3 Reasons to Claim Your Google+ Local Business Listing

Local SEO has evolved with all the changes in the Search Engines, and was a part of the organic search. But then Google made it possible for business owners to claim and edit their listings. A business listing can and often do exist without the business doing anything. If the business had advertised in a phone books, then Google would have pulled the business info from those adds, but often the adds are incomplete or erroneous.

Why Should You Claim Your Business Listing?

Several years ago, I was checking the Google local places page(now Google+ Local) for the Cheesecake Factory in the Buckhead section of Atlanta GA. The listing indicated that they were closed on Sunday. For a restaurant like the Cheesecake factory,  this meant a good deal of patrons might have gone to another restaurant on Sundays. There is just no telling how long this info was up on the listing. I did check, and their Google+ Local page now seems to be up to date.

Our Boyertown PA Office in Pic above

Looking at the screen shot of  the Baldydog Search Strategies Google+ Local page, I have two arrows drawn. The “Edit Any Listing”  link will let you edit any business listing, as long as you are signed in t0 a Gmail account.

I have used this link to edit info of places that I have gone to and their info was wrong. ie. wrong address, wrong phone number, no website…

Some dishonest people might edit their competitions info or might put a wrong website in so people visit the wrong site.

I suggest you use the link below it and claim your business listing. This will also let you go to the
Google+ Local Business dashboard if you have already claimed the listing and are logged into the Gmail account you used to claim the listing.

You can tell if a listing has been claimed if you see the “From The owner” section.

If you claim the listing, and someone else makes an edit to your listing, you should be notified  with an email of any changes to your listing. If an employee who is no longer with your organization claimed the listing, you can reclaim the listing here as well.

Secondly, after claiming your listing, Google will then send you a monthly report of the traffic to and from your listing.  Not an extensive analytics report by any means, but it is something.

Lastly and most importantly,  I would suggest that you claim the listing because claimed listings do better int he Search Engine Results Pages(SERPs). So if I were searching for a place to eat in a town, if one restaurant has claimed their listing, the restaurants Google+ Local page will very likely be showing higher and for more keywords than an unclaimed listing.

Recap of Reasons To Claim Your Listing

1. To edit erroneous or incomplete info
2. To get monthly traffic reports for your listing
3. To increase the visibility  of the listing . Claimed listings do much better than unclaimed listings in the search engine rankings.

 Questions about Google+ Local Listings

If you are still unsure of how or why you should claim your Google+ Local Business Listing, please contact us for a quote on your Local SEO needs.

Related articles

• 5 Ways to Use Google for Local Search (greatfinds.icrossing.com)
• Google+ Local: What You Need to Know (reachlocal.com)
• Why businesses should be using Google+ Local (aaramshoppro.com)
• Using Google+ Local to raise your businesses local Web presence (solidwebdesign.wordpress.com)