214-310-1356
Today we’re going to take you back… back to the basics, because you have to get the basics right when it comes to helping your clients place in local searches. We’re going to cover the basics of listing management.
We have an entire series on the basics of SEO, so we’ll skip covering that today.
Our Basics of SEO Series Will Guide You
- Optimizing a Local Business Presence for Search Engines
- How to Place Higher in Search With On-Page SEO
- Off-Page SEO and Its Impact on Websites
- Next Steps for Beating Out the Local Competition Online
- Developing an SEO Strategy for Businesses
- Fine Tuning an SEO Strategy for Businesses
Are You Giving the Right Kind of Help on Yelp?
Just the other day, we had a partner tell us that they had optimized their client’s Yelp listing. We gave it a look and saw they had one category for the business. They could have actually added two categories based on the type of business it was. And under categories they had not selected the services the business offered that were available for the category.
These additional steps don’t take long but can really help a business listing to stand out a bit more, plus provide additional information to the search engines to better understand the services offered by the business. Make sure you are claiming your clients’ Yelp listings and optimizing them. At the very minimum, if you are an Advice Local partner, have us provide the Yelp public edits for you at no additional charge.
Bing Optimization Is a Must, Too
For this same client of theirs, this partner had not one but two Bing listings. Again, they stated they had optimized the listing. The duplicate listing needed to be deleted and the correct one needed the images Bing was pulling from the review, the categories cleaned up – and the business’ website URL corrected. Creating/claiming the Bing Places listing is the first step. You’ll also want to make sure you optimize the Bing Places listing.
For our Advice Local partners, we include Bing at no additional charge. We’ll utilize the information within your partner dashboard for the business to complete the listing. As long as you have that information correct, the Bing listing will be taken care of for you. There may be additional optimizations you’ll want to do after the fact directly on the Bing Places listing.
Google Business Profile Optimization Is the Starting Point
We certainly are not ignoring Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business) when it comes to optimizing. In fact, we recommend you start with creating/claiming the Google Business Profile (GBP) listing. There is so much to GBP optimization that we can’t possibly cover it all here today. However, we have a guide on optimizing Google Business Profile you may find helpful. Optimizing a GBP listing is not ever a one-time event – you need to be continually updating the business’ GBP listing.
Use Google Business Profile Sync and Then Bing Sync to Save Time
Did you know the information from the business’ Google Business Profile listing can actually be imported into the Bing Places listing? This is available through the Bing dashboard by connecting the two.
For our partners, if you set up GBP Sync within your Advice Local dashboard you can push all the data for the business to the GBP listing – and then sync the GBP with the Bing listing. That’s a time-saving tip for sure.
Consistency Is Key for Local Search Visibility
Consistency across the local profiles, Google Business Profile, Bing & Yelp, is extremely important. You must also get the mapping apps, GPS navigation and directory listings across the web. It can be quite the time-consuming task to accomplish these individually. Partnering with a listing management company is the way to go.
Request a demo today and take a tour of the Advice Local dashboard. You’ll get to learn all about our listing management services, including Google Business Profile, Bing, Yelp, data aggregators and much more. Call us today at (214) 310-1356.