How to use Google My Business to improve your local search rankings

Here’s an example of how you can be in a more visible position that the top ranked website through “Google my Business” listings.

For this example, I’ve typed in a location based keyword “Lithographic printer leeds” into the Google Search

You’ll see that a company called “deltaleeds” have ranked number one for this search term, which makes them highly visible and likely to be clicked on by users searching for this service. At the same time the “Google my Business” Results are prominently placed above the search results, with “Big Litho” at the top.

Big Litho’s Google rank is number five for the search term (which is pretty good), but thanks to their optimised Google my business listing they are in a highly visible position at the top of the page. 

So as you can see, optimised local listings provide an opportunity for lesser ranked websites to gain more visibility, even if they are not ranking at the top for the search term. 

How does Google determine your ranking in “Google My Business”

Relevance – Google will use the information that you add to your “Google My Business” listing to determine the relevance of your product or service for local searches. So make sure you add as much descriptive and complete data as possible

Distance – When you verify your business location with Google it will place you on the Google maps application and this will be factored in when determining the value of your listing based on where the user has searched from.

Prominence –  This is determined by a combination of the content of your listing, offline information about your company, online articles, directories as well as the existing SEO score of your current website.    

What can I do to start getting ranked in Google My Business? 

Verify your location – use the Google verify my location service to prove that your business is at the address you submit in your listing. They’ll send you a letter through the post with a pin in, that you enter to prove your address. 

Get as many Google Reviews as you can – Aim for more Google Reviews than your competitors and when a client writes a review, respond to those reviews to show Google that you have good customer service.

Add at least 10 photos – Make sure you add over 10 images of your location including, images of interior, people that work for you and products and services.

Add as much detailed information to your listing as possible – Fill in all the available details for your listing, including your companies services, address, phone number and opening hours. 

There’s no silver bullet to get ranked at the top of your local search listings, but if you combine the above tips with a conventional SEO strategy, it offers a great opportunity to create local visibility for your company.  if your not signed up, get signed up today and start working on your businesses local listing.

https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/business/