6: Your Church Google Business Page, Google Maps & Local Business Directory Listings
Now you should be ready to begin improving the online presence and reach of your church.
Even though the first steps that you have completed so far are simple and can make you feel like you are not making progress, those steps are critical. The more organized you are BEFORE you start the better.
So now it is time to launch into making a difference in your Church Online Findability. Our first project is to claim and optimize our Local Business Directory Listings.
First – Setup Your Church Google Business Page & Maps
The entire purpose of The Finder Resource is to help people actually FIND your Church. But, the reality is that people are probably not searching for your specific church website.
Sure, if they know who you are or they are specifically searching for you, then they will most likely find yours. But if someone is new to a community or searching for a new church, yours may not be what rises to the top of the list on a Google search.
When a new potential church visitor searches for a church in their City what do they see?
At the top of the Google Search they will see the churches that have either worked hard enough [or are accidentally fortunate enough] to get to the top of that search.
What they will also typically see at the very top are Google Business Page and Maps Listings. These top ranked Google Maps listing areas are constantly changing as far as how it looks, feels and what is actually displayed. But these listings almost always show up at the top of local searches for churches and businesses.
The main reason they may not be featured at the top is that there is not enough Google Business Page or Maps data for that specific search in that local area. If someone searches for an obscure or extremely long search term, these listings may not show up.
But for sure, if someone is searching in an average size city or town for a church, these listings will show up at the very top.
That is where you want to be if at all possible. Claiming and Optimizing your Church Google Business Page & Maps is the first step to getting there.
Second – Optimize the MANY other Local Business Directory Options for your Church
The FIRST and most important Local Business Directory you should claim and optimize is your Church Google Business Page & Maps listing.
After taking care of Google, you should move on to Bing Places and the many, many other additional Local Business Directories that are available to help your church get found.
Yahoo used to be at the top of the list to be optimized, but the company has made it nearly impossible to claim your listing. You will most likely have to rely on Yahoo finding your correct information and pulling it from other sources after you correct it everywhere else online.
What is the point of optimizing the other random Local Business Directories like Manta and Merchant Circle? It would be easy to think this step is unimportant.
Most of you can probably see the value in getting control of your Google and Bing Local Directory listings. But I can understand if you are thinking that the additional directories would be unneeded.
They are actually very important to cleaning up the online presence and reach of your Church. You do NOT want to leave this step undone.
It is TIME to Claim and Optimize Your Local Business Directory Listings
Click the graphic link below to access the section of The Finder Resource Membership that walks you through the steps for optimizing your Church Google Business Page, Church Google Maps and the many other Local Business Directories.