ECommerce sales information and opinions from Rob Charlebois, selling online since 1998, driving over 20M in annual ECommerce sales.

Simple Ways to Increase Traffic from Google - Part 1

April 7th, 2008 Posted in Ottawa Online Marketing, Natural Search Optimization, Recent Entries

I have recently spoken with a couple different small business in the Ottawa area who are looking to increase traffic from Google. While there are many complex ways to increase traffic from Google, there are also some very simple ways to increase traffic from Google that are often overlooked. In a series of blog posts, I am calling “Simple Was to Increase Traffic from Google” I will profile some of these tactics so that you as a small business owner can easily implement to start increasing your traffic from Google.

The first tactic I will profile is getting listed in the “Google Local Business Center“. Any business with a regional location or focus should consider adding a listing to Google through this service. Why, you may ask? It will help customers and prospects find your website, faster and more frequently and the best part is that it is free.

The Google Local Business Center is an opportunity for you to tell Google about your business and link to your physical location. Google will use this information whenever it shows a map of your area.
A searches for “ottawa consultants” in Google. As you can see a Google map was presented with a series of thumbtacks marking the location of various Ottawa consultants as well as more detail about their listing to the right of the map. The second example of how a user may find your local business listing is to navigate through Google maps. As Google maps usages increases more an more users will go to Google maps before the yellow pages or calling 411. Even I have started to use Google Maps on my blackberry as my new source of business information. To see Google maps and local business center in action searching for “Ottawa Consultants” click here.

Ok, so how do you get started? The first step is to create a Google account if you do not have one already.
Next, hit this local business center login page and sign in to your account.
Next, answer Googles basic questions about your business. (Name, Address, Phone, etc)
Google will then ask you to classify you business and then ask you to validate your business via PIN. You can either have the automated system call you and tell you the PIN for instant verification, or choose the SMS or post card options. Once you are validated your listing should begin to show in search results.

Good luck, this is a very simple ways to increase targeted local traffic from Google.

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