Claim and Optimize Your Google and TripAdvisor

Presence by Mary Anne Baker

About Mary Anne • Owner of INNsights Internet Marketing, based

in Sylva, NC. • 28 Years Experience in Destination Marketing,

Tourism, and Hospitality as the VP of a large resort company in Florida.

• Originally from Ohio, spent 28 years in Florida, moved full time to the Sylva area in 2011.

• Dedicated to helping small business owners market their businesses on the Internet so that today's consumer can find them.

What You Will Learn in This Class:

• This class is for local businesses who want to be found on the internet locally.

• By claiming and optimizing your free Internet local listings, your business will become visible on local search results and on mobile phone map searches.

• For tourism-related businesses (lodging, dining, attractions), we will take a look at TripAdvisor and how to maximize your presence there.

Introduction: • The way consumers find a local business has

fundamentally changed in the last few years. Small businesses can no longer rely on printed directories, local advertising, or passing foot traffic to attract new customers. o When was the last time you saw someone walking

around town with a paper map in their hands? • An effective internet marketing strategy for any

business must now include o Website o Facebook Business Page o Local Internet Listings (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc) o TripAdvisor Management for Lodging, Dining,

Attractions.

How Consumers Search for a Local Business • 97% of consumers search for a business on the Internet. • 2/3 of consumers use local search weekly and even more

importantly 70% of mobile searches lead to action within one hour.

• You no longer control how people find you. Therefore, it is essential to have your information everywhere that consumers search.

• People who search on mobile apps aren't just browsing the web, they are actively looking for a place to eat, stay, or shop. If you’re not listed, they won’t find you.

What is Local Search?

• Local search is any type of search, whether from a desktop or mobile device, that includes the name of the city/town within the search term.

• Also known as “geo-targeted” keywords, examples include: o Restaurants in Clayton o Shopping in Dillard, GA o Clayton Hotels

What You Need to Know About Google and Local Search • In MOST cases, your free Google Local Listing and/or

your Facebook Business Page will show up in local search results long before your website will.

• If you’re in the lodging or dining industries, you’re competing in search results with TripAdvisor, Expedia, Priceline, Yelp, etc.

• Claiming and optimizing your local listings is FREE. • Today’s class will show you the hands-on process to

claim and optimize your Google Local Listing. Yahoo and Bing have the same capabilities, and links to those will be provided at the end of this class.

What You Need to Know About Google Local • Every business listing must have a mailing address. If

you work from home or you are a mobile business you can specify a “service area” in the sign up process and choose to hide your physical address.

• There should be only one listing per physical location.

What You Need to Know About Google Local • Make sure that your basic information (name, address

and phone number) is exactly the same in all places so that Google will find a correlation between them: o Website o Facebook and other social media o Internet local listings

• For example: o If you use “GA” on your website, don’t use “Georgia”

in other places o If you abbreviate “East” on your website, don’t use

“E.” in other places. • For internet local listings ALWAYS use your local

number; not an 800 number.

How to Get Listed in Google's Local Search Results: • New features coming soon - Over the next months,

Google is making lots of changes to improve their local listings experience and bring the community, identity, sharing & relationships of Google+ to local businesses.

• Understand that these terms are interchangeable: o Google+ o Google Places o Google+ Local o Google Maps

• Let’s take a look at Google Local Search.

TripAdvisor - What Is It?

TripAdvisor is the world's largest travel community. Used primarily for lodging, restaurants, and attractions. Does not include retail. o More than 260 million monthly visitors o Covering more than 3.1 million accommodations,

restaurants, and attractions. o Over 125 million reviews and opinions o 34 countries in 21 languages o 69 million people have downloaded the various

TripAdvisor apps onto their mobile devices.

TripAdvisor - Set Up Your Listing • Go to www.tripadvisor.com and search for your

business. If it is already listed, scroll to the bottom of the listing, and look for - Owners: What's your side of the story? If you own or manage “___________________”, register now for free tools to enhance your listing, attract new reviews, and respond to reviewers.

• Click on “Manage Your Listing”, where you will be prompted to set up a business account and create your listing.

TripAdvisor Continued: If your business is not listed, go to: http://www.tripadvisor.com/GetListedAccommodation for

accommodations http://www.tripadvisor.com/GetListedRestaurant for

restaurants http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/getlisted_attraction_new.

html for attractions http://www.flipkey.com/list/ for vacation rentals (these are

paid listings, however a free trial is offered)

Other Search Engine Local Listings

• Yahoo: http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/ • Bing: www.BingBusinessPortal.com • MapQuest (formerly AOL):

https://listings.mapquest.com/apps/listing

Other Internet Directory Sites:

• Yelp: https://biz.yelp.com/ • FourSquare: http://business.foursquare.com/ • www.CitySearch.com • www.Local.com • www.YP.com

For Restaurants Only

• www.UrbanSpoon.com • www.OpenTable.com • www.MenuPages.com • www.WhereToEat.com

Additional Information • To ensure that your small business is listed in

major search directories for your small business, go to Google.com and search for your business - including the name of your city/town.

• Click on every search result on the first 2-3 pages (not local results), to see what directories are coming up strong in Google search - Chances are very good that listings on these sites are free - you just have to claim them and update them.