google Local Map Listings and Optimization.
How much does Google Local Map Listings Cost? Google provides this service at no cost. A business owner can sign up with Google Local Business Center for free and enter all the information pertinent to the business. However there might be small fees depending on the industry a company is in, and the citations it is trying to build to its listing. When interested in building citations and trying to create relevancy to existing listings, it is recommended to ask a Google Map Specialist for guidance, this will help lower the cost and focus the efforts of exposure.
Who controls Google Map Optimization and how does it benefit a company? It is the business itself that created the Google Map Listing that controls it. This is beneficial to the company because it controls the information posted and it has access to the marketing tools provided by Google. This feature is very useful because it can help your company identify its strengths and weaknesses and improve itself based on the results. What is the 10 Pack and how can it impact ones business? In order to understand how the 10 Pack can impact your business it is important to understand what it is and how it works. Specialists, when speaking of the 10 Pack, refer to the top 10 most relevant local companies that show on the first page listed on Google Maps. These companies are ranked as the top ten because they are the most relevant to the local search that has been made.
Google research has proven that 96% of people looking for local information are not going past this first page (10 pack), this is great news for those companies that are included in this category and not so great for the remaining of the companies. However there is hope for those companies that are not showing on the first page, in fact, by using the tools provided by Google Map Optimization and by building citations, companies can increase their relevancy and work their way up to the 10 Pack in a three to six months period.
What type of information can people find when looking at your company listing? When someone is looking at a company listing they can see the store contact information, business hours, products and/or services provided, printable coupons, and even other clients reviews on the business as well as their personal experience.
Reviews can be both good and bad for a company; good reviews can increase traffic to ones business, bad reviews on the other hand can damage a business reputation. Although reviews are overall mostly positive, some unhappy competitors might try to harm a business by posting nasty reviews, and the only way to make up for bad reviews is to offset them with positive ones.
Now that you have been educated on pros and cons of Google Maps Listing and Optimization you should be able to appreciate Google Maps and the value it can bring to your company.
We have been helping clients by optimizing their Google Maps Listing, we can place your listing in the first page of Google. Visit our site for more information visit Annzo Local.