Most people use Google to search for services or offers in their area. Among search engines, Google has an overwhelming market share of about 90% in Germany. Anyone who runs a business is therefore well advised to keep an eye on Google. Most people first think of search engine optimization (SEO) here. For local businesses, however, Google MyBusiness is probably even more important.

How Google MyBusiness works

The Google MyBusiness entry appears potentially in two places: On Google Maps and in Google Search.

At MyBusiness I can store information about my company:

• Address and phone number
• opening hours
• Information about my products and / or services
• Link to my website
• Logo and additional photos

Additionally, I can create posts and promotions. These can be special offers, press releases or job postings. These texts have a certain runtime and disappear again afterwards.

For most companies, however, the following function is most critical: customers can write reviews.

Ratings on Google are of great importance when it comes to “being found”. Anyone who has many good reviews is classified as relevant. What Google finds significant moves up in the search results.
In this respect, search engine optimization comes full circle: Google would probably not classify your own small website as particularly relevant. However, if the website is linked to a Google MyBusiness entry, which also has a lot of positive ratings, the number of hits on the website also increases significantly.

How does a company get a MyBusiness entry?

Important to know: Even if you have not created an entry yourself, your own business, your own practice, your own store can be entered in Google Maps. All it takes is one enthusiastic customer who thinks that this company absolutely has to be found in Maps.

So anyone can enter. And this is where the problem begins.

If someone has entered my business, all Google users can write reviews, upload photos and add information.
As long as I have not actively claimed this business listing for my company, I have no control over what happens here.

I don’t find out when someone has given a review or posted a photo. As long as the reviews are positive, of course, there is no problem. But of course it also happens that people write negative reviews, or reviews that are simply spam. These don’t even have to be real customers. If I don’t notice that, I can’t react. That can have a negative impact on my business.

It can also happen that photos are displayed within my listing that do not actually belong to my company. The Google algorithm automatically searches for “matching” photos. This happens especially if the entry is not maintained by the owner of the business – because in that case, there are no authentic photos.

If there is already an entry, you should definitely claim it. Otherwise, you can of course create an entry yourself and fill it with the most essential information about your company.

Maintaining my MyBusiness account

It is important that all relevant information is present and correct: Contact details, website, address, and the description of what I offer. I also consider a certain number of photos to be advisable, if only to have control over which images are displayed in connection with my company.

It is not absolutely necessary to actively work with the account. It just needs to be clear that it belongs to my business. Google MyBusiness sends emails when someone submits a review, suggests a change, or uploads a photo. This information should reach me reliably.

Of course, I can do targeted marketing using the MyBusiness account. There is plenty of information about this on the web. My point here is to show what I regard as the minimum necessary to prevent damage.

Conclusion

Whether I want to maintain a page on Facebook, a YouTube channel or a Twitter account for my business is entirely up to me.

With Google MyBusiness, the situation is different: Here, anyone can enter my business, usually with the best of intentions. I have to reckon with that and keep an eye on my profile.

The post Local Business: Embrace Google MyBusiness has first been published on start the loop_.

Reasons for a multilingual website

Many of our clients want to offer their content not only in their native language but in other languages as well. The companies often have clients in other countries already and want to expand, or they feel that they cannot reach enough people if they confine themselves to one language. Some are located in countries that are multilingual, like Switzerland, Canada or Luxemburg, and they want to cater to all of the languages spoken in their home country.

This does not apply quite as often to companies located in English speaking countries, but here in Germany it is rather normal to offer at least an English version of your website. The only exception being many local businesses who don’t need to reach out quite as far. But I feel they cater more and more to expats as well.

What is the best way to build a multilingual website with WordPress?

Well, in short: Their is no best way. This really depends on your website:

• What kind of content do you offer?
  • Do you write a blog in different languages?
  • Or do you basically provide information about your business, that is more “static” content?
• How many languages are you planning to offer?
• Will all languages get the same amount of new content?
  That is, you might offer a website with a blog in your main language but only your business information in other languages.
• Does your website have complex functionality, e.g. a shop?

Which options do we have?

There are two basic concepts in order to implement multilingualism:

• Using a plugin that allows for your to create different language versions of your content within one website.
• Using a WordPress Multisite install, that is creating a website for each of your language versions, and using a plugin to take care of the connection between the different versions.

Various language versions within the same website

There are a couple of free and premium plugins that allow you to create different language versions of your website within your single website.

The best known free plugin (with the option of adding functionality by buying the premium version) probably is Polylang, the best known plugin, that’s only available as a premium version probably is WPML.

You basically get the option to add additional languages to your WordPress install and now need to decide for each piece of content in which language you want to provide it. You are also able to interconnect the different language versions of an article. This allows for your readers to start in one language and switch languages for every individual piece of content they are reading.

So if you had 10 pages for your single language version of your website you will end up with 20 for 2 languages and so on. Same for posts and other types of content, e.g. products in a store.

This probably gives you an idea what the problem is with that kind of solution: If you are an avid writer you will pretty soon have a lot of posts that need keeping track of.

But there is another option as well:

Keeping your language versions strictly separated within a WordPress multisite install

WordPress can be turned into a so-called multisite install. And it is what it sounds like: It’s possible to organize multiple websites within one WordPress install. This way each language version gets its own website and the content stays strictly separated.

The premium plugin MultilingualPress uses this option to organize your different language versions and interconnect all of your content. It keeps things nice and tidy, and you won’t have problems with getting the correct translations at certain points, e.g. with contact forms or the check-out in your shop.

The drawback: Managing a WordPress multisite install is a bit more complex than managing a single site. There are some more error sources added to the mix and not all plugins like to be installed within a WordPress multisite.

It also is a rather pricy solution right now: It comes with a price tag of 199 $/year for one website*. Additionally, you might need more expensive versions of other premium plugins you might want to use, because multisite support often does not belong to the standard features of many plugins.

*There has been a rumor that there might be a smaller version as a free plugin within the WordPress plugin repository, but I haven’t heard more about it so far.

The post Making your WordPress website multilingual has first been published on start the loop_.

You have a local business? In this case you need to see to that your website and online activities focus on that fact. A good place to get started is Google MyBusiness. Secure your page and fill in all the necessary details. This is fairly easy and does not take a lot of time. What else do you need to keep in mind?

Local Search is different.

Google uses a different algorithm to search for local businesses than it does for other search requests. Reading through Google’s support documents, you will find that it states that “Relevance, Distance and Prominence” are the three factors that highly influence the ranking of your business. If you take a closer look you will find that a whole bunch of smaller criteria are adding up: Local Search Ranking Factors.

To cut a long story short: The most important factors are ratings, proximity and how much relevant information Google has on your business, e.g. via Google MyBusiness. Google values ratings that were placed directly via Google or a different large platform (think facebook, yelp, …) much higher than ratings that appear only on your website.

What can you do to improve your business’ ranking?

First on your list: Your company’s website. It should meet modern web standards, that is nowadays it needs to be responsive, that is easily accessible on all types of devices. Small smartphone screens as well as large monitors. In addition, you ought to secure your domain with the help of an SSL certificate.

Answer your clients’ questions

At best, your website helps your prospective customers to get an idea about who you are. And if they want to be YOUR customer.

Do you know what the most frequent questions of your customers are? This sounds like a simple question. In reality, many business owners do not have an answer to this. A good way to figure this out is to think about some of your current customers and remember the questions they had. Another good option is to publish case studies of customers. All of this helps your prospective customers to understand what you really do. At the same time, it might be valuable content to feed to search engines.

Cultivate local relationships

Another good way to gain relevancy is to commit yourself locally. Are there non-profit organizations you might be able to support in one way or the other? Is it possible to sponsor events, help organize a fund-raiser?

There might be a couple of other local businesses in your vicinity who are not your competitors. Maybe you could work together, craft a network to boost general visibility. This could range from cooperation to events you host together. Get creative!

What you should not forget, though: You need to share these activities on your website and in social networks. Write about it, talk about it. Not just once but regularly.

How important are social networks like Facebook?

Some SEO experts say that every local business ought to have a Facebook page. They say that people are more likely to by from companies they have gotten to know already via social networks.

Google also seems to use content from Facebook ratings for its Knowledge Panels. Which means that Facebook content could be an additional source to influence search engine ranking.

If all others are on Facebook, don’t I have to be there as well?

A Facebook page can make a big difference for your local business. But it’s also a lot of work. Especially small businesses often find it hard to allocate time for maintaining it. We believe it is important to think about who will be taking care of this Facebook page and develop a strategy. And if you get to the conclusion that there is no one who would LIKE to do it AND hast the time to do it, just really don’t do it.
We feel it is better not to have a Facebook page than to have one nobody takes care of. Imagine unanswered questions of prospective clients, nasty comments nobody ever reacted upon etc. This type of Facebook page is not inviting at all. And it definitely won’t boost your ranking with search engines.

In the end every entrepreneur has to decide for herself. There is no need to sell your soul, people crave authenticity. Showcase your company in way that feels trustworthy and inviting.
If Facebook isn’t for you you probably won’t be able to create a convincing Facebook presence. But maybe you take a lot of pleasure in connecting with people in your local community. Or your service is so outstanding that people rave about you and are more than willing to write outstanding ratings on Google.

But I am sure everyone will find her spot. Trust yourself and talk about it!

The post Local SEO – Are local businesses different? has first been published on start the loop_.