At the Tourism Tribe we have a passion helping small businesses succeed, We love to share quick tips on how businesses can improve their online presence and capture more leads, without paying a cent.
A really great tool to use is your free listing on Google, called ‘Google My Business listing’. Getting your listing set up is the first, important step to optimise your business for Local Search.
This tool is absolutely under utilised by Northern Territory small businesses and could give your business a competitive advantage, very quickly.
Today we are sharing a few steps to help you – hopefully – appear on the top of Google for the services you provide, just like the top restaurants in Darwin below.
Setting up your Google My Business listing
- Head over to Google My Business and set up your listing. Note, if you already have a listing it will tell you. You may need to claim it (and wait for the postcard to arrive to validate it, or transfer the ownership to you).
- Fill it out ‘to the max’. Don’t forget to add categories, photos (in all different categories), opening hours etc
- Tips
- Your address needs to be written the exact same way as the way it is written on your website and everywhere else online (so no ‘Corner of Bloomfield and Smith Street’, but 1043 Bloomfield street instead).
- Get reviews and respond to them!
- Other factors that will help your Google My Business listing
When setting up your Google My Business listing you’re really signalling to Google that you’re ready to be a contender in the local search SEO game.
Getting the listing set up is one big step, but other actions should be taken to reinforce the local presence of your business.
- Sign up with local directories (search for ‘local directories’ on Google) and utilise the same Business name, Address and Phone number
- Ensure your full address is listed on every page of your website
- Manage your online reviews, encourage reviews on Google and respond to all reviews
More information on how to utilise local search for your tourism business on Tourism Tribe and on Moz Local
The Digital Leap program is designed to build your skills and knowledge so you can keep improving your online presence. Tourism Tribe is a partner in Digital Leap and you are eligible to have an online assessment, online coaching session and a year’s subscription to a large collection of tutorials and helpful resources to assist you. Limited spaces are available in the program. Click here for more information and to sign up.
Also, you have an opportunity to attend social media workshops in Darwin (12th October) and Katherine (13th October) . These are free for Tourism Tribe Digital Leap members. If you’re already a member log on to www.TourismTribe.com and navigate to My Dashboard to register for the workshops.
If you’d like more information about the workshops or joining Tourism Tribe please contact Tourism Tribe on 07 3103 7994 or online chat with Wendy who manages the Tourism Tribe help desk.
