How to Manage Your Presence on Google Maps

How to Manage Your Presence on Google Maps

How to Manage Your Presence on Google Maps

 

Oct 05, 2010 –

Did you know you can use Google Maps to promote your business? Many of the features that you might normally associate with Yelp are actually included in what Google calls Place Pages. And since they’re integrated tightly with the hugely popular Google Maps, you won’t want to ignore them.

 

Even if Google already lists you, you’ll want to claim your page and make sure all the information is accurate. Either creating a Place Page for your business or acquiring its existing one is easy if you know how to do it.

 

Below is an introduction to using Google’s provided tools to incentivize would-be customers or clients to stop by. It will get you started with managing your presence on Google Maps, but for the deeper cuts you might eventually want to refer to Google’s vast guide to Google Places.

 

Claim Your Listing

 

The first step is to check whether your business is already listed on Google Maps. Simply go to the Google Maps website and search for your business. If it comes up, click on its placemark or listing in the left panel. In the pop-up that appears, you’ll see an option to “Edit” the business details (it might be hidden behind a “More” link). Click it.

 

If the business is unclaimed, anyone can edit the details. Think of it like >Wikipedia. Since you’re planning on curating your presence on Google Maps, click the “Claim your business” link. You’ll be prompted with three options: “Edit my business information,” “Suspend this listing,” or “This isn’t my listing.” Suspending the listing will remove your business from Google Maps. Choosing “This isn’t my listing” will start the process for adding a completely new listing for your business. “Edit my business information” will claim the current listing.

 

If your company doesn’t already appear on the map, go to the Google Places home page and click “Add a new business.” You can manage up to 100 listings on your account.

 

In any of those cases, Google will have to verify that the business is actually yours; the company will send you a unique PIN number via snail mail or telephone.

 

Add Information About Your Business

 

This is the most important part—and the easiest! You’ll want to start with name, address, phone number, website, hours of operation and which payment options you accept. Then you can upload photos directly or videos through YouTube.

 

It’s also important to choose categories to describe your business, as they’ll help people find you with keyword searches. You can create your own fields under “Additional details” if you want to. You can even specify your delivery range if delivery is a service that you offer.

 

Go the Extra Mile: Offer Coupons and Advertise

 

You can give Google Maps users coupons as an incentive to actually stop by your business. You can put whatever you want on the coupon, and Google provides the tools to format and distribute it.

 

To create one, log in to Google Places and click on the “Coupon” tab. The creation tools are easy to use and self-explanatory for the most part. Just save your coupon to make it appear on Google’s website. Would-be customers can print it off and bring it when they visit.

 

It’s also possible to make your business stand out from the crowd on Google Maps using advertising. You can either use Google’s AdWords program or a relatively new tool called “Tags.” The latter makes your business stand out on the map by marking it with a very noticeable yellow tag.

 

Users who investigate the Tag will see coupons, photos or other special content you want to highlight. You can sign up at Google’s Tags web page for $25 per month — the first month is free.

 

Measure Your Success

 

It’s important to make sure that all this is actually working for you and to tweak your strategy to see what’s most effective. Google hosts a Dashboard (you’ll see it when you log in) for business owners that displays data about how often your business is appearing in users’ searches (“impressions”) and how frequently those users are actually clicking through for more info (“actions”).

 

This information can be very helpful, particularly in finding out whether the categories you selected are actually getting your business info in front of more eyeballs. With some tweaking and trial and error, you can optimize your search presence.

 

There’s just one thing to remember: These search analytics reflect a period of 30 days ending about 48 hours ago. That is to say, you won’t see any changes right away. So be sure and give Google time to collect the necessary data before making judgments!

 

via openforum.com

 

Internet Keeps Growing! Traffic up 62% in 2010

Whether it’s Hulu, or 85 million-plus daily tweets or millions of photos being uploaded to Facebook, Internet traffic keeps growing and growing. That’s not going to change any time soon, mostly because the Internet is now becoming a crucial part of our daily lives. In some parts of the world, it’s hard to escape the ‘net, so to speak. Soon, thanks to the mobile Internet revolution, a massive new majority is going to join the Internet.

Data from research firm Telegeography shows that Internet traffic has grown 62 percent in 2010, after logging a handsome 74 percent growth in 2009. The growth in traffic is coming from non-mature markets likes Eastern Europe and India, where traffic growth between mid-2009 and mid-2010 was in excess of 100 percent. Telegeography notes:

The regions experiencing the fastest growth in international Internet traffic between mid-year 2009 and mid-year 2010 were Eastern Europe and India/South Asia, where average traffic growth exceeded 100 percent, and the Middle East, where traffic rose just under 100 percent. Even relatively “mature” markets are still growing rapidly: western European international Internet traffic increased 66 percent, and the U.S. and Canada’s international Internet traffic climbed 54 percent.

This means the carriers, who added about 13.2 Tbps of new Internet capacity in 2010, will have to keep beefing up their networks. In comparison, carriers added 9.4 Tbps of capacity in 2009 and 6 Tbps in 2008. Compare that to 2002; we have indeed come a long way! (The chart below is from our archives.)

That said, the networks are not evenly divided. The capacity is still in abundance in larger, more mature markets, but less so in newer markets such as Africa. This will be changing soon, especially as we see deployment of new cables in those regions.

This new capacity in non-mature markets, when married to growth in wireless networks and easy availability of cheap smartphones, is going to turn the Internet on its head. A good indication of this shift can be foreseen in the growth of mobile social networking in India. As Telegeography notes:

The number of mobile social network users in India is expected to reach around 72 million by 2014, driven by the reduced cost of smartphones and the launch of 3G services, according to the latest research from Analysys Mason. The number of online social network users in India has grown by 43% to approximately 33 million unique users as of July 2010, with India emerging as the seventh largest market globally. According to the report, the increased number of social network users is driving the number of mobile social network users (around 10 million in 2009), representing around 2.2% of the total number of mobile subscribers.

This has to factor into Facebook’s future plans. Now imagine a repeat of this in Africa! You get the gist.

via gigaom.com

Google starts showing full page previews in search results

Google is today testing a major new layout to their search results – full page previews of the target site and blue backgrounds behind the search results when you hover over them. Click the image below for a full size version.

One of the fascinating things about this is that they are highlighting certain sections of the page in orange and expanding the text to provide a snippet of information. This shows that they have the technology to know exactly where a piece of text is on every single web page. The snippets highlighted are not always the same as the snippet in the search results.

The size of the preview seems to be pretty much the full page although some longer pages are cropped at the bottom. You can click anywhere on the preview to take you directly to the site.

In addition to this they are now showing multiple results from the same site without indenting the results – see how myvouchercodes.co.uk has 1st and 2nd for the query above. This change follows a similar one they did in August Google to start showing more results from one particular site when users entered a brand related query.

Look how freelanceuk.com has 2nd & 3rd for the query above.

This new change is for non-brand queries as well. We have seen sites occupying 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th for some queries!

To be 100% clear – this is not a plugin. I’m using Google Chrome incognito mode with no plugins installed.

via blogstorm.co.uk

With Less than 50% Market Share, IE Is Now Losing the Browser Wars

According to data from StatCounter, Internet Explorer has dipped below the 50%-mark in its global share of the Internet browser market.

StatCounter shows IE at 51.34% of the market in August 2010; by the end of September, IE was holding on to just 49.87% of the browser market. The browser also shows a drop of nearly 10% year over year.

This is the first time IE has fallen below the halfway point in market share, and from where we sit, the glass is looking half empty.

These losses come in the face of steady growth from Firefox () over the past several years and speedy gains by Chrome () in recent months.

During the same month that IE sank to its all-time low, Firefox grew by about half a percent to 31.5%, while Chrome added almost a full percentage point to its share of the market.

Microsoft’s latest version of the browser, Internet Explorer 9, handily addresses common issues with the IE experience, including speed and compliance with web standards — issues that caused the browser to lose users in the first place. But although IE9’s advances may not be “too little,” they’re definitely “too late” to the browser war that’s been waging around the globe for years.

Internet Explorer () has been on the decline at least since Firefox’s launch in 2004; the browser’s first real answer to its smaller, more agile (as companies) competitors didn’t come until six years later. The speed and standards compliance should have come a long time ago, when consumers first began to realize that Firefox could outperform IE on every front. We’re duly impressed with IE9’s improvements, but they may constitute a Hail Mary hurled out at the end of a losing game.

What do you think: Can Microsoft turn this boat around and bring its browser into a state of recovery and recuperation? Or is Internet Explorer in all its versions, good, bad and ugly, down for the count?

via mashable.com

Interest In The iPhone Crashes. Interest In Android Soars [CHART]

Android has successfully destroyed Apple’s dominance of consumer mindshare in the smartphone world, according to a new survey from ChangeWave Research about smartphone preferences.

ChangeWave found only 38% of the people it interviewed want iOS on their next smartphone. That’s down 12 points from June when 50% of the people it surveyed said they wanted an iPhone.

Meanwhile, 37% of respondents say they want an Android based phone.

To be sure, the crash in iPhone interest is in part due to the fact that iPhone 4 had just launched in June. That makes for a tough comparison, becuase excitement over the iPhone was at its peak.

Still, this is the closest Android and iPhone interest has ever been in a ChangeWave study.

 

cht
via businessinsider.com

 

Small Businesses Change Social Media Expectations – eMarketer

The study of US small business found that those that do market via social media primarily use Facebook (82%), and that the most common activities are maintaining a company page on a social network and posting status updates or links to interesting content. About half of businesses that used social media also monitored brand chatter on social networks.

As small businesses have gained experience with social media, some have realized their expectations for the channel did not line up with the reality of the social web. As the wider marketing world begins to look at social as more of a loyalty channel than one for acquisition, small businesses are also finding that their hopes for spreading brand awareness and attracting new customers have not been fully met. By contrast, somewhat fewer small businesses had expected to use social media as an engagement channel, but nearly two-thirds have had success in that area.

Performance of Social Media Tactics, June 2010 (% of US small businesses)

The most common business objectives small businesses have achieved through social media marketing tell a similar story: Customers are connecting with companies through sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, but relatively few sales leads have been received through the sites.

Business Objectives Achieved via Social Media, June 2010 (% of US small businesses*)

Small businesses have found other frustrations as well. Many say their efforts take up more time than they had expected, although that percentage dropped from 50% to 43% between December 2009 and June 2010, suggesting companies are being more realistic about what’s involved in social campaigns. At the same time, however, the percentage saying their business had been criticized online nearly doubled, reaching 29%. Still, just a tiny 1% of small businesses said their image was hurt more than it was helped by social media—a number that’s also down, from 6% in December

via emarketer.com

Online lead generation continues to grow | Econsultancy

More companies are seeing the benefits of online lead generation (OLG), with budgets rising, and a greater proportion of offline sales coming from online activity. 

The proportion of companies who are generating leads online with the intention of converting them offline has increased from 70% last year to 81% this year, while on average OLG is responsible for 42% of total sales, up from 40% last year. 

These are some of the findings from Econsultancy’s Online Lead Generation Report 2010 (B2C), produced in association with Clash Media. More highlights from the report after the jump…

Online lead generation methods used

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is still the most widely used channel for generating leads online, and this has continued to grow, with the percentage using search engine optimisation up by 13% to 90% this year.

Email marketing (to in-house lists) is the second most widely used online lead generation method, up from 74% last year to 83% this year, followed by PPC on 73%. 

olg5

Naturally, given the ubiquity of the subject, there has been a big increase in the use of social media for OLG. 66% of companies surveyed are using this channel to generate consumer leads, compared to 40% last year.

There has also been an increase in the use of rich media and video, while RSS is the only method on the wane, down 2% on 2009. 

OLG3

Lead generation budgets

The increasing importance of OLG is reflected in the allocation of budgets. The number of companies who say that OLG budgets have gone up in the last year has increased from 59% last year to 65% this year. This compares to 31% of respondents who say that offline lead generation budgets have increased.

38% of companies surveyed are now spending at least £100,000 annually on online lead generation. Last year, only 21% of companies surveyed said they were spending this amount or more.

The proportion of lead generation budgets targeted online has dropped slightly from last year’s survey, though still roughly the same:

OLG4

Measurement

Measuring the effectiveness of online lead generation is an on-going problem, with only 32% saying they are either “excellent” (8%) or “good” (24%) at this. There are still significant numbers of advertisers who say they are only “average” (22%), “poor” (17%) or “very poor” (3%). There has not been any significant improvement since 2009.

How online leads are converted 

Advertisers are most likely to convert online leads through email and online transactions (85%) and telephone calls (67%), followed by social media (23%) and stores (16%). 

olg6

Since last year there has been a significant increase in the proportion of respondents using these email and telephone for lead conversion, by 10% and 9% respectively

via econsultancy.com

CHART OF THE DAY: Twitter’s Path To 33 Billion Tweets Per Year

Last night, Twitter said users send out 90 million tweets on a daily basis, up 450% compared to the year before. Annualized, that’s almost 33 billion tweets.

Below, we’ve annotated Twitter’s tweet growth. For all you techsters out there, take note. Oprah is a much bigger deal than South by Southwest.

chart of the day twitter tweets

 

via businessinsider.com