Google updates Local Business Centre (but not for Australia - yet)

Google has just announced some neat new features for its Local Business Centre service - where you can already customise the way in which your Google presence is displayed particularly in Google Search but particularly in Google Maps.

The new level of reporting available looks incredibly useful and solves an issue highlighted previously.

See the video below for the depth of analytical information that is available including the searches (and trends) that are bringing business your way and where these customers are coming from.



Local Business Centre as your own Google mini-site

Effectively it brings you a similar level of reporting to that available in Google Analytics that was previously unavailable for Maps. By doing so, it effectively allows you to monitor your Google "mini-site" (ie Local Business Centre listing) which has structured data about your business including opening times, payment methods accepted, pictures, reviews, coupons/vouchers.

Having this mini-site (with a Google Maps URL) allows you to study customer behaviour for another configuration of your business information on the website. The insights you learn can then be applied to your general website.

What data is available?

The information they promise to make available is as follows:

• Impressions: The number of times the business listing appeared as a result on a Google.com search or Google Maps search in a given period. [NB: This may be quite different to your organic results for other pages]
• Actions: The number of times people interacted with the listing; for example, the number of times they clicked through to the business' website or requested driving directions to the business. [This data gives you insight into the behaviour of searchers that might not be available on your main site]
  
• Top search queries: Which queries led customers to the business listing; for example, are they finding the listing for a cafe by searching for "tea" or "coffee"?
• Zip codes where driving directions come from: Which zip codes customers are coming from when they request directions to your location. [hopefully this works as well for postcodes!]

Let's hope it is not long before this level of reporting is available for Australian businesses.

You can read the complete announcement:
Official Google Blog: The Local Business Center dashboard opens its doors

How to Use Google Maps to get a Page 1 listing

Here's a little help to get you a page 1 listing for your specialty and its geography - eg "Melbourne Psychiatrist", "Sydney Obstetrician" or "General Practitioner Perth".

Google ranks businesses in their Google Maps product quite highly (page 1 normally somewhere between listings 1-5) and the first 10 listings in Google Maps will appear directly on the page along with the name, website and phone number.

So now the problem becomes getting yourself listed in the top 10 on Google Maps and your business will appear on page 1 amongst the other Google Maps listings.

How do you do that?

Google Maps relies on truelocal.com.au for its business listing data so you need to check your site is listed there. If it is already check that all the details are accurate. Make sure you enter all your pertinent information and include the type of medical practitioner you are.

It may take some time for your listing to appear on Google Maps (possibly a few weeks).

If you've done all these things and you aren't in the top 10 of Google Maps listings I have one final trick. This one you'll have to work out for yourself but it isn't too hard if you look at the results for the first two examples I give above on Google Maps and see what is different about their entries.

Happy Googling.