Do you run a local business with one or more locations? Do you want customers that live nearby to find your business on Google easily? If the answer to these questions is yes, then you need a local SEO strategy. With a local SEO strategy, you can connect with people that live close by and are looking for your products or services. These kinds of searches on Google are twice as likely to be motivated customers. Studies have shown that when someone searches for a product in a particular place, they are ready to buy it right away.

NOT JUST SEO, LOCAL SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.  SEO is the process that business owners use to make their websites appear organically higher on a Google search result page. Most people that search for products never go to page two on the search results page. This is especially true on searches for local products and services. If you miss the opportunity to be on page one, it's almost like you're not on Google at all.

Local SEO is less competitive than regular SEO. When optimizing your website for a Google search, the competition for keywords (and consequently rankings) involves a lot fewer competitors. And below, there are some things you can do that will positively affect your local Google ranking that are impossible for national companies to achieve.

LOCAL SEO IS MORE URGENT

When people search for products and services that are local to them, they intend to buy. This kind of search is what makes their search more urgent. They are looking for someone that can meet their needs right now. Google knows that if someone is looking for an electrician in Amherst, Massachusetts, it won't do them any good to find electricians somewhere in Colorado. Local SEO allows Google to provide its customers (the search engine users) with the most useful results. And Google wants to make all their customers happy. 

If you optimize your website so that Google knows that you are local, you will see more visits of people that are ready to buy. Google's statistics tell us that over three-quarters of the people who perform local mobile searches will visit that business in the next 24 hours. These customers have already gone through all the initial buying stages and are ready to take out their credit cards.

GOOGLE AND LOCAL SEO

Google wants to provide the most relevant searches to its customers. That's why last year, they spent millions of dollars on upgrading their search algorithm. They wanted to include things that indicate that a business is local and that it is well-liked. To make sure this happens, Google considers three things above all other ranking factors. The three "Ranking Factors" are: 

Proximity - Is the business near the IP address of the searcher?

Relevancy - Does the company provide the product or service?

Distinction - How popular is the company online and in the local community?

Want to see how your website ranks compared to your competitors? Use our free compare vs competitors tool.

SEO/ORGANIC VS. PAID PLACEMENT

There are only two ways to get to the top of a Google search page. The easiest way (if you have a large budget) is to pay for the privilege of being at the top. This is called paid search results and is very popular with companies that are just starting out and can't get to the top of the first page organically. Let's cover some things you can do to get to the first page of the Google search results without having to pay for the privilege. 

But first analysis your website now with our free SEO audit tool to see where you stand.

MOBILE FRIENDLY WEBSITE

More than three-quarters of searches for local products and services are done on cell phones. So the first thing is to make sure that your website works on a cell phone. Get out your phone and go to your site. Is it easy to read and easy to navigate? Now you need to see what Google thinks about it. One way to do that is to use a free tool from Google called Google's Mobile-Friendly Test or use our free mobile friendly analysis tool. This test will scan your website and tell you ways that you can approve it for cell phones. And best of all it's free.

GOOGLE MY BUSINESS PAGE

You must list your business on Google My Business (GMB).  It's free and a necessary step. If you have multiple locations, list each one individually. Not only will this allow you to rank higher on the search engine pages, but it will enable you to get a pin on the Google Map during search results. Registering on GMB will also provide a place for people to put reviews of your business. Reviews of your business are one of the most reliable tools to get more people in the front door. Once you have your business listed with GMB, keep updating it for Google. Do this by interacting with your webpage by adding pictures, reviews, questions and answers, and other updates to keep it fresh. Google likes fresh content and will rank you higher in local search results because of it.

 BUSINESS ADDRESS IS ON YOUR SITE

Remember, the very first ranking factor is proximity. Google needs to know that you are close to the searcher. How Google learns this is by looking at the address that's on your website. So, it's essential to have your physical address on your website. And if you have multiple locations, make sure that each location has its own webpage with its own physical address. 

BACKLINKS - OTHER SITES HAVE YOUR BACK

Another powerful tool for helping pages list higher is to have other pages mention your site. These are called backlinks or citations, and they are evidence for Google that your website is popular and authentic.  The more popular your site is in Google's eyes, the higher it will rank it on its search results.  There are a few ways to get quality backlinks for your website. 

First, make sure that you are listed in all the directories that related to your industry. For instance, if you operate a hotel, make sure that you are listed in TripAdvisor. That is easily done by asking one of your guests to leave a good review on TripAdvisor. Also, make sure your website is listed in as many authentic directories as possible. Find regional and local directories that list your type of service and let them know that you exist.  And make sure that they contain your website URL.

FIND BACKLINK SITES

There are a few ways to find out where the backlink/citation sites are. One great method is by seeing what sites are linked to your competitors, even if they aren't local competitors. Enter the website URL of a competitor into https://ahrefs.com/backlink-checker. This service will provide you with a list of links that point back to your competitor. While they might not all be appropriate for your business, make sure the ones that are, learn about you. 

A WARNING ABOUT BACKLINKS

There's one way that you should not get backlinks. You should never pay for them. And definitely, do not join a backlink service. There are these services that agree to list each other's businesses in the hopes that they will trick Google into thinking they are popular.  That used to work years ago, but Google now penalizes this.

OPTIMIZE META TAGS

Meta tags are hidden text descriptions explicitly designed for search engines. They are hidden from regular eyes, but Google's search crawler can see them very well. The meta description is that little piece of text that you see in the search results for your web page. Make sure that they describe your location and your business category. Google loves good meta tags.

LOCAL KEYWORDS

Make sure the text on your website has all the local keywords that people might search for. If you are a plumber in Smithfield, include the phrase "local plumber in Smithfield" or "best plumber in Smithfield" or "emergency plumber in Smithfield" on your website. These "long-tail keywords" are effective at bringing in the customers when they are desperate for your products. 

Use our keyword rank checker tool to see where your key words rank.

REVIEWS ARE CRITICAL

Reviews are the new currency of the internet. One of the most important parts of local SEO is to have many positive reviews for your company. When you finish with a customer, ask them to leave you a review.  Have your employees give them a card with your website on it and ask them to provide you with a personal review. It is very effective on so many levels.

Here at The Click Depot, we can do a comprehensive audit of your website to make sure it performs well for local SEO.  We have created thousands of effective SEO websites, and we'll make sure that yours climbs to the top of the Google search results page.

Google uses three primary barometers to rank the websites for its index. One of the most potent and most exploited gauges is backlinks. By building backlinks, you generate a hyperlink on another site that points back to you. Google keeps track of how many backlinks exist for a particular website to determine a site's popularity. Because these backlinks are a popularity vote, the more you have, the higher Google ranks you in its index.

There are two kinds of backlinks. There are the "whitehat backlinks" that Google likes to see. When you have a lot of these, Google will reward you by granting you a higher position in its search results. Then there are "blackhat backlinks." Google doesn't like these at all. If you want to get Google angry and evaluate your website badly, this is how to do it. When (and it inevitably will) Google discovers blackhat backlinks, it dispenses judgment. That penalty can range anywhere from lowering your rank in the search results to delisting you from its index.

WHEN THE PROBLEM BEGAN

Way back at the beginning, people recognized the power of being listed at the top of Google's search results. And getting your site listed at the top of the search results was simply a matter of repeating keywords endlessly on your website and having loads of backlinks pointing to your site. It didn't matter where these you got backlinks. You could make up your sites, agree to swap with other people, or buy them from someone. There were plenty of people selling cheap backlinks by the boatload. Back then, Google was new at this, and the hackers were very talented, so it worked. But now, things have changed significantly in the search engine world, and Google is very good at spotting backlinks that don't follow their guidelines.

I NEVER USE BLACKHAT ANYTHING

Now, you might truthfully claim that you would never use black hat techniques. However, Google could still find you guilty of having blackhat backlinks, and you would never even know it. Google has a very aggressive approach to identifying blackhats. Sometimes they will flag backlinks that are innocent but are "close to the infraction line." We are going to cover Google's definition of backlinks, so you don't accidentally use them and get your site's ranking penalized. We will also include a few of the other types of typical blackhat techniques that people use to try to trick Google's crawler into ranking them higher, so you don't stray into that territory either.

The first thing we need to establish is what are whitehat links and how you can get them for your site. Technically, Whitehat SEO activities are methods used to promote your website that Google has sanctioned and that it approves of. They are mostly activities that make your site a better experience for Google users. Google has fashioned its criteria for defining a high-quality website based on the quality of the experience of its user. So, it rewards these quality components and activities with a higher ranking in its index. Included in these are things such as a fast loading site and easy to navigate the site, naturally occurring and placed keywords, high-quality content, and having a well-liked website. The last one on this list is what we are talking about today. The way Google learns if your site is popular is how many other sites mention you to their users. Whenever these other sites promote you by using a link to your website, that is a high-quality backlink. 

HOW TO GET WHITEHAT BACKLINKS

There are several legitimate methods for getting whitehat backlinks. Probably the easiest way is to make sure that you get listed on all of your industry listing sites. If you belong to a trade group association, they would probably have a list of all their members. Make sure that you are registered on that site as many times as they allow. If they allow you to have a listing in different categories, make sure that your website URL shows up there. Some sites list providers of various services and products which align with their services or products. Here is one effective method for discovering these "backlink discovery" sites. Check those backlinks that point to your competitors' websites. We can find this info out for you or there are several tools available to do this, such as backlink checker by Small SEO Tools. Once you discover these sites, contact the management to get your website listed.

THE BEST METHOD FOR BACKLINKS

The best method by far to get good backlinks that both your users and Google will like is by creating content - good content When you create a useful infographic, or write an engaging and helpful blog, or put out a great instructional video, you are on your way to getting the most potent backlinks that exist. When users see this great content, they are likely to share it on their sites. Not only will this bring people to your site that might never have heard of you before, it tells Google that this other site likes you. It's a reliable vote from another website on the internet. Getting such "popularity votes" is the best thing you can do to affect your ranking on Google's index. And you get the added benefit of providing outstanding content and improving your reputation in your industry. This method is absolutely a win-win situation.

REVIEWS ARE HOT

Probably equal in power are positive reviews from your customers (if they include your website URL). The reason reviews are so good is that they serve a double purpose. They're excellent for placement in the Google search engine because Google has recently upgraded its search algorithm to give much higher weight and importance to positive reviews. This method is especially useful for local SEO. But there is another reason reviews are an excellent source for improving your position on the internet. That is because reviews are the new currency of the internet. When a shopper learns that you exist and that you have what they need, they go and look at your reviews. If your reviews are good, they will buy from you. If your reviews are non-existent or even worse bad reviews, they will avoid you like a disease. 

THE WORST METHOD FOR BACKLINKS

As I mentioned earlier, don't ever buy backlinks, no matter how cheap. These cheap backlinks are produced by "backlink farms." These "farms" create thousands of websites whose only function is to house counterfeit backlinks. Using these kinds of backlinks will raise a huge red flag for Google, and you are sure to regret it.

If someone promoted their site like that, they would probably see excellent SEO results for a brief time. Their Google search ranking would shoot through the roof. They would be the person of the hour at their company. And then he or she would probably get fired because Google would delist their company's website. It has always been the case, and it remains today that the best way to get high-quality backlinks is to provide an excellent product or service for your website user.

An executive from Google did a very unusual thing recently. He announced an inside secret about how their super-secret algorithm evaluated websites. This announcement was so strange because Google never tells anybody anything about their algorithm. As it turns out, two top methods are relevancy and popularity. Relevancy has to do with your content, keywords, and consistency of presentation okay website. But it's the popularity criteria that is most interesting for our discussion because it has to do with backlinks. Google values backlinks very highly. That's why they reward you generously for high-quality backlinks, and they come down like a "ton of bricks" when they think you are cheating with backlinks. 

OTHER BAD SEO ACTIVITIES

Of course, there are other things that Google considers cheating or not playing fair when it comes to promoting your website to the search engine. Most of these have to do with keywords. As I mentioned before, the practice repeating keywords throughout your site used to be rewarded. But now, every way you could stuff more keywords into your website has already been tried. Google is on the lookout for it.

Keyword Stuffing - One such technique is called "Keyword Stuffing" And is the practice of inserting your keywords throughout your text in an unnatural and in a "not-normal speech" method.

Unrelated Keywords - Another method is using "Unrelated Keywords." Google wants to see content that is consistent throughout your website. Sticking in random keywords here and there to influence the web crawler is a huge red flag.

Duplicating Content - When Google crawls your site, it checks for duplicated content. If you have a paragraph on the home page that you like a lot, you spent a lot of time on it, and it is perfect. It cleverly lists all the keywords you want to promote, and it says it so nicely. Then you decide to copy that "world's best paragraph ever" to other pages on your website. After all, you created it - it's original content. If you copy it, you will have duplicated your content. That's a big No-No, and you will get penalized.

Spinning Content - Some people think that they can get away with duplicating their content if they run it through a Content Spinner. There are services on the internet that will take your text and jumble it somewhat, so the result is not the same as the original text. Once upon a time, content spinning was a strategy that worked but not anymore. It is one of the techniques that will earn you a severe punishment from Google. You check how Google views your website with our free SEO audit tool.

Promoting a website through proper search engine optimization is part science, part art, and then a large part of "old-fashioned experience." Here at The Click Depot, we have been the leaders in SEO services for years. Call today and talk to one of our SEO consultants about how we can improve your website ranking.

Back when Google was starting out, the only thing it considered in its ranking algorithm was the numbers. And one of the numbers that was very important to Google was the number of backlinks - how many other sites had your URL. If you wanted to make your website popular, you just got lots of backlinks. You could purchase them, swap them, or beg for them. It didn't matter what the quality of the backlinks was. It only mattered the amount.

But Google didn't stay young and naive for very long. Its algorithm developed and became more sophisticated. And how it viewed backlinks also developed considerably. Currently, with Google, the backlink quantity is not very important at all. It doesn't care how many you have. The quality of backlinks is the most important consideration now.

A high-quality backlink is one that is on a quality site. It also points to your site for a legitimate reason. A valid reason to point at your website is that you provide high-quality content that they want to tell their members about. Or it could be that you are a partner in some type of venture. Or you utilize some of their content or materials, and they point to you because of that.

What we know is that when evaluating a website, Google considers several different factors - one of which is backlinks. While they don't tell us exactly what value they place on these different factors, we do know that high-quality backlinks are one of the most critical factors.

WHAT IS A BACKLINK

A backlink sometimes called a citation, is when someone puts a link on their website pointing to your website. And when Google is crawling the web looking for new information, it will notice that you have a link pointed to your site. The crawler thinks of it as a vote for your website. Google, being a computer, keeps track of that type of thing. When it notices you have more and more links pointing to your site, its search algorithm will be more likely to recommend your site to its customers. Because of this, your website will rank higher, and that will cause it to get more traffic. In turn, more traffic will cause it to have more conversions, more customers. It's a win all around.

Having more backlinks and the marketing campaigns that create them are very important to succeeding in search engine optimization. So it's in your best interest to discover the best ways to earn quality backlinks for your site. We have a few suggestions about obtaining quality backlinks for your website.

GOOD CONTENT IS HIGHLY VALUABLE 

The clear winning method of getting backlinks is by creating high-quality content and having people point to it. High-quality content means interesting blogs, pictures, memes, or any useful and engaging multimedia. For instance, you could create an instructional video on how you do your job and post it on your website. Then publicize it through social media, email, and any other outlet that is available to you. When people read it, and if they like it, they will share it with other people by sending them a link. That link is a backlink. And it happens to be the best type of backlink in existence. When they share your link because of good content, Google takes notice and will reward you in their search ranking.

Different types of content are easier to produce than others, and some will be more appropriate for your purposes. Try out making content in different formats to see what agrees with you the best. The most common is written text, often in a blog format. And of these blogs, "How to" articles are 30% more likely to be shared than all other types of content. Infographics are another powerful format and one of the easiest to produce for the most significant impact. Infographics communicate a great deal of helpful data in a small package, and they are easy to share. Because of these, they often go viral.   When you create an interesting piece of content such as an infographic, make sure that you post it on all of your social media sites. 

Another relatively simple kind of content to produce is instructional videos. Not only can they provide you with many backlinks, but they also create social proof and help establish you as an expert in the subject matter. Other websites will often include your videos on their site because videos are easy to consume, entertaining, and answer many questions from their customers. And don't be afraid of being in front of a camera. Videos do not need to be studio quality to be valuable. Today people are looking for useful, actionable information. One of the most successful sales coaches on YouTube gives helpful tips two or three times a week using video. The format she uses is what we call a talking head. She simply stands in front of the camera, with a white wall behind her, and tells her advice. It takes all of two or three minutes, but it contains actionable quality information. She is rewarded by having hundreds of thousands of followers. 

KNOWLEDGEABLE AND TRUSTWORTHY

When you create high-quality content that is helpful to other people, you will get a reputation for being knowledgeable and trustworthy. It is this reputation paired with the content you create that is the motivation for people to share your content. When people share this kind of high-quality material, the backlinks that are created are precisely the kind that Google is searching for. Google loves quality content and will reward you with high placement on their search results page when you produce it. Also, Google's algorithm is incredibly complex and is very good at weeding out the impostors.

BACKLINK QUALITY

The quality of the backlink is the very thing that makes it valuable and useful. Think of these backlinks as references during a job interview. You would never put an ex-cons name on your list of references. In the same way, you should never have a low-quality site store a backlink for you. Backlinks on poor quality sites can actually hurt your search engine ranking. And Google is very good at deciding what a high-quality site is and what is garbage.

Alternatively, backlinks of very high-quality are extremely valuable. If you could get a backlink listed on a site that Google rates highly, that would go a long way to promoting your ranking. A website such as a national, well-known news site, or a Fortune 500 site will carry a lot of weight with Google. And if you can get citations from .gov sites or education sites (.edu), those will be very powerful with Google and will result in a higher ranking on their search results page.

AVOID BLACK-HAT BACKLINKS

Some services exist that promise to supply you with many backlinks. By participating in these kinds of activities, you'll be quickly flagged by Google. Google spends a lot of money making sure their algorithm catches cheaters. Buying backlinks, trading backlinks, or any other activity that goes against Google's Webmaster Guidelines won't help your ranking - and if you use these methods, you will probably be punished by Google. 

THE CLICK DEPOT AND BACKLINKS

Backlinks or citations - think of them as other websites giving you their votes. When it comes to whether Google will put you high on the search result page, they will count these votes. The Click Depot can give you a free SEO audit to first evaluate your website and then design an SEO program for you to get more quality backlinks. We have been creating powerful SEO programs since Google was young. We know the scene, and we know the technology. Call and talk to one of our SEO consultants, and we can create an SEO program specifically designed for your company.

Companies that want to get new customers need to pay attention to the Google search results. Your customers do their research using Google. Also, statistically speaking, customers that look for a particular product in a certain location (for example, "best dentist near me"), will make a purchase in the next 24 hours.  Years ago, Google had a big problem. While it was a great search engine and it had information about all sorts of things all over the world, they weren't serving their customers locally. That was a problem because most of their customers were local customers who were searching for local results. That's when they made the big change to become the "biggest local company in the world."

They decided that they would make a slightly different version of the Google search engine - that they would make a local version.  So today, we have a search engine that is very effective at leading customers to local businesses, with local reviews and local information. They were going to start gathering details on businesses in their customers' backyard.

SEARCH TODAY - BUY TODAY

This change to "local" gives small businesses an excellent opportunity to connect with customers that live near them. When these customers search for a local business, they always have some urgency to buy their product or service. Google's studies show that people who search for a product or service near to them end up making a purchase within 24 hours following their search. Meaning when someone searches for something like your product or service, they want to buy it immediately.  Your job is to make sure that you are at the top of the search page results. Getting to the top is accomplished through LOCAL SEO (Search Engine Optimization).  There are some free and simple things you can do to optimize your website, which will put you up at the top of Google Search results.

GOOGLE MY BUSINESS

The first and most important task. Google my business sounds like a command, but it's not. GOOGLE MY BUSINESS is the listing service that Google has created for local companies inside of Google's database. This is the easiest thing you can do to get on Google's good side. And it's free and easy to do. Go to GOOGLE MY BUSINESS and register your business. If you have more than one location, register each location. Complete all the information, and then Google will know you exist when people search about your product or service. 

Not only will this allow Google to list your website when people are searching for your product or service, but it will also allow you to be placed in the listings that are called "Google's local SEO 3-pack" at the top of the search results page. Companies in Google's SEO 3-pack will display relevant info such as your address, your website, telephone, and your hours. It will even show posts that you can change weekly 

Once you have a GOOGLE MY BUSINESS account, there are some easy ways to optimize it and get more benefits. You can post "Google Posts" in your account, and Google will display them when your site shows up as the result of a search. In this post, you can put information about sales and specials, and you can welcome a particular group of visitors, or even capitalize on the current holiday. Google posts are a great way to get free exposure and attention to your business.  And the good thing about Google Posts is that Google removes them after seven days. So, you can be putting fresh content up every week. You can go here (https://posts.withgoogle.com) to get verified and start posting right away.

In GOOGLE MY BUSINESS, there are some other exciting ways you can interact with your potential customers. There are appointment bookings, where customers can click on a button and make an appointment automatically with your company. And there's the Q&A feature. You can have a frequently asked questions (FAQ) section as part of your search results - all because of your listing in GOOGLE MY BUSINESS. It also will allow you to have a messaging service where you can chat with your customers when they search Google and discover your company. 

Registering in GOOGLE MY BUSINESS is not only free and easy to do, but it will make a huge difference in your local SEO. But surprisingly enough, only about half of the local businesses have taken the time to register their business there. When you do register your business, make sure that your Name, Address, and Phone number are consistent throughout the different places you appear on the web.

LOCAL BACKLINKS - CITATIONS

One of the ways that Google makes sure that your site is worthy of being on the first page is to determine how popular it is.  A very effective method to establish your popularity is through the use of local backlinks, also called citations. A local backlink/citation is where your website URL is included on someone else's website. And this is something you can promote. Start by making sure that different listing services and industry directories have your website address. If you belong to a trade group or some type of affiliate group, see if they have a members list. Another good way to find other listing sites is to do a backlink search on your competitors. You can easily discover their backlinks by entering the URL of a competitor into a backlink checker. Once you find out who they have their backlinks with, you can contact many of those sites and register your website as well.

REVIEWS

Probably the most powerful way to get backlinks is to ask your customers to leave reviews that include your website URL. Reviews are the "new currency" of the internet and go a long way to bringing in new customers. Good reviews will help you in so many ways, and having backlinks is one of them. When people search for your product or service in their local area, you will be listed alongside your competitors. The next thing they will do is search the review sites to see what other people have to say about you. So be prepared for them. Institute a system in your company that will systematically prompt your employees to ask your customers for reviews. Tell your employees that the reviews need to be personal and about them.  This is a very effective way of having a second-hand conversation with your prospects as well as providing powerful citations to Google for your local SEO.

KEYWORDS ARE KING 

Keywords are those words and phrases that people are likely to use when searching for your product or service. Huge companies spend millions of dollars promoting keywords for their industries. However, for you to promote local keywords is much simpler and can cost you nothing. The kind of keywords that you need to promote for local SEO are called "long-tail keywords." With regular keywords, you would see terms such as "retirement investments" or "life insurance." When it comes to local, long-tail keywords, the request is much more specific and has more words. Those keywords look something like "best insurance broker in Springfield" or "most qualified Raleigh chiropractor." To promote these keywords on your site, you should include them in your site body copy, META descriptions, and page titles. The reason that these are so effective is that when people search for local services, they tend to use more words in their search.

OPTIMIZE FOR MOBILE

There have been significant changes in Google's search algorithm in the last year or two.  Google made a big announcement some time ago that they were going to be paying more attention to sites that are optimized for mobile devices. And they will begin to ignore desktop sites in favor of mobile sites. This is because there is a trend of more and more people using mobile devices when searching Google. Surprisingly, almost two-thirds of online searches are done on cell phones. And it's even a higher percentage when it comes to local searches. So, if you want to rank high in the local search results, optimize your website for mobile devices. 

Use our free mobile friendly analysis tool to check if your website is mobile friendly. 

THE CLICK DEPOT

All this may sound complicated or a little intimidating, but this is where we come in. Here at The Click Depot, we have been helping local business owners optimize their websites for years. We understand the benefits of local SEO, and we also know how to get you ranked on Google's local search pages.  Call today and talk to one of our SEO Consultants about your website. 

It is widely understood that one of the best tools for boosting your search engine optimization or SEO is to take advantage of Google My Business. Google designed GMB for businesses to grab the attention of people who are searching for a business in a specific geographic area. Google My Business provides you with a way to put your business name at the top of the search results.

However, it’s not always a simple matter to know exactly how you need to customize your GMB profile to end up at the top of a search query. The real question is what Google considers most important in your profile to rank you at the top. What can you adjust to give you the results you want?

This is exactly what we will answer by considering the eight most important local factors for ranking when customizing your account at Google My Business.

Look over these 8 powerful tips and then connect with our team at The Click Depot. We are the experts at SEO services and especially with Google My Business. Call us at 855-960-9395 or contact us online.

Google My Business – Eight factors that will boost your Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Google My Business search engine results are like other types of SEO in that they are affected by a mix of factors. You can use these factors to get the best results on your journey to the top of the listings. We have identified eight important factors to push your company higher in the search results.

Verify Your Location

It is possible to have a GMB profile but not actually control it or even know it exists. Clearly, this is not a good situation.

You might never have done anything to create your GMB and still have a high chance that you have a GMB profile for your company. In the case when Google Maps discovers the name and the address for your company, Google will automatically make a GMB profile for it. Not only will it create a profile, but it will add it to the map.

That allows people to find your location, but it does not help at all with your SEO. To rise to the top of the search results, you need to claim your company profile. Google will require to provide verification that you are the owner. This verification usually happens by mail.

Basic business information that is accurate and complete

Setting up your profile for Google My Business boils down to one objective. You will need to provide basic, accurate company information. This includes things such as the business name, company phone number, physical location, and hours of operation.

Make sure you do not cut corners on this step. This is one of the simplest and most effective ways to rise in search engine results. When completing your GMB, you will see each blank box requesting information. Be sure you provide as much business information in each box as possible. It is a simple equation – the more you give, the higher you will rank in the results.

However, it’s not only quantity that is needed. Be careful that you only provide accurate information. Providing inaccurate business information is often penalized by Google and might push you down in the search results.

NAP information that is Consistent

Accuracy and thoroughness are only part of the battle for ranking. Consistency is important as well.

Google’s web crawlers are always on the prowl – seeking out information. Their software takes into account all the info it discovers about your business. If it sees that your business name on your website is different than the one on your GMB, it might lower your ranking. If you are “Bob Smith Heating and Air Conditioning” on GMB, you shouldn’t refer to yourself as “Bob Smith’s HVAC” on your website or elsewhere.

This might seem petty but the reason consistent names, telephone numbers, and locations (referred to as NAP info) are important is that it might confuse web visitors, causing a low User Experience (UX). Nothing bothers Google more than a low user experience.

Accurate Search Relevance 

Search Relevance is another of the factors that Google considers when ranking your business. Google does not want to rank you when users search for unrelated businesses.

For most searches this is obvious. Google will not rank your HVAC company at the top of the search results if someone searches for a plumber. However, it’s not always that simple. You (Bob’s HVAC services) might offer electrical services even if that is not in your name or description.

There is a way to combat this situation. Take advantage of Google’s “Categories” feature. In this example, you would choose “Heating and Air Conditioning” as your primary category but also choose “Electrical Services” as well.

How Close To The Searcher Are You

Google created GMB to be used with local search rankings. This means that it considers where the searcher is located when performing the search. If someone in Boston is searching for HVAC, Google does not want to show them an HVAC in Houston.

This reduces the number of people that Google will show you to, and it’s actually better for you that way. You don’t want to be wasting your time talking to someone who is halfway across the country. GMB is designed to connect you with people located inside your target audience.

Volume of Reviews and Responses

Google does not actually know anything about how you provide your services – how good you are. That is why Google also depends on customer reviews when deciding how to rank you. It considers three attributes about your reviews: How many there are, how good they are, and your responses.

It is easy to understand why quantity and quality are important. Google needs to see that you have at a minimum, a handful of reviews. Of course, it likes to see those reviews be on the positive side of the ledger. It wants to see that people have enjoyed working with you. A positive experience. The responses are something that only can come from you. Keep an eye out for reviews and respond whenever possible. Be polite and thankful for any good reviews. Even more importantly, give helpful and genuine responses to any reviews that are negative.

Company Photographs

Photographs are a highly effective tool in connecting with potential customers. Because of this, Google can be significantly influenced by photos in its decision to rank you higher.

A profile that does not have company photos can look stark and unfriendly. Photos can build trust. When potential customers can see what your company looks like on the inside as well as the outside, they tend to feel more comfortable choosing you.

The most effective type of photo is when you use an actual picture for your main profile. It is much more inviting than the map location image which is Google’s default image.

Prominence in the Real World

Prominence is another word for how well your business is known. While this might be a vague metric it is one of the most important ranking factors. Google has announced to the world that prominence actually has a great impact on search rankings.

Google uses several methods to determine how well-known your business is in the real world. We can easily understand why Walmart or Target would rank higher than Bob’s HVAC. The question is how a small business can combat this situation and get to the top of the rankings.

For a small business, this can seem like an impossible challenge. However, take heart, because it is not impossible. You can improve how Google evaluates your prominence. We already covered reviews – which will help you with your prominence score. 

Another thing that Google looks at for evaluating your prominence is how many legitimate websites link back to your website. These are called Backlinks and are important to Google. As such, they need to be important to the business owner who wants to rank high in local Google search results.