How To Use Google My Business For Local SEO

How To Use Google My Business For Local SEO

Do you use Google My Business? If not, you need to seriously review your SEO strategy since you have omitted a powerful platform that makes your business visible to your local community. Let’s learn more about Google My Business for local SEO and how you can take advantage of this powerful tool.

What Is Google My Business?  

Google My Business (GMB), now known as Google Business Profile, is the largest driver of local SEO and enables its users to get exposure across Google Local Pack, Google Maps, and Local Finder. GMB is free so you should have a profile even if you already have a website. 

Google My Business informs Google searchers about your brand, location, nature of business, what your brand represents, what products and services you offer, customer reviews, ratings, etc. Once you finish creating your business profile, Google Maps generates your location and synchronizes with the standard Google Search for easy access and results. You next verify your GMB profile with Google to confirm you are the owner of the business you claim.

Publish your Google business profile:

Once your GMB profile is verified and published, it is essential to rank higher in local searches and enable consumers to find your business. Here are a few tips to optimize SEO for Google My Business.

1. Provide complete and accurate data: You must complete all the asked information without leaving anything for assumptions. Your profile should be self-explanatory and connect to what your business is about, its address, timings, contact numbers, and services. 

2. Include keywords: To get the maximum out of your GMB listing and get a good ranking, optimize every part of your site. Your website is listed directly within your GMB. Create local content with important keywords and search phrases, get quality backlinks and build a strong link profile. It is essential your listing is accurate and active. Ensure you update your business hours whenever there is a change. 

3. Add photos: Photos help showcase what your business is all about. Google confirms business profiles with photos receive 42% more requests on Google Maps for directions and 35% more clicks to their websites. [1]

4. Encourage reviews and respond to them: Interaction with customers will keep the connection alive and enable you to learn their opinion about your services. Give appropriate replies to their comments. Some might have queries so ensure you answer them on time. This type of communication will increase your business visibility in search results. It also keeps your existence fresh on Google. 

5. Share offers & Deals: You can do a test by creating promotional content giving some special deals and offers to be a step ahead of competitors. The response itself can tell you how many people view your listings. 

How does Google My Business help with SEO?

Google My Business can help promote your business in many ways at least within your local community. Even your next-door neighbor may have difficulty finding your business without your listing. Your verified and optimized GMB profile stands a good chance of being in the local 3-pack which will help shoot up your presence to the top of search results. 

Google local search results are based upon the 3 packs- relevance, distance, and prominence.  

  • Relevance: Your information in the listing must be precise and complete. Google checks how closely your listing matches with the searcher’s objective. Google searchers use different terminologies in their search.
  • Distance: The proximity of your location and the distance from where the searcher has put in their request.  
  • Prominence: It refers to how popular your business is. Some brands are known very well offline, which Google reflects in their local ranking. Google also considers factors like the information about the business through links, articles, directories, etc., on the web.   

SEO and Google My Business

For several years, Google has been making various available tools to analyze and understand how online customers interact with GMB profiles. Google Insights is a platform that enables you to know complete details of 

How customers find your listing:  This gives you information whether they typed your business/ brand name or discovered through a keyword search for a product/service where they saw your profile.

Where they found you: Insights will tell you how searchers found you. How many found you on Google Search, how many on Google Maps, etc. 

Customer action: It tells you what the customer did after finding you. The steps customers do options include

  • Visit your website
  • Request directions
  • Call you 
  • View photos.

Conclusion: 

Today’s business world demands an online presence 24/7/. If you are a local small business it is essential for you to have a Google My Business profile. Without taking advantage of this tool you are leaving out a huge component of your local SEO strategy. With so many advantages to Google My Business, it is a no brainer that you need to set your profile up today. 

At Black Kite Marketing we can help you set up and manage your Google My Business Profile as part of our Local SEO Service. Call us at (516) 259-1813.

Resources:

[1] https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038063?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid