or How Do Customers Know You’re Open

So we are in the middle of the busy bank holiday and many of our thoughts will turn to DIY, gardening, shopping, or going out for a meal or even a coffee and cake. Well it’s a holiday so why not. For many, and I include me, the first step might be to do a quick Google search and look to see who is local and find out just enough info to persuade me to visit.

For anyone not aware the way Google presents local information is heavily influenced by their Local database which contains Google+ Local listings of lots of businesses. Google gives us the opportunity to enhance these listings so that a) we appear higher up the search rankings and b) all those lovely customers can find you.

However a search in many Staffordshire based businesses brings back very disappointing results. No reviews, No pictures and often no opening times. Why would I choose businesses like that. Take the example below: –

The first is a garden centre search in Stafford. The local Google+ results appear in the Seven Pack. All a customer needs to do is hover over one of the businesses in the seven pack and a pop-up will show all the information you need. Are they open, what are the key products, take a virtual tour, contact numbers.

Well I’m afraid many of the Stafford ones look most uninviting and soem I can’t tell if they are even open today. I think I’ll go for a coffee instead.

Look at the results from the same search in London. Much richer information than the Staffordshire results. Opening hours on almost all of them, phone numbers, photos and virtual tours. Also the star ratings for the reviews draws my eyes to those over the others. What about the ones that don’t appear here.

Well there are aways to find those results but quite frankly who is going to bother. Get your business noticed by optimising your Google+ listing and find more customers. If you don’t really know how give me a call.