This complete guide will show you how to rank on Google Maps, the most popular online maps solution on the internet today. It’s also the most popular mobile app for finding directions. There are over 1 billion G-Maps users globally. So if you own a small business, ranking at the top of the local map pack is a key ingredient to success. This is because when people search for a local business, they want to find it fast! They have no time to waste.
Before I go into the steps we use to rank our client’s websites on Google Maps with our local SEO services, I will provide some important information. You can skip forward by clicking on the links below.
What is Google Maps?
If you have just started using Google My Business, you might be wondering what Google Maps is exactly. It is a free online mapping service developed by the big G themselves. It offers street maps, a satellite view, 360° panoramic views of streets, real-time traffic conditions, geographical annotations, and route planning for getting from one location to another.
One of the many advantages that Google Maps has over other business listing sites is that it shows your business in the format customers sees online: a map.
If you are a business owner or managing a business, you know how important it is to get your name in front of the right people. That’s why so many entrepreneurs worldwide use Google My Business as the central location for their online marketing efforts.
What Is Google My Business?
Google My Business (GMB) is an online system that businesses can use to manage their company information. The Google My Business SEO tool helps businesses manage what shows up in the search engines. GMB helps businesses make sure that the identity of their business is correct, secure, and accessible.
The idea is simple: if you can claim and manage your GMB profile, you will have a single place to manage all of your companies’ online info, and their business will be more likely to show up in the organic search results and maps.
Yelp and Angie’s List are two of the most popular review sites on the Internet, but they have a problem: people don’t use them. They do, however, use Google Maps. A study showed that 67% of smartphone users prefer Google Maps over other competitors.
Now that Google has consolidated its local reviews with their maps listings, it has become the place where most people will find your business.
In fact, most people will find your business through Google Maps before they ever visit your website.
Whether your new business is local only or you can serve anyone across the globe, your business needs traffic immediately (If you want to survive).
This is where Google Maps comes in. If your business is not the first result, then you’re missing out on easy leads.
But before I explain the top ranking factors of Google Maps, it’s important to understand what Google wants from businesses.
The 3 Google My Business Ranking Factors?
What matters the most when it comes to ranking to Google? To find the answer, we must look at the source itself, Google My Busines Insights. GMB Insights is one of the best tools that come with a listing. It gives you a look at how your customers interact with your GMB listing behind the scenes.
There is a vast amount of data to be found within Insights; here’s where we can see what matters to Google. This is your blueprint to G-Maps ranking success!
1. How Customers Search For Your Business
Direct – (also known as branded searches) Individuals looking for your company by name or place. Most likely, people who are familiar with your business or existing customers have many of these impressions. These are also searches that return your company to a knowledge panel.
So how do you get direct search results? Besides exiting customers, you can get people to search directly for your business by providing offers, events, and news on your GMB profile and promoting them on other platforms (more on this below).
Discovery – (also known as non-branded searches) is when potential customers are looking for generic categories and see your listing (realtors, dentist near me, Mexican restaurant, etc.).
How do you make sure that your business shows up for discovery searches? These are impressions that you can most probably attribute to search engine optimization, identity building, trust, etc. (more on this below).
Branded – These are searches for a brand that your company sells, or your business is related to (not the name of your business). Examples are Nike, Samsung, or Geico. As a small business owner, you probably won’t have many of these types of searches.
The key takeaway here is that Google cares what keywords people are using to find your business online. Are they directly looking for your company, or are they discovering it through specific user-intent phrases? (which is usually about 2/3 or more of the results)
You want to make sure that the keywords and phrases used by potential customers are on your listing itself, on reviews, and other Google products (more on this below).
2. Where Customers View Your Business On Google
This section shows you the services that people use to find your business.
Listing on search – These searches are done by individuals who went to the standard search engine to look for a business.
These types of searches are made by people who might not be sure what they are looking for yet, so your SEO game must be on point here.
Listing on Maps – These are individuals who clicked on Google Maps to find what they are looking for, which means a more direct local search.
A high percentage of map views on GMB can indicate that people are looking for your business locally and, in most cases, on their mobile phones. According to Oberlo, 71% of consumers prefer to search by voice instead of typing.
The key takeaway here is to focus your efforts on both types. You want each person to find your business in search results (SEO) and the maps (GMB optimization).
3. Customer Actions
Customer interaction is mapped by Google and being recorded. This means that this metric matters to the giant search engine and is critical to understand. Are people calling, asking for directions, looking at your photos?
Visit your website – These are folks that went directly to your website to learn more about your company.
Request directions – If you have enough of them, this section shows where you got your driving directions from. Insights will also show details of the areas from which your requests for directions come with an excellent heat map.
How do you get more directions requests? Show up in a larger area on maps. You can do this by adding your service areas inside GMB and creating pages on your website that mention these specific areas (more on this below).
Call you – Phone call activities are how many times a client has called your company through your GMB listing. The total graph of calls helps to show the day or day of the week that customers most call your company.
You can also use this graph to determine the best time to publish an ad or social post.
Chat to you – You can now see insights about messaging if you have the messaging action enabled (which you should). You must first turn on GMB messaging if you do not see this data in your insights dashboard.
Photos – Both photo views and photo quantities are included in photo insights. Insights will show how your photos compare to your competition if your company is in a competitive market.
How do you increase image views? This is obvious. Add more quality images to your profile (more on this below.)
The key takeaway here is to strive to get more actions than your competitors have to get boosted to the top of the local map pack. You will be notified and even congratulated every time that your business gets these types of interactions. (a no brainer clue that this matters to the big G).
Now you understand the importance of customer user signals and how they impact how Google sees your business.
Now let me show you the steps required to rank on Google Maps.
12 Steps To Get Your Business On Top Of Google Maps
Ranking on Google Maps is all about ensuring your business is listed to create prominence for your company.
If you’re running a local business, a Google My Business profile is a must. It will help you grow your business and expand to new locations. If you aren’t familiar with Google My Business, it’s a free business listing tool to help you get found online. As you’re preparing to set up your business listing, you’ll want to follow the steps below.
1. Claim Your GMB Listing (Create Your Identity)
Having a Google My Business page is a huge boost for any business. It helps customers find your products or services and allows you to connect with them directly. If you are a business owner, you are probably aware that claiming your business page is easy – you just need to fill out a form with your information. You can learn more on How to Optimize Google My Business if you need more information.
(A little self-promotion)
But if you are responsible for managing Google My Business pages for multiple locations, then the process can be much more complicated. At 2DaMax Marketing, we can create, design, and manage your business listings – including claiming them, editing them, and monitoring them. To learn more, contact us today.
Let’s continue…
2. Optimize Your GMB Listing
As a local business owner, you probably know that you need to be on Google Maps and other Google Local Services. However, you might not know the ins and outs of how to optimize your Google My Business listing.
I want to share some tips and tricks to improve your ranking, boost your traffic, and get more business.
The first thing you can do is find out who is dominating the Google Local Map Pack that you want to rank for and analyze their listing. Match and mimic what they are doing, then do it better.
Fill out everything you can (and I mean everything). All of these sections are considered trust signals and will help you rank on Google Maps.
- Business name – Exactly as it appears on your website.
- Categories – Make sure the most relevant category for your company is your primary category. You can then select up to 4 more categories for your Google business page beyond the primary category (Google allows a total of 5 categories).
- Service areas – As many places that your business actually serves.
- Hours of operation – Make sure that you are open and someone answers the phone during these hours.
- Holiday hours – Add all holidays that your business is closed (Christmas, New Years’, etc.)
- Phone number – Add your main number if you only have one location or add the number of this specific location.
- Short name – Choose a short name added as your GMB URL (Choose your business name if possible).
- Website URL – The URL of your main website or location page (if you have multiple locations).
- Appointment links – Add the URL to your website’s appointment page, calendar, or contact us page (if you don’t have a way for people to schedule).
- Attributes – Add as many attributes as possible (veteran-owned, women-led, etc.)
- Products – If you sell products, add them here. Every single product and description as it is on your website.
- Services – Again, every single service and description that you provide.
- Photos – You want to add as many pictures as possible. Most of these can be taken with a simple cell phone, and make sure that they have metadata and GPS coordinates when you upload them.
By owner, By customer, 360 Views, Video, Interior, Exterior, At work, Team, Identity, 360 Views, Live Tours. Try to find a Google Accredited photographer to take some pictures of your business (inside & out).
3. Setup Messaging (get the app)
With Google My Business Messaging, your customers can contact you in real-time from your Business Profile, in addition to the following options, posting options, menus, and services.
You can also answer questions, tell your story, draw more clients into your company through your listing, or get the phone app. Messaging operates best as a conversation between your company and your clients.
4. Take Advantage of Questions & Answers
Google My Business Questions & Answers are crowd-sourced questions and answers for local businesses. These questions are asked and answered through the Knowledge Panel of the business listing.
But you can create your own FAQs. One of the best things about GMB Questions & Answers is that you can get in and pre-populate your Q&A with frequently asked questions and answers yourself. You already know what your customers ask; make it easy for potential customers to find the info they are looking for.
5. Get Some Online Reviews (validate your business)
Most business owners understand the importance of reviews, but many still do not. Why are reviews so critical? We’re glad you asked. There are many reasons reviews are important, but the most important are these: they’re absolutely free, they can be used to increase conversions, and they make your website look more trustworthy.
How do you get more positive reviews?
Reach out to past clients/customers by email or SMS and ask for feedback.
Set up a review campaign for your company, which includes:
- Creating a widget that you can place on your website with a link to your GMB listing.
- Automated emails and SMS that go out to new customers asking for a review.
You can also offer services or products at a discounted rate and let people know that they can provide feedback on your GMB listing.
The important thing here is to make it as easy and seamless as possible for your customers to leave you a review
.Many people struggle to leave reviews because they don’t know what to say. Suggest that they use the following words by providing an example template.
- Brand Names
- Niche words
- Your business name
- Product or service names
When your customers use words of trust words and LSI keywords in their reviews, this helps develop additional trust signals about your business.
Respond to every single review. 71% of consumers said they are more likely to use a business that responded to existing reviews online.
6. Set up Google Business Site (Branded)
A Google business site is a listing for a business on Google’s search engine. Google My Business is the platform that Google uses for creating and managing online business listings. It’s like a mini-website that you can add information to.
Consider building a GMB site as another piece of the puzzle when it comes to creating your online identity web that will let Google know that your business deserves to rank on Google Maps.
7. Create A Google Site (Services)
Google Sites comes in the form of an app that is part of the G Suite, a premium app package optimized for business use. Other included applications are those that you are probably already using, such as Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar, and more.
Google Sites are an easy way to create and share webpages that the public can view. They are hosted on the Google servers and is editable by you. You may even choose to share your site with the world and make it public if you want. This means that when you have chosen to publish your site, it will appear in the search queries when people search for your chosen keywords.
(optional) Create a Google Stack (GStack)
A Google stack is a commonly used tool by local SEO experts to create powerful backlinks. The essential keywords interwoven in the texts are cleverly stacked with all Google properties, such as Maps, G-Drive, Slides, Forms, and Drawings. All of this content is placed on a Google Site or Blogger and linked back to your main website to boost authority.
Creating a local relevance between your GMB and off-page optimizations is an important aspect of your local SEO strategy.
8. Set up Social Media Channels
Social media has become a vital tool for businesses to promote their products & services. However, these channels can be a mighty fortress to strengthen your local SEO. Several social media channels, such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Linked In, and many others.
Some businesses are not comfortable with managing all of these social media channels. For those, it might be a good idea to hire a social media marketing agency.
The more social media channels that you create, the better. But when you’re just starting, you need to focus on the most popular ones first, which are:
- Facebook – Add your services or products along with photos and a link to your website.
- Twitter – Fill it out completely.
- LinkedIn – Fill it out entirely/
- Youtube – Create videos about your services and locations. Make sure to add your NAP and relevant keywords in the business description area, along with a link to your GMB and website.
Make sure that you set them up correctly and add as much relevant information as you can. Create a local mini social fortress that will further enhance your business identity on the web.
9. Create Business Citations
Google has said that NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) is a significant ranking signal for ranking on the local map pack. Creating business citations on popular online directories can help create an online presence that builds trust with Google.
An online presence is how Google knows what business you’re in and how to rank your website. Google uses business citations to find out about your business and display it in the search engine results. Free business citations may be less authoritative, but they’re a great way to get started.
Citations will help build prominent digital references on the web. Small businesses can and should have hundreds of listing on the most popular websites, including:
- Foursquare
- Manta
- Yelp
- Apple
- Bing
But it’s also important to create niche-specific citations relevant to your industry and location-based citations in your city.
Ensure that you are spinning your descriptions with relevant keywords, your NAP, service, and location are included in each listing.
10. Centralized Posting Schedule
Google My Business Posts is a feature that allows companies to publish content in Google’s search results directly. Yes, you heard that correctly! When you publish a GMB post, that post will appear in your listing next to Google’s search results whenever someone searches for your company.
You can either use a social media management company to schedule all of your social media posts in advance or do it yourself. But having a schedule posting strategy is key to ranking on Google Maps.
I suggest that you start with 15 to 20 GMB posts, which include:
- 5 posts about your brand
- 5 posts about your services or products
- 5 posts about your location(s)
Make sure that they have GEO modifiers, including:
- Images with metadata and GPS coordinates
- Relevant keywords and phrases in the description
To get started, try to post once or twice a day by creating events. Events in GMB tend to have further reached, which will help bring more engagement to your posts.
11. Get More Traffic To Your GMB Profile
You’ve done the work to set up your Google My Business profile, you’re making sure to keep it updated, and you’re working to engage with your customers on there. You’ve even done a couple of local SEO rankings for your local business.
But you’ve noticed no effect in your local rankings on Google. Maybe you’ve even seen your rankings drop. If this has happened to you, it’s probably because you forget one important thing: You need to be driving traffic to your GMB profile to get a boost signal from Google.
How do you get more traffic to your GMB profile?
Start by creating offers on your listing such as:
- Coupons
- Events
- Updates
Once your submissions are ready, you can promote them on your social media channels, Facebook ads, and press releases. This will create traffic to your GMB listing so that users interact by doing the following:
- Engage
- Click
- View
- Share
- Re-post
These user signals will provide a boost in ranking on Google Maps.
12. Optimize your website for Google Maps
One of the sections you need to fill out is your website URL when you create your Google Maps business listing. You are adding what I call the “landing page” for your Google Maps listing. When you add your website URL to your Google business page, it plays a significant role in your overall local SEO strategy.
The website you associate with your listing will directly influence the ranking and authority in local search results. Google uses your website to make key associations with your listing on Google Maps, such as keyword targeting, the relevance of the business category, and domain authority, all of which affect your rankings.
Map or mold your website to Google Maps as much as possible. In other words, you want to create as much association between them as possible. Make sure that the categories, questions & answers, service, or products all correlate on both your GMB and your website.
You must add the following to your website:
- FAQs page – Every time that someone asks a question on Google Maps, you add it to this FAQ page on your website.
- Schema structured data – Ensure that your entire website has a schema with all relevant terms such as services, products, locations, frequently asked questions, and your citations, including your GMB listing.
- NAP – Add the name, address, and phone number on every page of your website, along with the same business hours that you added to your GMB listing.
- Embed Map – Add your GMB listing map on your location, FAQ, and contact us page on your website to build relevance.
Experience The Benefits When You Rank On Google Maps
Google My Business is continuously adding more ways for consumers to get the information they need quickly and make informed buying decisions. Follow the tips in this post to get your company on Google Maps, and your business will experience an increase in visibility, engagement, and revenue.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or partner with a digital marketing agency specializing in local marketing. We offer an array of marketing services including Google My Business Management Services.
