Advancing Through Google Maps Rankings
Every business’ goal is to be put on the map, as a matter of speaking. Well, in order to get on the figurative map, you’ll have to make sure your business is taking full advantage of its marketing potential. The best way to do this is to get on an actual physical map.
Google Maps is a great tool that helps your business get discovered but like anything on Google, you need to advance it through the rankings. The list of search results that appears when a potential customer types a query into Google is of utmost importance. Not just for content, but to discover where you are located.
That First Page
Every business wants to be in the top 3 rankings on Google Maps. It helps you get noticed and allows you to attract potential customers and leads. Your potential customers won’t scroll through pages and pages of results to see where you are. They’re bound to go for one of the first choices they see. In a lot of cases, your Google Maps listing will be the deciding factor for your customer.
We talked about some of the factors that helped get your business higher in Google Maps’ rankings. Those had to do with on-site factors. These are some of the pertinent on-site factors that count towards making your mark on Google Map rankings.
Important Factors to Get Higher On Google Maps’ Rankings
1. Categorize Your Business Effectively
When you first decide to create a Google Maps Listing for your business, there is a primary category relevant to your industry. This could be a keyword to help you describe what your business is all about.
There are up to five additional category keywords that you can add to your business listing to describe it. Many first time listing creators often miss this little detail. The main category of your business should describe the absolute core of your business. For example, if you are a realtor in North Carolina, you should classify yourself as a real estate business in this main category.
The secondary category can help you with local search discovery. Do your “local SEO keyword” research well to find out what keywords best suit your business and incorporate them.
For example, your keyword for the above example could be North Carolina realtor or maybe even Greensboro Realtor, if you mainly serve Greensboro in North Carolina.
2. Google My Business Information Needs to be Verified
Google wants to know more about your business so their bots and crawlers can properly rank and place you in the Google Maps rankings. Give them what they need so your online business listing makes it to the top of the ranks. On the ‘My Business’ page on Google, you need to add all pertinent contact information. This includes your physical address as well as a landline and mobile phone number. Check back to make sure your listing is complete and accurate.
You should also mention the business hours you have so that Google can tell potential customers when they can reach out to you. If you’re closed on weekends, mention that. This motivates your potential and existing customers to call you up when they know they’ll be able to reach you. It will help your web visibility as well.
Any redundant or incorrect information regarding contact or business information should be done away with. It will actually negatively affect your listing, causing it to go down in rank on Google Maps. Google penalizes businesses with superfluous information.
3. Relevant Photos on the Listing Help
Pictures are truly worth a thousand words. The pictures that you have in your listing are a way to attract potential business. It’s the best way to showcase your business’ skills and pertinent results.
When you display both the exterior and the interior of your business and where it is located, it will allow Google users to recognize where your business is. People look at the pictures and know exactly where you’re located, especially if they’re local.
Choose a picture that has a high resolution and is scalable to display on your website, as well as your listing. The similarity of information will be rewarded positively by Google and give you a boost in your listing rank. The picture needs to show your best products and present one of your employees in action with the services you provide.
4. Google Reviews are Necessary
This is the ultimate form of user-generated content that you could hope for. Google reviews lend you a necessary element of trustworthiness and reliability for your business. When you have positive reviews for your business, it helps to advance you through Google Maps’ ranks. The greater the number of positive reviews, the higher your business will rank.
Bad reviews are usually limited in number, unless your business truly is horrible. That’s right, a whole lot of effort to be “bad.” Address the bad reviews with timely replies to show customers that you care. To get started with Google reviews, copy and paste your Google Reviews link on social media pages and request a few of your loyal customers to leave a review for you.
Using On-Page Signals to Boost Rankings
All search engines rely on things called signals for them to properly do their jobs. There are two types of messages; on-page signals, and off-page signals.
On-page signals are elements on your website that help you come up. The closest comparison here is Google Adwords. In Adwords, you create a landing page for the ad you’re making. When a user clicks on the ad, they’ll automatically be taken to a new page.
Google looks at the websites you’ve associated with your business page on Google (i.e., your site). There are some factors on that main site that count the most to boost your page rankings on Google.
1.Quality of Inbound Links
Your backlinks are highly regarded by Google as they look at the quality and authority of the sources that redirect to your site. Creating manual backlinks can be one way of having these backlinks present, but there is another way to do that as well. That involves the quality of your content.
The content you post should give your readers value for their time. Making sure that articles answer common questions is key. Embedding backlinks in the content you create is going to bring your site up in Google rankings.
2. Authority of Your Domain
Domain authority has to do with how long your domain has been on the web and how many inbound links there are on the internet that redirect there.
3. Keywords in Your Title
The keywords in your title should include the area your business stands. That makes Google index your page specifically for that area.
For example, a real estate website in Miami, Florida should have Miami, or Florida, or a combination of the two in their website title to rank better on Google local search pages. It’s all about authority and quality in the end.
4. Name, Address and Phone Number (Otherwise Referred to as NAP#)
Your business name, address and phone number matters on your website and your Google local search page. NAP# for both Business page and website should be the same. It shows Google that you’re consistent and will rank you higher. Also, remember not to group these three things as one because it will create a further disparity between your webpage and business page on Google.
If you’d like to have your website and Google local search page optimized, please don’t hesitate to contact us.