The Most Profitable Online Local Business Listings
We are a local maps marketing experts specializing in optimizing Google Maps and Bing Places local business listings.
Local search engine maps results are some of the highest quality small business leads on the internet. It is our mission to help local businesses climb to the top of these listings and dominate their local markets.
Unlike traditional advertising, these users are actively seeking your service for one reason or another.
The reason these listing are so valuable is because of the intent and motivation behind these searches. Once someone gets tot he point of searcing for a dentist, chiropractor, plumber, or landscaper, etc in their local area, they are usually pretty close to buying that product or service from someone.
Once your site ranks in the top of the “maps” section of search results you can expect to receive the highest amount of clicks from any other position on page #1. That also means that if your website is ranked in the normal website section of page #1 you will potentially have 2 listings sitting on top of page one.
While many agencies only focus on Google maps optimization you shouldn’t overlook Bing with your small business.
Bing users statistically tend to be older and spend more money than Google users. So while Bing may not have quite the search volume as other search engines, their results do have a tendency to produce higher ticket buyers.
Google My Business Local Maps Listings
When you search Google for a local service (ex. “plumber in Dallas, TX” or a local business type (ex. “Atlanta pet store”) you will see a local business with a map, star ratings, etc. near the top of the page. Inside this map section, you will often have two types of listings, organic and paid ads.
Free Organic Local Maps Marketing
Organic listings are simply free listing that rank in the in search results. These ranking are based on the most the sites that Google determines to be the most relevant answer to the users search. By far organic maps results will get you the highest Return On Investment from your marketing investment.
Top 3 ranking factors for organic Google Maps listings.
- Searcher’s Proximity – This is basically how close the device the user is searching from is to your business location(s). Whether it be a mobile device or desktop computer. If GPS coordinance is not available it will use the location of the IP address. So needless to say there is some leeway with this and for most small and mid-size cities you should be able to rank across the entire city with proper optimization.
- Google My Business Optimization – Probably the largest ranking factor is how well your GMB (Google My Business) listing is optimized to give Google the most accurate information possible about your business. These ranking are determined by complex computer algorithms so your information must be optimized in a way that it is easily understandable by a computer.
- Website Optimization – The next factor which is also a big one is how well your actual business website is optimized to reflect the information provided on your business listing.
Google My Business Paid Local Business Advertising
When it comes to local business marketing there are actually two types of paid local business ads found on Google search results. The first is just a paid listing in the sponsored section above the actual maps listings.
Second is the advertisements that are found in the actual maps maps section of page #1 search results (see below).
These ads will be found if applicable at the top of the local business listings in the maps section. They will be easily identifiable as advertsiments by the green box that says, “Ad” (as seen below).
Please keep in mind that Google is always testing out new ad types and placement positions so some ad types may not be available in all markets.
Paid Local business listings are basically a form of PPC (pay per click) advertising where you bid on ad placement and then pay a set amount ranging anywhere from $1 to $30 (or higher) every time someone clicks on your ad.
As you can imagine this type of advertising can get very expensive very fast, but fortunately you can set daily limits and ad run times.
How Winning Bids Are Awarded For Paid Google Maps Business Listings
Even though these are paid ads, Google still wants to provide the most relevant search results for their users.
In a nutshell, there are 2 parts to determining who wins the bid for the ads and it’s not solely based on the highest bidder.
- The highest bidder
- With the (Google determined) most relevant website
As you can see with this formula it’s not always the highest bidder who wins the bid, but rather the most relevant highest bidder.
So a properly optimized Google My Business Listing is not only important for the FREE organic listings but also for winning these bids at the lowest cost possible.
But to be honest, if you rank at the top of the organic local maps results there is no reason to pay for these paid ads! The only time this would makes sense in local maps is when you are wanting to extend your GMB listing into other nearby competitive cities.
For those that want to leave the optimization work to the experts, we offer Done-For-You Google Maps marketing services where optimize your listing and to rank organically and assist with any paid advertising if needed.
Bing Places Local Maps Business Listing
Bing Places local map listings basically work the same way as Google’s map listings. You can rank organically or pay to have your ads extend into nearby cities. We also offer full optimization service for Bing Places for those that would like to leave the work to the experts.
If you would like to learn more about why we are considered local maps marketing experts or are ready to take your business to the next level contact us below!