One of the most important marketing tools for your business is your Google Maps presence. It can increase revenue, help you stand out from the competition, and attract new clients. However, these advantages are actually only available if your listing has a high level of visibility. Also, just because your company is listed in a certain location does not guarantee that Google will rank it highly for searches conducted in that area. In actuality, Maps considers a wide range of Google maps ranking factors when evaluating business results, and proximity is just one of them.
So, to help you boost your ranking on Google maps SEO the better way, today we will talk about all the essential tips that you must try. But before we hop into the tips, let’s have a better understanding of –
What is Local SEO?
Optimising a business’s online presence to increase its exposure in local search results is known as local search engine optimisation or Google maps SEO. For brick-and-mortar retailers and service-based businesses with physical locations, this approach is especially important because it concentrates on drawing clients within a particular geographic area. Enhancing the company website, setting up and maintaining Google Business Profile listings, securing online reviews, and guaranteeing correct and consistent business data across many online channels are all part of local SEO initiatives. By putting these strategies into practice, companies may raise the likelihood that they will show up in local search results when prospective clients are looking for goods or services nearby. It will eventually increase foot traffic and community involvement.
Why is SEO Important?
Local SEO is important for businesses with physical locations since it optimises a business’s online presence. It also includes the more concrete advantages of local SEO, such as enhanced exposure, focused marketing, and efficient local audience outreach. Local SEO improves a company’s online reputation and credibility by emphasising Google Business Profile listing optimisation, securing good reviews, and guaranteeing consistent business information across several platforms. By improving local search ranks, these tactics give physical establishments a competitive edge in today’s digital marketplace and increase foot traffic.
Local SEO Tips for Better Ranking
1. Optimise Google Business Profiles
Google Business Profiles are frequently among the top results when you perform a local search. These Google maps ranking factors give potential customers a brief synopsis of your company on the search engine results page (SERP), together with the address, phone number, Google rating, and business hours. You may get more details about each listing by clicking on it, including reviews, pictures, directions, and a link to your business website.
Make sure the information on your Google Business Profiles is correct, comprehensive, and useful if you want them to appear highly in local searches. First, confirm that your phone number, address, and operating hours are current. Adding eye-catching images to your profile can also help you enhance interaction and express the story of your company. Finally, since the number of reviews and star ratings you receive is important ranking considerations for your Google Business Profile page, you’ll need to have a solid review management plan in place (more on this later). This Google FAQs page has additional information on how to raise your Google Business Profile ranking.
2. Find Keywords with Solid Local Intent
The principles of conducting keyword research continue to be crucial in the field of Google maps SEO. Understanding the terminology and search terms used by local audiences while looking for goods or services is largely based on keyword research.
Businesses can then connect their web content with the precise terms and phrases that potential customers use by identifying relevant keywords, which improves their exposure in local search results.
Understanding the subtleties of their target audience’s search activity is important for local SEO practitioners. This is because keyword selection has a big influence on a company’s capacity to draw in local customers and generate leads. A local audience’s distinct preferences and requirements must be understood in order to choose keywords wisely. Businesses can tailor their material to appeal to the local audience by using location-specific terminology and phrases.
3. Use Solid Review Management
Reviews are one of the most significant ranking elements for Google Business Profiles, as was previously discussed. Additionally, they play an important role in your company’s rating on other local listing websites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, Angie’s List, Zocdoc, and others. Furthermore, they have a significant impact on whether local searchers will interact with your listing and eventually become customers in addition to ranks.
The following are some brief pointers to help you organise your reviews:
- Inform clients on how to submit a review.
- Offer rewards to consumers who submit evaluations.
- On your website, highlight positive reviews (with the reviewer’s consent)
- Keep a close eye on your reviews.
- Answer each review as soon as possible and truthfully
- Deliver exceptional customer service to get testimonials from your clients.
4. Add Schema Markups
As was already said, you may make it easier for searchers to find critical information on your website, such as the name, address, and locations of your business, by including schema, the language used by search engines, into the code. However, schema can also be used to add extra details about your company to the SERP.
You can include schema markups, to have your reviews appear just beneath your meta description. Additionally, schema markups with a list of FAQs and links to pages with answers can be added. In addition to giving you extra SERP real estate, this Google maps ranking factor also helps you address any frequently asked pre-purchase queries by searchers.
Schema markups can also assist you in obtaining rich snippets. Rich snippets are not the same as featured snippets because they are composed of more than simply text. They could include reviews, costs, times, pictures, social media profiles, and more.
Your SERP presence becomes more competitive, and your CTR can increase when you take the time to apply schema markup to your website. Because schema markups make it easier for search engines to crawl your website and determine why it merits a high rating, they can also help you rank higher in local search results. Check out this comprehensive list of schema markups that you can use on your website.
5. Create Location Specific Pages
As was previously said, 46% of all Google searches are for local content. You are losing out on a significant chance to show up in these search results if you are not producing local content for your website.
Establishing location pages for every town, nation, and area you service is a recommended practice. If you have a page for this location that includes references to important places such as the title tags, meta description, H1s, body copy, URLs, and image alt tags, you’ll have a lot easier time appearing in the search results when someone searches for any specification.
It goes without saying that you shouldn’t make duplicate location pages with the location name changed because Google will consider this duplicate material and lower your ranks. Rather, you ought to dedicate some effort to offering accurate, useful information unique to each place. This includes case studies, FAQs, and testimonials tailored to a particular place.
6. Use Local Link Building Strategy
The process of obtaining fresh links to your website from other domains is known as link building. Google will consider your site to be more authoritative when it has backlinks from other sites with high domain authority. So, increasing the authority of your domain is one of the most important Google maps ranking factors and helps in improving ranks.
When you are developing a local link-building strategy, take into account the ways in which you can obtain backlinks from reliable local sources, such as blogs, local news publications, local company directories, and local fundraisers or charities that you support.
7. Improve Mobile Site Speed
The speed of a mobile website affects how well it ranks for every search query. However, there are especially big stakes for mobile optimisation with Google maps SEO. Local mobile searchers are quite likely to make a purchase. Recall that 88% of consumers who use mobile devices to look up local companies do so by calling or going in person within a day. Having a mobile-friendly website might mean the difference between keeping their business and losing it to your rivals if they have a bad online experience.Here are some pointers to speed up your mobile website:
- Use Google’s mobile-friendly tools and test your website.
- Makeover your pop-ups to fit mobile screens.
- Activate AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)
- Keep a close eye on your reviews.
- Put caching in place
- Reduce the size of your photographs to speed up loading
- Reduce the number of HTTP requests
- For CSS and JavaScript files, use asynchronous loading to shorten server response times.
- Cut down on the amount of redirects you employ.
- Get rid of 404 errors and erroneous requests
- Cut down on DNS queries
- Cut back on the amount of plugins you use.
- Track and tweak your website’s speed over time.
8. Track Call Conversions
While the majority of marketers track the online conversions that SEO generates using tools like Google Analytics, many fail to account for inbound phone calls, which are a crucial component of the local search consumer journey.
Call tracking links sales and phone leads to the websites that generated them. This enables you to track every conversion—both online and over the phone—that your top Google maps SEO sites generate. These stats can also be used to improve your pages and increase the number of qualified sales calls that come into your locations.
Takeaway!
Elevating your company’s Google Maps listing For local visibility and consumer interaction, SEO is crucial. Your rankings are greatly improved by including the important techniques mentioned above. Businesses may guarantee their visibility on local search engines, draw in a larger audience, and increase the influence of their online presence in their town by giving these strategies top priority. Also, with our SEO experts on your side, you will be able to make the most out of local SEO strategies. So, don’t wait any longer and connect with us soon!
