Whether you’re looking for a lunch spot in an unfamiliar area or need a mechanic to take care of an unexpected puncture.
where do you look?
You’re not the only one to answer Google Maps.
These days, many of us rely on Google Maps to discover local businesses and make more informed buying decisions.
So how can local businesses rank higher where consumers are increasingly looking to buy local products and services?
Here are 10 steps you can take to improve your rankings, increase traffic, and acquire more customers on Google Maps.
1. Apply and complete your Google Business Profile
The first important step in establishing visibility on Google Maps is registering and optimizing your Google Business Profile (GBP – formerly known as Google My Business or GMB).
You can do this by simply searching for your business name on Google or Google Maps and reviewing your listing if you haven’t done so already.
You can also edit directly from the search results by creating a list and signing into your Google account.
Screenshot of Google Business Profile, June 2022As a property of Google, GBP provides the primary signal to Google of your business’ existence. The information contained herein is believed to be accurate and up-to-date.
Google cross-references these details with what it finds on your website and other local directories and resources. We will discuss the importance of these in more detail later.
2. Posting linked content (including photos)
After requesting the GBP listing, work is still in progress.
Google rewards active businesses with high visibility on Google Maps, so it’s important to post regular updates to your GBP profile.
These updates may and should include special offers, sponsored events, links to related blog posts, or general business updates.
Screenshot of Google Business Profile, June 2022We also recommend including photos in your updates if possible. Visuals are likely to increase viewer engagement in terms of shares and clicks.
Your post should also ideally include a link to the main product or service page on your website.
3. Optimize your web presence for local organic search
If you want to rank high on Google Maps, you need to make sure your web presence, including your website and external content, is optimized for your local audience.
You can start by running a local SEO audit to identify where you need to focus your attention in terms of keywords, content and links. These are her three main components for building presence.
Your website should be well structured so that Google can easily crawl and index your content. In-site content should also be relevant, locally oriented, and enriched with intent-based keywords and logical internal and external links to answer your audience. looking for.
Google rewards websites that bring searchers to answers in the fewest possible clicks.
Your website should also load quickly and offer seamless navigation regardless of device.
This is especially important at the local level, as more and more searchers initiate searches on their mobile phones.
4. Use local business schema
When it comes to structuring content, especially business details, Google and other search engines like standardization. This led to the development of schema.
Local schemas allow companies to wrap code in their content to facilitate crawling and indexing by Google.
The Local Business Schema covers many of the same business details recorded in the Google Business Profile, and Google will naturally cross-reference them.
The easier it is for Google to see your location, the more likely it is that your business will appear prominently on Google Maps.
5. Embed a Google Map on your contact page
It’s not explicitly stated that embedding Google Maps on your website will make a difference in ranking on Google Maps, but it’s not an exaggeration to assume that this is Google’s preferred format.
Again, Google can guarantee a consistent user experience for searchers. This should likewise be the goal of any business trying to please its customers.
6. Dig into Your Reviews
Any business can create a GBP listing to ensure basic business information is up to date and post lots of relevant local content.
However, another very important factor that determines whether and where your local business appears on Google Maps is customer reviews.
Screenshot of Google Business Profile, June 2022Google pays close attention to both the number of reviews a business gets, whether positive or negative, and how proactively they respond to those reviews.
Any business naturally wants to limit the number of negative reviews they receive, and all negative reviews should be addressed quickly.
This can actually be a valuable way of demonstrating a company’s commitment to customer service.
There are many places where customers can leave reviews online, such as Facebook, Yelp, and other industry-specific review sites, but GBP profile reviews are more important when it comes to ranking on Google Maps.
Immediately after you successfully deliver a product or service, if a positive experience is probably of primary concern to your customers, consider proactively asking them for reviews.
Automate review requests (via email or text) upon completion of specific online or offline customer actions (e.g. booking completion, bill payment, etc.) and cross multiple sources via a central dashboard There are services available to assist with review management.
Automation saves busy local businesses a lot of time and creates a regular influx of positive reviews.
7. Update Local Lists/Citations in NAP
The three most important directional pieces of information for GBP, websites, and the web at large are name, address, phone number or NAP.
Ensuring the consistency and accuracy of NAPs across all these sources is important to both Google and your audience.
These references to your business from third party sites are also called citations.
To make sure your NAP is up to date, first search for your company name and note all places where your company details are listed.
Please review each instance and contact the owner of each directory or website to update this important contact information as needed.
We also have free and paid automated local listing services. This allows you to identify your NAP and update other important business information such as website URLs, services, or associated images from one place.
8. Build Local Backlinks
Backlinks or inbound links are effectively an extension of your NAP strategy, having relevant local third-party websites link to your primary website pages.
Backlinks can validate your business from both a local and product/service perspective.
If you maintain listings with links in your local directory, you should ensure that those listings are in the appropriate category if category options are provided.
Ideally, these links to your website are “follow” links. This means that Google knows the source of links to your content.
Most directories recognize the value of “following” links, so they charge a fee, but they do not accept links from other free sources, such as sites of relevant partner, industry, or service organizations. You should also look for opportunities to secure.
9. Join the community
Just as Google rewards GBP activity, we also pay attention to how active businesses are within the community as a means of establishing local presence and authority.
Businesses known to partner with local service organizations (chambers of commerce, charities, sports groups, etc.), sponsor local events, or partner with other prominent local businesses is rightfully considered part of the thriving community.
Engagement includes publishing and/or promoting linked content, e.g. event announcements, partner pages associated with these partner organizations and, of course, physically engaging and possibly local news articles and other publications. including being mentioned/linked in
10. Beware of SERPs and the Long Tail
If you want to optimize every aspect of your local web presence, look at whether it ranks within Google Maps and regular search engine result pages (SERPs) and where it ranks based on the keywords it ranks for. You should monitor your progress in terms of whether I hope you find it.
You can either run your own manual Google search (preferably in incognito mode and not logged into your Google account) or choose from a number of rank monitoring tools. Many of which can specifically exclude map ranking.
When considering keywords to follow, consider and include local identifiers and appropriate keywords such as ‘nearby’, ‘best’, ‘affordable’. For example, ‘Body shop near me’, ‘Best body shop in Barry’ etc. or ‘Affordable body work’.
3, 4, and 5 such keyword phrases are considered long tail. This means that local search volume may not be as high. than chasing more competitive phrases.
In time, short tail top rankings will follow if you have truly established a local authority for your business.
Get your business on Google Maps
So go ahead, grab your laundry list and put your local business on the map.
Establishing authority and expertise online isn’t really that different from how it’s always been done in the real world, but it can take time, just like a real relationship.
We strive to provide the best answers to our customers’ questions, deliver solid products and services, play an active role in our communities, have good things to say to our customers, and consistently deliver a high level of customer service. reward companies that .
If this applies to your business, get out there and do it.
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Featured Image: BestForBest/Shutterstock
