Content Marketing

4 Unique Services That a Content Marketing Agency Provides

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The inbound-marketing organizations experience a 62% lower cost per lead than the traditional marketing ones. Therefore, in the middle of all inbound companies, you will come across content like blogs, articles, eBooks, videos, infographics, case studies, etc. Content Marketing is of critical importance to any business trying to grow website traffic. It is important to spread awareness for the value of a good-quality content and inbound marketing.

Therefore, this responsibility can be taken by the best content marketing agency as they adopt the content marketing methodology, and promote it to their customers and prospects as well. The main focus of the Luce Media agency is to help grow your business. To do so, it is important that we provide services for lead generation and content marketing.

Types of services provided by the agency

Given below are some of the hand-picked and important services that are provided by a content marketing agency.

Content Marketing

  • The strategy of content marketing: This is the first step of a content marketing agency, and they will craft a unique piece of strategy for your business. They will take the responsibility to conduct research on the buyer’s persona and get to know more about your clients. Through this method they will create content, which will be very appealing to your customers. Once the contents are done, they will deliver it to you before publishing to receive your approval.
  • Development of content: The agency will professionally write, edit, and publish it internally too. This process will allow them to produce high quality and consistent content for your business or brand. The content, which will be developed by the agency will be very unique and they will publish it on your business’s website.
  • Distributing the content: The content marketing agency provides automatic distribution services. This means it will help in publishing your content on various social media platforms. To receive a robust distribution, the agency will recommend you to take their additional services like email marketing services and so on. The additions will help you promote your content to the online audience.
  • Content marketing reporting: The agency will help in delivering reports on content marketing each month. This will help them to breakdown the performances of the services they provide. They will keep their focus on increasing your website traffic for you.

The Importance of Digital Marketing in Frisco, TX

Apart from providing services on content marketing, the top company will also be known as the best digital marketing agency as well. This is because they also provide outstanding services in digital marketing. Digital marketing will not just favor the marketers, but it also provides something much more innovative for the consumers too. Choosing digital marketing is known to be a better growth option for your business, increase conversion rates, and help in solving customer issues.

Choosing digital marketing services will also help in increasing the reputation of your brand and engage with mobile customers. Digital marketing plays an important role in reputation management services, by creating an image for your brand.

Growing Your Business

To increase the growth of your business, it is important to use the right set of tools and services for it. Whether it is content marketing, digital marketing or reputation management services, each of them has its own way to help your business. Taking their services will help your business reach its level of success in no time.

How A Digital Marketing Agency In McKinney Boosts Your Search Rank

How A Digital Marketing Agency In McKinney Boosts Your Search Rank

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A digital marketing agency in McKinney is the answer for local, small and medium sized businesses looking to improve their search rank.

The best way to reach more customers online is organically. To do this, you have to appear high in search results, which isn’t always easy.

That’s why you need a dedicated digital marketing team that fully understands your goals and audience to go from never being found to one of the top results when users search.

Know Your Audience

Usually when it comes to search rank, you might hear all about keywords. Yes, they’re definitely important, but knowing your audience is the most critical aspect for reaching that coveted top position on Google. Neil Patel does a great job of outlining why your audience matters so much. To summarize, you need to fully know who your audience is to choose the right keywords, develop more engaging content and reach out to them in the ways they prefer.

A digital marketing agency in McKinney aids you in developing a marketing strategy that fits your target audience. It’s always more effective to target your strategy versus trying to market to everyone.

Implement Search Engine Marketing

It’s harder than ever to reach the first page of Google and even more so to reach one of the top spots. Making it to the first page is crucial though as 98% of people choose a result from the first page without ever going to the second page. That’s why you need a search engine marketing strategy.

By using highly targeted paid search ads, you’re instantly at the top of the results. This immediately increases brand visibility. Even if you’re site isn’t ranking at the top just yet, increased engagement via paid search ads gradually boosts your rank naturally. Think of SEM as a shortcut to getting noticed on search engines. You just need the right team to help you develop your ad strategy and target the right keywords and audience.

Master Content Marketing

Content Marketing Digital Marketing Agency In McKinney

While ads are effective, they’re still not as powerful as content marketing. In fact, 84% of consumers expect brands to create useful and engaging content. It’s also a great way to show consumers that you care about them by providing relevant content that helps improve their lives in some way.

At the same time, producing high-quality content regularly with keywords your audience is searching for helps improve your search rank. By working with a digital marketing agency in McKinney, you get a team dedicated to developing a customized content creation and promotion strategy for your specific business and goals.

In addition to written content, you should also choose a team that specializes in video content as this leads to more overall sharing, driving more traffic to your site, improving your brand’s reputation and boosting your search rank. Videos are actually shared 1200% more than just text or links.

SEO Is More Than Simple Keywords

While there are numerous keyword research tools available, who really understands the results? Between five different tools, you’ll get five completely different sets of keywords. And then, you have to figure out how and where to use them. As you probably already know, keyword stuffing is a major no-no. With 93% of online experiences starting with a search engine, you do have to know how to use keywords effectively since this is how people find you via a search.

SEO involves both on-page and off-page strategies. From optimizing the names of images on your site to using a naturally occurring search phrase in a blog post, there’s a lot to remember. A digital marketing agency in McKinney helps develop a SEO strategy and optimizes your site to appear naturally higher in search engine results. As your traffic and engagement increases, so will your overall search rank.

Boosting your search rank is key to increasing conversions, improving brand visibility and engaging your customers online. It all starts by contacting Luce Media today.

SEO Expert

What To Look For When Hiring An SEO Expert?

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It doesn’t matter if you run a big or small business, if you heavily rely on web traffic for sales, then you need to master search engine optimization (SEO) or hire an SEO expert. A qualified and certified SEO expert will review your website, identify strategies, target visitors, and ask you about your business objectives. By doing so, the SEO experts Frisco TX will use their skills and knowledge to improve your page views and search engine rankings.
Things you need to look for when taking the services of SEO experts
When you have decided to take the help of the SEO experts to receive outstanding SEO McKinney TX services, then there are several things you need to check before you hire them. Check below!

  • Must have years of SEO experience: Different websites will require different SEO tactics, and it is vital to hire the services of an SEO expert who has years of experience. They will have the power to look at any type of website and know what to do to gain more search engine traffic.
  • Carries a good understanding of all the three levels of SEO: The SEO has three essential tiers, namely, off-page optimization, technical, and on-page optimization. It would help if you chose an SEO expert that can approach a strategy from all three angles, which will maximize success. You must hire an SEO expert or a specialist who understands all the technical problems and limitations that search engines have in store. Apart from that, an SEO expert must also have the power to explain technical issues and constraints to the site developers, so that problems get reduced.

How does a search engine marketing company work?

Search engine marketing is a technique that can take your business revenue to a whole new level. The search engine marketing company McKinney TX will provide you with superb search engine marketing (SEM) services that are data-driven and cost-effective. It is also an excellent way to put your business in front of individuals looking for your services and products. The company will provide you with an end-to-end service that will help your business receive a winning edge over your competitors. Taking the search engine marketing services offered by a reputed search engine marketing company will help you reach your clients and customers, instantly and build ads based on a city or a state.

Importance of local SEO

The local SEO is known as an outstanding investment for all local businesses. It is a series of strategies and actions designed to improve the visibility of your business on Google. The main goal of the local SEO McKinney is to attract new customers in smaller places like a city or a town. When you receive more local visibility, it will provide you with more sales, customer services, and foot traffic. Apart from that, local SEO will also help you rank higher in Google’s search engine results, and it stands out as a free source of advertisement for your business.

Bottom-Line!

If you are interested in hiring a reputed and highly-experienced SEO expert to help you with your business website, then getting in touch with a good and reputed SEO company will be the right to do. They will also provide you services on local SEO and search engine marketing at a reasonable price.

Retail To Go Is The Future

Retail To Go Is The Future – Is Your Store Ready?

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There’s no denying the novel coronavirus has changed all businesses, but small businesses have been hit especially hard. However, some relief is in sight, if you’re ready to handle the new temporary normal of retail to go.

As of April 24, 2020, retailers in Texas can reopen their stores, but in a different way than normal. What does this mean for our local small businesses in McKinney, Allen, Frisco and other areas?

It’s time to make some immediate changes to keep your small business not just hanging out, but growing while also creating loyal customers. It might seem hard at first, but this is a major step towards future-proofing your business.

The New Normal Is Here

Texas Governor Greg Abbott is ready to start reopening Texas. However, this means a new temporary normal as COVID-19 isn’t gone just yet. Abbott issued several executive orders on April 17th, but the one most important to small businesses is you can reopen, just in a retail to go capacity.

Social distancing is still necessary, which is the reason for the restrictions. While you can open back up, you must be able to provide products to customers safely. This means offering curbside pickup, home delivery or some other form of safe delivery.

In McKinney, Frisco and Allen Texas (among all towns in Texas) here are the rules:    Curbside Pickup | McKinney Texas

  • Employees are required to wear face coverings, work at least six feet apart and must be screened for symptoms before entering the building.
  • Purchased items should be delivered by the employee to the back seat or trunk of the customer’s vehicle whenever possible to minimize physical contact.
  • Employees must wash or sanitize their hands after each interaction with a customer. Whenever possible, they must disinfect any item that came into contact with the customer.

 

As you might have noticed, this new normal doesn’t just allow customers to flood back into your store. You’ll be selling your products at a distance, which isn’t exactly the norm for many smaller businesses, like those Mom and Pop stores we all love. But, don’t give up hope. You just need to make a few changes.

Going Digital To Stay Competitive

The coronavirus has drastically changed retail for the foreseeable future. In fact, curbside pickup could easily become something customers expect from all businesses, even after this pandemic is over. They love the convenience and it’s a new way for businesses to stay competitive in this changing economy.

What can you do right now to prepare for Friday’s reopening? It’s time to go digital. If you don’t think Americans have changed their views on shopping that much, consider these recent shopping survey results – 90% of Americans remain hesitant to shop in stores. Having a digital presence helps your brick-and-mortar store continue running during a time when 94% of customers feel online shopping is important right now. Online shopping trends are likely to increase, mainly because customers are still going to be fearful even after things return to normal.

The great news is customers want to support small businesses, but they can’t do that if you’re not offering safe shopping options. Since they can’t browse in-store, you need a website now more than ever to serve as your online storefront. The quicker you get your site up and running, the easier it’ll be to conform to the new retail to go guidelines, while showing customers your current inventory from the safety of their homes.

Adjusting To Customer Needs

It is a huge adjustment if you’re a small business that never felt like you really need a website before. You may not even have a social media presence. The face of retail is changing, though and it’s vital to start adjusting to customer needs now, rather than later.

BOPUS is now the ideal business model, which means Buy Online Pick Up in Store. Customers love the ability to browse stores online, both small and large, buy what they want and then pick it up at your store. Customers get to support local small businesses without fear for their health and safety.

It might be hard to think of investing in a website and digital presence right now, but it’s the best way to maintain your customer base and thrive during one of the most difficult economic times in our history. It’s also a great time to invest in digital marketing. To avoid sinking instead of swimming to success right now, ensure you’re giving customers the following:

  • Plenty of inventory and correct inventory numbers online
  • Free shipping or low-cost shipping
  • Free curbside pickup (customers will drive to your store versus having to pay shipping)
  • Great customer service, online and off
  • Fast and easy to use website

Welcome to the new normal. Adapting now can save your small business. Are you looking forward to April 24th and diving into the retail to go model?  Call us today at (214) 938-2364 to discuss options on serving your retail customers.

 

 

Digital Marketing Tips to Help Grow Your Business

4 Tech-Savvy Ways to Stay On Top of the Latest Digital Marketing Trends

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To thrive in business, you need to stay ahead of the latest digital marketing trends. Here’s how to ensure you’re getting breaking marketing news delivered to your devices daily.

Image emphasizing the importance of keeping up with the latest digital marketing trends.

Staying on top of the latest marketing trends can feel like a full-time job in itself. Just when you started to get the hang of the newest social media platform, creating cool geofilters for Snapchat, or tweaking your newsletter design to reflect the latest trends you read about, it can seem like you’re falling behind on five more marketing approaches your competitors just mastered.

The predictions are out: 2019 is going to be a huge year for digital marketers and savvy business owners. And you need to be aware of the next-gen platforms that will reach your audience.

Here are some quick and easy ways to stay on top of the latest marketing initiatives–so you can determine if they’re a good fit for your small business (or if you should spend your focus and dollars elsewhere).

Get them in your inbox

I like reading the Content Marketing Institute’s free print magazine Chief Content Officer while commuting, but in between quarterly issues, I sign up for their daily e-newsletter to read blogs, research and infographics. I also find that it’s a worthwhile expense to subscribe to Digiday to stay on top of industry trends. Other free newsletters I skim weekly include those from SmallBusinessTrends.com, Inc.com (of course), Mediabistro.com, and SocialMedia.org. Sign up for Masthead Media‘s email newsletter where we’ll send you our take on the latest marketing trends.

Follow the right people on social

Could your Twitter feed be working harder for you? Create a list with the best online marketers relevant to your business and set it up as a stream you scroll in Hootsuite, TweetDeck or whatever social networking platform you use to schedule posts and track social media trends. Some of my favorite Twitter feeds to follow for marketing know-how include: @SMExaminer, @techcrunch, @digiday, @CMO_com ‏@adage @adweek, and more. People I love to follow include @jamioetting, @sminero @marketingprofs @jaybaer (Follow me @AmandaPressner to see which marketing news and trends I’m sharing).

Search social using the right hashtags

While you’re building your ultimate Twitter list, search your favorite social media platforms with a few key hashtags so you’ll see the latest news and trends on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn. My favorites to use in social and conduct searches include: #content marketing, #marketing, #socialmedia, #content, #digitalmarketing, and #smallbusiness.

Sign up for Google’s news alerts. Make your Google news feed work harder for you by following certain topics. My favorites include: “marketing” “content marketing” “marketing strategy” “freelancer” and “small business.”

Rely on an outsourced marketing expert or team

If you don’t feel like your time is best spent searching the latest content marketing news or engaging in social media chats, you could hire a third-party team or individual to stay on top of the trends that would be most useful for your business.

An external marketing company stays ahead of the latest trends and can offer strategic insights as to how your company should implement some of them. Outsourcing your marketing can also save you the stress and headaches of hiring an individual specifically for that role in your company, particularly if you aren’t sure it warrants a full-time position.

Consider hiring a virtual assistant that specializes in marketing to get your feet wet and see if you might want to look into hiring a larger marketing team in the future.

The bottom line? As co-founder of Masthead Media, I need to be aware of marketing initiatives and industry trends but can’t block out an entire day of work each week to read up on them. That’s why I rely on these practices to stay in the know.

This Post Was Originally Posted at: https://www.inc.com/amanda-pressner-kreuser/4-tech-savvy-ways-to-stay-on-top-of-latest-marketing-trends.html

Image of Google Search Page

5 ways to improve your small business rankings in Google for 2019

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For many years, McKinney small businesses have understood the power of strong rankings in the search engines.

Indeed, achieving a strong page 1 ranking on Google can boost the number of customers for any business with an online presence.

But how exactly do you score a great ranking in Google?

With more and more small businesses in McKinney, TX turning to Digital Marketing, there is a growing need to understand the power of strong rankings in the search engines. The tactics have evolved from what they were just a few years ago. Let us outline 5 important strategies for small businesses trying to improve their exposure online.

Technical Onsite SEO

5 or 6 years ago, SEO was more of a technical exercise. Today this is still an important component of a small business SEO strategy. In fact, many of the same components are used. 

Overall, you will not rank for a keyword that is not physically on your website. We know this sounds obvious, but many small business owners don’t have strong content on their homepage, and can’t figure out why they don’t rank well.

Keywords needs to be strategically placed in the Title Tag and H1 Tag. If you don’t know what these are, learn them. It isn’t rocket science. This will also make you better able to communicate with your developer. Or if your website is on the WordPress platform, you can adjust these yourself with one of many SEO plugins available.

Having a website that looks good is important. Many people believe that Google is monitoring bounce rates and dwell times as indicators of user experience. An outdated website or one that is just confusing will repel users, and may hurt rankings. 

Ensure that your website is fast. Google explicitly tells us it does not like to rank slow websites. This hurts user experience, and rankings too.

Also build a mobile-friendly website. More and more users view websites on mobile devices. The latest stats available indicate that 58% of website traffic comes from a mobile device. Your business needs to be well represented on any digital device platform.

Google My Business 

Google presents a map for many keyword searches. They do this for keywords they believe to have local searcher intent, where seeing the business in a map is more helpful. The catch here is that Google is not presenting the business website itself, but rather the Google My Business page listing for that business.

Because of this dynamic, it is important that small business owners claim their business listing and ensure all the information is accurately updated. Business phone numbers, addresses, hours and other relevant information is critical. The way this information is entered in the Google database has been shown to impact rankings. 

Additionally, the number of times the phone number on file with Google My Business is seen by Google’s spiders around the internet has been identified as a ranking factor. These are known as citations, and sometimes NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number). To give your business an edge over the competition, post your NAP everywhere you can. There are also numerous services that can help you with this SEO process known as Directory Listing Services. Luce Media can submit your NAP to dozens of different directories and get you quickly ranking. Click here and scroll down to Online Visibility.

Strong Content

At Luce Media, we know that Google has a strong preference for long-form, well-researched content. For this reason, it pays to write very long blog posts on your website. However, the content needs to be informative and helpful for users.

Many small business owners claim they will have time to write blog posts themselves. However, after a month or two, they stop blogging (if they ever started in the first place). This is a critical mistake. If you can’t produce the blog yourself, hire a service to do it for you. Luce Media provides blog writing and content marketing in McKinney, TX.

Content published on the website needs to be visually appealing as well as well-written. This means many pictures and graphics – sometimes called visual assets. These visual assets should give the reader a visual representation of the main concepts of the blog post. This will help keep lazy readers engaged.

Many of the top bloggers recommend something visual to break up the words between every fold of the screen. This technique is strong because readers have something appealing to look at as they get tired of reading.

Backlinks

For many years, backlinks have been known to be a critical ingredient in search engine ranking success. This is no less true in 2019 than it was a few years ago. Great content will not rank without strong backlinks to the content from highly authoritative and relevant websites.

Backlinks are key to ranking higher in search engines.

Adam Stetzer, Ph.D. has been in the SEO business for 10 years and says: “Backlinks are one of the hardest concepts for small business owners to understand and execute. They understand on-site SEO and writing great content. They have a hard time committing to a great backlink building strategy because of the mathematical and conceptual nature of backlinks in the Google algorithm. Nonetheless, there are great places on the Internet to earn backlinks for free.” 

Search engine optimization experts generally agree that there are 2 major components of a backlink that determine if it will help you rank: Authority and Relevance. 

A backlink is considered to have authority if it comes from a domain with high Domain Rating or Domain Authority. These factors are easily queryable using free SEO analytic tools. In generally, you want a link from a high domain authority website. 

Furthermore, the backlink will help you more if it is on a specific page on that website that also has strong authority. Several years ago, Google started distinguishing which pages on a particular website were the strongest. This, again, is determined by how many backlinks are feeding into a specific page on a domain. So while a link from a high authority domain is good, a link placed on the strong web page on that domain (usually the home page) is the best.

The second criteria for a backlink is the relevance of that link. You want links from websites that are about the same subject matter as your website. If you are trying to rank a website about cars, a link from another automotive website would be much more valuable than a link from a foodie website.

How to weigh the relative importance of categorical relevance vs domain authority nobody can really answer except the engineers at Google. Most SEO’s go for relevance over authority. Both is ideal.

Relationships and Reputation

The final parts of the small business strategy are relationships and reputation. This is a very important part of any SEO strategy as negative reviews often rank very highly in Google. Additionally, the more relationships you have the stronger your ability to earn great mentions, reviews and backlinks.

Many small business owners overlook the idea that building relationships will help their online presence. Indeed, it feels old fashioned. However, human relationships are at the heart of all business, and it is humans that place great backlinks into powerful stories online. Understanding the importance of online reviews is critical for the business owner in McKinney, TX.

Small business owners need to be active in their communities, regularly attend meetups and maintain ties with those who can mention them online.

Conclusions 

Earning a top position for your small business in McKinney, TX on Google will bring in customers. Because these positions are so coveted, they are also extremely competitive. The 5 strategies outlined in this article represent an outstanding opportunity to move search engine rankings up and get the phone ringing.

This Post was originally Posted at: https://www.bmmagazine.co.uk/marketing/5-ways-to-improve-your-small-business-rankings-in-google/

social media holiday checklist

Social Media Marketing Tips for the Holidays

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Social media is the perfect place to promote your business during the holidays. People are looking on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter for gift ideas and great deals. With the right social media marketing strategy, you can boost holiday sales, engage with potential customers and spread holiday cheer.

The holiday season is generally considered to run from late November through the New Year. Unlike birthdays and anniversaries, this gift-buying frenzy is spread across the whole of society at the same time. That means a lot of consumer spending

Here are five tips on how your business can use social media to boost sales this holiday season.

 

1. Use Facebook Live, create events and run giveaways.

Hosting Facebook Live videos is a great way to give your followers the scoop on your deals for the holidays, what new products you have or what services you’re offering. One big benefit of using Facebook Live is that you are guaranteed to get more reach than with any other type of Facebook post.  Facebook tells us you get as much as a 12 times the number of people as a normal post will get you.  Check out our other blog on 10 Things You Need to Know Before Going Live on Facebook by clicking here.

Along with Facebook Live, you should also use Facebook’s events feature.  You can create Facebook Events for any in-store events you might be hosting during the season. Once you’ve hosted a live video or created an event, be sure to continue to post all your promotions on your social accounts.

Another great way to engage and connect with your followers is with a giveaway contest. People can use a little help this time of year and the chance to win a big gift that someone on their wish list may appreciate is a very attractive prospect and grabs quite a lot of attention.

2. Use Twitter polls to identify customer pain points.

Social media platforms are constantly updating and adding helpful features. From Instagram questions to Twitter polls, there are a range of ways to easily engage and connect with your followers online.

You can use those features to identify pain points and then provide a solution. If you can identify a problem your customers are facing and solve it for them, you will create customers for life.

3. Use Instagram stories.

Introduced in 2016, Instagram Stories quickly became a popular social media tools and marketers need to take advantage of this feature this time of year. Today, Instagram Stories are the most engaged platform of all social media platforms.

Stories have nearly taken over the Instagram platform with their temporary availability and features that allow for product-feed integration and swipe-up to shop, simplifying the purchase experience for users. And don’t forget about Highlights. Your temporary content can be saved to Highlights on your profile for the duration of the holiday season and removed come January.

While focusing on Instagram stories doesn’t mean you should forget about posting a regular picture, it does allow you to supplement your content and post more frequently. Not convinced that you need Instagram stories for your business? Check out our blog post on why Instagram stories are crucial for small businesses, here.

4. Engage with followers and get creative.

While you use social media to market your business, your followers use it to have fun and engage with their favorite brands. Being creative on social media such as running a contest, creating a holiday playlist for your business on Spotify or offer holiday tips is a great way to boost your business.

Tips for the seasonal holidays or winter season in general make excellent social media posts. Whether you are discussing holiday safety or decorating tips, the holidays are a great time to give your business a personal appearance and voice.

When you’re creating your company’s social media strategy, it’s important to keep in mind why customers are on the platform. Try to avoid being too salesy. Be the type of business customers ‘know, like and trust’ and have fun with it. After all, if you’re not enjoying the process others likely won’t either.

5. Get Festive.

Many of us like to decorate our home or office to get in the holiday spirit. It’s a good idea to give your online presence a similar type of makeover by applying holiday themes to your website and social profiles.

Adding small touches to your website with holiday-themed graphics and colors helps signal to your customers that the season of giving is upon us. Bright, engaging colors and animated GIFs tend to work well.

Though the holiday season is in full swing, there is still time to boost your social media marketing efforts and earn customer loyalty by improving the way you interact with them on the various social media platforms. Leveraging the power of social media marketing is vital for increased sales, satisfied customers and a whole lot of holiday joy.

Even when it’s not the holidays, your company’s social media presence is extremely important to the success of your business. At Luce Media we have all the tools and more to make sure your social media success lasts year round. Check out our social media services and then schedule a time to talk about how we can boost your business. From everyone here at Luce Media, we wish you a safe and Happy Holidays!

This information was originally posted here and here.

Image from Luce Media showing Google My Business logo

6 Steps to Claim and Optimize a Local Business Listing on Google My Business

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For a lImage from Luce Media showing Google My Business logoocal business that wants to get discovered in search results, maintaining an accurate Google My Business listing is critical. The listing details (such as the business’ phone number, website, photos, and hours of operation) determine what information consumers see in Google Search and Maps.

Business owners need to take control of the company’s Google My Business listing to ensure up-to-date business information is displayed online. This means creating or claiming the business listing on Google My Business and optimizing the content to ensure accuracy and improve visibility.

Claim and Optimize a Google My Business Listing in Six Steps

Here are 6 Steps to claiming and optimizing a local business listing on Google My Business.

1. Search for the Business on Google

The first step is to find out if the business already has a Google My Business listing. Google often generates listings based on information available online, which may or may be fully accurate. An existing listing should be claimed so the information can be updated and kept accurate.

A simple Google search for the company name can reveal whether or not a Google My Business listing already exists. If a matching listing appears in search results, there should be a link that says “Are You the Business Owner” next to the listing. If, however, the business does not show up in search results, it’s important to create a new Google My Business listing and update it with correct information about the company.

2. Request Verification of an Existing Listing

To claim the listing, click on the “Are You the Business Owner” link. Next, sign into Google, search for the business name, and request verification. This will give you control of the listing and allow you to begin optimizing it. In most cases, Google will give you two options to verify the listing, “Mail me my code” or “Call me now.”

If the “Are You the Business Owner” button is not visible, then the listing has already been claimed. Talk to any partners, owners, or marketers involved with the business to find out who has claimed the listing. Double check if there is another Google account linked to the business. If you can’t figure out who verified the listing, you’ll have to go through Google Help to gain access.

3. Confirm Business Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP)

Once the business has been verified, you can easily edit and update the business details that will show up in search results. It’s crucial that the business’ name, physical address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent across the web – so the NAP data in the Google My Business listing should exactly match what’s on the business’ website.

It’s highly recommended that if you need to make changes to the listing you make those before requesting the verification from Google. If you make the request and then make a change, you’ll quite possibly have to make a second request to get the listing verified.

4. Choose a Single Business Category

Customers and search engines both prefer business’ that accurately represent themselves online. So when selecting a category for a company’s Google My Business listing, it helps to be as specific as possible. Even if the business falls under multiple categories, it’s best to select the single most relevant category to describe the products or services offered. If you aren’t sure which category is the optimal choice for a particular business, search for similar companies on Google to see what categories they’ve selected.

5. Upload Relevant Images to Represent the Business

In order to provide customers with more context in search results, Google likes to display images next to business listings. Google My Business listings with photos receive 42% more requests for driving directions as well as a 32% better click-through rate to the company’s website.

If the business doesn’t upload official images, Google can display photos uploaded by the public – which can sometimes result in embarrassing mishaps for the business. Although a business can suggest a ‘preferred photo’ for search results, Google will only use the recommended photo if it truly represents the business.

Here are some tips for setting preferred photos that Google will approve:

  • Upload high-quality photos that give an accurate impression of the store location.
  • Use real pictures of products sold by the business.
  • Keep Google’s recommended file size (between 10KB and 5MB) and minimum resolution (720px tall, 720px wide) in mind.
  • Don’t use stock photos or text-based images.

6. Further Optimize the Business Listing

There are a few more ways to get the most out of a Google My Business listing, including:

  • Keeping the Business Hours Up-to-Date: Google displays hours of operation to tell consumers whether or not the business is open at the time of their search. Remember to update this information if business hours change during the holiday season.
  • Collecting More Customer Reviews: Encourage customers to leave reviews and take the time to reply when they do.
  • Adding a Description on Google+: Although businesses can no longer edit their descriptions on Google My Business, this field can still be viewed and edited on Google+.

Whether claiming an existing Google My Business listing or creating one from scratch, use the above tips to ensure accurate information shows up the next time a consumer searches. Keep customers happy, keep Google happy, and increase local visibility.

Need help claiming, creating, or optimizing a Google My Business listing? One location or one thousand, we have you covered!

This story first appeared on Advice Local

Instagram with the Instagram icon

Why Small Businesses Absolutely Need to Use Instagram Stories

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Instagram is a great social platform to bring a strong identity to your brand, have interaction with new followers and expand your reach. Not only are Instagram Stories fun and creative, but they’re great for growing your engagement, building brand awareness, driving traffic to your website, and even making e-commerce sales!

Today, over 400 million people use Instagram stories each and every day. If you are a small business in McKinney looking to market to your customers – this is one place you are going to want to be.

However, if you’re simply posting images to your business’s Instagram page, you’re missing out on a major opportunity on the platform: Instagram Stories. With stories, you are able to show the personality of your business.  Is it fun, serious, very people oriented, etc?  Instagram stories are great to show a behind-the-scenes look at your business. Stories can also allow you to build authentic relationships with your followers.

If you’re still wondering: What’s the point? There are over 400 million active daily users of Instagram Stories, and 33 percent of the most popular Stories are from businesses. Not only that, but 20 percent of Stories posted by businesses result in direct messages.

While it might sound daunting at first, you’ll never know until you try. To help you get started, here’s a quick guide to using Instagram Stories.

First and foremost, it’s important to prepare — brainstorm a plan for the story you want. It’s all about the images- you can upload new or older images to Stories now.

Next, figure out the best time of day to post by taking a look at your audience. Generally, user engagement levels are highest on Mondays and Thursdays between 7 and 9 p.m., but this can vary based on your followers. Another important piece of advice is to make an impact in the first four seconds of your story. Viewers’ attention drop after four seconds, so it’s important to get to the point.

Within the world of social media marketing, and especially within the world of Instagram, Instagram Stories is an important place for your business or brand to show up. Among all the social platforms, Instagram is where people engage the most.

If your business needs help with Social Media Marketing in McKinney, TX or anywhere in the Dallas area, please contact us at Information@LuceMedia.net.

Infographic About Instagram Stories

If your business needs help with social media marketing in McKinney, TX., please call us at (469) 907-1057.  Luce Media has deep expertise in Digital Marketing, B2B Marketing, Internet Marketing and is a well established Digital Media Consultant in McKinney, TX.