FAQ

Your frequently asked questions

The FAQ brings together the essential answers to understand how Mobilosoft facilitates your local marketing on a daily basis, without unnecessary jargon.

Google Business Profile

Facebook Places

Content Publishing

Customer reviews

Geolocalized Advertising

Local SEO

Management Type

Google Business Profile

How to check updates to your data on Google Business Profile ?

Google updates can occur at any time and are visible in Google search, on Maps and in other services of Google Business Profile. You can review these changes and ensure the accuracy of the information provided to your customers. Each type of update is associated with a color in the listing editor. Thus, you can choose to accept, reject or modify Google updates: on individual listings or on multiple listings, in the mobile app and perform bulk imports. Learn more : best practices related to local listings Google Business Profile

How to manage duplicate listings in Google Business Profile ?

Here's how to remove duplicate locations from your Google Business Profile and how to report them from Google Maps: From your Google Business Profile: The “Duplicate location” indication is mentioned when the location you want to add already exists in your account. If “Permission required” is displayed, you need to request ownership of the relevant listing. Steps to follow to delete a local listing:

Log in to Google Business Profile
In “Account summary”, click on “Duplicate establishments”
Go to the listing to be deleted and click on “Delete this listing” / Or check the box for each point of sale to be deleted, select the three-dot menu and then select “Delete”

Warning : Make sure not to delete already validated listings. From Google Maps

Open Google Maps
Search for the establishment and suggest a modification
Select “This place is permanently closed or never existed” and the reason “Duplicate”, then click send.

How to centralize the management of my network of locations on Google Business Profile?

Creating a business group is the best way to properly manage all of your Google Business Profile listings. A retail location grouping can be shared with your partners (colleagues, solutions, agencies, ...). On the other hand, if you want to distinguish subsets of establishments (brands, catchment areas, ...) you can create multiple retail location groups. To publish and validate your listings in a grouped manner (in a single operation), you must perform an import (xls, csv, ...) into your Google Business Profile account. Warning : Use a professional email address provided by Google to manage your Google Business Profile account.

How do I retrieve the statistics for my Google Business Profile listings?

It is possible to download the statistics of several establishments at once by performing an export. Three reports are proposed: statistics relating to the discovery of your establishments, your photos and your phone calls. Procedure:

Log in to Google Business Profile
Check the points of sale that interest you
Trigger the menu above the list of your locations and select “Download Statistics”
Select one of the three reports in the “Local Reports” screen that opens
Specify the desired time period in the next screen and download the report

Warning

How to manage the opening hours of two different services on my Google Business Profile? (e.g. Drive service)

It is important to distinguish between your regular opening hours for your main service and secondary opening hours that are useful for certain specific services. Except in exceptional cases, you should indicate your standard opening hours in the dedicated section of your My Business listing. That is, the hours during which staff are present to accompany and serve customers. For your “secondary” hours, one solution is to use the Post feature to highlight them regularly or continuously in the listing's info feed. Example of an exception: service stations where it is recommended to indicate the opening hours of the pumps. See the “Multiple Schedules” chapter in the Google Business Profile support to learn how to proceed according to the specific cases of different business sectors. Warning : Do not indicate hours in the name of the local listing under penalty of having it blocked.

How to regain access to my Google Business Profile accounts?

How to proceed :

Log in to Google with the account you want to use to manage your business.
Enter the name or address of your establishment, then select it from the search results. A dialog box indicating part of the email address used to validate the listing may be displayed. If you manage this email address, log in to this account to access your establishment's listing.
Fill out the form. The current owner of the listing may need to contact you to learn more about you. You will not be able to send your request without sharing your contact information with them.
Google Business Profile will send an email to the current listing owner asking them to contact you, and you will receive a confirmation email. Wait 7 days before the current listing owner responds to your request. If they have not contacted you by the end of this period, you will be able to validate your affiliation with the establishment in order to access the content that interests you.

How to delete a business listing from your account?

Procedure to follow :

Log in to Google Business Profile
In the menu, click on info > Under “Close or delete this listing”, > Click mark the location as permanently closed.
Click Ok in the dialog box
In Info > under “Close or delete this listing”, delete the listing.
Review the information on the page that appears, > then click delete account.

NB : The listing will however remain visible on Google but will be “free of rights”.

How to remove a listing from Google?

It is recommended to mark your business page as permanently closed rather than deleting it. Why? Because this will allow users performing the search to find your business and realize that it is permanently closed. A business marked as closed on Google will appear less and less over time in Google searches and on Google Maps, in favor of other pages found with the same keywords. In the long term, the listing will be automatically deleted.

Is it possible to know the “completion” rate of Google Business Profile listings?

Recently, Google displays this rate in the Home section of each Google Business Profile listing. Completing your listing will improve your ranking in local searches and present a complete profile to users.

Why are my hours in color?

When you do not specify your exceptional hours, an orange label is added to your business's local listing, indicating that the owner has not validated their hours during public holidays. Furthermore, if the label is green, it means you have mentioned this change on the listing, allowing consumers to visit your point of sale with confidence, and this will also lead to better SEO as your information will be considered reliable and of high quality by Google.

How to publish a Google post?

It is possible to publish text, events, articles, images, polls or videos on Google to engage internet users who are interested in your establishment

Log in to GMB and then to the establishment
Click on “Create a post” or click on “Posts” in the menu
The “create a post” page offers you several types of posts. Select the one that suits you.
Add photos, text, events, and a “call to action” button to your post. You just need to click on each field and enter the information.
To target your posts to specific regions or languages, click on "Target". If you don't select any region or language, your posts will be available in all regions and languages.
Once you have created your content, you can click on Preview to preview it.
Then, click “Publish” in the upper right corner of your screen.

What is the impact of publishing photos on a Google Business Profile listing?

Businesses that have photos on their listing Google Business Profile receive an average of 42% more direction requests on Google Maps and 35% more clicks on their websites. The cover photo and logo are the most important elements for the user as they are front and center on your listing. Then, you can add additional photos to make your listing more descriptive and attractive (inside or outside your establishment, your flagship products, your team or your offer). It is best to do this across all Google Business Profile listings for your locations. By giving consistency across your pages, you strengthen your image and improve your local SEO. Note: the size of these photos must be at least 720 pixels long and wide and be in JPG or PNG format.

How to appear on Google Maps?

To appear on Google Maps, you must first add your business to Google Business Profile. It is essential to correctly indicate your address on this listing. Then, you can add your business to Google Maps by following this procedure:

Log in to Google Maps
You can then add your business in 2 different ways:

Click on the drop-down menu at the top left. Then click on "Add your location".
Right-click anywhere on the map. Then click on “Add a location”

What does Google Business Profile represent in my area?

Google Business Profile is a feature that allows you to present information about physical establishments on a card. These cards allow local businesses to manage their online presence at the Google search and Google Maps level so that they are easily (geo)locatable and provide the information usually sought by Internet users (opening hours, itinerary, consumer reviews...) during their search. Google Business Profile is a valuable online tool for your business, it is crucial for your local SEO. An optimized card of your establishment on Google Business Profile will allow you to be well positioned in Google search results. When consumers inquire about a product or service that your company can provide, you will be automatically suggested in the results. A competitive advantage to seize!

How to assess the accuracy of information across all my listings?

Google Business Profile does not allow you to automatically verify the accuracy of your information. To do this, 3 solutions are available to you:

Internally at the headquarters level: Ask a member of your marketing team to verify the accuracy of each establishment sheet. This process can be restrictive and lengthy.
Internally at the local level: Each store manager is responsible for regularly updating their information. Indeed, they alone can best communicate changes in schedules or specific events at the point of sale (promotions, products, etc.)
An agency: In addition to increasing your web visibility, the agency allows you to ensure the reliability and security of your information and saves precious time for your teams.

How can I manage the franchise page?

To manage the pages of your franchisees, simply create a group of establishments with all the pages of your franchisees on Google Business Profile. They can be managed collectively by an organization or a group of users. Organizing your establishments by classifying them into groups makes it easier to manage several of them more easily and more securely. To create a group of establishments:

Log in to Google Business Profile
Click on “Manage locations” then on “Create a location group”. If this button is not displayed, click on the three-bar menu and click on “Create a business account”
Enter the name of your group and click OK

To add a location to one or more groups, click on “Learn more”.

Facebook Places

Facebook places: what are the differences with classic pages?

Facebook has a feature that allows you to generate local pages for your physical points of sale on its search engine: Facebook Places. Indeed, each establishment can benefit from a "place" type page and thus highlight its local information (address, opening hours, coordinates, promotions, specific local content, etc.). Facebook Places is a feature that can be activated from a company's Facebook page to create local pages for its physical stores.

As a retail chain, there are several ways to exist on Facebook. Either there is a main company page and independent location pages, or local pages are connected to the company page. The second option is the "places" feature, the one that interests us.

This account organization has two particular advantages: automatically generating a Store Locator and centralizing page management. This will allow users to locate establishments on a map from the main page.

With Facebook Places, you can connect and manage all your activity locations on Facebook to promote local Pages and local awareness ads. You can add new local Pages, edit existing location information, and manage them from a single location. Location pages offer a simpler display including coordinates, hours, and location. The “classic” pages will offer a wider range of content.

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Additional article: Facebook places, the digital showcase of your physical stores

Content Publishing

On which media should I publish content to promote my establishment?

It's not obvious to define your strategy on digital media; we often tend not to know which networks to communicate on and what content strategy to adopt. To reach and attract a maximum number of potential customers, it's not necessary to publish on all digital media, but rather to target the type of content and media used by them. It's essential to offer content that answers their questions and concerns.

For a good digital strategy, we advise you to be on Facebook, Google Business Profile and the directories of your sector, such as Tripadvisor for catering for example.

How to highlight the flagship product of the moment?

Since 2017, you can benefit free of charge from the new Google Posts feature of Google Business Profile. Google Posts appear directly on your business listing in Google search results. Thus, you can present your news, flagship products, events or promotions.

For this content, favor a catchy title, short text, clean visuals, and a suitable call to action. Publications will be visible for the duration you have previously defined, except for events that expire only once the event date is reached.

Customer reviews

Why give importance to managing your Google reviews?

Managing your online reputation is one of the pillars of customer relationships. This allows you to build a trusting relationship and retain customers. Google places great importance on it with regard to 3 elements:

Local results can be filtered by number of stars.
The number of reviews is displayed.
The average rating is displayed.

Our advice :

Try to respond to all reviews, this will encourage other local customers to speak out.
Be responsive, customers are attentive to your response time. A maximum delay of 5 to 7 days is recommended.
Apply the "tone of voice", the communication tone defined in your company. Use a formal or informal language, for example.
Avoid copying and pasting, opt for a personalized response.

In case of reviews violating the rules, comments and photos can be reported to the moderation teams who will remove them after evaluation.

Learn more : how to manage Google reviews

Geolocalized Advertising

How to create advertising campaigns on Google?

A Google Ads campaign consists of creating a set of digital advertising ads that will appear on the Google hub (Google Search, Google Maps, Youtube, the Display Network…)

A Google Ads campaign will allow you to appear in searches by businesses similar to yours made by your potential customers. Google Ads offers store owners the ability to build local campaigns with the goal of bringing a customer into the store by appearing in searches by prospects near the store.

To do this:

Access your Google Ads account. On the left, in the page menu, click on Campaigns. Then, click on the Plus button, then on new campaign.
Select your objectives for your campaign. If no objective matches your expectations, select Create a campaign without a specific objective. In the case of physical stores, select “Promotions and in-store visits”.
Choose a daily budget or a budget for the entirety of your campaign.
Provide a set of resources for your entire campaign. (Photos, videos, logos, descriptions,…)

Learn more: The benefits of local Google campaigns

What is a local digital ad or “local ad”?

A “local ad” or local advertisement in English, consists of digitally promoting your store in a geographical area around it. Advertising ensures that the most important information (name, address, hours, images, ..) of your brand is automatically displayed on the digital platforms of your potential customers in the vicinity. The goal is to attract the customer to the point of sale. This strategy is called “Web-to-store” and involves optimizing the online visibility of its points of sale on the largest media to encourage visits to the store

What is a local campaign or “local campaign”?

A “local campaign” or a local advertising campaign in French, involves digitally promoting your store across the entire Google ecosystem (Google Search, Google Maps, YouTube, the Display Network…).

When creating a Google campaign, it is possible to select a campaign objective. By selecting the goal “Promotions and in-store visits”, you will be able to build what is called a “local campaign”. This type of campaign will allow you to display all advertisements on the digital platforms of your potential customers located near the brand.

Organizing a campaign for a retail chain requires a certain organization. We advise the headquarters to offer a resource library to local entities. Store managers will only have to use these resources when implementing their campaigns.

Our advice:

– Ensure good communication between the head office(s) and local physical entities. First, it is necessary to define the messages that will be carried by each. The creation of a communication calendar for these different messages must then be created to allow good synchronization between entities.

– To avoid launching competing campaigns for the same network, use geo-location variables from different platforms to create “catchment areas”. It is possible to exclude geographical areas from the platforms where the campaign will not be communicated. The campaigns will therefore be mutually exclusive to each other.

Learn more: Boost the visibility of your points of sale with local ads

How to create advertising campaigns on Facebook?

Facebook offers store owners the possibility to easily create local campaigns "Facebook ads", a format that meets their needs.

Indeed, this digital advertising format allows physical brands to promote their services and products to potential customers in a nearby geographic area. Local campaigns meet the needs of physical stores to bring customers to the site.

The steps:

Choose your campaign objective: in Facebook ads manager, click on "create" in the "campaign" tab. Facebook offers you 11 different campaign objectives. In the case of retail chains, the objective of the point of sale will be "Store Traffic".
Define your audience: in the “places” section, it is interesting for retail networks to use the “People recently in this place” option to target people near the point of sale. It is possible to expand the targeting radius around the store.
Define campaign locations: for the "in-store traffic" campaign objective, locations are limited to Facebook feed and stories and Instagram feed and stories. You will then need to upload the image and/or video content and the text prepared in advance.
Specify the budget and campaign schedule: You have two choices for the campaign budget: choose a daily budget or a total budget for the entire campaign.
Choose different campaign formats

Learn more: What are the benefits of Facebook ads for a retail network?

Local SEO

What is the impact of online visibility for my point of sale?

Good search engine optimization (SEO) reinforces trust and credibility towards your company. In addition, a complete professional page (with photos, descriptions, hours, etc.) will be automatically better referenced than one that is less complete.

Your main source of traffic comes from searches performed on Google. Internet users generally do not go beyond the first page of results before abandoning their searches or changing keywords. That's why you need to make sure that your business pages are on the first page of results. Good local SEO translates into engagement, traffic, and conversions. Good web SEO also means a better user experience by directly providing the information sought.

For this, regular management of information is crucial. Any excuse is a good excuse to publish a Google Post to communicate events or promotions. Natural referencing is a long-term strategy with quantifiable results.

How to identify the SEO impact of the store locator?

The store locator is a key tool to drive customers to your establishments. In digital marketing, it is important to be able to measure the impact of your actions in order to analyze the results and optimize your strategy. You will be able to put in place correction or development axes by setting defined objectives and following your results through KPI (Key Performance Indicators).

Google Analytics, Google's performance measurement tool, will measure a set of KPIs such as turnover, visits, revenue or sales,… In addition, it is a very useful tool for measuring your digital presence through indicators such as the number of clicks, views or downloads on websites and advertisements.

Google Analytics is a very comprehensive tool, which makes it quite complex at first glance. We advise you to consult the Google support articles before creating an Analytics account.

Learn more : Getting started with Analytics

What is an omnichannel strategy?

Omnichannel is about connecting the brand with its customers on all available channels simultaneously. This approach puts the consumer at the center of the marketing strategies of brands, as it is they who decide which channel is best suited to their needs at a given time. The stakes are high for brands, as customer experience, satisfaction and interactions with the consumer are at the heart of their buying journey.

Learn more: What is omnichannel commerce and its challenges?

What is the difference between E-commerce and In-store?

Consumer habits have evolved with the internet: customers inform themselves, compare and read reviews left online before making a purchase, online or in-store. For this, local SEO, "click and collect", websites or the use of social networks are essential for retail chains. Many benefits are at stake: better visibility, local communication, increased turnover, customer loyalty.

Two terms have emerged from this change in consumption habits: e-commerce and in-store. The difference between these two terms is determined by the place of purchase. Indeed, an E-commerce describes an online store where the purchase is made virtually. While the “In-store” is a term used to describe physical establishments where the purchase is made in-store.

What are the best practices for good local SEO?

Here are some tips:

Create an account on the most important platforms such as Google Business Profile, Facebook, Instagram,… Don't forget to also register on local and professional directories depending on your sector.
Check if the information you provide on all platforms is the same. Align your information such as your name, address, phone number, website,… Check that your opening hours are up to date on all of these media.
Encourage your customers to post their reviews on your pages. The more reviews you have, the better your SEO will be. Don't forget to respond, it shows that you take customer feedback into consideration. It is recommended to respond to reviews between 2 and 7 days after publication.
Add information to your listings by detailing the services and/or products you offer. This way, people interested in your brand will know at a glance what you do.
Post about events taking place in your store, such as current promotions or actions.

How to increase my online traffic?

Have you seen a drop in traffic on your local pages or your website? Are you trying to understand why and how to reverse the trend? Here are some tips to reverse the trend:

1. A drop in traffic may be related to a general traffic decrease on a specific keyword or term. In other words, it is possible that a term you regularly use for your advertising campaigns or communications is less searched by Internet users.
2. The visibility of an online article can, in addition to its subject, be linked to its publication date. Don't hesitate to regularly write articles on current topics. In addition, make sure to highlight a specific keyword throughout your article. This keyword should also be in the title.
3. To increase your visibility, communicate regularly with your customers and prospects. Use any event to prepare content. We advise you to create a content calendar to organize your marketing emails and social media posts.
4. Regularly update your local listings on Google and Facebook. This sends a signal to Google that the information is reliable and provides a good user experience for web users. You can update your exceptional hours, add photos, products, services, and post content.

Types of management

How to manage the online presence of my establishments?

The management of local digital marketing for a retail chain should be based on synergy between headquarters and local entities. To achieve this, it is recommended that headquarters provide a library of resources (texts, photos, videos) for all necessary communications for the brands. Store managers are then responsible for communicating with the proposed resources.

To facilitate the management of all your points of sale, My mobilosoft software offers you all the resources you need to manage the presence of your points of sale on the web: Local referencing (multi-diffusion), content publication, conversation management and e-reputation.

Thus, you can manage your entire web presence on the same platform and analyze your results to make the necessary improvements to your strategy.

How to be more efficient in managing my local pages?

Managing your different local pages across a range of media requires a certain number of resources.
There are 3 possible management modes to gain efficiency:

Decentralized management: give local managers the ability to manage their own local pages. They are best placed to respond to local issues.
Centralized management: The headquarters of the brand ensures that the information of all points of sale is managed in the same way.
Outsourced management: delegate your workload to a team of high-performing and responsive data managers 7/7, they manage both your GMB, FB pages, your store locator, reviews…

To be more effective and make your life easier, mobilosoft has developed a simplified and centralized management platform, allowing you to save time and ensure the follow-up of your marketing actions. This platform makes it possible to bring together these three forms of management in a centralized way to save time for all network collaborators.

How to manage my different schedules on multiple digital media?

We advise you to differentiate your regular hours from your secondary hours. On your Google Business Profile account for example, your exceptional hours must be detailed in a different section (“More hours” or “Exceptional opening hours”) than your regular hours. Depending on exceptional services or events, don't forget to detail your schedule changes in the dedicated section.

To benefit from the overall consistency of your points of sale, it is advisable to use software or platforms to centrally manage all your point of sale data on your various digital media.

For this, the MyMobilosoft platform exists, it allows you to have a global and centralized view of your referencing on Google Business Profile or Facebook Business for example. You can manage all your pages, change schedules quickly and centrally and thus save time for your teams and limit referencing errors.