Why “Google My Business” Is Critical To Grow Your Business

Happy Cyber Monday, my friends! Discounts, schmiscounts. Let’s talk about value-added ideas that will cost you nothing at all. Today, I’ve joined forces with Larry Goldstick of Capture Digital Marketing. In his guest post, he shares his excellent insights on what “Google My Business” can do for you (and leaves me hungry for some pizza). Take it away, Larry … 


Why “Google My Business” Is Critical To Grow Your Business

By Larry Goldstick, Capture Digital Marketing

Claim Your Business for Free

Google My Business is free to verified businesses. Using this tool increases your chances of showing up in Google’s Local Pack. Local Pack is a query tool that displays the top 3 most relevant businesses based on the users’ search criteria. Details about the business are shown with a ‘pin drop’ location on Google Maps. Establishing a Google My Business account also increases ranking on Local Finder and Google Maps. Gather the necessary details first and then claim your business at Google My Business.

Essential for SEO

SEO or search engine optimization affects the ranking of a website via a search engine. Think about the last time you used Google to search for ‘pizza near me’. Keeping your Google listing up to date, adding photos and getting and responding to reviews influences the ranking level of local pizza restaurants in your area. Google shows 10 results per page, so if your restaurant is ranked 13, chances are the order for a Deep Dish Supreme is going to be given to a competitor.

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Preventing Child Identity Theft: Spread the Word!

© Can Stock Photo / 72soul

Just when I thought cybercriminals and identity thieves couldn’t get any scummier than they already were, I’ve noticed a trickle of articles streaming in reporting a new low for them: child identity theft. Identity thieves are out to swipe your kid’s identifying information (such as a U.S. Social Security Number or Canadian Social Insurance Number) and link it to their own bad behaviors. The Wall Street Journal recently covered the growing crisis. My friends at the BAM ALLIANCE are on the beat as well, with this powerful video from Jared Hoffman.

To nip child identity theft in the bud, let’s turn that trickle of information into a deluge. Like it or not, parents around the world need to be on the look-out for the warning signs these days. That includes periodically checking to see whether your child has a credit history on file – or at least whether their identity does.

To help you share this important information with your community, I’ve created a pair of articles in my Content-Sharing Library, which you can download for free and use according to the Library’s terms of agreement. (In English, the terms essentially grant you licensing rights to remove my identifying information from the materials and brand them as your own; I retain copyright behind the scenes).

So, click on the link to the version of your choice to download it. Edit it to meet your particular needs. Help spread the word!

> Protecting Your Child from Identity Theft (U.S. version)

> Protecting Your Child from Identity Theft (Canadian version)

Questions? Let me know.

A Summer Summary of Swell Stuff

 

© Can Stock Photo / Valya

It’s time once again to catch up on my blogging backlog, sharing some substantive suggestions for my favorite peeps: the evidence-based investment advisor community. Kick back, grab a cool beverage, and read on about:

  1. How to strengthen your online privacy (compliments of GDPR)
  2. A Plutus Award financial publisher honor you may want to aim for, and
  3. A handy robo-advisor resource …

Controlling Computer Clutter, GDPR-Style

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m a big fan of the EU’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Sure, it’s created some extra work for us business owners, but it’s also driving improved infrastructure to help everyone take better control over their online privacy. In a world in which we may feel our privacy slipping away, that’s important, and I’m happy to be a part of the cause.

Teaser: In my next blog post, I’ll be sharing a bold next step I’m taking on that front. In the meantime, here’s a tip I learned when establishing GDPR-compliant cookie consent on my own website: Thanks to GDPR, you can now more tightly control what cookies you accept from many websites around the world.

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Watching Others, Watching You, Watching Out

© Can Stock Photo / Bepsimage

You know the classic Catch-22 pun: “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.” Here are a few items I’ve been keeping a watchful eye on lately. As an evidence-based investment advisor, you may want to take a look at them too.

GDPR … It’s Growing on Me

GD-what? It’s not your fault if you’ve not even heard of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Set to go live May 25th, it’s a big deal in Europe, but I might not have heard of it either if I didn’t have a number of colleagues and clients based there. Even then, it only dawned on me a few weeks ago that I may need to comply with portions of it too, as described in this Forbes article.

If you are not collecting, processing or storing any personal information on anyone in the EU, you can probably remain blissfully ignorant about the details. But, I wanted to bring it to your attention anyway because I’m intrigued by its parallels to our would-be fiduciary standards. Think of the GDPR as having a similar mission, but it’s meant to protect people’s personal data instead of their financial well-being.

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Mitch Anthony’s Startlingly Brave Call to Action

© Can Stock Photo / ionutparvu

Coming out on a Monday as it did, you may have missed this little bombshell of a Financial Advisor piece authored by “The New Retirementality” author Mitch Anthony: “Harsh Lessons in Modern Con Art.” In it, Mitch shared how he – and his mother! – were conned out of $1 million by an unscrupulous real estate wheeler-dealer.

I don’t think Mitch will mind if I share his opening and a few other key excerpts:

“As I sit down to write this article, I know it will likely be the most difficult composition of my writing career—difficult because it dredges up a miasma of regret, embarrassment, sadness and anger like nothing else I’ve experienced in life. I was conned out of almost a million dollars.”

You can read the rest here, plus check out Financial Advisor’s op-ed about the piece, “Why Mitch Anthony Displays Courage.”

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Financial Security and Modern-Day Pirates

© Can Stock Photo / AlienCat

Pirates may be jolly when they’re Johnny Depp in a costume, but the real renditions aren’t amusing at all … as the world is being reminded of recently in the form of a global Microsoft ransomware outbreak. If you’ve not yet seen the news, all you have to do is Google “ransomware attack 2017” and you’ll get caught up pretty quickly. You might want to have a paper bag handy, to breathe into.

Bottom line, to help shore up the security of your virtual ship, there’s one important step you and your clients should be taking if you’ve not yet done so: Make sure all updates and patches to your Windows operating system have been completed – like, yesterday. (As in, stop whatever else you’re doing, and do that now.)

By the way, I’ve just added a short email to the Content-Sharing Library, which you can use to reach out to your clients about this simple but important step. And, as incredibly excellent timing would have it, just last Friday, I also happened to load a quick-reference guide and a longer report on the subject of protecting against financial fraud and identity theft (U.S. and Canadian versions of the same).

If my timing were always this impeccable, I’d become an active investor! It’s not, and I won’t.

As they used to say on Hill Street Blues, let’s be careful out there.