As an employer, there's no right way to host a job interview. But you can ask each candidate the right questions to learn the most important things about them.
Learning what makes a person qualified to work for you is difficult, especially if you have just a half-hour interview with them in a conference room. Because of this time crunch, you might feel compelled to race through the candidate's resume, asking them questions about each job title and bullet point they've written down from top to bottom.
But if you want know what makes the applicant valuable to you, it's important to get to know them beyond their written job application. The best way uncover this value is to ask behavioral interview questions.
What Are Behavioral Interviewing Techniques?
The behavioral interview technique asks job candidates to describe how they've handled themselves in real situations during their career. Depending on the job qualifications, behavioral questions can call on a variety of past experiences to help employers determine how the candidate might fare in the position for which they're applying.
The most informative answers to behavioral interview questions don't just describe how a candidate behaved, but also how this behavior benefited them and the business.
To help you develop your list of questions, we've put together five of the most effective behavioral interview questions you can ask your job candidates, and explained what an answer to each question can reveal about the interviewee.
Top Behavioral Interview Questions (and What You'll Learn by Asking Them)
1. 'Tell me about a mistake you made during a project or at a certain point in your career.'
Think of this behavioral question as a more specific way to ask an interviewee: "What are your greatest weaknesses?" By asking candidates this question, you can discover many important things about them that you wouldn't learn from their resume.
Listening to a candidate describe a mistake they once made can show you how much self-awareness they have. The best answers indicate both their thought process in making that mistake and what they learned from it. Just because it was a mistake doesn't mean the candidate was being negligent -- encourage them to explain their choice and what they'd do differently today.
2. 'Tell me about a success you're particularly proud of in your career and why it was a success.'
Similar to the question above, think of this one as a better way to ask an interviewee: "What are your greatest strengths?" Pitching a question the candidate might find flattering and fun to answer can empower them to come out of their shell during the interview.
This is what makes asking about their past success so useful -- you can uncover more intimate details about their professional growth and the types of assignments they thrive on. The best answers to this behavioral question won't just reveal the work a candidate is most comfortable with, but also why this work plays to their skills and if those skills would be of use to your company.
3. 'Describe a time you had a conflict with a coworker, and how you resolved it.'
Candidates who know how to diffuse issues with their colleagues help foster the healthy, nurturing culture your company needs in order to grow.
Asking about the applicant's experience resolving a conflict with a coworker can reveal how diplomatic they can be toward differing opinions among team members. Specifically, employers can learn two big pieces of information about a candidate from their answer to this question: how they view themselves in conflicts, and where the candidate ranks their priorities in relation to the other employees involved.
It's not important that you agree with the resolution the candidate came to. It's more important that you can determine how effective their resolution was at accommodating everybody's -- and ultimately, the business's -- needs.
4. 'Tell me something you had to learn very quickly but knew nothing about before.'
This behavioral question is a popular one among employers today. It's simply not realistic to expect candidates to already know your business or industry when they first walk through the door. What's important is how fast they can learn. Want to find out if your applicant can learn the skills needed in your industry? Ask them how they've done so for others in the past.
Employers can infer a lot about candidates as they explain their past experience with a challenging new concept. Not only will you find out what subjects a candidate isn't often exposed to, but you can also learn how confident they are in unfamiliar territory.
Did an applicant's answer impress you? Ask them a bonus follow-up question: "How would you explain this concept now to someone who isn't familiar with it?" The answer can give you deeper insight into the applicant's learning style, as well as any mentorship potential that would allow them to pass on their knowledge to other employees.
5. 'Tell me about a time you had multiple assignments with conflicting goals or deadlines, and how you completed each of them.'
At some point in our careers, we all inherit a workload whose contents pull us in different directions -- and yet, everything in this workload needs to get done. So, if it's such a normal experience, what are you really getting out of posing the question above to your interviewee?
When asking about a candidate's experience with conflicting assignments, the insight you're looking for isn't how many things they can handle at the same time. It's how efficient they are at completing it all.
Ultimately, answers to this question can tell you a story of creative problem solving, letting you in on effective approaches to time management that the candidate might be able to bring to your team.
While questions that focus on a candidate's resume can give you appropriate context around the experiences they've had, it's crucial that you incorporate these behavioral interview questions as well. Ask a few of the above questions in your next interview -- whether it's in person or over the phone -- and see how they help you come to a final hiring decision.
Local search is powerful for small businesses: four out of five consumers use search to find local information, which means if your business isn’t optimized for local search, you could be missing out on 80% of your potential customers. In short, local SEO is critical if you want your business to stay relevant.
To help you optimize your business for local SEO, we’ve created a comprehensive guide, which will cover local SEO tools, local search best practices, how to optimize for Google My Business, and more. By the end of the guide, you’ll have a firm understanding on how to optimize your business to reach potential consumers who use local search to choose which products or services they’re going to buy.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO helps businesses promote their products and services to local prospects and customers. To gather information for local search, search engines rely on signals such as local content, social profile pages, links, and citations to provide the most relevant local results to the user.
Best Practice Local SEO Tactics
To thrive in local search, you need to do three things: optimize your Google My Business account, improve your on-page SEO by updating your website, and excel on the Wild Wild Web. While it might sound overwhelming, it’s entirely feasible to succeed in all three with some patience and perseverance. Stick with us, and we’ll explore each one in-depth.
Optimize for Google My Business
Google My Business has become the creme de la creme of local search -- since Google understandably feels most comfortable sharing content it can support and verify, Google My Business is their tool to help your business meet Google’s needs. If Google can verify your business as authentic, it will potentially reward your business with a coveted sidebar space in Google local search.
To ensure you’re optimized for Google My Business, you’ll want to create and verify a Google My Business page, use Google Posts within your account, encourage your customers to share reviews online, and respond authentically to reviews, specifying location. For example, “We appreciate your feedback on [product/service] in [city, state]. We value your input and look forward to working with you again. Thank you from the [full company name] team.”
To learn more about using Google My Business, check out our full post here.
Website Updates
Now that we’ve discussed optimizing your business for Google My Business, let’s take a look at five simple website updates to improve your local SEO.
1. Improve Internal Linking Structure
Although external links pointing to your site are ideal (which I’ll discuss soon), adjusting your internal linking structure will also boost your SEO rankings.
Why does internal linking matter? It does the following:
Supports website navigation
Assists with information architecture and website hierarchy
Distributes page authority and ranking power among pages
2. Optimize URL, Title Tags, Headers, Meta Description, and Content
When it comes to content, every new blog post is a new indexed page for your site, a new page on which to target a geographic search phrase, and a new opportunity to get found in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Every time you write a piece of content, you need to optimize the content for search engines by using high-volume keywords in the URL, title, header, meta description, and body. If you're having trouble coming up with geo-targeted content, consider highlighting customer success stories and case studies.
3. Add Location Pages to your Website
If you have more than one brick and mortar location, create location pages. Location pages provide readers with your NAP, store hours, unique store descriptions, parking/transit information, promotions, testimonials from happy customers, and more. It's also important you avoid duplicating content across multiple location pages. For single location businesses, create a locally descriptive About Us page. You’ll get big time bonus points if you add a Google Map to your website on your respective location page(s).
4. Create Local Content
Google continues to get smarter, which means content creators are now able to truly write for users, not search engines. But while writing about general topics will attract a wide crowd, sometimes it’s more important to hone your focus and write about local or industry news to attract a local audience. Be the local authority for your industry by promoting local industry gatherings, news, employees, and other educational content on your blog. Think of top-of-the-funnel content that goes beyond what your business sells.
For example, if you're a local security company and you’re trying to attract businesses that are new to the area, create a helpful resource to get these businesses well-acquainted with your city. A map of local service providers or a calendar of city-wide events could both provide value for your persona and contain highly relevant on-page local signals.
5. Ensure your website is mobile-friendly
Local search and mobile search go hand in hand (nine out of ten smartphone users conduct local searches on their devices!). Some of the most common ways people will use your site in a mobile environment is to look up reviews, find directions to your location, and search for contact information. Make it easy for your prospects and customers by making your site mobile-friendly.
Engage with Directories and the Wild Wild Web
You’ve learned how to optimize your business for Google My Business and how to update your website for an internal SEO boost -- now, let’s take a look at how you can use NAP consistency, directories, and inbound links to take your business one step closer to that number one spot on local search.
Name, Address, Phone Consistency
You've got to make it easy for people and search engines to find you. To do this, set up your NAP, which stands for name, address, and phone number (with area code). This should be included as crawlable HTML text on your site. Avoid the common mistake of only including the NAP within an image -- images can’t be crawled from search engines like HTML text. The most common location for the NAP is in the footer or header of the site.
Optimize Online Directories and Citations
For United States companies, these four map data aggregators provide a large amount of the map data for Apple, Yelp, Bing, Google+ local, Trip Advisor, and more.
Consistency is key: verify that your citations are consistent and complete across these four data aggregators. Discrepancies like misspellings, abbreviations, lack of suite number or wrong phone number can be problematic. If Google can’t determine which information about your business is correct, it may not show your business at all in search results. Additionally, be sure to remove any duplicate listings you find. Bonus points for emphasizing a Chambers of Commerce membership in your community, which will garner you an external inbound link.
Get Inbound Links with Relevance and Authority
Inbound links are incredibly powerful opportunities to boost your local SEO -- every inbound link tells Google you’re a legitimate company, and inbound links can also raise your domain authority. Here are a few ways to get inbound links:
Sponsorships or Partnerships
Guest Blog Posting
Scholarships
Start with your own personal network, which may include the Chamber of Commerce, business improvement districts, licensing bureaus, trade associations, resellers, vendors, and/or manufacturers and other affiliates. Consider sponsoring a webinar or meet-up, hosting a community event, promoting something local you love, and building relationships with prominent people and influencers. Additionally, learn to feel comfortable reaching out to partners to see if they can feature you on their partner directory.
Be a guest blogger, talk to and about (positively, of course!) other people in your industry, and act as a resource provider for the community. If you're an active participant in community conversations, the buzz around you grows in the form of inbound links, social media growth, and media coverage.
Given that .edu links are the bee’s knees for domain authority, why not earn some links by featuring a scholarship in your geographic region? It should be relevant to your industry, send the right signals to your domain (given the backlinks from schools) … and make you feel good, too! Moz built up a solid guide on the steps to success for effective scholarship outreach.
Engage with Social Media and Add Posts to Google My Business
Google considers content shared on social media more important now than ever before. Now that you’ve carved out a beautiful Google My Business page, share the page on social media, further aligning social and search.
Local SEO Tools
Now that we’ve covered how to optimize your business for local SEO, let's explore some useful tools you can leverage to improve your ranking in the areas where it matters most.
1. Whitespark Local Citation Finder. A local citation is any online mention of the name, address, and phone number for a local business. Citations matter because they help surface local businesses in online search, and when local businesses actively manage their citations to ensure data accuracy, it promotes trust of these online listings. Whitespark knows this realm well -- really well. With a free starter version and a popular $24/month option, Whitespark offers local listing management, recommends where to list your business, examines your competition, and robustly builds and monitors your citation growth for better local search rankings.
2. Screaming Frog. This desktop program crawls websites' links, images, CSS, script and apps from an SEO perspective. Curious if you have any 404’s? Wondering about missing meta descriptions or H1’s? Screaming Frog will analyze up to 500 URLs for free and offers an unlimited paid version for $200/year.
2. Moz Local. Less expensive than most of its counterparts (starting at $99/year with a professional level of the service at $179/year), Moz Local will ensure your business listing has been verified on Google and Facebook, and distribute your listing across the search ecosystem. Additionally, Moz Local will collaborate with data aggregators to help push listings, ensuring your business gains visibility.
4. Ahrefs. Ahrefs helps with backlink checking, which is important as these links (which are directed toward your website) serve as an indicator of website authority. Ahrefs also offers competitor analysis, keyword research, and insight into the anchor text other websites use when backlinking to your site. This tool has a starter version at $99/month and a standard option at $179/month for more extensive tracking.
5. Buzzstream. Starting at $24/month with professional functionality at $299/month, BuzzStream facilitates earning local backlinks, which helps you identify and build relationships with local influencers by researching influencers, tracking conversations, and providing reporting insights into your outreach campaigns, team performance, and link placements.
What’s Next?
This Comprehensive Guide to Local SEO in 2018 is intended to drive your local success. While some of the tips are one-off activities where you can set it and forget it (e.g. making sure your NAP is clearly written on your site), other tasks, such as building reviews and publishing locally relevant content, is an activity your organization needs to do on an ongoing basis for long-term local SEO success. Keep both in mind as you work toward better online visibility and we look forward to seeing you on the first page of Google!
Are you confused by the European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)? Wondering how GDPR affects your marketing? In this article, you’ll find a plain-language overview of GDPR, how it could impact your data collection, and what you need to do to make sure you’re compliant before May 25, 2018. What Is GDPR? The [...]
Remember those speech bubbles that used to pop up at the start of almost every YouTube video years ago? They would instantly cover your screen, screaming “Subscribe to my channel!” or “Watch my next video!”, forcing you scurry over to your mouse and click exit on every bubble before they completely ruined the beginning of the video you were trying to watch.
Even though those omnipresent bubble CTAs could get on your nerves, YouTube decided not to get rid of them entirely. They knew how important CTAs were for channel managers to boost views, watch time, and subscriptions, so, over the years, they made a concerted effort to keep enhancing their call-to-action capabilities. Now, CTAs more seamlessly blend into videos, and provide a much better user experience.
YouTube CTAs can be a valuable way to drive viewers to your website and social media pages, so read on to learn about the eight types of YouTube CTAs that’ll not only boost your YouTube presence, but your entire presence online.
8 Types of CTAs you Should Be Using in Your YouTube Channel
1. Beginning of the Video CTA
According to KissMetrics, 20% of viewers bounce from videos that are only 1 minute long and 40% of viewers bounce from videos that are 2-3 minutes long. If a significant chunk of your viewers bounce from your video before they even reach the CTA, placing it at the beginning of the video and leaving it there until it ends could generate more clicks. People who usually bounce before your video ends will have a chance to click on it, and the people who watch the video all the way through, who are also most likely to complete your desired action, will have a chance to click on it too.
2. Suggest Another Video CTA
If your audience starts dedicating entire YouTube watch sessions to only your videos, your brand trust and affinity will skyrocket. This will also boost your videos’ watch time, which is significant factor in the YouTube ranking algorithm. To get your audience to keep watching your videos one after another, you should suggest related videos that they’re more likely to watch than the suggested videos YouTube’s autoplay function recommends.
Yes Theory does an excellent job of this. At the end of each of their videos, they prompt viewers to click on videos that are most relevant to the one they just watched, which has helped their channel garner over 128 million video views and 1.4 million subscribers.
3. Subscribe to Channel CTA
Subscribers are important to your channel because YouTube will send them notifications about your new videos and feature your videos on their homepage. This means they’ll see your videos more frequently, which will help you generate more views. Subscribers tend to watch your videos longer than non-subscribers too, so the more subscribers you have, the more watch time your videos will accumulate, and the more likely YouTube will rank them higher on search and feature them in the related section. YouTube also keeps track of the number of viewers who subscribe to your channel right after watching one of your videos. So if one of your videos attracts a lot of new subscribers, they’ll reward it with higher rankings and more features in the related section.
Business Insider does a great job of driving YouTube subscriptions by featuring an engaging CTA during their videos’ last 15 seconds, giving users ample time to subscribe.
4. Follow On Social Media CTA
If your audience likes watching your YouTube videos, they’ll probably enjoy consuming your content on social media too. By putting social media buttons in your videos, your most loyal YouTube subscribers could also turn into your most engaged social media followers.
Walt-Disney leveraged social media buttons by placing them at the end of Moana’s trailer on YouTube. This encouraged people to follow the movie on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr, allowing Walt-Disney to consistently push content about Moana to their new followers and generate more hype and awareness for the movie.
5. Lead Generation CTA
In addition to using blogs, social media, and email marketing to promote your top performing lead generation content, you can also attach them to your YouTube videos. These videos can either educate your viewers on the same subject matter as your lead generation content or they can preview it, like this HubSpot video below:
6. Drive to Website CTA
When college students are in the midst of a two hour YouTube binge fest, you can probably blame Jimmy Tatro for it. He’s built an incredibly loyal and engaged following by making hilarious videos that millennials everywhere can’t get enough of. One way he monetizes his channel’s popularity is by placing an end-of-video CTA that drives viewers to his clothing store, where he sells shirts that rep his YouTube channel, LifeAccordingToJimmy, and his YouTube show, The Real Bros of Simi Valley.
If you have a very loyal and engaged YouTube audience like Jimmy Tatro does, try guiding viewers to your product page after they watch your videos. When they’re hooked on them and love your brand, they’ll definitely be willing to support you.
7. Description CTA
If you don’t want to bombard your audience with pop-up CTAs during your video or if you run out of room to place CTAs on your end screen, you can use the description section of your videos to encourage viewers to take a desired action -- most people read descriptions before or after they watch a video.
Conor Maynard is a singer who uploads viral covers on YouTube, and he attracts subscribers, Spotify streams, and social followers by promoting his channel page, Spotify page, and social profiles in the description of his videos.
8. Auditory CTA
About a month ago, Backlinko analyzed 1.3 million YouTube search results and discovered a statistically significant correlation between comments and ranking. They also discovered when viewers share your videos on social media through YouTube’s own social buttons, they’ll boost your video rankings. Since YouTube uses video comments and social shares to gauge whether your video is high-quality, you should ask your viewers to share your video on social and spark debate in the comments by asking them to continue the conversation your video started.
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Social Media Marketing Talk Show, a news show for marketers who want to stay on the leading edge of social media. On this week’s Social Media Marketing Talk Show, we explore how marketers are preparing for GDPR with Danielle Liss; Facebook ad updates with Amanda Bond; Snapchat, Pinterest, [...]
The other day, a friend of mine said he recently received several strange emails from every online company with which he has an account.
"They're all notifying me that they're updating their privacy policies," he said. "It seems the Facebook thing has sent some shockwaves throughout companies all across the internet."
That "Facebook thing" was the ongoing fallout from a recent privacy scandal, in which it was revealed that the personal user data of 87 million users had been improperly obtained and used by consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.
Since then, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in two congressional hearings. In the UK, parliament has questioned two key parties involved in the scandal this week. And now, rumors are circulating that Zuckerberg might testify again -- this time, before European Parliament in Brussels.
But that's not why my friend -- and many others -- received these emails. These emails are the result of the looming GDPR, and the confusion around it is widespread.
The Chaos and Confusion of the GDPR
About the GDPR
When I informed my friend that he was receiving the emails not because of Facebook privacy fallout, but rather because of the GDPR, his response was, "GDPR?"
For those who might share in that confusion -- and as I'll go on to explain, you're far from alone -- GDPR stands for General Data Privacy Regulation, a new EU Regulation that significantly enhances the protection of the personal data of EU citizens and increases the obligations on organizations who collect or process personal data. (You can read more about it here.)
Even if an organization is based in the U.S., if it controls or processes the data of EU citizens, the GDPR will apply -- which is why so many of them are updating their terms and policies, and subsequently notifying users.
In my line of work, I hear about the GDPR on a daily basis, often several times a day. But most people don't, as I learned when I shared this story with others. I learned that they, too, were a bit unfamiliar with the new regulation -- and the reason why they were receiving these notifications.
The Misunderstanding of Updated Terms Notifications
To be fair, there's been some mixed messaging within these various notifications from brands about their updated terms and policies. This one from Airbnb, for example, doesn't mention the GDPR:
However, this one from Etsy does mention the GDPR:
In fact, when I did a personal inventory of my own inbox, I found that there were only three brands (out of dozens) that even mentioned the GDPR within their notifications.
Within the U.S.
But being the data nerd that I am, I wanted to find out just how widespread this confusion is -- so, I ran a survey of 300 internet users in the U.S. to see how many were under the impression that these notifications were the result of the Facebook privacy scandal.
As the chart above indicates, nearly three-quarters of U.S. internet users believe that these notifications are the result of the fallout experienced Facebook.
But that didn't necessarily indicate that these consumers were unfamiliar with the GDPR. So, I ran another survey of 305 U.S. internet users to find out if they were familiar with the new EU regulation.
Evidently, two-thirds of U.S. consumers aren't familiar with the GDPR after all.
But that's somewhat understandable, as the new regulation applies to EU consumers, not U.S.-based ones. And for many of the latter, data privacy has become a more salient topic in the wake of a misuse of our personal Facebook data. Out of the 87 million users whose information was compromised, about 80% of them -- 70 million -- are based in the U.S.
Within the UK
That could explain why so many U.S. consumers are under the impression that these emails are a response to this turn of events from Facebook. But still, I wanted to find out if this was limited to this country alone, where the GDPR won't apply.
I ran a third survey -- this time, of 305 internet users in the UK (where GDPR will apply until the UK leaves the EU in March 2019) to find out if they, too, thought these updated terms and policies were the result of Facebook's privacy scandal.
As it turns out, nearly the same percentage of UK internet users believe that these are the result of the fallout around Facebook as those in the U.S. do -- 72% versus the U.S.'s 74%.
But what about their knowledge of the GDPR? In a nation where the new regulation will apply, I thought, perhaps more consumers will be familiar with it. To find out, I ran a fourth, final survey of 300 UK internet users.
The numbers are slightly better here -- 39% of U.K. consumers are unfamiliar with the GDPR, versus 64% in the U.S.
What's Behind the Confusion?
The idea of over a third of consumers in a region where the regulation will apply not knowing what it is was perplexing, at a minimum.
It didn't exactly come as a surprise, however, as research conducted by HubSpot in February indicated that only 36% of marketers and businesses leaders in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland had even heard of the GDPR.
But now, with the GDPR coming into force in less than a month -- why are consumers still so confused?
"Privacy Literacy is a core issue here," says HubSpot Marketing Fellow, Sam Mallikarjunan. "The Cambridge Analytica issue, for example, wasn't based off some technical exploit -- just a lack of privacy literacy. Your data and anecdotes are showing this very clearly."
But it's not exactly a new phenomenon. "Most of this is not technological -- it's literacy," he continues. "Just like we had to teach people to shred their bank statements, we need to teach people the basic ways in which your privacy can be abused."
As the days remaining until the GDPR comes into force continue to wind down, it will be interesting to see if the numbers change. And once the regulation does take effect, I plan to run similar surveys again, to determine to what extent consumers understand or are aware of it.
But we have a long way to go, Mallikarjunan says, until consumers have a vast understanding of how what they put online can be used -- and misused.
"If we decide that privacy is legitimately something that we're going to continue to value in our society -- which I would not say is a given," he explains, "then we need to invest in true privacy literacy with vigor."
A hanging indent is when the second and subsequent lines of text on a page are indented to the right, so your first line stands out as the only line hitting the margin of the page. Typically, you’d use a hanging indent in a bibliography, Works Cited, or References page.
Here’s an example of a hanging indent on a Works Cited page:
See how the second line, beginning with “Journal”, is indented 0.5 to the right, compared to the line above it? That’s a hanging indent.
Hanging indents are a requirement of MLA (Modern Language Association), CMS (Chicago Manual of Style), and APA (American Psychological Association) styles. Whether you’re in school or work in the academic field, it’s likely you’ll eventually need to know how to create a hanging indent for academic writing or research reports.
Luckily, it’s easy to do. Here, we’ll show you how to create a hanging indent in a Google Doc in four simple steps.
How to Create a Hanging Indent in Google Docs
To create a hanging indent in Google Docs, you’ll need to first make sure your ruler is visible. A ruler is the measurement tool at the top of your Doc, used to help align text, graphics, tables, and other elements. To make your ruler visible, simply click “View” in your navigation bar, and make sure “Show Ruler” is checked.
Now that your ruler is visible, you’re ready to create a hanging indent.
1. First, select the text you want to indent. You can highlight one or multiple paragraphs.
2. Now, drag the left indent marker (the small light blue inverted triangle, which we’ve circled in red on the screen) to the right, stopping wherever you want your hanging indent to begin -- the rectangle will come along for the ride, which is okay.
3. Now, drag the First Line Indent marker (the light blue rectangle) back to the left margin.
4. And there you go! Your hanging indent is created.
GMB is a free tool that lets you manage how your business appears on Google Search and Maps. That includes adding your business name, location, and hours; monitoring and replying to customer reviews; adding photos; learning where and how people are searching for you, and more.
If you're just getting started with local SEO, your Google My Business listing is a great place to focus your early efforts. After all, when people search for a product or service near them, they're usually very close to making a purchase -- one in two people who conduct a local search (think "watch repair near me") visit a store that day. So it's important the information about your business that shows up when people search Google is as accurate, complete, and optimized as possible.
To learn how to create your Google My Business account, verify your business, and make its listing as strong as possible, read on.
GMB is completely free to use. The only requirement for using it is that you must have some face-to-face interaction with your customers -- in other words, you can’t operate 100% online.
Create a Google My Business Listing
Step 1: Log into the Google Account you want associated with your business (or create a Google Account if you don’t already have one).
Step 2: Go to google.com/business and select “Start now” in the top right-hand corner.
Step 3: Enter your business name.
Step 4: Enter your business address.
Step 5: If you go to yourcustomers’ locations, rather than having them come to you, check the box “I deliver goods and services to my customers.” And if you work out of your house or another address you don’t want publicly shown, Check “Hide my address (it's not a store) Only show region.” Finally, select your Delivery area.
Step 6: Choose your business category. Try to choose the most accurate category possible -- you’re essentially telling Google which type of customers should see your business listing.
Step 7: Add your business phone number or website.
Step 8: Choose a verification option. If you’re not ready to verify your business yet, click “Try a different method” → “Later.”
How to Verify Your Business on Google
There are several ways to verify your GMB listing:
By postcard
By phone
By email
Instant verification
Bulk verification
Postcard Verification
Step 1: If you aren't already logged into Google My Business, sign in now and choose the business you want to verify. (If you're already logged in, you'll be at the verification step.)
Step 2: Make sure your business address is correct. Optional: Add a contact name -- that's who the postcard will be addressed to.
Step 3: Click "Mail." The postcard should reach you in five days -- make sure you don't edit your business name, address, or category (or request a new code) before it comes, because this could delay the process.
Step 4: Once you've gotten the postcard, log into Google My Business. If you have more than one business location, select the location you want to verify. If you only have one, select "Verify now."
Step 5: In the Code field, enter the five-digit verification code on your postcard. Click "Submit."
If your postcard never shows up, or you lose it, you can request a new code by signing into Google My Business and clicking the "Request another code" blue banner at the top of the screen.
Phone verification
Google lets some businesses verify their location by phone. If you're eligible, you'll see the "Verify by phone" option when you start the verification process.
Step 1: If you aren't already logged into Google My Business, sign in now and choose the business you want to verify. (If you're already logged in, you'll be at the verification step.)
Step 2: Make sure your phone number is correct, then choose "Verify by phone."
Step 3: Enter the verification code from the text you receive.
Email verification
Google lets some businesses verify their location by phone. If you're eligible, you'll see the "Verify by email" option when you start the verification process.
Step 1: If you aren't already logged into Google My Business, sign in now and choose the business you want to verify. (If you're already logged in, you'll be at the verification step.)
Step 2: Make sure your email address is correct, then choose "Verify by email."
Step 3: Go to your inbox, open the email from Google My Business, and click the verification button in the email.
Instant verification
If you've already verified your business with Google Search Console (a free tool that lets you manage your website's search performance and health), you might be able to instantly verify your email.
Step 1: Sign into Google My Business with the same account you used to verify your business with Google Search Console. (Some business categories aren't eligible for instant verification, so if you don't get a notification asking you to verify the listing, you'll have to use a different verification method.)
Bulk verification
If you operate more than 10 locations for the same business -- and you're not a service business or an agency managing locations for multiple businesses -- you might be eligible for bulk verification.
Step 1:If you aren't already logged into Google My Business, sign in now and choose a location. Click "Get verified" next to its name.
Step 2: Click "Chain."
Step 3: Fill out the verification form with your business name (as well as the parent company, if applicable), country or countries where you operate, all contact names (i.e. everyone who will be using the Google My Business account), contact phone number, business manager email (someone at the business who can verify you're a representative of that business), and the email address of your Google Account Manager.
Step 4: Submit the verification form. It can take up to a week for Google to review and process your claim.
How to Optimize Your GMB Listing
Once you've verified your business, it's time to finish fleshing out your profile.
Go to the Google My Business dashboard, click the listing you'd like to work on, select "Info," and then choose a section to fill out or update.
Add as much information and media as you can, including a business profile photo, the area you serve, your hours, attributes (e.g. "wheelchair accessible," "free wifi"), the day and year you opened, and a public phone number and website URL.
Anyone can "suggest an edit" to your listing, so it's important to A) get everything right the first time (so you don't encourage random people to make their own changes) and B) periodically log into your GMB dashboard and make sure all the details look right.
At any point in time, you can edit your business profile by logging into your GMB dashboard, clicking on "Info," clicking the pencil next to the field you'd like to edit, making your change, and then choosing "Apply."
Photos should be at least 720 pixels wide by 720 pixels high and JPG or PNG files.
Not sure how many pictures to add -- or what they should be of?
Cover photo
Your Google My Business cover photo is one of the most important, as it shows up front and center on your listing.
Profile photo
Your profile photo is what appears when you upload new photos, videos, or review responses.
Along with your profile and cover photos, you can and should upload other pictures to make your listing more informative and engaging.
Type
Description
Google-recommended minimum
Suggestions
Exterior
The outside of your business from different directions.
Three photos
Use pictures from different times of day (morning, afternoon, evening) so customers always recognize your business.
Interior
The inside of your business, with a focus on decor and ambiance.
Three photos
Give customers an accurate idea of what it will look like to stand or sit inside your business.
Product
A representation of the types of products or services you offer.
One photo per product type or service
Show the products you're known for and make sure the photos are lit well.
Employees at work
"Action" shots of your employees delivering the types of services you offer.
Three
Try to capture your employees with satisfied customers.
Food and drink
Pictures that represent your most popular menu items.
Three
Consider hiring a food photographer -- these are tricky to get right! If that's not in the budget, use bright, even lighting (i.e. no shadows or dimness).
Common areas
Photos of where your customers will spend time (think a lobby or lounge).
One photo per common area
Represent the variety of amenities you offer.
Rooms
Pictures of your different room and suite options (if applicable).
Three
Don't try to mislead guests -- show your wallet-friendly and high-end options.
Team
A shot of your management team and staff.
Three
Use pictures that show your unique culture and team personality.
Google My Business Videos
You can also add videos. Videos must be:
30 seconds or shorter
100 MB or smaller
720p resolution or higher
Videos can add some variety to your profile and make you stand out among other businesses in your category; however, don't worry if you don't have any -- unlike photos, they're not a "must have."
Google My Business Reviews
One of the best ways to encourage future customers to leave positive reviews? Respond to current ones. Not only does leaving an appreciate response show the original reviewer you're thankful for their support, it also makes that positive review stand out on your listing and influences people to leave their own reviews.
Here's a sample reply to a satisfied customer:
Thank you for your business, [name]! We're so glad you enjoyed [product, e.g. "the blueberry pie"] -- it's one of our favorites, as well. Hope to see you back at [business name] soon.
You should also respond to negative reviews to show you take them seriously and placate the unhappy buyer. But make sure you're extremely courteous -- attacking them back will only make you look unprofessional and their review more credible.
Thank you for the feedback, [name], and I'm incredibly sorry [product/experience] did not meet your expectations. [If you've made a change, mention it here -- e.g., "We're now double-checking orders to make sure everyone gets exactly what they asked for."] If you'd like to come back in, we'd be happy to give you [product] on the house. In any case, thanks for your business, and I hope we can do better next time.
Google My Business App
Google My Business is also available in app form for bothiOSandAndroid.
You can use the app to:
Update your business hours, location, contact information, and description
Post statuses and pictures
View search insights
You cannot use the app to:
Delete your business listing
Change its settings
Give ownership of the listing to another user
Google My Business vs. Google Places for Business vs. Google+
If you're confused about the many names and options for managing your Google presence, you've got a right to be. Google Places used to be Google's tool for owners to manage their business profiles, but it was retired in 2014. Now Google My Business is the central hub to manage how your business appears on Google Search, Maps, and Google+.
So, what's Google+? It's Google's social network (the closest example is probably Facebook). You can join or start Communities -- public or private groups organized around a theme, like Knitting -- and follow or create Collections -- think Pinterest boards.
A Google+ account for your business lets you interact with niche groups and post pictures and updates. In other words, it's like a Facebook page for your business. You can access your Google+ account from your Google My Business dashboard (but a Google+ account isn't necessary to have a GMB account).
Here's the TL;DR:
Do you need a Google+ account? No -- and if you're short on time, it might be better to focus on other marketing and/or social media channels.
Do you need a Google My Business account? If you're targeting local customers, I highly recommend it.
Want to create an engaged Facebook group? Are you looking for creative ways to develop a loyal community inside a Facebook group? To explore how to develop an engaged and responsive community with Facebook groups, I interview Caitlin Bacher. More About This Show The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from [...]
Like many marketers, I have a bit of experience with Microsoft Excel. I've used it to organize events, plan meals, and sort data -- but I don't have nearly the advanced knowledge I wish I did.
And thanks to those limited skills, I'm constantly subjecting myself to the tedium of updating my spreadsheets manually.
I'm well aware that I'm missing out on a world of Excel training courses that could teach me how to automate my reports and save hours of time.
When I asked even my most Excel-savvy colleagues where they picked up their knowledge, they told me things like, "I mostly learned from colleagues and friends," or, "When I have a specific question, I ask someone or search on Google." Fair enough. But as a beginner, I probably have a few too many Excel questions to rely on colleagues -- or Google -- to answer every one.
I can't be the only one out there who wants to master the world's most popular data analysis and visualization solution -- or at least learn how to create charts and graphs that'll impress my manager.
So in the spirit of becoming a more productive, data-driven marketer, I scoured the internet for the best online resources for learning Excel. Most of these are free, and the ones that aren't might be worth the investment.
Take a look, bookmark your favorites, and get that much closer to working more efficiently in Excel.
How to Learn Excel for Free Online
1. Microsoft's Excel Training Center
Price: Free
When it comes to learning a new application, why not start at the source? After all, no one knows Excel better than the people at Microsoft.
In fact, they've done a great job putting together the Office Training Center: A resource hub for all Microsoft Office applications and services. The training center for Excel has a whole bunch of free tutorials, videos, and guides on Windows, Mac OS, Android, iOS, and Windows Phone that cover the latest version of Excel, as well as older ones.
Once you click into a platform, you'll find resources divided by Excel ability: For beginners (like basic math and creating a chart), intermediate users (like sorting and filtering data, conditional formatting, and VLOOKUPs), and advanced users (like pivot tables, advanced IF functions, and how to password-protect worksheets and workbooks).
Here's a very well-organized site that's chock full of helpful Excel tips, collected by an expert named John Walkenbach. Over the past 30 years, he's written more than 60 Excel books for users of all levels, and around 300 articles and reviews for magazines like InfoWorld, PC World, and PC/Computing. At one point, he wrote the monthly spreadsheet column for PC World. In other words, the man knows his stuff -- and he knows how to present it.
The most helpful part of his website is probably the Excel Tips tab, which has a long list of useful pointers on formatting, formulas, charts and graphics, and printing. The tips themselves include everything from working with fractions, to unlinking a pivot table from its source data, to spreadsheet protection FAQs.
The Downloads tab is another particularly helpful section of Walkenbach's site, where he's added free, ungated download links to files he created, like free Excel workbooks and add-ins. For example, there's one Excel workbook available for download that gives examples of custom number formats, which you can play with and tweak on your own time, and get familiar with them without having to start from scratch.
3. About.com's Spreadsheets Page
Price: Free
Many of you are likely familiar with the content website About.com, but did you know it has its own spreadsheets subdomain -- much of which is devoted to Excel? There are likely thousands of instruction sets on that site, most of which are illustrated, how-to posts. Plus, fresh content is added regularly.
Each piece of content is categorized according to everything from formulas and formatting, to videos, tools, and templates. If you want to stay up-to-date on the latest spreadsheet news and tips, you can sign up for a free newsletter. There's just one caveat: the site contains a good amount of ads -- but if you can stand them, the content is worth it.
4. Chandoo.org
Price: Free
Purna "Chandoo" Duggirala, Chandoo.org's founder, says he has one goal: "to make you awesome at Excel and charting." He started the blog in 2007 and, today, it contains more than 450 articles and tutorials on using Excel and making better charts. He's built the blog as a community, citing values like humility, passion, fun, and simplicity.
He also works to make it a valuable resource for the folks for whom English is not their first language.
Most of his tips stem from forums, where people ask questions about Excel -- about formulas, formatting, shortcuts, pivot tables, and so on -- and anyone can answer them. Chandoo then uses some of the more helpful forum questions to create articles and tutorials.
But it's not all so formal. For example, Chandoo once created a digital Easter egg hunt for a blog post, which included a downloadable Excel workbook containing seven hidden pandas. Readers were challenged to locate the pandas using clues, Excel techniques, and even "I-Spy" skills.
While the articles, forums, and other parts of the site are free, you can pay to join one of Chandoo's structured training programs, like Excel School ($97 - $247), or VBA Classes ($97 - $347). Plus, there's aways the option to buy one of his books -- The VLOOKUP Book or Excel Formula Helper Ebook.
5. HubSpot Excel Reources
Price: Free
Seeing as Excel is one of the most in-demand skills for data-driven marketers -- and because we want marketers like you to succeed -- we've created some of our own educational content about Excel here at HubSpot. From free ebooks, to templates, to video tutorials, we aim to cover a wide range of Excel-relevant topics.
Here's a resource that puts we mere mortals in touch with Excel experts. MrExcel.com's claim to fame is its interactive message board, which is constantly monitored by its community of Excel gurus.
The board is organized according to subject, like general announcements, questions, and MrExcel.com products. When a user posts a question, a member of the MrExcel.com expert community will reply with an answer. The questions range from simplifying an Excel task, to solving urgent inquiries.
Aside from posting questions on the message board, you can also browse Mr. Excel's "Hot Topics" -- found on the left-hand side of its homepage -- which includes things like finding the cumulative sum of even or odd rows, or removing the leading zero within a text field. The site also has a library of helpful Excel books and ebooks, and if you need help with problems that are more complex, you can even hire an Excel consultant directly from the website, for a fee.
7. EdX Excel Courses
Price: Free
Here's a budget-friendly option for those in search of a more formal course, rather than a one-off tutorial: EdX is a nonprofit that provides free education for people around the globe -- with an interesting model of Excel training sessions, both timed and self-paced.
When users enroll in a course that's marked as "Verified," they have the option to pay a fee in exchange for an instructor-signed certificate with the institution's logo, to verify the achievement and increase job prospects. Those fees are used to fund the courses, giving you the option to take them for free if you don't mind foregoing the certificate.
Otherwise, there are some courses offered at a "Professional Education" level, for which the fee isn't optional. One example is the Business and Data Analysis Skills course, offered for $60.
To help you choose the right one, each edX course includes reviews (with a rating up to five stars), and information on length and amount of effort, usually measured in hours per week. There are also details on the level of knowledge required, along with video transcripts.
8. Annielytics Video Tutorials
Price: Free
Annie Cushing, a web analytics data expert, created the Annielyticsblog and YouTube channel to share her knowledge with the world. Don't let the punny name fool you -- both are chock full of really good, specific, and in-depth web analytics tips.
While the content here isn't all Excel-related -- much of it is about Google Analytics, for example -- it does contain some great Excel video tutorials. Even better, they were created with marketing and web analytics in mind, so they're directly applicable to things like marketing data reports. The Excel-specific videos can be found here, or by searching her YouTube channel for "Excel".
The Excel topics vary widely, from how to create interactive pivot tables, to how to add a scrolling table to your dashboard using the INDEX function. The videos also vary in length depending on topic complexity, ranging from two-and-a-half-minutes, to those over half an hour long. To give you an idea of what the videos are like, here's one of our favorites, which covers a comprehensive overview of Excel charts:
9. Khan Academy
Price: Free
When visitors arrive at the Khan Academy website, they're greeted with two simple but powerful lines of text: "You only have to know one thing: You can learn anything." And from algebra to astronomy, this resource offers a plethora of free courses on, well, almost anything -- for free.
That includes a few video tutorials on Excel. Most of them are part of larger, multi-installment courses on broader topics, like statistics. A general search for "Microsoft Excel" yields what might look like limited results, but they actually explain some fundamental parts of using Excel, like distributions and fitting lines to data.
How to Learn Excel With Paid Training
10. Lynda.com's Excel Training and Tutorials
Price: Free to try | $19.99/month membership
If you're willing to invest a little cash in your Excel training, Lynda's Excel Training and Tutorials are a worthwhile place to spend it. Members of this LinkedIn subsidiary have access to thousands of courses on business, technology, creative skills, and software that'll help you work toward your personal and professional goals.
Included are over 100 courses on Excel, and over 4,000 video tutorials covering every version of the program, at any level of expertise. They cover a broad range of topics, from something as general as "Statistics with Excel Part One," to more niche topics, like "Data Visualization Storytelling Essentials."
11. Coursera
Price: $79/course
While Lynda.com asks for a monthly all-access membership fee, Coursera charges on a course-to-course basis. Partnering with top universities and organizations worldwide, the site offers online classes on a number of topics, ranging from music production to coaching skills.
There are only a few courses pertaining to Excel, but if you're looking for one that's on a formally academic level, they could be a good fit for you. In fact, many of the Excel-related courses come from Duke University, such as "Excel to MySQL: Analytic Techniques for Business Specialization."
That said, these courses don't come cheap -- after all, they're the same ones that are taught at top universities around the world. And like many real-world classes, each includes video lectures, interactive quizzes, peer-graded assessments, and the opportunity to connect with fellow students and instructors. Once you finish a course, you'll receive formal recognition, along with an optional course certificate.
12. Udemy
Price: $10.99
If you had six hours to spare, how would you use them? "Sleep," "clean the house," and "bake something" are some of the things that come to the top of my mind, but try this on for size -- what if you could become an Excel expert in that amount of time?
That's what Udemy promises in its "Microsoft Excel - From Beginner to Expert in 6 Hours" course -- for $10.99. Udemy is one of the most bountiful online learning resources out there, and its Excel courses certainly don't end with that single option. In fact, when I return to the homepage, it displays several additional lessons on the topic, in case I want to explore my options.
Those options are many. In fact, just typing "Excel" into the search bar yields dozens of results, each one displaying a star rating, price, length, and level.
13. Intellezy.com
Price: Free to try | $14.95 mo.
Big believers in microlearning, Intellezy's videos fall in the three- to five-minute range. These nuggets of knowledge are organized into beginner through advanced courses, covering Excel 2007-2016 and Office365. Plus, mobile apps for iOS and Android make it easy to learn on the go.
Intellezy’s videos are really engaging. There’s always an instructor on-screen showing you what to do. And because they’re wired for face-to-face interactions, Intellezy’s instructors really hold your attention. Their courses also include assessments and exercise files so you can see how you’re doing and follow along with the instructor. You can give Intellezy a spin with a free 10-day trial.
14. Excel Everest
Price: $159
The name of this resource may look intimidating, but you'd be surprised how convenient the training is.
Excel Everest is an out-of-the-box resource that teaches you Excel while you're in Excel. The product you buy downloads an Excel file to your computer, where you'll open Excel and engage in walk-throughs of 41 different Excel functions right from a sample spreadsheet. Topics covered include conditional formatting, Vlookup, chart creation, and so much more.
This Excel training resource offers hundreds of exercises, along with video tutorials embedded directly in a sample Excel spreadsheet. By applying these concepts in Excel as you learn them, you'll feel them stick with you long after you complete Excel Everest's training.
15. Learn iT!
Price: $130/module
Learn iT! offers Excel training in a variety of formats and breaks every lesson down by module. It's the best solution for Excel users who might not be receptive to just a video series or written step-by-step guide.
With Learn iT!, Excel users can select from five different courses: Pivot Tables, Intro to Data Analysis, Programming with VBA, Excel Power User, and a basic Excel course for general users. Each course states the course's duration (in days) and the number of modules the course consists of.
The best part about Learn iT! is that you can take your selected course four different ways: an in-person instructor-led session, live online with classmates, privately in a custom-made session, or a self-paced mix of instructor-led and interactive e-learning courses.
16. LinkedIn Learning Products
Price: Free to try | $29.99 mo.
LinkedIn isn't just for professional networking. You can also learn a ton on various business topics with the help of subject matter experts (SMEs) who host trainings on the LinkedIn Learning platform. Microsoft Excel is one such topic.
Dennis Taylor, a business consultant you can also learn from on Lynda.com, is one SME who hosts Excel training courses on LinkedIn. His courses range from six hours to 23 hours in total training time, and can be completed on your schedule.
Not only does eLearnExcel give you eight Excel training courses to choose from, but it awards seven Excel certifications as well.
eLearnExcel makes this promise: by taking all of its Excel courses, you'll have a skill in Excel that's greater than 99% of Excel users today. Trusted by Microsoft itself, this suite of training products breaks down Excel's concepts in easy, digestible video modules -- allowing you to learn the Excel concepts that are most relevant to you. Courses range from 45 minutes to six hours in duration.
Seven of these courses award you a certification that corresponds with the course you took. If you complete all seven, you're awarded an Excel Master Diploma. It's not a bad item to put on your resume -- or on your business's website, if multiple employees enroll in eLearnExcel's courses as part of a business subscription.
Excel in Your Field
Ready to get started? With these tools, you'll be using Excel with little-to-no-sweat, in no time. Plus, practice makes perfect -- that's why there are so many tiered levels of courses available. Start where you can, and as you begin using more functions and commands, you can continue to expand your knowledge.
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