Is It Important to be Listed on Google Maps?

Google Maps Explained

Google Maps houses millions of businesses in it’s database. There are 1000’s of new businesses registering for Google Maps every day. If you aren’t one of them, you are doing yourself a disfavor. Google Maps helps businesses pop up higher and faster in search results.

This is extremely important if you have a small, local business. Google often refers local businesses at the top of search results for even generic searches.

If you were a lawyer and owned a law firm and someone in your area Googled “law firm” or “lawyer near me,” you would want your firm to pop up.

The best way to do that is through Google Maps. Google Maps can show the user exactly where your business is located as well as other helpful information such as operational hours and your price range.

You may have even used this feature yourself when looking for local restaurants or stores. This representation makes a user ten times more likely to stop at your place of business.

Google Places

Getting listed on Google Maps is easy. All you have to do is fill out a profile on Google Places. There, you can list all information that you want Google users to know about your business including what type of business it is and what you sell.

There are lots of customizable options that you can use to make your business stand out from the rest. Make sure that you include a lot of pictures and descriptions in your profile because the more you do, the better you look to all potential customers.

There is more you can do to make sure your business is one of the top ones in a Google Maps listing. You can start by going back to your website and doing SEO, or search engine optimization, for your location.

You should include key phrases such as “Melbourne Law Firm” not only in your meta tags on the back end of your website, but in section headings and subheadings as well.

Include a couple on each page of your website. It would also be helpful to include specific terms and phrases used often in your area such as the name of a nearby neighborhood or district.

Importance of Testimonials

Once your business starts showing up in Google Maps, encourage your customers to start leaving reviews. There more reviews your business has, the better your profile looks.

Customer Reviews builds trust and legitimacy. And makes potential customers more likely to do business with you when they see that other already have.

Conclusion

For all businesses, it is in their best interest to be listed on Google Maps. Creating and maintain more online profiles gives your business an online presence. And with today’s audiences, that is very important.

People want to know who they are doing business with with just the touch of a button.

What to Look for in WordPress Hosting

WordPress is arguably the most popular and user-friendly content management system in the business. One of the ways WordPress shows its versatility is through the technological demands—or lack thereof—it puts on its hosts. Like most content management systems, WordPress needs a MySQL database and PHO hyperlink processor. However, unlike other CMS options, it is not limited to only Apache servers; you can also use hosts that run Nginx.

The popularity and simplicity of this CMS inadvertently works to muddy the waters when it comes to finding the best hosting for WordPress. You can’t throw a worn-out mouse pad without hitting a dozen free WordPress hosting sites. If your site requires anything beyond a simple blog, avoid free hosting like white pants after Labor Day. Your site will be subject to banner ads, footer text links, and overall unreliability. The fundamental components of WordPress are free. Spend a couple dollars on hosting so you don’t have to put up with the headaches associated with free hosting.

You probably opted for WordPress because if its intuitive user interface, ease of installation, and scalability. Because it runs on almost any technical platform, the best WordPress hosting probably depends on your technical expertise. If you are a beginner, you might want a shared WordPress host. You can keep your costs down with shared hosting. Be careful, though; if you start using too much space, you may have to sacrifice performance.

Got some technical chops? You might want to use a Virtual Private Server (VPS) host. With VPS, you are sharing a server with a few others, but you will have your own segment to yourself. VPS hosting allows you to take advantage of the WordPress CMS scalability. If you have a high-traffic site, want to work on your design and development skills, or are otherwise too big for a basic host, look into VPS options.

Need full control? Then you need a dedicated server host. Your staff system administrator will feel at home controlling the hardware and operating system for the site. Managed, dedicated serves are available, too. You can use their system administrators to monitor the server, update the software, and generally run the back end for you.

Maybe you just want to kick back and let someone else do all of it for you. If that is the case, the best option for you is fully managed WordPress hosting. It costs more, but perhaps the time not spent on system administration is worth more than the monthly payment to the host. The professionals can keep the site secure, back up the data, and make it run like a top-fuel dragster.

It is really up to you. Consider where your business is, what its needs are, where it is going, and what your level of tech skill and hands-on interest is. There is a WordPress host out there to accommodate you.