Google Local Business Center Enhancements

Google business listings is a great way to promote your business.  In today’s internet dependent market, if you are not listed with Google business listings, you are giving your competition a serious advantage when it comes to advertising and business exposure.  Now that the majority of businesses are listed in the Google listing directory, you need an edge.  A recently introduced service being offered in some markets allows businesses to sign up for additional features that they can use with their business listing.  For the small fee of $25 per month, businesses have access to a service called Google Local Business center enhancements.  This service allows the addition of photos, videos, coupons, menus, reservations and several other features and highlights aspects of the listing.  Businesses with enhanced features are given a yellow flag next to their listing, which stands out quite well.   Though purchasing this service won’t automatically increase your page rank or local listing rank, it is a great way to promote your business, which will eventually enhance your ranking.

Photos

This is a great way to highlight the products you offer or the work you do, depending on your business.  Your listing will show an icon alerting them that there are photos available.  Once they click on your listing, the photos will be there for them to see.  While you can add photos with the standard free account, they won’t be highlighted in your listing.

Videos

Online videos are a great way to supplement TV ads for bigger businesses and are an economical way to provide video ads for smaller businesses.  You can be as creative as you want and place the videos for free on YouTube.  With a local business center account, your listing will provide direct links to these videos for customers to view.  Since YouTube hosts these videos for free, they can easily be changed as often as you like, promoting daily sales and specials.

Coupons

Google teamed up with coupon distributor Valpak to offer the option of online coupons.  Businesses with local business center accounts can create custom coupons to lure customers to their listing.  Many websites crawl the internet looking for coupons.  Having coupons is a great way to get your listing mentioned by more sources, which we by now know is directly related to your local ranking.  Once you have coupons available, this will show up next to your local listing, prompting customers to click on your listing as opposed to businesses without coupons.

If there were any doubts left in your mind at all about Google’s genius for advertising, enhanced business listings should squash them.  In the beginning, the enhancements will stand out and businesses that have them will get noticed.  Eventually, more businesses will sign up for the service to stay competitive and Google will once again have turned a free service into a cash cow.  Though these enhancements are only available in certain markets at this time, don’t wait to start planning your strategy.  You need to understand everything that business center enhancements have to offer and begin developing appropriate content now.  Google local business listings are here to stay and if you are serious about your business’s success, this should be an important part of your advertising and marketing strategy.