In the video below, we explore how to use Google My Business as part of your local SEO strategy. This includes how to drive more traffic to your website and get more sales from customers in your local area.
What did we cover?
Lesson 1 – Why bother with Google My Business?
- 97% of consumers search for local business online
- 1st page rankings in Google can be achieved even without an organic listing. It is possible for your business to be listed as a local business on Google search results pages.
- It’s free and easy so you don’t need to worry about the budget
- It’s great for national chains operating in multiple locations as well as small and medium businesses that are looking to target a local market.
Lesson 2 – Google Ranking Factors
- Relevance
- Distance
- Prominence
Relevance – How relevant is your business listing according to what somebody is searching. Make sure your listing is fully optimised so Google understands what your business offers and connect you to the searcher.
Distance – This is how far away your business is from the person making the search. Some customers will include a location in their search such as ‘digital marketing agency, Hampshire’. However, if not, Google is intelligent enough to work out where they are and can match businesses to their location.
Prominence – How prominent is your business? What Google tries to do is recognise how prominent your business is within the online world.
Lesson 3 – How to optimise your listings
- Keywords – Add some keywords into your description box. Pick out the important keywords so that Google can identify what your business is trying to offer
- Categories – Within your Google My Business listing you can add up to five categories.There are some pre-selected categories. However, you can make your own, which is best suited for a niche industry.
- Locations – You can target multiple locations whether that be on a radius or and are targeting basis so make sure your locations reflect where you do business.
- Photos – You can add photos to your Google My Business listing. This doesn’t have to be just of products or services but also a photo of the building to help customers find where you’re located. This will be helpful if you’re based in a place that is hard to find such as science parks or industrial parks.
- Hours of Business – Make sure this is included so that customers know when they are able to visit your business
- Reviews – Through your Google My Business listing your customer can also review your business. You are also able to respond to the reviews as well so make sure this is done frequently.
Lesson 4 – How you can promote your listing
Once you have created your listing there are a few things you can do to help boost the prominence factor of your listing.
- Linking – Make sure your website links to your Google My Business listing. You can add a Google Map to the contact page of your website which can be done free with an embed code.
- Google+ – When you create your Google My Business listing you will be offered the chance to sign up to Google +. Like any other social media platform it is like a network that allows you to share information, such as photos, news, offers, new product launches. This will keep your customers up to date with what your business is doing.
These will help build the prominence and relevance of your Google My Business listing and will essentially give you more exposure to your target market. If you want to find out how we could help you optimise your Google My Business listing, then get in touch