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Google My Business for Local SEO

Google Business Profile for Local SEO Blog Cover

Rebranded to Google Business Profile recently, Google My Business (GMB) is literally the first and foremost online profile that you need to create for your business. It does not just give your business’s online visibility a massive boost, it will at the same time help your business to get a higher ranking on Local Search and Google Maps (also known as the Google Local Pack or Google 3 Pack Ranking).

What are those key factors besides Distance, Prominence and Relevance for Local Search?

In regards to Local SEO, we have briefly explained about it in a previous post. We are not going to talk about it here. In this article we rather examine and share with you some key findings in Darren’s annual search ranking factor report in 2021. There are some tried and tested tips given by the top experts in local search that you should know and act accordingly.

Top 20 Local Pack-Finder Ranking Factors in 2021

Top 20 Local Pack/ Finder Factors in 2021

No one has access to the internal workings of Google’s local search algorithm. There are perhaps hundreds or even thousands of of contributing factors in determining the ranking position of websites.

But thanks to Darren Shaw of Whitespark. Each year, Darren surveys the top experts in local search across many areas to investigate what’s working to drive rankings and conversions in local SEO, and what’s not. According to his survey in 2021, it had 132 potential factors that local search experts think Google might use to rank businesses in the local pack/ maps and local organic results.

The summary table above gives you an overview of the top 20 finder factors and their weighing in 2021. Based on the observations of the interviewed local search experts, these top factors certainly appear to have the most significant impact on local rankings. Neither shall we go through and explain each of them in detail. Out of the top 20 factors, we will pick up and go through the ones that matter most. We’ll concentrate in those factors that have the biggest impact to increase your ranking in the possible shortest period of time.

1.  Business Category in Google My Business

Let’s start with the #1 influential factor Google will take into consideration when ranking your listing in Local Search and Google Maps. It is your Primary Business Category in Google My Business. Although choosing the right business category may seem to be a straightforward exercise at first. Indeed it may not be as simple as you think.

Hypothetically if you are setting up a nail and beauty salon. Should you choose Beauty Salon or Nail Salon as the primary category? Both options are available.

When it comes to SEO, be it local or not, we don’t use wild guess. We make our decision based on facts and analytics. So when you do some keyword research it would appear that Nail Salon has more monthly searches and nowhere near as hard to rank for. For that matter Nail Salon is a much better option.

The second motto is to choose the category that most closely matches with the primary search you want to rank for. For example, if your business is a law firm that specializes in criminal defense, then your primary category should definitely be ‘Criminal Defense Attorney’ NOT ‘Law Firm’.

It is extremely important to get right on the Primary Business Category. It has a profound and lasting impact.

Additional or Secondary Categories

Additional Categories ranks 5th on the list. It is in fact the second most important thing to optimize in your Google Business Profile. Think of every additional category as an additional keyword that are relevant for your business and that you want to rank for. Add them to your Business Profile.

There is one rule you need to stick to though. Whichever primary and additional categories you decide to choose, make sure they are in line with the content of the page you listing links to. To this end you need to optimize the content of your page with the chosen categories. More specifically you have to include those keywords in the title and the headers. These are factors #11 and #20 on the list of the report.

2. Business Name/ Title

The next most significant element in Google Maps ranking is your Business Name. Having the keywords you are targeting in your business name will help you a great deal to rank very high and very fast for those keywords. However, you can’t explicitly add many keywords to your business name for the sake of ranking. Your business name will look weird. But as long as you can add keywords to your business name legitimately and nicely, you may use this to your advantage.

Again you have to be very cautious. Google’s guidelines are very clear on this topic including unnecessary information in your business name is not permitted. Your name should reflect your business’s real world name or your listing could end up being suspended.

What about your business address?

Yes, the Proximity of the Address to the Point of Search and the Physical Address are important too. They rank #3 and #4 respectively. But in reality there is nothing you can do about it than providing an accurate address to Google. Not to mention proximity, you can’t change the location of your business unless you are actually moving or adding new outlets.

3. Google Review

Google Review is a Local SEO vital that has always been neglected or underrated. Just ask yourself how many times you’ve been asked to follow an IG channel or like a Facebook page? Then compare it to the number of times you’ve been asked to write Google Review for a business. Once you got the answer, you’d realize the amount of attention paying to Google Review is horribly low as opposed to the other popular social channels.

That’s strange. When someone is looking up on Google Maps and finds a business that he or she is unfamiliar with, the very first thing to read about the business is perhaps its online reviews. Businesses should in the first place put a lot of efforts into collecting positive reviews from their customers. Having positive reviews will give your business a trump card. There is no doubt.

Now when we read the Local Ranking Factor Report 2021 again, you can see how influential overall reviews play as they are mentioned in three instances.

#6 High Numerical Google Rating

Number counts. The number of reviews you are getting is giving your listing a clear advantage.

#9 Keywords in Native Google Reviews

If customers include relevant keywords you are targeting in their reviews, it will help your business rank for those keywords.

#12 Quality of Native Google Reviews (w/ text)

As with any other online contents, Google likes to see some quality in them. By quality content, it means the content must be readable, trustworthy, up to date, useful and helpful to other users. With this in mind, don’t spam! Go ask for genuine reviews from real customers.

What about bad reviews?

Responding to bad reviews is an important part of maintaining your business’s reputation, so make sure you try and put right any customer complaints that have arisen.

4. Backlinks

Ever since its creation Google always used links to rank websites in search results. The topic of backlinks is covered in various posts of ours. One of them is SEO 101: Behind the SEO Scene. Read it if you’re interested to know more about some basic concepts of SEO.

When it comes to ranking on Google maps the backlinks that will matter the most are local backlinks that point to your website. To name a few, these include links from the local chamber of commerce websites, local bloggers, and local business directories. These links clearly show Google your business is an important part of the local community. Since there is a strong correlation between your Google listing ranking on Google maps and the website it links to, the more local links you get the more relevant your listing will become. Therefore the higher it will rank.

Wrapping Up

Based on the findings and analytics from Darren’s survey and our experience in SEO projects, we can conclude outlined above are the 4 major things to you need to do to get a top rank on Google Maps (Google Local Pack or Google 3 Pack Ranking). It is the first and fastest route to take to get to the top position. After that you can optimize the rests step by step, with affordable time and resources. What makes our lives even easier is most of your competitors, as you might have noticed, are not taking the time or be willing to do the work to fight against you for spot on Google Maps. This is a small yet high value piece of puzzle you must add to your online marketing.

Other related topics that you may be interested in:

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  2. SEO FAQs: The Top 10 SEO Questions New Clients Ask
  3. How to optimize a WordPress website for Google ranking?
  4. Why your website is not getting traffic? Follow these 4 steps to fix it.
  5. What is a SEO-Driven Website Plan? Why is it important to the success of making a new website?
  6. Why are Internal Links Important for SEO?
  7. Winning International SEO Strategy & Best Practices
  8. How to do SEO for WooCommerce?
  9. Let’s talk about Image SEO

 


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