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2 - Offsite Foundation
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| Action Item | Priority | Description | Resources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Define Company Data | Determine this information before starting so it is consistent across the web. | ||
| Official Company Name | It is extremely important to have your business's name correct and consistent everywhere around the internet. It should be the official name in government records and stay the same every instance it shows up. | ||
| Year Company Established | |||
| Company Owner | |||
| Address | This is the address that has to be used consistently everywhere it is displayed. | ||
| Address line 2 | Unit or Suite Number | ||
| City, State Zip | |||
| Main Company Phone Number | This phone number needs to be the main company line and needs to represent the company or an individual location everywhere. | ||
| Website Address | Exact web address, including http:// or https://. This should be the exact same address used across every instance the web address shows up on the internet. For instance, don't use www unless it has been part of your website address for a long time. | ||
| Geo Coordinates | Search engines like it when the business is in the same location every time it is referred to on the internet. The geocoordinates should be taken after the Google map indicator is properly placed. | ||
| Public Email Address - Company Inquiries | Email address for customers to contact the business. Many companies use this sparingly accross the web because it invites spam. On the website, forms can be used instead. | ||
| Images to used on directory sites | This is a collection of 20 images used across the internet uploaded to a folder in the company's Google Drive account. | drive.google.com | |
| Hours of Operation | Official hours must be consistent across the internet. | ||
| All Old Phone Numbers | Any phone numbers other than the official main phone number used by the company either currently or in the past. | ||
| All Old Company Names | Any company names other than the current official name used either currently or in the past. | ||
| All Old Company Addresses | Any alternate or old address for the company. | ||
| Review Acquisition Strategies | |||
| Develop System to Aquire Reviews | Reviews become more important to a business's online presence every day. They influence your ranking on Google and potential customers use them to qualify your quality of work and responsiveness to both happy and unhappy customers. | ||
| The most effective way to gain reviews is to make it part of the interaction of every employee and customer. Casually asking pointedly for a review when the customer is happiest drives results. Also, it instills great customer service, worthy of a positive review, into the background of all your employee's customer interactions. | ||
| An email can be sent to customers if you routinely get their address or ask for it. It can be a template you send to one or a list of recent customers periodically or a personal email to individual customers with a link to your "leave-a-review" web page. | ||
| A text message with a link to your "leave-a-review" page can be an easy option. One drawback to this strategy is that reviews from a phone tend to be less thorough than reviews left on a computer since they take longer to type. | ||
| There are many great apps to streamline the process of getting reviews. | ||
| Pass these out to each customer, giving them a passive request with directions on how to find places you want reviews. You can add a QR code leading phones directly to the reviw section. | ||
| 3 | Create a small poster to put on the counter of the reception or checkout counter of your walk-in business. It should include a request to leave a review along with a QR code for customers to scan with their phones. | Example |
| Many of our customers have set up a reward system for positive reviews left about the company when their name is mentioned on a review. Paying for reviews is prohibited, but this idea takes it away from the customer and promotes great customer service. | ||
| Review Response System | Every review site allows responses from the business owner. The advantages of this: Higher conversions by showing potential customers that you are engaged, the ability to further sell your company, SEO benefit from adding keywords, & looking less defensive when responding to negative reviews (since you respond to all reviews). | ||
| Free Ecommerce Listing | . | ||
| Google Merchant Center | If you sell products online as well as local in a store, add them to Google Merchant Center. These are free listings that can show up in search results. you can also import those product feeds into Google Ads to start a shopping campaign. | Google Merchant Center | |
| . | |||
| Governmental Websites | Make sure the company's information is the same on all places it shows up on governmental and agency websites. Google looks for consistency. Many of these are particular to one type of business. | ||
| Federal Tax ID Compay Name | Is the company's name on Tax ID the "Official Company Name"? | ||
| Federal Tax ID Address | Is the company's address on Tax ID the "Official Company Address"? | ||
| National Provider Number (NPI) | Applicable to healthcare providers. | NPINO | |
| State Company Registration | Most states have a website for companies showing registration details, fictitious names, etc. In Florida, it is Sunbiz.org. | Florida Companies | |
| State Contractor License | If the business is governed by a state license, the name, address, and phone number of the company on the license should be the same as the one used to conduct business. | ||
| State Bar Website | Law firms should confirm all attorneys show the same firm name, address, and website on their state bar pages. | ||
| State Medical License | State Medical License Sites | ||
| County Licenses | Permits for projects done by contractors such as plumbers and electricians sometimes show up on the internet creating access by Google. These should use the correct NAP for the company. | ||
| Basic National Data Warehouses | |||
| Factual | The most important site to have your data correct. Unfortunately, a business cannot directly control its data on this site. Third parties must be utilized to add or change business information in Factual. $99/year with Moz Local. The state of Factual is in flux since it was purchased by Foursquare. | Factual | |
| InfoUSA/Express Updates/Data axle | Another prominent company that gathers and then sells its data to businesses and web properties. | Data axle Local Listings | |
| Neustar | A third popular data site. | Neustar/Localeze | |
| Foursquare | Foursquare gained importance to local SEO recently when it merged with Factual. Now it is one of the main directories/listings services to get right. If no listing exists, it cost $20 to submit a new one. Details of a Foresquare listing are below. | Foresquare for business | |
| Google My Business (GMB) | |||
| Claim and Verify | 1 | Claim the business with a Google account set up by the owner of the business so they can maintain primary control over the Google profile for the life of the business. You may need to verify with a phone call, verification number sent on a postcard to your address or even a video phone call. | |
| Elminate previous brand listings | Find any other listings that represent the company and get rid of them. Duplicate listings can wreak havoc on the performance of a company's Google listing. | Duplicate GMB Listings | |
| Eliminate previous listings based on old phone numbers | Try to find instalnces of Google listings other than the main one with all alternatives of old phone numbers. Get rid of them. | ||
| Eliminate listings for all previous names of company | Find Google My Business listings based upon previous names of the business. Get rid of them. | ||
| Eliminate all previous addresses of company | Find Google My Business listings based upon previous addresses of the business. Get rid of them. | ||
| Name, Address, Phone# (NAP) | 1 | All fields must be consistent with the name, address, and phone number established in the first section. | |
| Website | Make sure the exact url is represented here. If you have a secure certificate, use https. Don't include www unless your website uses www. If you have multiple locations, use the website contact page for that location page for the website URL on that Google business listing. | ||
| UTM Tracking | 3 | Add UTM tracking to your website url to track visits to your website from your Google business listing. (https://yourwebsite.com/?UTM_source=GMB_listing&UTM_medium=organic) This page will show up as an independent page on your analytics report. | |
| Set Map Marker | 1 | You can zoom in to drag the map marker to your doorstep. This is very important when potential customers will visit your office or store. | |
| Hours of Operation | 2 | ||
| Define Categories | 1 | Find the closest business type that represents the business. These are constantly changing. If a better category is introduced for your company and you don't change, you could miss out on a lot of potential customers. Check the link in resources. | Google Category Changes Category List |
| Unique 750 Character description | 3 | Describe the business with keywords, bullets, links, location references. This content should be unique, not simply lifted from the website "About" page. | |
| Enter Service Categories and Descriptions | 4 | This is in the "Information" section of the Google My Business page. This might or might not show up on the maps listing knowledge panel, but it is a very important opportunity to tell Google what your business is about using all keywords relevant to your business. This should be unique content. Studies show this does not affect your Maps ranking, but someday it could. | |
| At Least 20 Total Pictures | 2 | ||
| Upload Logo | 1 | Company logo, size is 250 x 250 pixels. | |
| Upload Profile Image/Cover Photo | 2 | The main hero image on the profile. this image is used across many Google applications and has very strict dimension requirements to accommodate many devices. Google currently recommends a size of 720 x 720 pixels. The resource article goes in-depth to explain. | Google Cover Photos |
| Inside Pictures | 3 | Upload pictures of the inside of the business to Google My Business profile. | |
| Outside Pictures | 3 | Upload pictures of the outside of the business to Google My Business profile. | |
| Products Photos | 3 | ||
| Team Pictures | 3 | ||
| At Work Photos | 4 | ||
| Keyword Rich Name on All Pictures | 4 | Uploaded image need to be named properly with keywords and relevant | |
| Keyword Rich Title on All Photos | 4 | They should be geotagged with company coordinates. | |
| Geo Tag all Photos | 5 | coordinates. It is impossible to tell if this was done except to upload new. Recent tests have shown that this is not as effective as many have claimed. | |
| Keyword Tag All Photos | 5 | Some have hypothesized tagging photos with keywords, geo locations, and name address and phone number of the company will increase the ranking power of a listing. This has been debunked by a few studies. We would make sure the file name of your image is named with descriptive keywords. | |
| Description on all Photos | 5 | Include a short description and company information (NAP) in the description of every image. The effectiveness of this is highly in question, but it can't hurt. | |
| Produce & Upload Video | Upload company overview video and every video you produce. Even if you upload to Youtube, upload it into your Google My Business listing too. | ||
| 360 View Photos Uploaded | 3 | Have a Google Trusted Photographer take 360 degree pictures of your place and upload to Google Street View. These will show up on the search results knowledge panel. The photographer can transfer right to the company so the pictures will be considered "owner generated." | |
| 360 Virtual Tours Uploaded | 3 | A string of 360 photos can be connected together to form a virtual tour so visitor can walk around inside the business. | |
| Add "Menu" if applicable | 2 | Add a menu to Google My Business listing if your company is a restaurant. | |
| Install Google Beacon | 5 | Google gives a Bluetooth beacon to some businesses. It is always a good idea to participate in anything Google offers. Not sure this even exists anymore but put it up if you get one. | |
| Enter Opened Date | 4 | ||
| Enter Service Areas for non store busines | Service contractors and businesses that do not receive customers at their place of business should based upon Google recommendation, enter a service area instead of an address. | ||
| Reply to Any Unanswered Google Questions | Google allows anyone to ask questions of a company directly on its Google business listing. Additionally, anyone can answer the questions, even if they are not part of the company. It is very important to answer the questions correctly as the business owner. Google indicates the answer if from the owner and frequently shows it as the first answer. This is also a good opportunity to use keywords and do some subtle selling of the business. it also shows visitors and Google that you are engaged, great signals for conversion and SEO. | ||
| Add Your Own FAQs | 3 | Since Google gives everyone the opportunity to ask a question to businesses directly on their listing, why not add common FAQs yourself. This is a great way to increase conversions by giving potential customers the information you want them to know about your company as they browse Google, without even going to your website. | |
| Publish GMB Website | Google now offers a free "Webstie" that snythisizes all the information in a company's Google My Business page into a website. You can modify after it is created. It could work great for a company without a website. | ||
| Create Shortname | Google allows you to enter a shortname for your GMB listing (instead of a bunch of letters and numbers) so your GMB URL is easier to remember and pass along to others. Try to get as close to your business name as possible. | ||
| Products | If you sell products, add them to your Google Business listing. While there doesn't seem to be an SEO benefit at this point in time, it still could someday. It's also great to give your potential customers more information about your company since there is no assurance they will visit your website. | ||
| Services | Add the services you offer to the services section of your GMB listing. You can list them and write a short description. Much like products, there is no evidence it will help with SEO, but still helps the effectiveness of your listing. | ||
| Attributes | Indicate the attributes you can claim for your business. These can be marked either "Yes, No, or "Not Indicated" no answer and won't even show up on your listing). Many attributes change according to the type of business, so check all your. | ||
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| Appeared during COVID, indicate if appointments required, mask required, staff temperature checks, surface disinfectant, staff masks, customer temperature checks. | ||
| Service Options | Indicate if you offer online appointments and onsite services. | ||
| Enable Messenging | You can now get messages directly from your Google listing. If you enable this feature, make sure you know who is getting them and have a system for answering. | ||
| Google My Business Video Maker | Google released a platform to create a video by entering basic information like taglines and photos. | ||
| YouTube Channel | |||
| Logo | |||
| Cover Image | |||
| Website Link | |||
| Tags on all videos | |||
| Transcripts on all videos | |||
| Email Address | |||
| Location | |||
| Social Media Links | |||
| Bing Listing | |||
| Claim | Logo Image | ||
| NAP | Up to 100 Images | ||
| Correct Map Marker Placement | Unique Description | ||
| Website | |||
| Hours | |||
| Business Segment | Facebook Link | ||
| Business Categories | Yelp Link | ||
| Primary Category | Trip Advisor | ||
| Do customers visit you? | NPI Number | ||
| Business or Professional | COVID-19 Related Announcement | ||
| Yahoo Listing | Yahoo has all but disbanded its local business listing service and it is hard to get or edit one. If you are very adamant about getting all your listings correct, you can either pay for a Yext account or claim a basic listing through Yext. Read details on the resources link. | Claim a Yahoo business listing | |
| NAP | |||
| Website | |||
| Social Media Sites | |||
| Facebook Page Developed | |||
| Claim or Create Page | Facebook is one of the most prominent properties for a business to take ownership of and develop. | ||
| Enter NAP | Enter exact Name, Address & Phone number established in section 1. | ||
| Website (Exact address) | Website should be entered exactly as it is (inlcuding http vs https) | ||
| Page Verified | Verify company's page using facebook's call verification system. | ||
| Username | Create a username that represents as close as you can get to your business name. | ||
| Company's contact email address. | |||
| Additional Location Details | Identify if you have customers visit you, travel to your customers, and if you sell goods online. | ||
| Service Areas | If you visit customers, indicate the area you serve. | ||
| Founding Date | |||
| Awards | |||
| Upload Logo | |||
| Upload Cover Photo | Facebook Image Sizes | ||
| About/Description (255 Characters) | Write a short description of the company. It should be unique to everything else on the internet. | ||
| Impressum (2000 Characters) | In certain countries, online business are required to provide a statement of ownership. This is an optional section, but another chance to tell people and search engines about your business. | ||
| Correct Business Category | Search the facebook database of categories for the closest one to your business. | ||
| Virtual Tour | |||
| Add Products/Services | Facebook now allows companies to enter all the services they offer. This is, of course, good for visitors to your page from within facebook, but it also serves as great keywords and SEO for search engines since a company's facebook page is public, indexed by search engines. Since facebook is such a powerful website, company facebook pages generally rank just below their own website in search results. | ||
| Add "Our Story" | "Our story" is another great way to introduce visitors to your business. Again, it is also seen by search engines so could affect how they see your company and what keywords to associate it with. | ||
| Hours of Operation | Same hours shown everywhere. | ||
| Bluetooth Beacon | Facebook offers a Bluetooth beacon to pages with enough followers and visits. Companies should pursue this if it is an option. | ||
| BBB Accreditation Plugin | This option is available if business is accredited by BBB. | ||
| Wifi Netword Info | You can give customers your wifi information on your facebook page. | ||
| COVID-19 Updates info | |||
| Temporary Service Changes | Your Covid related status, marke "operating as usual", "Temporarily Closed", or "Open with Changes." | ||
| Privacy Policy | Add a link to your website privacy policy. | ||
| Messaging Preference | |||
| QR Code | Upload a QR code to your website. | ||
| Price Range | From $ to $$$$ | ||
| Add Action Button | |||
| Other Accounts | Enter links to many other social properties in including Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Linkedin, etc. | ||
| Upload Existing Photos | |||
| Upload Existing Videos | Videos can be uploaded directly to faceboook so facebook hosts them. They will automatically be shared your feed. | ||
| Owner's Linkedin Page | |||
| Create Linkedin Page | Owner needs to claim or develop a company page with thier own Linkedin profile. | ||
| Profile Picture | |||
| Company Link | Company page should be a live link from company page | ||
| Resume | Resume should be filled out. | ||
| Follow Button | |||
| Industry | |||
| Cover Photo | |||
| Company Photos | |||
| Company Linkedin Page | |||
| Start Company page from owners linked in account | Should be started or claimed by owner's Linkedin profile | ||
| NAP Correct | |||
| Website | |||
| Company Link | |||
| Upload Logo | |||
| Good Cover Photo | |||
| Set custom button | |||
| Tagline | |||
| 100 - 2000 word company description | |||
| Add Showcase Pages for major products & services | |||
| Locations | |||
| Busienss Industry | |||
| Company Size | |||
| Specialty Categories | |||
| Year Founded | |||
| Foursquare | |||
| Claim | |||
| NAP | |||
| Website | |||
| Hours | |||
| Map | |||
| Description | |||
| Logo | |||
| Images | |||
| Tips & Reviews | |||
| Claim | |||
| Cover Photo | |||
| NAP | |||
| Website | |||
| Logo | |||
| Description | |||
| Date Joined | |||
| Claim Page | |||
| Designated as Business Account | |||
| NAP | |||
| Website | |||
| Logo | |||
| Map Directories | |||
| * | |||
| Apple Maps | Apple Maps Listing | ||
| Claim Page | |||
| NAP | |||
| Set Map Marker | |||
| Website | |||
| Hours | |||
| Business Categories | |||
| Yelp URL | |||
| facebook URL | |||
| Twitter URL | |||
| Mapquest | |||
| Claim | |||
| Company Name | |||
| Address | |||
| Phone Number | |||
| Website | |||
| Hours | |||
| Payment | |||
| . | |||
| Other Map Directories | |||
| Navmii | Navmii is a GPS directions phone application similar to Google Maps, Apple Maps, or Waze. It gets data from large databases like Foursquare and LocalEase but you should check it for your business's accuracy. You can claim it and update it in Navmii but it costs about $10/month. | https://www.navmii.com/ | |
| Waze | |||
| Open Street Maps | |||
| Claim and Develop Core Directories | |||
| Better Business Bureau | |||
| Claim and enter NAP | Make sure your BBB listing exists and is correct. You have to email BBB to claim and edit. Even if you have no plans to obtain accreditation, it is still prominent. You can also still get and respond to reviews in a place highly regarded by Google and visitors. | ||
| Enter Website | |||
| Gain Accredidation | The impact of BBB accreditation varies across business categories. It helps contractor types the most. It usually costs about $600/year for a small business, depending on the number of employees and annual revenue. | ||
| Embed linked BBB logo to webiste | If you do get accredited, be sure to add the dynamic seal to your website to get the maximum impact. | ||
| BBB Logo on company email signature | Add the seal to your email signature | ||
| Logo on BBB Listing | |||
| Images Uploaded to Listing | |||
| Categories | |||
| Business Overview/ Details | |||
| Business Hours | |||
| Business Management | |||
| Additional Contact Numbers | |||
| Facebook Link | |||
| Linked In | |||
| Products & Services Description | |||
| Upload Company Video | |||
| Yelp | |||
| Claim | |||
| NAP | |||
| Website | |||
| Services | |||
| Check-in Offer | |||
| Virtual Consultation | |||
| Description | |||
| Logo | |||
| Hours | |||
| Special Hours | |||
| Images | |||
| Verify Contractor License# | |||
| Eliminate Duplicates | |||
| COVID Safety Measures | |||
| Superpages | |||
| Claim | |||
| NAP Correct | |||
| Website | |||
| Description/Details | |||
| Logo Upload | |||
| Image Uploads | |||
| Products & Services | |||
| Specialties | |||
| Hours | |||
| Certification & Affliiations | |||
| Categories | |||
| Socail Medias | |||
| Payment Options | |||
| Accepts Insurance | |||
| Years in Business | |||
| Zoom Info | |||
| Name | |||
| Logo | |||
| Address | |||
| Phone | |||
| Website | |||
| Employees | |||
| Revenue | |||
| Description | |||
| Contact Profiles | |||
| Category | |||
| Business Name | |||
| Address | |||
| Phone Number | |||
| Angi (formerly Angie's List) | |||
| Claim | |||
| NAP | |||
| Website | |||
| Hours | |||
| Logo Upload | |||
| Image Uploads | |||
| Contractor License | |||
| Services | |||
| Senior Discount | |||
| Payment Options | |||
| Free Estimates | |||
| Project Showcase | |||
| COVID 19 Health & Safety Measures | |||
| Manta | |||
| Claim | |||
| NAP | |||
| Logo | |||
| Website | |||
| Hours of Operation | |||
| Description | |||
| Products | |||
| Social Medias LInked | |||
| COVID-19 Updates/ Special Message | |||
| Are you still open for business? | |||
| Do you have special business hours? | |||
| Do you offer local delivery? | |||
| Do you offer in-store pickup? | |||
| Do you offer curbside pickup? | |||
| Do you have online ordering? | |||
| Trip Advisor | |||
| Claim | |||
| About | |||
| NAP | |||
| Hours | |||
| Images | |||
| Category | |||
| Website | |||
| Accept Credit Cards | |||
| Questins & Anwers | |||
| Covid 19 Safety Measures | |||
| Home Advisor | |||
| Claim Listing | |||
| NAP | |||
| Hours | |||
| Services | |||
| Houzz | |||
| Claim | |||
| NAP | |||
| Logo | |||
| Cover Photo | |||
| Industry Listings | All business industries have a set of dedicated directories. Here is a list of the most important to popular types of businesses. | ||
| Attorneys | |||
| Healthcare/Doctors | |||
| Home Contractors | Plumbers, electricians, pest control, mold remediation, painters, HVAC, fencing, garage doors, windows, cabinets, | ||
| Restaurants | |||
| Professional Services | These directories include primarily business-to-business services including advertising, PR firms, employment agencies, auto services, & printing. | ||
| * | |||
| Home City Directories | Every city has directory listings focused only on that city. These can be for both the greater MLS area or any smaller city within. These important listings send strong signals to Google about your targeted geographies. | ||
| Research Listings | A simple Google search for "business listings [your city]" will uncover many opportunities. You can also search your competitors or other business with a strong digital presence to see where they are listed. | ||
| WTSP | This is an example of a directory listing dedicated to Tampa. Newspapers and TV/Radio stations often have business directories. | ||
| Tampa Chamber of Commerce | Chamber of Commerce directory listings are fantastic. They are usually followed links and carry a strong link value and geographic signals. Unfortunately, they usually require membership. | ||
| Business Tampa Bay | |||
| Florida Business List | |||
| Tampa Bay Business Directory | |||
| Allison's Alligator | |||
| Ybor City Online | A city within a city, Ybor City has its own business directory listing. | ||
| Additional Directories |
