You are busy taking amazing care of your clients, but do you know where the next one is coming from? In 2014 local search is more important than ever and competition is fierce.
When your prospective clients search for your specialty in a specific area, Google will show them a pack of local map results in your search results page. Yes, this means that you should care about Google +Local!
For example let’s search for a personal injury lawyer in Vancouver, Washington. In the page below you can see that there are three types of results. First the Paid Ads at the top and side. Second, there are a few ‘organic’ results in the middle. Third, the Local Map Results, and finally there are more organic results below the pack of map results (not show here, but trust me, they are there).
Anatomy of a Google Search Results Page
As you can see, there are not many ‘local’ firms in the organic results. There is not much real estate for organic results, and there is some serious competition for that space. If you want a good chance of being found for your specialty in that local area your best bet is to be in the Local Map Pack. The importance of having a correct and optimized Google Places/+Local profile cannot be overemphasized. If you don’t already have a Google Places for Business account do it now! It is free, takes five minutes, and puts you in control of your listing. Without it you don’t stand to fare well in search results.
Part of having a well optimized Google listing is having amazing images. The office space that you worked so hard to build out should be featured prominently on your Search, Maps, Mobile, and +Local profile. You can also embed the tour and images on your web site (example here!). The one-time fee for unlimited use makes the See Inside tour an outstanding value.
Your prospective clients want to know about you, your staff, and your space. Share with them online for the best chance to meet them in person.
Thanks for your time! Please call or use the contact widget below to talk to me about your project.
Resources:
Top 20 Local Search Ranking Factors: An Illustrated Guide
http://moz.com/blog/top-20-local-search-ranking-factors-an-illustrated-guide
Google+: Should Lawyers Care?
Lawyernomics http://lawyernomics.avvo.com/legal-marketing-2/google-should-lawyers-care.html#ixzz2pwHYN6uM