What is Google Maps? How can it help my business grow?

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Google offers incredible tools to give you an inside look at how people can find your business listing on the web. Because many customers find businesses on Google Search and Maps, Google focuses on how customers use Search and Maps to find your listing, and what they do once they find it.

How does it work?

Google Insights data includes views, searches, and actions from both organic search results and Google Ads. Google Insights provides you different ways to understand how customers interact with your listing including the following:

  • How customers find your listing

  • Where customers find you on Google

  • Search Queries

  • Customer actions taken

  • Direction requests

  • Phone calls

  • Photos for optimization

  • What your business is known for

  • How customers find your listing

This section of Insights shows how many customers found you and how they found you. Click or tap the chart on the dashboard to see the percentage of all customers that found you via each of these methods:

  • Direct searches: A customer directly searched for your business name or address.

  • Discovery searches: A customer searched for a category, product, or service that you offer, and your listing appeared.

  • Branded searches: A customer searched for your brand or a brand related to your business. This category will only appear if your listing has appeared at least once for a branded search.

  • Total searches: The total number of direct, discovery, and branded searches.

Want to catch the eyes of people who haven't discovered your business yet? Try running an ad on Google. This will allow you the way to target results instantly!

Search queries

Search queries show you the queries used to find your business on Google. In the Google can track common terms and search trends for your business. These queries should help you create better Posts with Google and even Ads to engage your customers. This product works ahead of your website and acts like your website. Recently Google has been explaining No Click action to your website. In other words, people can click on Google Maps, view your products, special offers and call you to order, WITHOUT EVER SEEING your website!

Search queries focus on the terms that your customers used to find your business on Local Search and Maps. We like to make these terms available for you the owner of your business available so you can target them with Google Ads and or in replies in Reviews and Q & A’s. This is what our team is trained to do for you.

You can easily see where customers find you on Google

With Google Maps, you’ll see the number of views your listing received through each of these services:

  • View on Search: A customer found your business via Google Search. Displays as “Search views” on bulk reports.

  • Views on Maps: A customer found your business via Google Maps. Displays as “Maps views” on bulk reports.

  • Total views: The total views of both Google Search and Google Maps. To view details on how many customers found your business on a specific product and day.

Yellow Pages used to show addresses with a map back in the day, but now Google Maps has that and more. You can also see how many people wanted directions to your locations. This section also shows where customers are when they request directions to your business.

You can even see, on the map displayed, you’ll see your location pinned and the popular places you customers are when they ask Google Maps for directions to your address. The total number of requests broken down by city or neighborhood are displayed as well.

Phone calls: You can track phone calls here or with a tracking phone number you can get from Google at no charge. Using this tool, you can see displays when and how often customers called your business through your business listing.

Photos: (this is so important to keep adding and optimizing them)
This section displays the number of photos associated with your listing and how often they’re viewed compared to similar businesses in the following graphs:

Photo views: How many times your photos have been viewed.

Photo quantity: How many photos you’ve uploaded to your business listing.

You can use the dropdown menu in the top-left corner lets you adjust the time-frame to see data from the last week, month, or quarter. Hovering over a specific day on the graph shows you data for that day only.

If there are enough businesses in the area similar to yours, there are lines on the graphs that compare your photo data with photo data to the similar businesses. For example, if you manage a restaurant, your business would be compared to other restaurants in your area. On the right side of the graph you’ll see the total number of photos based on the data points you’ve selected.

You can also highlight, what your business is known for. This section of Insights provides customers' opinions of your restaurant or cafe (e.g. cozy, romantic, or notable cocktails).

Since customers' opinions are based on their experience, the information is subjective. It's considered to be valuable to other customers, as it describes the feel & ambiance for a place. Unless proven false, Google will not remove this information without validation. This is just scratching the surface of value you can expect to receive from this product.

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This is an example of a Bloomerang client who improved their ranking on Google Maps. In a few short months, Ballard Blossom, Inc. of Seattle jumped from #25 to #2.

Google is constantly improving and adding functionality to Maps listings

While a listing on Google maps is free, verifying your listing is paramount. Now, the more you put in, the more you will get out! Google likes to see users making good use of their tools. The more you activate and use the tools offered by Google, the more value your listings have to them.

Google is a constantly-evolving information highway dedicated on bringing valid information to consumers on demand and the powerful marketing tools it provides are unlike anything that business owners have ever seen before. If you are not taking advantage of them already, you should start today. Need help? Your friends are Bloomerang are here to help - every step of the way. Give us a call today at (941) 806-1911 or drop us a line below.


Control all your reviews on every platform from your website with our enhanced review module

Reviews are a collective first-hand account of what your customers think about your business. They’re the best thing we have to base many of our important decisions on which makes them crucial for any business, especially when it comes to Google.

 
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But, responding to reviews is tedious work, especially when they’re spread out over multiple platforms. Most customers will gladly leave you a great review if ask them - so long as it doesn’t require much work on their end. With a review widget on your website, customers can leave reviews on Facebook, Google Maps, Yelp, and a host of other platforms without leaving your site!

If you don’t already have the review widget on your website, call us today at (941) 809-5000 and we will help get you set up.

Did you know there were Q&As on your GMB listing? Use this to your advantage!

Most people are aware that their business has it’s own listing on Google Maps, but many people don’t scroll down far enough to see some of the more robust features of their GMB listings. One in particular is extremely valuable to the reputation of your business - the Q&A (question and answer) section.

Why is the Q&A section so important? Because it lets you control the information on your listing and it shows perspective customers that you are an active, responsive shop who will go out of their way to help them out if they should ever encounter a problem. Great customer service goes a long way.

 
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It it also an outstanding opportunity to clarify any comments or complaints that customers may have. I have found that more often than not, most upset customers can easily be satisfied with a one-minute conversation where you just listen to their issue and try to find a resolution.

Keep in mind that this is also a fantastic chance to showcase your customer service skills. It’s on display for everyone who looks at your listing so be sure to take some time to give it the attention it deserves. If you need help with your GBM listing, give us a call today. We can help you! (941) 809-5000.


SEO on Your Teleflora Website Showing Results You Can See and Understand

I am proud to say I created the very first "LOCAL" pages almost 20 years ago as an online marketing strategy for my flower shop in Sarasota as well as for other prominent florists around the nation. Once these pages started to appear and started drawing traffic, they were quickly copied and used in many shops and in a host of other industries.

What I am most proud to say is that Teleflora has allowed me to work with their software to be able to achieve results for my clients that have Teleflora websites.

So if you have a Teleflora website, you can rest assured I can achieve results like this for you as well. Teleflora has listened to, and has truly become a partner with the retail florist allowing them the opportunity to grow while helping them meet their needs and accomplish their goals.

Here is a terrific example. In this case, I searched “west allis wi florist” (the birthplace of Liberace) for Alfa Flower Shop. Not only am I securing the 2nd spot at the top of the Google search results page, we are also #1 in organic results under the maps in a town that the service florist does NOT have a shop but delivers to - which is why they are not in the top 3 for maps.

 
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If you want to secure placement for FREE (organic results do not require a cost per click) results and you have a Teleflora website, this is what that could look like for you. With great partners like Teleflora and Bloomerang Solutions, you shop can be well on its way to the top of results. Call us today at (941) 806-1911 to get started!

How to Calculate Google Ads (aka Pay Per Click) During a Pandemic

If you own a business, 2020 has been quite the ride so far. This year has been everything, except business as usual and we must approach our marketing efforts with that in mind. This is especially true when we’re looking at analytics from Google Ads (aka Pay Per Click). As you can see below for this client, the impressions dropped a great deal during the month of July 2020. You can't help that (besides making sure the cost is also reduced), but the reason their online conversions dropped was because people were calling in orders while so many florists were closed or not delivering after a cut off time.

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We saw a lot of this where customers would click and then proceed to call-in the orders by phone. The only way to calculate those experiences is to use an industry avg of 3 orders over the phone to every 1 order online. However, since COVID it's so much greater. How much? We just don't know, but we do know that during uncertain times like these, more people will click and call to make sure they can get delivery made and order over the phone gives them the peace of mind of speaking to a real person who can confirm and be responsible for the order. This is clearly reflected in the increased dollar volume in sales.

You can see they spent less in July and saw a very favorable result in sales. Google results (when managed correctly) have been the fuel florists need to compete. You will notice most successful florists are all running Google Ads in their local markets and connect with Google My Business listings to optimize the listing.

Q: Why doesn't everyone do this?

A: The results are a reflection of the experience and capability of the agency. The cost - if not managed properly - could have easily been another $2,000 to 3,000.

Google is a bidding model where you only spend 1 penny more than the listing below you. It's important to always know your positioning and adjust accordingly, this is why it's not always best to be #1. Many people pay DEARLY for this so you have to decide how much it’s worth to your business. You have to know when to step it up and also when to consider other options.

Here are a few additional things to look for in the example above:

PHONE: The phone field is showing how many users clicked the PHONE NUMBER IN THE AD. Keep in mind that the call had to last over two minutes to register. You can res assured there are more orders here, even if you don’t know how many.

CONVERSION CODE: Google allows a “conversion code” to be created and added to our client’s website. This code triggers when the "THANK YOU" page is reached which is unequivocally a completed order. The code tracks the visit having occurred by clicking the trackable ad and then fires off a conversion signal of (1) for a completed order. We then take the average order of the shop. (which has to be done manually since many shop sales values vary) and then multiply it to calculate the final sale.

Remember, before Google came along all we had were the Yellow Pages, newspaper, print, and a few other options for local marketing. Let's face it, if you received a 1% return it was considered successful. The Yellow Pages produced better results but they were very expensive. Now with Google Ads (aka PPC) the model is a sliding scale that is as easy to follow as any. The more you attract visitors (clicks), the higher your chances are of conversions - tracking is key.

One more note: PLEASE use a lost order register at your place of business. ANYTIME a phone is answered asking about product and/or price that does not result in a sale, it's paramount the experience is recorded so the business owner is aware sales opportunities are missed. After all, you pay for those visitors, conversions are critical in the success of this effort.

Get started with Google Ads today. Drop us a line below or call anytime at (941) 806-1911 and we we help you get set up.