This week Apple announced all the new toys and features that are going to be released this year at its big annual product press conference. Among the additions to the hardware lineup is a one-two punch for the new iPhone operating system that directly affects the users ability to find your business.
Apple announced they are updating Siri (the snarky female navigation assistant) and releasing their own map function to replace the current Google Maps on the device.
Accordingly, businesses are going to have to revisit their mobile strategy.
This is not just for restaurants and dry cleaners either. In the attorney market, for some niches, over 20 percent of users are visiting websites from their mobile devices. Just looking at your own behavior should be a telling sign -- do you use a mobile device to search for things?
Here is how you ensure your business effectively gets ranked on a mobile device and specifically the iPhone:
- Create and completely fill out your Google+ Local page (formerly your Google Places page).
- Do the same for your Yelp page.
- Get reviews for both. Remember that you should never fake a review. In some states this is considered illegal and in every state it is considered a lame thing to do.
- For the iPhone, specifically focus on Yelp and Localeze, two websites that are believed to have a strong impact on the iPhone map function.
The best way to get your site to rank well is going to be lots of optimized local directory listings. These listings all need to match and should contain your URL plus the same phone number a person would get if they dialed 411.
Local
An important note of caution: If you are planning on optimizing and ranking for mobile, make sure that your website is mobile friendly. It is really frustrating for a user to find your business on their mobile device only to be prohibited from viewing the site because was created with flash or the text is so small one can’t make out the hours of operations. If you are not sure about your site just pull out your phone and check.
Jabez LeBret is the author of the Amazon No. 1 bestselling law office marketing book How to Turn Clicks Into Clients. As a partner at Get Noticed Get Found, a legal marketing agency, over the last nine years he has delivered over 800 keynote addresses in six countries. His main area of expertise is managing Gen Y in the workplace, advanced Facebook strategies, LinkedIn strategies, Google+, SEO, local directory optimization, and online marketing.
