One of the most common comments I hear from business owners when I tell them about the business listings problem is “well I’ve claimed my business on Google Places and that’s where people search so I should be fine.” It’s comments like these that make me cringe. This business owner is probably missing out on a ton of business because of their naivete. There are a number of reasons this argument is flawed.
People only search on Google
Although Google does own a significant share of the search market, there are still a huge amount of searches being conducted on business directory sites, mobile applications, vertical sites, etc.
68.3% of search may seem like a huge portion of search, but when we take a deeper dive and look at local search we can see that this percentage is significantly less.
As we can see from the chart above. When we look at local search Google’s share drops to 43%. There are close to 250 million local searches a month occurring outside of Google. Do you want your business getting found by those searches?
Being Listed on Other Directories Helps Your Ranking on Google
The number and quality of the reviews a business has are some of many factors that Google uses to determine the order of their search results. Being listed on as many directories as possible increases the opportunity for customers to be able to leave reviews of your great business!
Google Frequently Shows Directories in Their Results
If you look at this search for a mechanic in New York City, you’ll see that a number of the results are actually directory sites. This is frequently the case when a location is specified in the search. If you want to maximize the chance that your business gets found you need to make sure that you’re listed in every directory possible.
Do you know if your business is listed everywhere it needs to be? You can check for free here.
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Google gets over 80% of search traffic, but that still leaves 20% outside of Google. When it comes to local search that’s probably even greater considering how far Yelp and other properties seem to be extending their reach.
I agree wholly. Good is the 1000 pound gorilla but when you take into account all the other factors and search engines that have the rest of the business (try YELP.com) you’ll note that a google placement page should only be one part of your overall marketing strategy.
Great points Eric. Google Places is required but on its own, not sufficient primarily for the two reasons mentioned. Namely that they Google Place/Maps gets less than half (43%) of local search volume and in order for a Google Places listing to rank high in Google Places search results (coveted Google 7-pack) in competitive markets, local citations are a key factor and no better place to get local citations (business name, address, phone number, website address, etc.) than in other local directories. The key is to ensure that your business information is EXACTLY the same in each listing so that Google Places counts those other directory listings for your business as a citation.