1. How to improve your local ranking on Google
SEO is the process of trying to improve your local ranking in search engines for the keywords that your customers are searching for. Sometimes, your business will be number one in Google for a specific keyword, but for most of the time, you’ll be somewhere in the middle of the page. You want your business to appear high on the list because some phrases will bring you more customers than others. You’re looking for high ranking phrases so that you can rank high on search engines and drive more traffic to your website. In my experience advising entrepreneurs on improving their local rankings, having a high rank on Google is the lifeline for many small businesses. This is because listing a place on Google Maps and therefore getting hundreds of Google referrals go hand in hand with getting shown on search engines like Google. This famous ranking boost is referred to as Google legitimacy and is rated on a scale of 1 to 7.
Google’s local algorithm allows you to put your location into a detailed location bar listing and rank accordingly. The stronger your listing is, the further your local ranking will rise, and the more users Google will show you as a result. If you have ads on other platforms that include your local business, but your business portal only shows your local search results, expect you to see less traffic to that other landing page.
The main goal of improving your local ranking on Google Maps is to make sure your ads are targeted to your Google destination page. For instance, I mention this because I’ve had luck optimizing my listing for a local area using keywords relating to real estate. For example, using the following words within the ad will result in a different keyword ranking than listing just a “Robinsons” property.
“Just a few miles south of downtown Tampa at the international airport, giant sidewalks lead to the terminus of the world’s busiest aviation runway. In short, word of mouth is the greatest advertisement a small business could hope for.
2. Create a Better Business Listing
Google My Business is a free service from Google that helps you connect with customers, manage your business information online and get found on Google Search. You can edit your business information and respond to reviews from the Google My Business dashboard.
Google has increasing demands from the online world. Newer features, new algorithms are constantly being developed to solve SEO issues. It’s all well and good if you have great SEO strategies but if your website is on average less competitive than other more established enterprises, Google will move quicker and you won’t receive the benefits you hoped for. There were many changes to Google My Business since its initial launch in 2014.
Google made a change to the page that users see when they search for location information. According to a Forbes article:
“The change means anything end-users click on in the property search results page can no longer be edited. But if you have a website with links to your social profiles and a team behind you promoting the business, that may not sound like a significant problem. After all, Google is just facilitating a sales process.”
The Forbes article went on to say that Google is imposing more restrictions on your local SEO. It is illegal for government agencies, police and other authorities to access this information and use it for law enforcement. This data is not supposed to be released to the public and most countries have data privacy laws in place to protect the individual’s right to privacy. Google’s intention is to comply with local laws and not harm the business’s reputation.
Google announced a change that made local SEO more difficult to pull off and more expensive to undertake.
Google’s Local SEO Ranking Factors
This change impacts local businesses from attempting to rank high on Google Search.
3. Optimizing your business listing with quality content
Google is the most popular search engine in the world and if you’re not on the first page of search results, your business can be overlooked by customers who are searching for your product or service. To make sure your business is easy to find, you should optimize your business listing with quality content, including a description, photos and Videocon low-quality websites, you may not see the money-saving workarounds below that can optimize your local ranking on Google, so let’s explore these tips and get you butting up against your KPIs straight away.
Google penalizes businesses for not having a sitemap, and these can make a huge difference to how much traffic you get. Google won’t show a picture of your website to people if the site doesn’t have a good image.
Here are a few places to find images that can boost your sitemap ranking:
The Google Images sitemap is a great resource that organizes images using themes and categories, categorizing images according to what they provide.
Search engine optimization involves years of effort. SEO is all about adding value to your listing to ensure those customers see it when they search for your business. When it comes to the legal sector, one of the areas we can optimize is our listing on Google.
I’ve driven upwards of 6,000 searches for my clients by optimizing the titles of their legal business listing on Google. During that time I’ve reviewed entries and removed any that didn’t speak to the qualities our clients needed. Here’s the breakdown of what I did:
This one is fairly simple, but if you optimize all your content right, Google will think it’s relevant and present your website to the best advertisers. The number of people who see your listing will therefore increase instantly, because they’ll be more interested in what your business is all about.
Optimize your keywords to help Google find relevant terms to your listing. Be sure to include enough keywords to reach your targeted target demographics.
4. Improving Google's Local Search With Social Media
When creating a Google+ page for your business, be sure to include a location. This lets Google know that your business is located in a particular place, which is crucial for local search. When your Google+ page has a location, Google can include your business in its Google Maps. If you have more than one business listed, then it is important to optimize your listings as you can. You can use geo-location, images, and other snippet additions to your generic business page to improve local search quality. However, even with the right snippets in place, improving your listings still has a price. This is because Google cares for quantity, not quality, when choosing the most relevant page to rank for a given query.
In many ways, optimization of your listing in the local United States Google Maps market is similar to that of your generic business listing page. You can add images, try to link a third-party brand like a local office supply store, and offer a call to action (CTA) to get customers to contact you.
Original image credit: Dynamic
As mentioned before, you can change the text of your business listing, too. You do this by adding listings and photos as well as converting your meta description into a web page title and description.
A web page title can act as your web page’s CTA — which optimizes the search results in both Google Maps and Google Search for your business. The description can help Google discover more of your business. It also allows Google to test more local phrases in your business title.
To use these two simple tactics, add your listings and photos to your Google+ page. Edit your local listings to include shortest distance, photos, and other meta description snippets relevant to your business.
Original image credit: Dynamic
You probably already used a Google tag to integrate a snippet in your listings.
5. Improving your local ranking with reviews and ratings
If you’re running an online business, then local search is a great way to get more people to your website. To improve your ranking, you need to encourage people to review your business. If you’re a restaurant, then you can encourage people to review you on sites like Yelp and Trip Advisor. To incentivize reviews, you can offer cash or buy reviews. For a service provider like a landscaper or plumber, you can sell third-party information on a reviews site.
When searching online, more people see the things you do, so it's in your best interest to provide more for them to write reviews. However, writing quality reviews isn’t a big task. Review sites like Yelp and Google Maps have helped millions of people create positive reviews that help their favorite businesses get a better ranking on Google.
To get better reviews on search engines and improve your local ranking on Google, specific things need to be done. So, here are five tips to improve your online listing:
Try to add at least one sentence about your business. Provide the story behind the practice of what you do. Have a screenshot of the "about us" page if you don’t have one. Review sites are flexible — edit the paragraphs, change the photo, and write more of what people are feeling about your business.
Take a picture of your business sign and edit it. Get rid of jargon if you can. Include a sense of humor with the photos and give a quick summary on what the business does.
It might be years before you have a massive review site, but at least you can get some reviews early on.
Review sites show the first one that gets between 100 and 250 reviews. That one might be the first that sticks. Google wants a fair and detailed review just like they’d like to review your business. Write a good review that highlights your efforts to provide a decent customer experience.
Google searches use words in the headlines of your business that interest people.