Note from the editor: Please welcome AG’s newest writer, Marty Martin who is well respected in the SEO/SEM industry and is accomplished most notably in his work with higher education, government and business clients. Marty shares our sentiment of being the “anti-consultant” in an environment where everyone’s a “guru” or a “ninja” and his passion is evident in all of his writing. Marty is a licensed agent but has for many years been devoted to the advocacy of businesses as he helps to implement cost effective SEO/SEM strategies. Please welcome him in comments.
Search marketing is more than just SEO
First of all, as a local real estate agent, if you don’t know about the Google Local Business Center, you owe it to yourself to get in there and figure it out.
In a nut shell, when potential customers are searching Google Maps for something like “real estate” or “homes for sale” when viewing their town, neighborhood, etc. you can have your agent profile, name, address, website, address, phone number and more all show up in a handy pop-up. For free. (And honestly, what real estate agent’s heart doesn’t leap at free advertising?)
So what’s new?
Prior to the last week, only businesses with fixed locations were able to add a listing to the Local Business Center, so as an agent, you had to either use your broker’s address (and compete with all the other agents at that location) or use your home address (which is kind of awkward if someone comes driving through your neighborhood looking for a business at your home).
Enter “Service Areas”.
Now, for us service industry pros, we can select a physical business location or even better, a circular service area from a center point (think city center plus a 30 mile radius) or a list of cities or zip codes. Brilliant.
Now more customers can find you
By picking one location and creating a service area or adding a list of zip codes or cities served, your Google listing is not restricted to showing up based on one physical location. The end result for you should be your listing showing up in more local map searches. And if you throw your website into the listing, some more exposure there as well.
Other features for the uninitiated
With Google Local Business Center, you can also add coupons to your listing (examples might be a free credit review, free home inspection, free title insurance policy … be creative to catch the users eye).
You can also add to your free business listing:
- Up to 5 videos
- Operating hours
- Service area(s)
- Payment options (not really applicable to agents)
- Up to 10 photos or images (why would you add your portrait and logo?)
- And other “Additional Details” (this is a good place to add some key words ;o)
Get started: Add your own free business listing. Folks, this is so easy a caveman could do it.
One small thing to watch out for
Some folks have reported a problem with Google merging multiple business records of businesses using the same location and updating the same day. So if you’re using your broker’s address, you might want to wait a few weeks until Google irons out this small wrinkle. (or just switch to your home address).
Matt Stigliano
March 25, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Marty – Welcome to AgentGenius. First post out of the gate and it’s a winner. I wasn’t aware of the service area part. I’ll have to try and get over there tonight and get this done!
Erion Shehaj
March 25, 2010 at 6:07 pm
Welcome Marty! I have been using Google LBC for about 3 years now and I love it. But didn’t know about the service area option – thanks for sharing.
Something tells me this was a great addition…
RealEstate_Mktg
March 25, 2010 at 6:15 pm
Welcome aboard, Marty! This is a great tool. I’m planning on passing your post on to all of our agents so they can cash in on this great tip.
Heather Jacobson
March 25, 2010 at 9:02 pm
Great article Marty! And of course I tweeted it! 😀
Marty Martin
March 26, 2010 at 11:37 am
Thanks #homie!
Michael Bertoldi
March 26, 2010 at 12:10 am
Welcome Marty! Nice post. About to dive into this topic. Thanks for dropping knowledge.
Karen Goodman
March 26, 2010 at 2:05 am
I’ve gotten a lot of website traffic in the last year from my Local Business Directory listing,but I didn’t have any idea about the service area or that I could upload videos. I just tweaked my listing, uploading pictures and videos, and changing my old address location to a service area.
I also think it would make a big difference to have some positive reviews on the listing, so I shot over to Facebook and sent a message to about 15 former clients, asking them to go leave a review on my services. If they actually do, then I’ll also link to the reviews on my website Client Reviews page.
Thanks for pointing out how I could ramp this up!
Joe Loomer
March 26, 2010 at 5:57 am
Welcome to the party Marty!
The Local Business Center increased our business over the last year – mainly by targetting the long tail folks who searched for our city and “real estate agents” or “companies.”
The merging issue you pointed out is true, and if more than one agent at your firm is doing this, you’ll want to play around with the wording and the keywords to make sure Google doesn’t bundle you all up and mix website names and links.
Navy Chief, Navy Pride
Benjamin Bach
March 26, 2010 at 6:57 am
Great stuff Marty, Thanks!
Welcome to AG 🙂
Marty Martin
March 26, 2010 at 7:51 am
Hello folks,
Thanks for the welcome and the positive comments; I plan to bring you more great gems like this in the coming weeks so stay tuned! Sometimes even the things we know can surprise us with new features!
Kelley
March 26, 2010 at 9:42 am
Thank you for this very informative post. I’m going to give it a “retweet”!
Jeremy Hart
March 26, 2010 at 3:19 pm
Good to have you here, Marty, and particularly nice to have someone from the RNR on AgentGenius!
Marty Martin
March 26, 2010 at 3:44 pm
Thanks Jeremy (or should I call you #2?)! It’s a great crowd to be associated with for sure.
I love what you-all are doing on CB’s website with video, etc. Met your broker and relocation director at #rkeunwind last week, nice folks!
Abbotsford Real estate
March 26, 2010 at 9:17 pm
Thanks for the information, I wasn’t aware that you could do this.
rob | atlanta homes
March 27, 2010 at 8:17 am
Nice post. Good info. Well written and useful.
Roscoe Property Management
April 2, 2010 at 2:47 pm
This is my first read on Agent Genius, and I will be back. I found out about this little Google gem last week by accident. This is very helpful for us as we are a property management company that in some areas have multiple properties on one the same road. 🙂
Another bonus is that you (Agent Genius) are from Austin also! Keep up the good work!
anthonys indianapolis homes for sale
April 18, 2010 at 1:55 pm
I wasn’t aware of the option for video uploads. This sounds like a service that should be taken advantage of before way too many people start using it and it loses its value for any one user.
ohalloran
May 18, 2010 at 11:06 am
Marty–This is awesome. Absolutely love the radius part and have updated all of my info. Thanks so much!
Marty Martin
May 18, 2010 at 5:06 pm
You’re welcome; happy you found it helpful!