Get New Business Leads From Google

 - 21st October

I was doing some background research for a new client today and I was really surprised how businesses in his industry were under utilising Google. His business is in a very competitive sector and companies are usually quite sharp in seeking and exploiting sales opportunities, but not in this case.

Earlier this year, Google changed it's results pages so that local businesses were listed near to top of the page, alongside the highest ranking pages for the topic. It is a relatively simple process to get your website registered to be displayed and this can provide a quick and easy to get source of new business leads.

To get your website listed, you need to go along to the Google local business center. If you do not already have a Google account, you can sign up for one here. Click on "Add New Listing" and enter the details for your business. The key to making this work is to get listed in a category that gets a reasonable amount of traffic, but is not too competitive. London Taxis could be a tough category, but Wandsworth taxis looks like an easier target at the moment.

The great thing about this listing is that it is free. Of course that means that anyone can list their business on the local map. My experience at the moment is that businesses are not using this, probably because they don't know about it. If you do find yourself in a category where there is a lot of listings, then there are number of simple things that you can do to boost your listing to the top of the pile.

 - Include as much information as you possible can in your listing and make sure that you include your keywords in your listing.

 - Make sure your website is in other directories as well. This will support your Google listing.

 - Make your website optimised for local keywords (in the example above Wandsworth and taxis).

- Persuade your customers to give you a positive review on Google Local Business.

There are other, more complex ways of optimising your listing, but they require more specialised knowledge are best done by a search engine marketing specialist.

This article is the property of Markmedia, a Level3 Consulting brand.

Tags: marketing Google Local lead generation new business