The Check-In Trend

What is this new trend for getting new customers? It’s all about location-based services at the moment. Many programs are now acting as check-ins which offer discounts with companies like Groupon, Facebook Places, and Foursquare. This is not what you should be focusing on right now. It is a great service if you offer goods that need to be purchased more than once, but I have a different perspective on what to do.

Google is obviously the most used search engine out there and you want to get your name on the first page right? SEO will help you do that for your web site, but what if you approached this a different way? Lately, Google’s search results have been bringing up local businesses under their Google Places program and are displayed on the first page. Why not attack this area instead of trying to get to page one with your web site? Places offers a free listing for you where you can display your name, address, logo, phone, hours, website, and so on. This is the new version of the Yellow Books, except this is free and people will actually see your listing.

So that is the background of what I am about to get into. The big secret is how to get noticed. If you are on Google Places, you are good to go and will be found, but that is not saying how well you will be ranked. The key is tagging your business with appropriate services and having quality reviews! When you edit your listing, there is a section where tagging is available. Google has just launched a new service this week called Hotpot, a more visual display for searching for places. It shows your location along with reviews and the information listed earlier. Most of our clients at Rainman are independent insurance salesmen so I will use an example based off of them. To be found on Places even better, they would require tags that display their services such as insurance, health insurance, coverage, and vehicle insurance. When people search for these terms, this company’s listing should be pulled up in the first page.

Every business should be on Google Places and there is no excuse why they shouldn’t. This will give your company a much better view without doing much SEO research. You just need basic keywords that are tagged to your place in order to be better searched for. Just think of the companies that have a listing but no description. How will someone be able to find you?