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In this article:\nWhy get listed on MerchantCircle\nHow to create and claim MerchantCircle business listings\nWhat you should do next\nMerchantCircle is a network of people dedicated to connecting busy consumers with top-quality local merchants. \nMerchantCircle wants to help small businesses like yours improve their online visibility, so they give you everything you need to do just that. That’s why we want to show you how to add your business to their platform. \nWhy should I add my business to MerchantCircle?\nMerchantCircle is the perfect platform for connecting with new, local consumers, and it also helps improve your local search rankings. The more online directories you can list your business on, the better chance you have to rank high in the local search results. \nCheck this out: \n25 free business listing websites every small or local business should be on\nSome other cool features and benefits that MerchantCircle can offer your business include:\nOnline advertising on their platform\nOnline reputation management services\nTop-rated customer support\nRead on to learn how to add your business to MerchantCircle.\nHow to create and claim your business account on MerchantCircle\nLet’s get started. \nStep 1: Create a MerchantCircle account\nIn order to add a business to or claim a business on MerchantCircle, you need to sign up for an account. \nGo to \nmerchantcircle.com\n and click “Sign up.”\n(Image)\n\nOn the next screen, fill out the form with the following information:\nFirst and last name\nEmail address\nPassword\nPassword confirmation\nZip code\nBusiness name\nBusiness phone number\nBe sure that the “I’m a merchant” box is checked at the top of the form, check the reCaptcha (“I’m not a robot”), and click “Create my account.”\n(Image)\n\nStep 2: Add or update your business on MerchantCircle and claim it\nWhen you add in your business name and phone number in the signup form, it allows MerchantCircle to check their database to see if your business is already there. If it is, it will show up on the following screen once you click “Create my account.”\nYou’ll be brought to a page that has your business listed. Click “Claim this business.”\n(Image)\n\nIf you don’t see your business listed, click “Add your business to MerchantCircle.”\n(Image)\n\nNo matter which option you choose, you will then be brought to the same form. If your business was already on MerchantCircle, some of your business information will be filled out for you. Just complete the form and click “Next.”\nIf your business wasn’t listed on MerchantCircle, and you clicked “Add your business…” then your form will be blank. Fill out all of your information and click “Next.”\nMake sure to include all of the following information in the form:\nBusiness name\nAddress\nPhone number\nBusiness category\nBusiness description\nBusiness website\nAccepted payment types\n(Image)\n\nYou will then be brought to a page to select the plan you would like to be on for your MerchantCircle account. To avoid paying any fees, select “Try It Free.”\n(Image)\n\nNext, MerchantCircle will prompt you to purchase “Hero Ads.” Feel free to skip this or click “Next” to stick with the free listing. \n(Image)\n\nOn the next screen, MerchantCircle will direct you to verify your email. Do this to gain full access to your business listing. \nCheck your email (this often comes into the spam/junk folder) and click “Verify your account.” \n(Image)\n\nNow you have a verified MerchantCircle account!\nYou added your business to MerchantCircle… what’s next?\nOnce you’ve added your business to this online directory, there’s still a lot more you can do to improve your online visibility and improve your opportunities to get more customers. \nAdding your business to this directory is one small piece of improving your local SEO (search engine optimization), and we have some other great resources to help you improve this even further. \nCheck out our guides:\n25 free business listing websites every small or local business should be on\nLocal SEO: 15 free tips for better search rankings\n\nHow to get more reviews\n\n

How to create and claim your MerchantCircle business listing

In this article:\nWhy small businesses should consider Google Maps advertising\nHow does local business advertising on Google Maps work?\nHow much does it cost to advertise on Google Maps?\nPlacing local ads on Google Maps is a relatively recent phenomenon, but the reason for its explosion in popularity is clear. \nGoogle Maps is SIX TIMES more popular than other navigation apps. Mobile \n“near me” searches\n are the new normal, with 200% growth over recent years. Location-related searches have grown 50 percent faster than overall mobile searches overall over the past year.\nWhy does this matter? Because three out of four people who use their smartphone to search for businesses or services nearby visit a store within a day. So Google Maps advertising can be a great way to attract local customers to your business.\nHow does local business advertising on Google Maps work?\nWhen you search for local businesses with queries like “tire shops near me” or “mexican restaurants in [city]” (whether in the standard Google engine or in Google Maps), the search engine serves up the top results along with a map of the local area. \nWhere your business ranks in these search results depends on a variety of factors, including: your star rating, the number and quality of your reviews, your customer engagement, your “normal” website’s performance on Google, and whether you’ve optimized your Google My Business profile for \nlocal SEO\n.\nHowever, if you choose to pay for local business advertising on Google Maps, your store will often appear as one of 2 or 3 (maximum) featured results at the top of those local listings. \nIn our testing, for typical small businesses, you will likely be the only ad displayed at the top of that small list of featured choices. \nDesktop/primary Google search engine results will display like this:\ngoogle maps advertising 1\n\nSearches within Google Maps specifically will display like this: \ngoogle maps advertising 2\nSince studies show that the vast majority of shoppers click on the first business listed in search results, it may be worth it to invest some of your marketing budget to advertise on Google Maps and drive more traffic to your store or your website.\nHow do I set up Google Maps advertising for my business?\nThe first thing you need to do is \nclaim your Google business listing\n. (Click for our easy how-to article.) This may sound like an obvious step, but surprisingly, a recent report showed that only 44% of Google business listings had been claimed. \nAfter you’ve claimed your listing, you should optimize your profile by adding \nthe top 5 things every small business should include in their Google business listing\n. \nNext, \nset up a Google Ads account\n for your business. Then, you can \nenable location extensions for your Google Ads account\n. This will tell Google that you want your ads to be featured in local searches. \nFinally, \noptimize your keywords\n, set up what locations and areas you want to target, and \nbid by location\n.\nIt’s important to \nlearn the difference between “call extensions” and “location extensions.”\n For most small businesses, we recommend you use location extensions primarily. \nIn addition to being more visible on the world’s most-used mapping app and attracting local customers looking for what you offer, you can use your Google Maps ads to test different keyword strategies and click-through techniques with minimal effort.\nThe next thing you need to be aware of is, it’s not going to be free. Let’s talk about potential costs.\nHow much does it cost to advertise on Google Maps?\nThe cost for serving up local ads on Google Maps is based on your budget, your preferences, your local market, the level of competition, and multiple other factors (most of which Google will not divulge). So we can only speculate about what it will cost for you. \nGoogle Maps ads’ Cost Per Click (CPC) is also figured differently depending on how your customers click through from your Google Maps ad, whether it be “Get location detail” clicks, “get directions” clicks, mobile “click-to-call,” or website clicks. \ngoogle maps advertising 3\n\nHowever, Google’s own tutorials show examples with CPCs of $4 or more, so we can assume that is a real possibility. Luckily, you can easily set daily maximums to limit the total potential cost. \nFor example, you can set a $100/day limit (or whatever you want) so if you get a ton of clicks, you won’t exceed your planned marketing budget. Once you hit your limit, Google Maps will stop displaying your ad until the next day or whenever you have set your max spending to reset. \nThis is important because at a theoretical CPC of $4, if you get 500 clicks you’ll be spending $2000 a day.\nRemember these are just \nclicks\n, not \nsales\n. But if you have a high-converting website you want to drive customers to, or if you simply want to boost your visibility and brand recognition with local customers, this type of advertising could be well worth it for you.\nAnother advantage of Google Maps advertising is that they make it very easy to set up a profile, modify displayed content, and track results, even if you don’t know very much about marketing.\nConsider adding your local product inventory to Google Maps\nIn addition to allowing you to customize your ad content and make your map “pin” stand out against your competitors (at additional cost), Google also lets you link your in-stock inventory to Google ads. \nThis means customers searching for specific items in stock can get shown that info as part of your featured advertisement. For pharmacies, shoe stores, or other local retail shops, this can be very useful. \nClick to read Google’s how-to on \nlinking your local inventory\n.\nSources:\n
\nhttps://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2016/06/01/google-maps-local-search-ads\n
\nhttps://themanifest.com/app-development/popularity-google-maps-trends-navigation-apps-2018\n
\nhttps://themanifest.com/app-development/how-advertise-google-maps\n
\nhttp://info.brandmuscle.com/StateofLocalMarketing2017_Download-Report.html\n

Google Maps advertising: an intro for local businesses

In this article:\nMost important SEO metrics\nFree SEO auditing tools and how they work\nSEO (search engine optimization) is an important part of any business’s online marketing strategy. It’s how you show up on Google, and other search engines. And that’s one of the first places people are looking for your offerings! \nSo, how can you determine if your SEO looks good and what you need to do to improve it?\nFirst, is business good? Are you getting organic leads on a regular basis? If not, then an SEO audit might be in order.\nWhat are the most important metrics to track when it comes to SEO?\nYou can track several metrics to determine if your business is properly optimized for the search engines. It all starts with having a good website (and a Google My Business listing if you have a local business). This is the foundation for helping your business get found online. \nSo, what determines good website health?\nMobile-friendliness\nThis means your website is easy to use across different devices. You can find your way around and have a good experience on your website whether you are on a large monitor or a cell phone. \nPage speed\nPage speed is how quickly your pages load. Most people will leave a website if it takes longer than 5 seconds to load. Ideally, it should take less than 2 seconds. \nPage crawls\nIt’s important that Google and other search engines are able to crawl the pages on your website. This is what helps them get indexed so they can show up in search results. \nOrganic traffic\nOrganic traffic is website visits that come from the search engines. If you don’t have any organic traffic, it’s probably because it’s not showing up in the search engines. \nDomain authority\nThis is a metric that Google uses to determine the strength and trustworthiness of a website. This is a 0-100 scale, with most local businesses falling anywhere between 5 and 35 depending on how much SEO work they’ve done.  \nBacklinks\nBacklinks are links from other websites that go to your website. These are a huge factor in your overall domain authority. The more trustworthy backlinks that you have, the better your domain authority will be, the more opportunities you’ll have to rank in the search engines. \nCitations\nCitations are listings for your business in online directories. Think Yelp, Yellowpages, Google My Business, even Facebook. It is important that each of your citations has the exact same NAP (name, address, and phone number) in order for Google to verify your information with these other directories. \nKeyword rankings\nYour keyword rankings tell you how well your website shows up in the search engines for a particular search query. The higher up you are in the search engines, the more traffic you’ll get to your website. This generally results in more business too. \nTop 10 free SEO auditing tools that can help you track important metrics\nLet’s dive into the free tools that can help you check these metrics and your overall SEO health. \nWebsite auditing tools\nThere are tons of solutions out there that will do a free audit of your website. Most of them will require your email address so they can send you more information about their services or free courses that they offer.\nThese website graders give a general look at your mobile-friendliness, page speed/performance, and SEO potential.\nHubspot Website Grader\nHubspot’s Website Grader will score your website on performance, SEO, mobile, and security. It will break each of those items down in the report to show you how you can improve in each area. \nGo to \nwebsite.grader.com\n to enter your website URL, email address, and get your score. Hubspot will also provide links to free resources that they offer to help you learn more about SEO and managing a website. \n(Image)\n\nNibbler\nNilbbler grades your website on accessibility and mobile usability, experience, marketing, and technology. It then breaks down each of these items to show you any potential issues with your website and how you can make improvements. \nGot to \nnibbler.insites.com\n to test your website. \n(Image)\n\nTools for traffic analytics\nTraffic analytics tools will show you how many people are visiting your website each day, week, or month and where that traffic is coming from. \nGoogle Analytics\nGoogle Analytics has tons of metrics that you can pull, from traffic analytics to user behaviors and demographics. \nFor the traffic analytics side of things, this tool will allow you to filter specific timeframes to see how much traffic you had and where that traffic came from. It will breakdown your traffic by these sources:\nOrganic (from the search engines)\nDirect (people who bookmarked your website or type it in directly)\nSocial (traffic from social media to your website)\nReferrals (from links on other websites)\nPaid (from any paid Google ads that you might be running)\nCheck with your web developer to see if Google Analytics is set up on your website. And if it’s not, make sure it gets done. \nGo to \nanalytics.google.com\n to check your Google Analytics web traffic. \nSemRush\nSemRush will do an overall look at your traffic, backlinks, keyword rankings, and more, but most of these features come with a paid subscription. You can enter your website in for free to get a snapshot of what your monthly organic search traffic looks like though. \nJust go to \nsemrush.com\n, enter your website, and create an account. \n(Image)\n\nDomain & link tracking tools\nThese tools will help you determine what your domain authority is and what your backlink profile looks like. \nMoz Free Domain SEO Analysis Tool\nMoz is a big leader in the SEO world and has developed several tools that professional marketers use every day to monitor SEO and website health. But they also have a few free tools that you can use. One of those is their Domain SEO Analysis Tool. \nThis tool will give you your domain authority, the number of other domains that are linking to your website, how many keywords you are ranking for at a national level, and a spam score for your website. \nJust go to \nmoz.com/domain-analysis\n and enter in your website’s domain name. \nTry comparing your domain to competitors that are showing up well in the search engines to give yourself an idea of how much work you have to do to keep up. \n(Image)\n\nAhrefs Backlink Checker\nAhrefs is another SEO resource that provides several different tools to track a lot of these metrics that we’ve mentioned. Again, a lot of their services are paid features, but they do offer a free backlink checker, allowing you to see how many links you have to your website. They’ll also provide a domain rating. \nThe numbers here will be different from Moz’s Domain Analysis tool because they use different bots to crawl the web, so they might not have all of the same information. \nGo to \nahrefs.com/backlink-checker\n and enter in your website’s domain name to check it out. \n(Image)\n\nLocal SEO & citation checking tools\nThese tools might be the most important for any business that provides local products or services. These will show how well your business is showing up in important online directories and if your information is correct. As we mentioned earlier, it’s very important that your NAP is consistent across all of these directories. \nMoz Online Presence Checker\nMoz again for the win! Moz also has a free tool that allows you to check your citation health and whether or not your business is listed on important citation websites. \nMoz will list the top directories and tell you which percentage of those are correct, incorrect, or missing. And it will provide the information that is listed for your website in each of those directories. \nGo to \nmoz.com/checkout/local/check\n to check your online presence score. \n(Image)\n\nYext\nYext is another tool that provides a similar service as Moz’s Online Presence Checker. They’ll provide a free scan of your citations so that you can see where your business is listed and if your information is correct. \nGo to \nyext.com\n and scroll down to “Are there wrong answers about you in other places?” Then enter in your business information and get your free scan. \n(Image)\n\nKeyword ranking tools\nKeyword rankings tools will help you to know how well your website is showing up in the search engines. If you’re not in the top 10 results for a given phrase, you’re probably not getting a ton of traffic from it. \nMoz Keyword Explorer\nMoz will run a keyword check on your website with their Keyword Explorer. All you do is enter in your website URL, and Moz will generate a list of all of the keywords that you are ranking for on a national level. (Unfortunately, they don’t break this down by cities or states, so you can’t take a deeper dive to see how well you show up locally – but a Google search in an incognito window will show you local results.)\nGo to \nmoz.com/explorer\n to get started. \n(Image)\n\nGoogle Search Console\nSearch Console is another free resource from Google that is amazing. It will breakdown all of your organic traffic from Google so you can see exactly which phrases people are searching that bring your website up in the search results. It will also tell you which phrases result in clicks and traffic to your website. \nAnd, if you export the list of queries that search console gives you, you can see what your position in the search engines is (again on a national level) for each phrase. \nThis is another one where you might need a web developer’s help to get it set up, but once you’re in, this is one you’ll check on a regular basis. \nJust go to \nsearch.google.com/search-console\n to get started. \nAdditional resources to help your business with SEO\nIf you are excited about SEO and want to learn all you can to help your website show up better on Google, then check out these other free SEO tips:\n\nLocal SEO: 15 free tips for better search rankings\n\n\nHow to get more reviews\n \n

39 articles found in “Seo”

How to create and claim your MerchantCircle business listing

Google Maps advertising: an intro for local businesses

10 free SEO auditing tools: Why and how to use them

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