9 Tips to Increase Response Rates from Google Maps

I talk a lot about Google because typically 40% of the traffic to my site comes from this one source. Most websites experience the same levels of traffic from Google so it’s important to understand all things Google as it relates to promoting your business.

One of the best additions to their lineup has been Google Maps. I’ve mentioned Google Maps before in previous posts but wanted to go into more detail about how you can improve response rates from it.

If you don’t have a listing yet, logon today to Google’s Local Business Center and  set one up! Be sure to do a search first for your martial arts school as you might already have a listing and just need to claim it.

Why Should You Care About Google Maps?wet

When potential students search for martial arts schools in Google, they immediately see the 7-pack; the top seven most relevant business locations based on the searcher’s query and location according to Google. It’s one of the first things searchers see after they hit “search.”

Please note that your business may be listed but not appearing in the 7-pack because they have found your competitors might be more relevant. The easiest way to tell if you’re coming up (or not) is to search for “martial arts <your city> <your state>” and see what comes up.

Google’s 7-Pack in Action

Here’s what this looks like for my particular city (My schools listing is the second from the top):

According to Google, “Google Maps for the United States compiles information from many sources to bring you the best results. Our listings combine information from our web search results, data submitted directly by local business owners, and third-party sources such as publicly available Yellow Pages directories.”

However, that doesn’t mean everything is accurate or complete; which is why you’re going to want to claim your listing then tune it up to help get more inquiries from it.

And, just having a listing isn’t enough. You have to optimize your listing not only to have better placement in the Google maps – a topic I will cover in the near future – but you should also optimize for better response rates (read inquiries) from your listing.

How to Increase Response Rates from Google Maps

1. Get more reviews – The more reviews, the better. To get more reviews, send your students an email and ask them to honestly review your martial arts school then give them the link to the review portion of your listing. It’s  that simple. Why are reviews so important? They provide social proof that other people have used your services and are happy with the results and service they’ve received and implies if other’s are satisfied, they will be, too.
2. List your Business Hours – This is  different than listing you class schedule. This just lets people know your hours of your operation so they know when to call or come by. If you’re a full time business, it demonstrates convenience and implies you have a lot of classes to choose from. If you don’t teach a lot of days or times, you might want to leave this blank.
3. Link to your website – If you have a website, be sure to add your domain name. This not only communicates a sense of professionalism but it also makes it easier to direct people to your lead generation focused website. Not having a website these days can send the wrong impression that you’re behind the times and not customer friendly.
4. Make an offer - Making an offer is one of the most important things you can do. Google allows you to create a coupon and is something that you should definitely consider adding to your listing. And, if you can make it a Google Maps exclusive offer, it will be easier to track if someone calls or comes in and wants to redeem it.  This could be a discount on your trial program, a free trial, or whatever offer you want to use.
5. Enhance your business description – You have 200  characters to tell your story and whet your prospects appetite. Use it wisely and be as descriptive as you can while speaking directly to your target audience about why they should consider calling you over your competitors. Be sure to also include your unique selling proposition here.
6. Use a Call To Action – Using a call to action helps prompt your prospects to pick up the phone, send you an email… whatever response you want your prospect to take. This could be as simple as saying “Call us today to learn how you can get one month of martial arts lessons for free!”
7. Add photos – Photos help prospects visualize your martial arts school and help draw attention to your listing. Take photos of your school in daylight hours, particularly if you have a lot of windows. Include photos with and without your students of your facility. Take photos of the outside of your facility as well. If you have great parking, be sure to feature that as well.
8. Add videos – Like photos, videos capture attention. If you have a martial arts commercial uploaded to YouTube, you can easily add the URL to your listing. This way, prospects can view your videos without having to leave your listing and possibly getting off track.
9. Tune up your details – Google allows you to add details about your business. You can add the forms of payment you accept, associations, awards and more. Basically, you can use the details to mention all of your various  features.

The good news is that you can follow the same advice when creating or claiming your listings on Yahoo, Bing and other local business directory listings.

Be sure to to visit Google’s Local Business Center and  either set up your listing, edit it or claim it so you can benefit from having this work harder for you in Google search results.

What else would you add to this list of ways to get more response from your Google Maps listing? Let me know in the form of a comment below!

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Top Posts for January 2010

Here are the top 5 posts for Marketing Martial Arts in January 2010;  according to how many times they were uniquely viewed by our visitors:

1. 7 Often Overlooked Martial Arts Marketing Tools
2. Martial Arts Business Success in 2010
3. 10 Types of Irresistible Offers You Can Make to Prospects
4. 50 Killer Ideas for Building a More Profitable Martial Arts School
5. All Professional Martial Arts Schools are McDojos

As always, thanks for reading Marketing Martial Arts!

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Google Capoeira

Every month Google does a little dance that can either help you by elevating your site in the search rankings or it can hurt you by dropping it lower in the search results; making it harder to find.

I’m seeing some big shifts in the Google search results in my local market on local terms. And, at least for now, I think these changes have probably helped out some of my competitors out more than it has helped me.

Rats.

Many in the search engine optimization industry call these shifts in the search results the Google dance. Being that I’m in the martial arts, I call it Google Capoeira. It can be a deadly dance, indeed.

What is the Google Dance? Simply put that term is often used to describe the index update of the Google search engine that happens approximately once a month.

Until recently, there was only one other martial arts schools website on page one of the search results other than mine. The rest were local directories like yellowpages.com, superpages.com, merchantcircle.com…et al. This has been this way for years now.

I liked that because my martial arts school is listed in those directories. If a visitor didn’t go to my site, at least I had a chance to get them in the directories versus them going to my competitors home page where I had nothing.

Now, all of a sudden, the top 10 results in Google’s search engine results pages (aka SERPS) are ALL martial arts schools. This is a big change and is something I’ve NEVER seen in my market. Most of these sites have been out there for years…  stale… unchanged…. then all of a sudden, they’re there.

Poof! In the top 10.

Like magic my competitor’s sites appeared on page one of the search results when they weren’t even in the top 20 before. And, I know they haven’t done anything search engine optimization wise as I have torn them apart a ton of times over the years.

Google, for now, just gave them a lift thanks to the obvious changes in their algorithm.

Here are a few other observations I’ve made:

• New competitors in the top 10 – As I said above, I’m seeing my competitors websites who weren’t previously ranked in the top 20 now appear in the top 10. Many of the local directory sites have gone to page two of the search results.
• Facebook gets dropped – My Facebook fan page for my martial arts school was number 3 for a desirable keyword phrase while my site was #1. Now,  its nowhere to be found in the first 50 results. I think this has more to do with Google devaluing Facebook overall. I don’t see Facebook come up in a lot of searches anymore. But, it’s still a great tool to have; especially for keeping in touch with current students.
• The #3 Ranked Site shouldn’t be there – The biggest surprise to me is that the new #3 site in Google is 99% built using FLASH…has music…uses a splash page… and huge file sizes. All no-no’s in basic Search Engine Optimization. But, there they are. This site shouldn’t be ranking this well. They don’t even have good title tags so this one is head scratcher. I think this site will tank after a few months but for now is clogging things up.
• My Merchant Circle page wiggles – My merchant circle page keeps floating in and out of the top 10. I’m hoping it sticks soon.  I’ve done additional optimization to that page to help it in the rankings and it looks like that might land soon. I’m going to do a post about that soon so hold tight.

Some strange things are afoot at Google. These could be temporary changes as part of their algorithm or perhaps they are more permanent. Time will tell, I suppose.

However, I’m not surprised to see things shift like this at all.

In fact, I expect it.

Why?

Because Google is always trying to figure out what is the most relevant pages to serve up. They are constantly spidering  and re-indexing their results and want to have the best sites appear on page one for a given keyword or keyword set.

Sometimes this process will help you. Sometimes it won’t.

Some of these directory sites might come back but other’s might not. That’s why it’s good to diversify as part of your defensive blockade.

Are you seeing changes in your Google search results? Has your site gone up or down in your market?

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