General Hints, Tips, FAQ's
Heres our most frequent questions and answers
Checklocal can boost your online presence using cost-effective, Organic Marketing techniques that bring new customers to your business organically over time.
You can publish advertising content that is online 24/7, promoting your business all day, every day.
You have full control over your content through our simple publishing form and can publish new content, edit content or delete content at any time.
- Flat rate monthly membership – No pay per click and unexpected costs
- Unlimited advertising
- Self managed
- Help local customers find your products and services online
- Increase organic SEO
- Generate positive PR by offering authentic, free content to people searching for answers, products or services related to your business industry
- Build valuable backlinks to your own website or social profiles
- Promote sales and special offers through dedicated ad space
Checklocal offer Flat Rate Plans, starting from $29.95 per month. No hidden costs what-so-ever.
This plan gives you unlimited advertising. All published pages are live while your plan is active.
Yes. You can cancel your plan at any time, there is no contract or lock in period. We don’t offer refunds for partial months so if you cancel on the 1st for example and your monthly payment is on the 16th you will not be reimbursed for the 15 days.
Check Local supports small business in New Zealand only. Small businesses are defined as having fewer than 20 employees so if you have 19 employees or less you’re good to go!
If your business hovers around that amount, perhaps just over, contact us as we can make exceptions on a case by case basis.
Not at all! You can use Check Local as a way to build your online presence and start getting found in the major search engines and the Check Local website. You can link to social accounts or any other external URL’s that profile your business.
Business Profile
A simple profile of your business. If you haven't got a website for your business yet you can use this profile to boost your online presence. The business profile is also great to build valuable backlinks if you do have a website already.
Yes you do!
Following signup with Check Local the first thing you’ll need to do is complete your business profile.
All the information from your business profile gets automatically embedded in the pages you publish eg; your contact details, logo, external URL’s, Display Ad, Call To Action – So completing your business profile is required before you proceed with anything else.
No problem!
A business member of Check Local, “Sticky Media” can design your Display Ad for you absolutely FREE!
Check out the Display Ad Builder under “Member Tools” on the main menu or just click here.
The Call To Action section in your business profile is a way for you to generate action from people viewing your published content. Advertise a sale, special offer, include a coupon unique to your Check Local website content so you can monitor returns.
The Call To Action in your business profile form will automatically display between content on your published pages, so all you need to worry about is filling the 3 fields on the form and we will do the rest.
You can include an external URL to a landing page, sales funnel, Social Media and more.
Answer
Publish common question and answers about your business industry and related industries. Your answers will get picked up by Google and people searching for answers online.
People want answers!
Think of how many times you’re asked questions related to your business industry from your customers. Now think of how many more people are asking the same question online.
Are you answering them… or is your competition?
An Answer is a way for you to share knowledge of your business industry. They are a way to offer free, authentic information to people searching online. Any answer you publish on Check Local is displayed with your business information and also a “Call to action” with external link.
Keep your content honest, helpful and unique. Publish as many Answers as you like. Over time you’ll generate awareness of your business and build positive PR by offering free information
Tip 1
Think of the 10 most common questions you are asked by customers, store walk-ins, emails every week.
Write them down. Now answer them!
Tip 2
- Open your browser and head to Google.
- Type in a common question related to your business industry.
- Look below the first search results for the accordian “People also ask”
- Go through those questions and answer them
- Repeat this process using different questions and you’ll start building a huge list of common information people are searching for online
Tip 3
Don’t limit yourself to your main industry, think about related industries as well.
For example; A hotel in Raglan can write answers about “The best local attractions around Raglan” or “5 great places to eat out in Raglan”. The answer content will be surrounded by your contact details, Display Ad and Call To Action.
Tip 4
Write your questions and answers just as you would ask them. This will help your content get found in Google search results when a person searching online types in the question.
How To
Write How-To instructional content. There's plenty of people searching for instructions online. Help them complete a task related to your business industry or any topic you can offer free, step by step expert instruction on. You can include video from Youtube and have complete control over the ad space surrounding your content.
We recommend sticking with topics related to your business industry or closely related industries.
Lets say you are a paint store. You can write a How To on painting interior walls in your house. All you’ll need is some images and step by step instructions.
As an example of related industries, any topic on home renovations – tiling, plastering, hanging doors etc will be great. In general, following most home reno’s, people require paint! So if you’ve offered some free advice on home renovation your brand will come to mind when paint is required.
Your How To’s can display in the organic section of Google search results as Rich Snippets and as a standard search result. Rich snippets can include images and a couple of your instruction titles.
For best results:
- Choose keywords in your How To title
- Complete as much information as you can in the Search Engine Optimisation section
- Keep your information unique and honest – Google can penalise you for unreliable or deceiving information and your page won’t rank well.
Utilise our free Search Engine Optimisation section to include more product information, feature image, your business logo and additional business information.
The information required here is based on Structured Data which is a standardised format used to help Google understand what your page is about.
The more information you can fill out here, the easier it is for search engines to understand what your page is about which, in turn, can increase your search results ranking.
You can literally profile any product you like, however you could define by:
- Product Category
- Best Sellers
- Worst Sellers
- Price Point
- Old Stock
- On Sale
You could also profile products that you know have a better price point than big budget chain stores or online retailers and give your business a chance to rank in Google SERP’s amongst the bigger players.
Product
Profile a product you sell. Your published page will display key information to the viewer including pricing, star rating reviews(if available), location, availability, external links and full business contact details. Products can display in Google Rich Snippets and organic SERPs (Search Engine Results Page)
The huge benefit of profiling Products on Check Local is that it is cost-effective to profile ANY PRODUCT YOU SELL.
Why? Because it doesn’t cost you any more to publish 1 product or 100 products. Its still a flat rate per month.
Every product you profile promotes your product and your business to local people searching online.
Your Product can display in the organic section of Google search results. Products can display as Rich Snippets and as a standard search result. Rich snippets can include images and star ratings.
For best results:
- Choose keywords in your product title (include the location if you like as well) eg; “8m Builders Tape Measure Cambridge”
- Complete as much information as you can in the Search Engine Optimisation section
- Keep your information honest, make sure any external links are relevant to your product – Google can penalise you for unreliable or deceiving information and your page won’t rank well.
Utilise our free Search Engine Optimisation section to include more product information, feature image, your business logo and additional business information.
The information required here is based on Structured Data which is a standardised format used to help Google understand what your page is about.
The more information you can fill out here, the easier it is for search engines to understand what your page is about which, in turn, can increase your search results ranking.
You can literally profile any product you like, however you could define by:
- Product Category
- Best Sellers
- Worst Sellers
- Price Point
- Old Stock
- On Sale
You could also profile products that you know have a better price point than big budget chain stores or online retailers and give your business a chance to rank in Google SERP’s amongst the bigger players.
Sale/Special Offer
Promote a sale. special offer, discount coupon and more. You can target customers searching on the Checklocal website and Google. Generate new leads and drive traffic to any external url, your website, Facebook and more.
Sale/Special Offer’s are any promotion a business wants to run which will get found when searching on the Check Local website and Google organic search.
You can use coupons unique to Check Local to help track your returns.
A Sale/Special Offer Profile has a title and description, external URL, business location link to Google maps plus full business contact details.
Offer a discount price, 2 for 1 offer, a coupon code and more.
Checklocal does not offer analytics and data on visitor interaction.
Service
Profile a service your business offers. Service will display key information to the viewer including pricing, customer review(text review), 3 x business features, location, external links and full business contact details. Service Profiles can display in Google Rich Snippets and organic SERPs (Search Engine Results Page)
The huge benefit of publishing Service Profiles on Checklocal is that it is cost-effective to publish ANY SERVICE YOU OFFER.
Why? Because it doesn’t cost you any more to publish 1 service or 100 services. Its still a flat rate per month, no Cost Per Click, no unexpected bills.
Every profile you publish promotes your service and your business – And you can publish unlimited profiles!
Your Service Profile can display in the organic section of Google search results. So below the ads and Google maps results.
For best results:
- Choose keywords in your profile title (include the location if you like as well) eg; “Sues Cleaning Service Cambridge”
- Complete as much information as you can in the free advanced section
- Keep your information honest, make sure any external links are relevant to your service – Google can penalise you for unreliable or deceiving information and your page won’t rank well.
Utilise our free advanced feature to include more service information, feature image, your business logo and additional business information.
The information required here is based on Structured Data which is a standardised format used to help Google understand what your page is about.
The more information you can fill out here, the easier it is for Google to understand what your page is about which, in turn, can increase your organic search results ranking.