I’ve written at length and often, of the dangers of relying on one of anything in business.
- one supplier
- one employee
- one or very few large customers
- one source of leads
- one online marketing asset
- one primary source of finance
- one product
It’s an endless list.
Because if you suddenly lose that ‘one thing’, chances are your entire business gets hung out to dry.
Many a time, I’ve had a phone call like this: “Help! Facebook has taken by business page down, it’s the only way I keep in touch with my clients, what am I going to do?”
Or, “My one team member has just given me two weeks’ notice, she’s leaving a week before Christmas!”
But if you think that’s bad, imagine this:
Google suddenly shuts down its search engine for the whole country.
Fanciful? Not at all. In fact, that’s exactly what Google is threatening to do if the Australian government goes ahead with laws forcing Google and Facebook to pay mainstream media companies for news … the two tech giants currently swipe for free.
I doubt there’s a single hair salon, beauty salon, day spa or medispa that doesn’t, to a large degree, rely on Google to help clients and customers find them online.
Many spend big money every month to keep themselves at the top of Google’s search results, because 95% of people use Google exclusively to find products and services.
Like Sandi Chong of Suki Hairdressing in Newcastle, NSW, as quoted in this story in The Australian this week:
(And if you doubt it’s worth spending a few hundred dollars a month on getting top Google ranking, it works. Many, many salons & spas pay Worldwide Salon Marketing to SEO their websites and Google My Business listings. For example, Allura Hair Boutique in Melbourne sits on top of the search rankings.
Their Google My Business listing brings them more than 200 phone enquiries every month.
If Google throws its toys out of the playpen and sulks off into the sunset, that leaves a lot of businesses with little or no presence in search.
So, what can you do?
Microsoft’s BING is David to Google’s Goliath.
Microsoft can claim about 3% of current search traffic, to Google’s dominant 95%. But you can bet the folks at Microsoft are circling, waiting for Google to spit the dummy on Australia.
The other search tiddler is a company called DuckDuckGo, which is rapidly growing its market share on the back of not collecting user data and flogging it off to marketing companies.
The smart business owners are already getting prepared for this. For our Member businesses here at Worldwide Salon Marketing, we’re already laying the groundwork so that if and when Google Search disappears, they’ll be properly set up and optimised on Bing.
There’s a LOT to be done.
- Checking to make sure a business even has a Bing business listing.
- If it hasn’t, setting one up from scratch, making sure all the images are optimized for search.
- If it has, checking all the details (the NAP, or Name Address Phone details) match exactly with anywhere else the business is mentioned online, eg directories and review sites.
- Ensuring the Bing map listing replaces (or is ready to replace) the Google map listing in the business’s website.
- Ensuring all the images on the listing retain what’s called exif data – including GPS co-ordinates, tags, titles, comments and the business web address.
…and that’s just off the top of my head.
We can make it easier for you.
Option #1: you can of course go ahead and do it all yourself. Learn how to do it. Learn how to optimize all the images. Figure out how to check the NAP details and make sure they’re exactly the same as everywhere else on the internet.
Option #2: We can do it for you, in a couple of days! For $295 (incuding GST in Australia) it’ll be done for you, and you won’t have to worry about suddenly disappearing from search results if Google disappears from Australia!
What happens when you order Fix My Bing!
- As soon as you order, we’ll receive notification.
- If we don’t already manage your Google My Business Listing, we’ll ask you to add us as a Manager of your Google My Business listing.
- After that, we’ll do the rest.
…and you’ll be advised immediately your Bing Places has been set up!
Greg Milner is an author, marketing consultant and Founder of Worldwide Salon Marketing (2004). He’s coached and advised thousands of salon & spa owners on their business-building strategies.
Greg’s team of digital marketing specialists build and maintain hundreds of websites, SEO processes and digital marketing campaigns for salons & spas all over the world.
