Epiphany Marketing's Strategic Marketing Blog

Google Places Listings in Search Results

While Google Places is most important if you’re serving one or more local markets, every business should have (and use!) at least one listing on Google Places. If you don’t have yours set up yet, these instructions will help you get started.

One you have your listing, however, how do you make sure it has good positioning in the search results?

Like any web property, your Google Places listing will improve in the search rankings when there are links to it. Any link will do, but an “anchor text” link will be even more effective. The secret of finding the URL (or address to link to) for your Google Places page is coming up in a minute. But first…

What is an “Anchor Text” Link?

Here’s a quick primer on the 2 basic types of links you can create (or receive) on the web. To illustrate, I’m going to refer to the product we recently released: The Ultimate Small Business Growth Kit in a Box …Without the Box!

I could send you to go look at this product on the web by providing a link directly to its address:

http://www.epiphanymarketing.com/the-ultimate-small-business-growth-kit-in-a-box-without-the-box/

Now… that’s an effective link (please feel free to share it with anyone & everyone!), but it’s a little lengthy and not very pretty… wouldn’t you agree?

A more appealing way to create the link is to use “anchor text.” Anchor text is the term for the word or phrase that is linked to content on the web. In the link above, there is no anchor text (OK… technically there is, but it’s identical to the URL so we won’t count it).

In the case of our product, a phrase that could be used to describe our kit might be:

incredibly valuable real-world marketing training

(Yes… I’m biased, but that doesn’t make me wrong!)

So here’s what a link might look like using anchor text: Please check out our incredibly valuable real-world marketing training for the 21st Century Small Business.

When you’re creating (or receiving) links on the web, the links will be of more value if they are anchor text links. The key is: the anchor text should be the phrase you’d like to see your content rank well on in the search results.

In other words, if I got more links just like the one above, I might expect the page containing our training program to rank well in Google search results for the phrase “incredibly valuable real-world marketing training.”

So… if you have a pest control business in Topeka, then you might want your Google Places page to rank well on the phrase “pest control Topeka.” In that case, you’d want other websites to link to your Google Places page using that phrase as the anchor text. Make sense?

How to Find the Real URL for Your Google Places Page

This is a little bit tricky. In most cases, when you visit your Google Places page, you’re actually going to be arriving on the page from a Google search. So… if you copy/paste the URL (or even use the “link” tool that Google provides you on the page), you’re going to have a really long URL that contains a whole bunch of data… including the specific search term you used. This won’t help you very much. So here’s the trick to it:

Search for your business on the map by going here.

Once you see the listing for your business… right-click on the link and choose “Open Link in New Window” or “Open Link in New Tab.” In most modern browsers, you should see one or both of those choices. The page that opens (in the new window or new tab) will have a URL that looks something like this:

In our case, http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=17650561483947767278&q=blablablablablablabla with a whole bunch of characters and stuff afterward.

The key is to highlight everything starting from the “http” on the left all the way through the series of numbers that comes after “cid” on the right. Stop when you see the ampersand (“&”) character. Like this:

That means for us, I’m grabbing this: http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=17650561483947767278

If the anchor text for us is “small business marketing strategists,” then here’s what a link would look like: small business marketing strategists. In the case of one of our good friends here in town, it might be acupuncture Sarasota.

This little-known secret about the actual URL for your Google Places page can be incredibly helpful… we’ll talk more about this in a future update! Feel free to post your questions in the comments.

Don’t miss the info on all 3 bonuses in this video… plus, I show you exactly where we’re going to meet this Saturday at the end… and you’ll also hear 2 quick stories about businesses getting results now!

Bonus #1 (valued at $297) was added a couple of days ago — it’s the 2.5-hour downloadable video training on the subject of e-mail. It includes step-by-step instructions for how to manage your e-mail database as well as how to avoid blacklisting and SPAM accusations.  You’ll come back to this training session again and again!

Bonuses 2 & 3 have just been added today!  In fact, the Results Now Marketing website doesn’t even mention any of these bonuses…

Bonus #2: Advanced Keyword Training (valued at $297).  This is another downloadable video that teaches you in detail (including step-by-step instructions) how to discover the exact nuances of keywords that your future customers are using to search Google and other search engines.  Many businesses that obtain just one new client would already have earned enough to more than pay for this video at its full retail price.  But… it’s not available for sale anywhere!  Only our members have access to it, and you’ll receive 60-day download access to it absolutely FREE when you register for Results Now Marketing.

Bonus #3: Our Resources List (priceless!) You know, if I were to tell you that I had a piece of paper that was worth thousands upon thousands of dollars, you might be interested to find out why.  Am I right?

You see, it’s not the paper itself… it’s what’s written on the paper that makes it valuable.  And… what’s written on the paper isn’t just a collection of words.  This list of resources has taken years to put together… years of trial and error.  Investment of thousands upon thousands of dollars in both cash and in my time.  I have never before offered this list to anyone. You will receive it absolutely FREE as part of your training in the Results Now Marketing seminar this Saturday.

These bonuses are worth $594 at a very minimum… and thousands (or even tens of thousands) at most.

As I’ve already mentioned… those of you who have already paid for your registration for this weekend’s event are receiving these bonuses too!  This is just our surprise way of over-delivering.  But if you haven’t yet registered, then these bonuses add significant value to the investment you’re about to make.

Reserve your spot right now.

One marketing question that I get asked about small businesses is:

Do search engines really matter where local businesses are concerned?

The answer may surprise you. According to a 2007 study by comScore Networks, even when looking for local business information, 3 out of 5 people will search online. When you consider that only 1 in 3 check the yellow pages, this represents an enormous shift.

It’s a no-brainer that we look online today when locating solutions that are less localized, but I wouldn’t have guessed that the trend had shifted that far yet where local business is concerned. And, given that the study is a little over a year old, it’s likely that the actual numbers for today are even higher.

What does this mean? Well… it means that if your company’s website isn’t ranking well on the right search terms, then you could actually be missing 60% of your best customers.  After all, when people are actively looking for your product or service, they’re probably a sooner buyer than the person who is passively shown an advertisement you placed.

The search engine game is one that is constantly evolving and changing. Unless you’ve managed to hire a marketer instead of a web designer (or participated in small business marketing training), chances are good that your site won’t show up when it really needs to.

Check out this video clip for some additional insight:

Consider this my personal invitation for you to participate in our Results Now Marketing seminar in Sarasota on September 27th.  When it’s over, you’ll know exactly how to get to the top!

Have you wondered why your tried and true historic methods of gaining new customers have been less and less fruitful in recent years?

Consider this: according to author David Shenk in his 1999 book, Data Smog: Surviving the Information Glut, the average American was exposed to 560 marketing messages per day… in 1971.

By the 1990s, that estimate had reached 3,000 per day.

With the explosion of the number of channels on cable and satellite TV, the number of display ads being served on websites, the advent of Google, YouTube, FaceBook and other new media outlets, the number of marketing messages your customers are being exposed to every single day has exponentially increased!

Understanding what this means and how it affects your efforts to drive new prospects into your business can absolutely make or break your business in today’s world.

Getting results in the 21st Century is a different ball game. That’s why I’m thrilled to announce that we’re bringing our revolutionary training to Sarasota, FL on September 27th. Until now, this training has only been available through our 12-week online program. We’ve condensed it down to a half-day event, and it’s sure to change the results of local business people.

Find out more about this event at Results Now Marketing.  Hopefully, we’ll get to meet you there!

(With apologies for the insulting quote in the title of today’s post… and also for bringing up memories of an election year gone by…)

What do we do in a down economy?

It happens.  Sometimes your business is affected by an economic downturn.  Whether you’ve got a local business like the ones that serve our local Sarasota community — an economy that has previously been unfortunately based upon housing and construction — or one that exports products or services outside of your region, sometimes business slumps and it has nothing to do with what you did “right” or “wrong.”

So… inevitably the belt-tightening begins.  Trim here, cut there.  Perhaps we are forced to reduce staffing levels, perhaps we improvise and begin to try to creatively respond to new market conditions.

But… whatever you do, don’t make the mistake of killing your marketing.

I’ve seen this again and again. Advertising budgets are sometimes the first to go. And… while I’m the first person to agree that much of the advertising going on in the small business world should be replaced with much more effective marketing efforts, the underlying philosophy here is deadly.

If you’re not marketing, it’s only a matter of time before the inevitable occurs.

Changing Your Investment Strategy

In the 21st Century, there’s no excuse for not getting results. Even if your advertising budget is non-existent, there are myriad tools that are free or low in cost that leverage technology to facilitate connecting your future customers with your business. This is where we need to invest — most significantly, time and energy.  But certainly financial resources must be committed to these high-ROI methods.

Watch this space for some tips you can implement right away.