A ‘local business listing’ is your company’s online profile found on local business directories such as Google My Business, Yellow Pages, Bing Places and Yelp. The purpose of creating local listings are to increase the online presence of your company in local search results. The more local directories your business is on, the more likely a customer is able to find you.
Google is the biggest search engine in the world. Worldwide Google has a huge market share of 72.48%. Bing comes in second place with a mere 10.39% share. Needless to say, if you follow Google’s rules you should come up on top, right?
If you want to rank on Google for anything one of the first things you need to do is create a ‘Google My Business’ listing. Since this is Google’s own tool they tend favour it over your standard directory listing, although don’t underestimate the importance of the other local directories.
Did you know that 42% of local businesses don’t have their business information claimed online?
An estate agents job is never finished. Once you have a Google My Business profile, it’s time to look at the others. Continue to create profiles on all local directories by following our tips below.
All of your listings across the internet must be consistent, this means that you need to use the same logo, imagery and contact information on every profile to show prospective buyers exactly who you are and how you can help. You wouldn’t use different logos or different contact information throughout your website, so why would your local business listings be any different?
Top Tip – If you find multiple company profiles on the same local directory, contact the directory and ask to remove the duplicates.
All directories require a category selection. Each directory will be different so look for one or more of the following categories:
Once you’ve selected the right category, it will be easier for people to find you!
Your business profile isn’t going to generate leads without quality content. Write at least 3 to 5 paragraphs of detailed information about you company. The more time you spend on creating a listing, the better results you will receive.
Give Google proof that you’re a quality estate agency, encourage people to leave reviews on your My Google Business profile, Yelp profile, Bing profile etc. Genuine reviews can be hard to obtain so Google will improve your search rankings based on your efforts to achieve these.
We would recommend creating a ‘company info’ document to keep handy which will contain all information you will need to add on all directory listings. This will make the process much quicker while maintaining a high level of quality.
Note – Only use trusted local directories, adding your company onto poor websites will damage your search engine ranking. Get it right by hiring an online marketing expert to do this for you.
When someone is looking for an estate agency they tend to search locally This gives you the opportunity to target the right prospective buyer, seller, landlord or tenant. Building up a local business profile will increase your chances of being found, therefore generating very focused localised leads to beat your competition.
Need to get your estate agency seen online? Unsure where to start? We are here to help! Get a professional to take care of your online presence and rank higher in search engines. Contact us today for further information.
