By Ali Dieken
Swipe left, swipe right. These terms are commonplace in the 21st century online dating world. When you swipe right, you have the potential to connect as a “match” with the user’s profile you are currently viewing, while swiping left allows you to move on to another user’s profile. People around the world, tens of millions to be exact, have been building up their profiles on online dating applications such as Tinder, since its creation in 2013, all in the hopes of find their “match.”
Now, you may be asking yourself, “How could this possibly apply to digital marketing?” In this blog, we are going to talk about a few keys to create a digital presence/online profile that gets even Google to swipe right on your business.
Picture this: You, aka your business, are on a dating application. You are swiping right on major search engines, hoping to “match” aka appear within the coveted first page of search results. That’s when Google, the perfect 10 of dating profiles, appears. You immediately swipe right. You now sit, eagerly awaiting Google to swipe right on your business.
When using a dating app to establish romantic relationships, some of the most prevalent advice found throughout the internet recommends users add high-quality photos and create a unique, witty bio. But, in our example, when attempting to “match” with Google, the advice is different. A major key to Google swiping right on your business profile is ensuring your name, address and phone number (NAP) are consistent within all directory sites. These sites include, but are not limited to, Yellow Pages, Facebook, Angie’s List and Yelp.
To ensure you have a consistent NAP across directory sites, you can either use a listing management service that pushes your information out to a list of over 70 local listings or you can go to each listing website, search for your business, ensure the information listed is correct and contact the listing provider if it is not. Having a consistent NAP across all directory sites is extremely important and gets Google one step closer to swiping right.
So, you’ve ensured that your NAP is consistent but you check your “dating app” and Google still hasn’t swiped right. Like the importance of high-quality photos when using a dating app to establish a romantic relationship, photos are important for Google to notice you. Having high-quality photos, whether of your company logo, staff, product or building, are important. But what if you did this and Google still hasn’t swiped right and put your business on the first page of search results? Another important key to success is customer reviews. Not only are these reviews helpful for you, as a business, for personal testimonials and to better understand your customers but they also increase the likelihood of Google recognizing your business.
Whether you are starting a business, refreshing your brand or ensuring that your long-standing business can be easily found in this increasingly digital world, remember these key takeaways to getting Google to recognize, and swipe right, on your business:
- Ensure name, address and phone number are consistent across all directory listings
- Add quality photos to listings
- Promote clients reviewing your business
As always, if you’re looking for more great information that will amp up your local search results and bring in the benefits of excellent SEO strategy, keep checking back for more articles from ChoiceLocal!
About the Author:
Ali Dieken is a Jr Account Executive at ChoiceLocal, specializing in search engine optimization and speaking fluent Google Analytics, BrightEdge and Hubspot. She prides herself on going to a party and making friends with the dog.
