Get Your Business in Google My Business

Around 1 in 4 Internet searches are local. In recognition of this fact, Google launched Google Local back in 2004.

Since then, they’ve changed the name several times (“Google Local,” “Google Maps,” “Google Places,” “Google+ Local,” and now “Google My Business”). But whatever they call it, you definitely want your business to show as one of the three companies featured in the Google My Business list on the first page of the Google search engine results.

Google My Business results are second only to the organic search results in terms of the number of clicks they get. In other words, they get more clicks than the paid Google Adsense ads. And they generate not only clicks to your website but also direct phone calls because they show your company phone number right there on the page. That means that people searching for your services online can simply dial your number and call you without even having to visit your website.

Google My Business outperforms its competitors by a large margin. It generates three times more leads than Bing Local and Yahoo Local combined. And it does this with a great ROI (it’s actually a free traffic source, but it does take some time and effort to get your company to be one of the seven businesses show up in the Google+ Local listings). In fact, Google My Business (there, I said it) is nearly equal to the organic search results in every category: website traffic, phone calls, quality of leads generated and ROI.

Click on the link to see a breakdown of these stats in a report done by BrightLocal: Online Sources of Clicks & Calls for Local Businesses