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Google Business Profile Updates To Make For The Holidays

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The holidays are almost here, and as a businesses owner, we understand you want to do all you can to increase sales this season. By updating your Google Business Profile, your customers can easily find the information they may need. Unwired Web Solutions offers local SEO services that include making sure your company’s profile is up to date on Google. 

This holiday season, chances are your customers are using Google to find information about your business. They may be looking for your website, checking for extended holiday hours, or getting directions to your location. No matter the reason, your customer needs to find the information they are looking for; otherwise, they may go to your competitor. 

The peak holiday season is rapidly approaching, and for many businesses, it has already begun. ECommerce sales for November 2021 to January 2022 are forecasted to increase 11% – 15% this year over last year. With much of the world still locked down to some degree, many consumers are still opting to do their holiday shopping online. 

But it isn’t just online shops that need to worry about their online profile. With in-store shopping anticipated to rebound to a 33% share in 2021 from 28% in 2020, customers may be looking online before visiting a brick-and-mortar location. 

To keep up with sales this Christmas, businesses need to prepare their Google Business Profile (GBP), formerly Google Business Profile. By updating your information online, you can aid shoppers in their searches by presenting the most up-to-date, accurate, detailed information possible. 

Update Hours

If your business is extending hours over the holiday season, we recommend setting “Special Hours” in your Google Business Profile. Setting these special hours enables you to provide shoppers with the information they need to visit your shop. 

Use the “More Hours” section if your business plan to provide specific services at different times during the holiday season. For example, if you plan to be open an hour earlier for seniors this holiday season, you can set it in the “More Hours” rather than the “Special Hours.” 

It can be necessary for a business to close for a number of different reasons temporarily. Google recommends that if your company is closed for 7 or more days in a row or will be closed for an unknown period of time, you should mark your business as “Temporarily Closed.” 

Update Your Images

Businesses with more GBP photos have been shown to get more clicks, phone calls, and driving direction requests. For those with over 100 images, businesses were found to get 520% more calls compared to the average business. 

Providing many high-quality images will not only correlate to more conversions, but they can also provide the visual stimulation needed for a customer to consider your business. By acting as a digital representation of your brand, your images will be a digital storefront, accurately portraying the in-store shopping experience that your customers can expect this holiday season. 

Monitor Reviews

Often time, Google reviews can make or break a business. These reviews can also provide your customers with pertinent information about your business operations. 

Research shows that 50% of consumers feel more confident in a business when they see a brand actively responding to reviews. This gives the customer the feeling that the company cares about their wants and needs. 

This holiday season, have a team in place to respond to both positive and negative reviews to encourage customer loyalty. 

A Few Simple Steps

By taking these few simple steps this holiday season, you can help to ensure a profitable holiday season. Our team at Unwired Web Solutions offers many services to help your local business thrive all year long. From local SEO services to website design, and SEO analysis tools, we can help your business stand out online. Contact us today to learn more about our valuable services. 

What A Local Citation Builder Can Do For Your Business

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Citations are online business listings that contain practical information about a business. Citation building can help companies to take control of their data online to ensure it is accurate, complete and widely displayed. It is essential for a business to have accurate information so that customers can easily find their contact information.

At Unwired Web Solutions, we are experts in local citation building in Canada. We work with your business to:

  • create new listings on websites they are not yet listed on
  • claim listings that already exist
  • update data on listings
  • remove harmful duplicate listings from sites

Local SEO Value

Citations are important because they hold local SEO value to help improve ranking in local search engines. Search engines such as Google compare the data displayed on citation sites with the business data it holds. When it sees a high-level updated confirmation, it can then build confidence in the business’s location and services offered. This is when Google will boost the business ranking in local search results.

When it comes to building citations, many local small businesses will build them from a list or use a submission service to take care of it for them. The problem in this comes when a company makes a change relating to the name, phone number, address, or removal of a service that affects their primary category. Even modifying opening hours could cause a problem.

Businesses who are not using services for local citation building in Canada may have to log in to each site and update the details one by one. This creates a process then where you will have to wait for the page to be found and crawled again by a Google bot. The updated details will take some time to start filtering through, with some lower tier sites taking months to be crawled again.

Data Aggregator Submissions

A popular way of building local citations is through data aggregators by API connection or via a custom dashboard. Data aggregators lease their data to various companies, which then creates bulk business citations on a wide variety of sites. This data is then uploaded in bulk through the data aggregators.

Manual Submissions

Some citation builders will update submissions manually. When this is the case, you would want each campaign to be handled by one agent and overseen by a manager to review and approve listings to ensure all submissions maintain the highest quality.

Linking To Website

While citations are not linked to a website, they can contain a link to the main business website. These listings can appear on many websites, including online directory’s, event sites, news and blog sites, and review sites.

Our experts in local citation building in Canada understand the complexities of handling all information across various platforms. A business must have the same information across the web so that search engines can recognize it and can relay it to their customers on Google Local/Maps. 

Contact our team at Unwired Web Solutions today to learn more about citation building for your business. 

What Plugins Are Slowing Down Your WordPress Site?

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WordPress is a great platform to host a website. But from time to time, these websites can be slowed to a snail’s pace. Many times the speed of your website is slowing down due to plugins, So it is essential to figure out which ones are causing your site harm.

At Unwired Web Solutions our team of experts offer a selection of services from creating a content management system for small business to figuring out which plugin is slowing your WordPress site. No matter what your needs are for your business, our team is here to help.

Slow Site

Not only is a slow site annoying for your customers, but Google is also watching how fast your site runs and is ranking you according to your speed. When your business relies on the Internet, you cannot afford to ignore site speed issues. Experts believe that each time your website fails to load slower than three-second timeframe you risk losing a customer. Slow load time is one of the major contributors to site abandonment.

It is vital to monitor your site speed regularly to eliminate issues that could be slowing it down. When you use WordPress it is even more important as it relies on plugins to improve functionality and boost the user experience.

Don’t shy away from plugins simply because they could slow down your site. It is just essential that you identify which plugins may be the culprits of a decrease in speed in your website. While staying on top of these things can be tricky, our experts at Unwired Web Solutions are here to help.

Quantity or Quality?

You may assume that is the quantity of plugins that you have for your site that will slow it down; however, this is not always true. According to WordPress experts, it is common for business websites to have around 20 to 30 plugins installed, and for larger business sites it can quite easily reach 50 to 60 plugins.

With these websites regularly having a large number of plugins it stands to reason that it’s not the quantity that can cause the most damage to your site speed. It is truly about the quality of the plugins that are the real issue.

Always make sure you opt for plugins that are made by professionals and have a good reputation with great reviews. These plugins should follow WordPress coding standards and should not negatively impact your site speed or performance.

Regularly Check Speed and Performance

By regularly checking the speed and performance of your WordPress website you can be sure your customers are not being turned away because they are waiting too long for your page to load. Google offers an easy and simple way to check your site speed. Their page speed insights tool is free to use by simply entering your URL and letting it do the work analyzing your site.

If you do find that your site has dramatically slowed, chances are that it’s because of a rogue problem plugin. Our experts at Unwired Web Solutions can help find the plugin that may be causing the problems and help to get your site back up to speed. Contact us today to find out more about our WordPress services. We also offer various other services such as content management systems for small businesses, local SEO, website design, social media marketing, and more!

Lesser-Known Local SEO Tips

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The end goal of local SEO is to rank higher in local searches and get more people to your site and through your door. But what if you are overlooking some simple tricks that can help bring more people in through the door?

As a local SEO company, our experts know how to drive potential customers to your business, whether online or a brick-and-mortar location. We understand that it isn’t just the large SEO strategies that work, but that every little bit helps when it comes to local SEO. Sometimes small tips and tricks make a big difference in online visibility. 

With more people searching online for local businesses than ever before, local SEO has never been more competitive than it is today. This means you need to stand out and rise in the rankings over your competition. 

Google Reviews are Important

While it may be intimidating to ask customers for reviews, it is necessary to acquire new ones. Your business needs ratings and reviews to help build trust in your brand to rank higher in local search, so try to encourage customers to go online and leave a review.  

With local businesses, Google will show potential customers your listing to people looking for things near them. The searchers will see results that include a map of business locations, plus listings for three businesses relevant to their particular search. Many small companies believe that just showing up on this map pack is enough, but by optimizing your own Google Business Profile with reviews, you can get one step ahead of your competition. 

A simple five-star rating isn’t what it used to be. There is more that goes into an online review presence now, which includes your response to customers. Be sure to keep track of the reviews on your GMB listing and respond when necessary. People generally want to support their local businesses, so you want to make it easy and convenient for them. 

Consistency is Key

Your business name, phone number, and address data should be consistent and present across all your profiles on the web. By ensuring that your phone number is clickable on your website, you make it easier for your customer to contact you. While most browsers will recognize and highlight phone numbers, you will want to ensure they are working correctly. It is quick and easy to insert a small amount of code on a website wherever your phone number shows up on your website. 

Keep in mind that if you use a Google trackable number, it should not affect your rankings as long as your actual number is listed as a secondary number in Google Business Profile. 

You will also want to make sure that your number is a textable business line. Surveys now show that most people prefer to text. Giving customers the ability to text your business can help to convert a higher percentage of prospects into customers. This can be achieved through either a GMB profile or your website chat feature. 

Make It Easy for Customers to Find You

You want your customers to know where you are located without them having to do a lot of searching. You can make it easier for them by including a Google Map of your locations right on your website. Many businesses opt for a map on their contact page so customers can easily see where they are located. 

The most important part of online marketing is making sure your customers and search engines know how to find you and that they can easily see if you are open for business. Claim every business profile and listing possible and for every location, you operate. Some of these can include Yelp, Facebook, TripAdvisor, Google, and various industry-specific sites. Just be sure always to keep all accounts current, including operating hours and contact details. 

The end goal of local SEO is to get more quality leads. But, getting reviews, updating online profiles, and setting up texting services can be a lot to handle for some business owners. That is where Unwired Web Solutions can help! We are a local SEO company with a team of experts who can optimize your business presence across all platforms. Contact us today for more details. 

How To Build An Effective Local SEO Strategy

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Why should you bother with local SEO? This is a common question that we often get asked here at Unwired Web Solutions. While it may not seem significant on the surface, if you want to gain any attention to your business from the internet, you need to focus on local SEO. 

Think of it this way… when you are searching for a nearby restaurant, the first thing you do is go to Google and search for “restaurants near me.” This is where local SEO comes into play. If you are a local restaurant, you want to show up first in the listings. Our local SEO services Kitchener specialists can help your business rank higher in Google through local SEO search functions. 

Local SEO services help to improve your business’s online visibility by people in the community who are searching for businesses like yours. In addition, having a higher ranking on local search results will attract many more potential customers in the vicinity, helping to achieve a better organic search presence. Local SEO is so important because 46% of all searches done on Google revolve around local information. 

Local SEO practices can also improve overall online brand awareness and help to generate more website traffic, in-store traffic, and conversions for small businesses. Without local SEO, your business may struggle to stand out amidst the sea of competitors. 

How To Build a Local SEO Strategy

Any local SEO strategy should start by creating a Google Business Profile page. This is the most effective way to rank higher in both Google search local results and Google maps. After filling in all the appropriate information, this information will be used by Google to provide users with essential details about your business. This information may include the company address, website, contact details, hours, and customer reviews. 

Adding as much information as possible to Google Business Profile will make it possible to appear in Google search results at a higher ranking. 

Boost Your Social Media

Although some people just don’t like social media, it is undeniably essential for small businesses. For local SEO, search ranking is not just determined by your profile on Google alone. Claim and complete your business profile on popular social media and listing sites such as Yelp and Facebook, just as you did with Google Business Profile. 

By growing and nurturing your online presence across various sites, your business will maximize its local SEO and increase visibility across multiple search engines. 

Optimize Local Content

Once people are directed to your business’s website, it is important to have up-to-date, relevant information. Content is the foundation of digital marketing strategies, and there is no better way to leverage that than by creating posts that relate to a local issue. This is a great way to attract attention to your business and drive customers to your site. 

Some local content you could include on our website may consist of blogs centred around local news or events, videos about your personal services, or a page that addresses customer’s frequently asked questions. Look at competitors and see what content they may be using to drive more customers to your site. 

Optimize for Mobile Devices

With most people now owning a smartphone, it is estimated that 60% of all people are now searching on a mobile device rather than a desktop or laptop computer. Studies have also shown that 61% of all mobile searchers are more likely to contact a local business if they have a mobile-friendly site. 

When creating a website, many people don’t realize it may look different in mobile versions. A site needs to be optimized to work properly on a smaller screen, and if it isn’t, this can affect your SEO ranking. 

Our local SEO services Kitchener specialists can help set up your website, so your business is included in local search results. Contact us today to learn how Unwired Web Solutions helps small businesses with local SEO.