Without a doubt, Google is the undisputed leader among search engines. Utilizing Google My Business (GMB) listings for your business will undoubtedly bring in more inquiries and potential customers than you could ever imagine!
But first things first. Do you have a GMB Listing? And is it properly set up?
Your goal is to have an optimized GMB Listing so that it can rank at the very top on Google.
If your answer to either of these questions is a resounding NO, you’ll want to take a look at this comprehensive guide on how to ace GMB listings.
Why is Google My Business Important?
A Google My Business listing is an immense asset for any local business hoping to improve its visibility on the internet. With a GMB listing, your company can maximize its reach and make sure people find you quickly in the virtual world.
By creating a Google My Business account for your business, you can showcase its location on local search results and even directly in Google Maps. This gives customers the opportunity to discover more about your business with ease!
Utilizing Google My Business makes it possible for you to compete with the biggest brands in your area free of charge! Not only is it a great way to promote yourself and build up an authoritative business profile, but it’s also entirely cost-free. So don’t miss out on this fantastic opportunity to grow your local brand presence – create a GMB account today!
Your GMB Listing serves as a gateway to important details about your business, from operational hours and contact information to a convenient backlink that connects users directly to your website.
Is Google My Business Worth Investing in?
If your business is local, regional, national or international then having a Google My Business account can make all the difference in terms of visibility and success. Depending on the scope of your company you may need to create more than one listing to ensure maximum reachability and engagement.
- Value For Money – Listing your business is absolutely free of charge, making it the most cost-effective asset you can acquire.
- Increase Leads – Your Google My Business (GMB) Listings will generate incredible numbers of phone calls and clicks to your website, making it an invaluable asset.
Local search is an essential component of a successful digital marketing strategy, so optimizing your Google My Business presence should be at the top of your priority list. With its ever-expanding influence, it’s clear that this platform will only become more important as time goes on.
Get the most bang for your buck by optimizing your Google My Business listing to its fullest potential!
Utilizing this complimentary element is an outstanding component for your business strategy, ensuring success and increased profits.
Why rank higher on Google Maps?
Maps is the leading navigation app for 67% of customers when it comes to local searches. Those searching rarely glance beyond the top three results, so failing to rank within these positions can render your listing obsolete.
To ensure the success of your business, it’s imperative that you list it in such a way that it appears first during related searches and do so through an authorized account.
It is indispensable for your GMB listing to have a good rank on the maps to generate leads. With adequate optimization of your Google My Business profile, you will find it surprisingly appearing at the top in search results for certain keywords. Besides that, discovery searches can also bring people toward finding your business!
Local businesses that are striving to make their presence known can benefit greatly from incorporating GMBs into their marketing strategy, helping them reach a wider audience and increase awareness of their business.
What is GMB SEO?
With GMB SEO, you can ensure that your Google My Business listing will be optimised in order to secure the best possible ranking on the Search Engine Result Page.
Local SEO strategies from an expert SEO agency can help you drive more inquiries to your GMB listings.
By optimizing your Google Business account, you’ll begin to draw in more customers as the search engine can rely on additional data. Utilizing this feature is sure to help increase your visibility and attract potential customers who are looking for exactly what you offer!
As Google shifts away from simple-to-manipulate signals such as backlinks and citations, it is now putting even more emphasis on “genuine” user behavior data.
Savvy SEO firms comprehend the essential factors to assist in optimizing your business accounts’ GMB visibility on Google Search Engine SERPs.
Listing your business in a certain area does not guarantee it will rank for searches there. Generating leads from Google My Business only occurs if you optimize the account and boost its visibility on the platform.
If you’re searching for something locally, Google My Business listings are usually what shows up. However, if your GMB isn’t among the top 3 rankings – it’s not doing much good! So get in touch with a knowledgeable GMB Professional to jumpstart your rankings today and make sure that people can find you when they search online.
How to Improve GMB Ranking
If you’re looking to optimize your business and boost its rankings on GMB, then you’ve come to the right place! We offer a range of tips, tricks, hacks and tactics that will help take your optimization efforts to the next level. So let’s get started – jump in and explore ways you can increase your GMB Rankings today!
Now, I’m going to show you the methods of elevating your GMB listing in search results so you can reap all the amazing benefits it brings.
Proximity
Distance is a critical element in determining the listing of local businesses online. In other words, a business’s proximity to the searcher is essential for obtaining better rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs).
If you want to increase your reach, GMB SEO experts can help by constructing multiple listings in diverse areas. Additionally, there are some advanced tactics that enable you to expand the proximity sphere of your listing. For example, if everyone from a surrounding city searches for directions leading them to your address then Google will be informed that not only is it the best local option but also the most suitable choice outside its region since people have traveled for it!
Google reviews
Reviews are essential for boosting your click-through rate (CTR) and conversions from the search results pages (SERPs). Google prefers to rank businesses that have recent reviews, as well as frequent ones. Studies show that this helps SEO rankings significantly!
Ranking in positions two or three with hundreds more 5-star reviews than the number one position will undoubtedly net you a greater amount of clicks. Not to mention, utilizing those same reviews can help improve your online reputation and draw even more customers!
If you are hoping to boost your local business rankings, click activity signals can be immensely helpful. However, before customers/consumers opt to use your services, they will peruse online reviews; thus it is integral that every one of these evaluations is positive and verifiable.
Add More Information To Your Listing
Of course, ensuring that your company name, address, telephone number, and domain name are included in your GMB profile and listing is essential. But there’s much more you can do to make sure all the services you want to rank for are highlighted on your listing – keyword stuffing! This will help build up a comprehensive description of what exactly it is that makes your business unique.
If you want to maximize your search engine ranking, make sure that your listing offers as much detailed information as possible. On the business dashboard, there are several tabs that allow you to add supplementary material and enrich your appeal. Keep in mind though – accuracy is paramount! If Google discovers any misinformation on it, it might suspend or delete it altogether.
Some important things to include in your Google My Business profile include:
- Consistent NAP (name, address, phone number) descriptions across the web
- An accurate business address
- An accurate business category
- A local phone number
- Up-to-date business hours and holiday hours
- A detailed business description that includes keywords
- Accurate and up-to-date business information
- Primary and secondary categories that accurately represent your business
- High-quality and compelling photos
- Your domain name
- The business messaging feature
- Any special deals or offers
Enhancing your Google business profile will enable it to rank more prominently, thus enhancing visibility and prompting customers to engage with the brand. If you fully optimize your Google My Business account, there’s a good chance that Google may assign you a service area wherein customers within this designated space will see you at the top of their search results. Through these steps, aim for maximum optimization capability when it comes to optimizing your GMB page!
Create Google Posts to your GMB Listing
Publish posts that appear directly on your Google business page to keep customers up-to-date. GMB posts are nearly identical to social media updates and should be created daily if possible, as the more you post signals sent back to Google will increase – meaning they will love it even more!
Posting content to your business profile once daily can bring tremendous results and higher rankings. Not only does Google appreciate local businesses that make use of their products often, it also optimizes your Google Business Listing for maximum visibility.
Regularly posting content significantly decreases the likelihood of Google removing your business listing for spam, so don’t forget to stay up-to-date with company posts.
Crafting an editorial content calendar to post every day is an essential factor for Google rankings. Local Viking offers an ideal solution for arranging and scheduling your posts on the search engine, while also allowing you to embed key phrases that will help boost your ranking as well as look into what keywords your competitors are utilizing. Utilizing these tactics can give you major advantages in increasing visibility and organic traffic!
Upload photos to Google Maps Listing
To make sure that your profile looks great, upload pictures to both your Google Business Account and Google My Business Listing. By consistently adding images to these accounts on a daily basis if possible, you’ll be sending more signals of engagement towards Google—something they strongly value!
Even though posting once a day may seem insignificant to the average business, we have seen tremendous improvements in rankings and clicks after implementing this strategy. It has proven to be highly beneficial for us, so don’t overlook it!
If your business is in a more visually-oriented category (surfacing, landscaping, etc.), then the power of imagery cannot be overstated. Make sure to feature team photos and a relevant cover photo if you want maximum optimization for your Google Business profile; after all, Google encourages companies who frequently use their products! With that said, taking advantage of this opportunity is an essential step towards obtaining optimal visibility and success.
To reach the top of search engine rankings, it is essential to upload images regularly. For even better results, geotag each image you upload with its address and location data. A great tip for taking this a step further is to create memes that feature your NAP (name, address and phone number) information so more weight can be given to your content.
Wikipedia Backlinks
At a recent Google My Business Mastermind event, an influential marketer revealed this invaluable tip regarding obtaining a Wikipedia link to your CID URL. For optimal rankings in the GMB 3 Pack Listing, it is essential to have a localized Wikipedia page that links back. However, attempting to place such a backlink on Localized Wikipedia can be tricky unless you already have an established contributor account with some age attached to it.
Citations
Leveraging Niche and Industry Citations can help enhance your website’s quality score by propelling relevant backlinks to your Google My Business listing.
Meticulously crafted citations will help you to achieve success. They include:
- A Consistent NAP with all features mentioned
- Shared Business Info across the Internet
- Link Building to your CID URL
- Reverse Sink Or Swim Relevance in Backlinks
- Google My Business Listing with localized links
To have better and faster crawling of your content, only purchase authority citations with unique and fresh descriptions. Spread out your network address information to a variety of sources such as directories, YouTube videos, press releases, and web 2.0 submissions for maximum effect. For even more indexing success, the Google My Business Specialists rely on Scrapebox or GSA at tier two directly on citation URLs so you get frequent crawls!
Youtube Citation
Take your Google My Business presence to the next level with a swift, potent, and successful method: building YouTube citations!
Harness the full potential of YouTube by creating numerous videos that contain your business name, phone number, and NAP information in both the video title and description. Then use powerful SEO techniques such as auto embedding or tiered link building with Scrapebox to supercharge these videos.
Embeds Embeds and More Embeds
To ensure that as much of your web presence is connected to your GMB listings, embed a Google Map on all pages including the main website. Here’s how you can easily do this:
- Search your business in Maps
- Click on “Share”
- Select the “Embed a map” tab
- Copy and paste the link on webpages you want embeds listed on
Utilizing strategies like Magic PR, branded web 2.0 links, and Google Stacks to link multiple brand profiles and pages with the Google my business listing can exponentially boost your embed count.
Social Media Shares
Being proactive and sharing your CID URL and Google My Business listings can boost engagement with your profile. By delivering the right behavioral signals to your GMB Profile, you are able to rank higher in the map 3 pack!
Backlinks to the CID URL
Cluster Document Identifiers (CID) are numerical identifiers used to quickly reference an entire corpus of webpages during information retrieval. Google’s search engine uses CIDs to assign new mentions for your entity from the documents it discovers – this helps group these pages together as part of a single local entity. With CIDs, you can access and control all related content about a specific topic in one place much more conveniently than before.
Collectively, these documents make up a significant portion of the local search engine ranking factor. Furthermore, the CID URL serves as an exact representation of your entity in this same engine. The power and impact of each document is what determines how highly they rank in relation to one another within it.
By connecting to and referencing a GMB listing’s CID URL, you can effectively increase your local map rankings.
Pro Tip: To use the CID URL feature, download the GatherUp Google Review Link Generator chrome extension plugin for your browser.
Create Driving Directions
If you follow the driving directions to your GMB, Google will begin elevating its placement – as if someone was asking for directions directly to it. This simple action can help dramatically enhance the visibility of your Google My Business Listing from wherever you initiated these instructions.
To increase Google My Business listing visibility, there is a proven strategy you can use which includes the following steps:
- Create driving directions from all neighboring locations within a 3-mile radius
- Expand the radius to 5 miles and create driving directions
- Expand the radius to 10 miles and create driving directions
- Expand the radius to 20 miles and create driving directions
- Backlink to the driving directions embeds
- Send viper traffic to the driving direction URLs
Backlinking your driving directions is a surefire way of improving your rankings, but with Viper Tools’ real traffic signals, you can enhance them even further. Google My Business CTR metrics show that this method yields better results in search engine SERPs.
CTR Manipulation Hacks
Boost your Google My Business profile’s ranking with the help of click-through rate (CTR) methods. If you can create local searches that generate CTRs, it will be much more beneficial than random locations searching for it. For maximum effect, make sure these CTRs come from direct searches as this helps increase brand awareness and recognition of your GMB listing. When your customers search for and click on the Map Listings associated with your entity, it sends positive signals to Google that they enjoy what you offer.
GMB Management
With Google’s “Business Insights” and “Google Analytics,” you can easily determine how your GMB is performing, as well as what customers are searching for to find your business. Still, we have even more suggestions that could help you further enhance the visibility of your company.
To take your SEO efforts up a notch, consider utilizing Google My Business listing Management software and tools. We’ve conducted extensive research on the top-rated software to help you rank higher in the Google Map search and manage your business account – check out our list of best Local SEO Tools for more information!
Surfer Local Tool
If you’re an SEO specialist looking to up your local search game, then the Surfer Local Tool is a must-have. Not only will it track and monitor changes in ranking on SERPs, but also provide tips on how to improve visibility with Google My Business listings. With this powerful tool at your disposal, you’ll have all of the scientific data necessary for improving rankings in Maps – making sure that your business gets seen!
Local Viking Management Software
Local Viking’s Google My Business Management Software helps businesses boost their visibility and revenue to potential local customers in need of products or services like yours. All the features they offer can be divided into three main categories:
- Schedule Posting such as Image Posts
- Managing Reviews
- Tracking services and Local Rankings
The GeoGrid rank tracker is an unparalleled tool that provides you with a granular breakdown of business profile rankings in your region. With its geospatial data, the grid sizing feature offers to pinpoint accuracy for all your local ranking inquiries!
GMB CTR Viper
Viper Tools, a leading click-through rate manipulation tool, is a must have for any digital marketer. Making use of credits that generate behavioral signals on search pages to boost GMB rankings has proven to give remarkable results in terms of search engine ranking. Backed up with an active social media community full of helpful users, Viper Tools ensures success every time!
Dr X SEO GMB Course Review
Are you a business looking to further your knowledge of local SEO? Look no further than Dr. X’s powerful and comprehensive Advanced GMB Course! Through this course, led by expert instructor Xuezhi Hu, you will be able to learn important strategies for optimizing CTRs on all of your listings. No matter what industry or level of proficiency you are working from, this unique program can provide the skills necessary to take your online presence up a notch – so don’t wait any longer; start excelling today with Dr.X’s Advanced GMB Course!
By utilizing advanced click-through rate strategies such as CTR Booster and recognizing the calculations with CTR, you can benefit from an indistinguishable yet realistic network of clicks surrounding each GMB; this helps you to be distinctive and reach higher levels.
When it comes to improving your Google My Business rankings, we highly suggest the DR X SEO Advanced Google my business Course. Not only will the click activity help boost your rankings, but behavioral signals are known to be key ranking factors for increased visibility.
Concluding thoughts
Utilizing your Google Maps listing can help you attract new customers, differentiate yourselves from competitors, and gain more business. Compared to other methods like Google Ads that require a pay-per-click system, GMBs have been proven to perform better due to being able to invest in content creation efforts such as videos and links which could prove immensely beneficial for the growth of your company.
With Google My Business, you can create a free directory listing that helps protect and strengthen your online reputation. So why would any local business owner miss out on this incredible opportunity? Armed with this knowledge, now all of the most effective SEO techniques are at your fingertips!
Be sure to fill in every detail for the GMB profile, then consult with an experienced Google My Business specialist who will help propel it to the number one position when people look up relevant keywords in their location.
Frequently asked questions
Here is a list of common questions that surround Google My Business Listings.
Do I need a website for Google my business?
While creating a Google My Business Listing does not require you to have a website, it is highly recommended. After all, customers often desire more information about the business before they decide to engage with them – and without an online presence, they are unable to do so. Furthermore, having your own website will improve brand awareness as it appears in search results – amplifying visibility for potential clients.
Is there a fee for Google my business listings?
With Google My Business, you can list your business profile on both Google Maps and Search for free! The GMB profile is just like a social media account, allowing you to interact with local customers across multiple platforms. What’s more, it also provides reliable data about the location of your business – all at no cost! With this powerful tool in hand, you’ll have an opportunity to make sure that people searching online know exactly where they should go when they’re looking for what you offer.
How often should I post to Google my business?
Consistently posting on Google My Business is a must; at least once every seven days. The more often you post, the greater chance your business has of increasing its ranking in the Maps results. Not only that but by regularly engaging with this account, your business will be rewarded with even higher rankings as Google appreciates frequent activity! This opens up numerous opportunities for drawing potential customers to your profile – and thus, to your company.
Why won’t my business show up on Google 3 Pack?
To appear in Google Maps 3 Pack, your business listing must be the most relevant one to the search query. This means that you need to make sure your Google My Business profile is optimized for keywords related to what you want customers to find when they search. A GMB expert can help ensure this happens by optimizing and enhancing your profile so it ranks higher than others with similar content. When done correctly, this will increase the visibility of your listing and put you ahead of competitors in local searches!
How can you verify a location in Google my business?
To verify your business location on Google My Business through a postcard, follow these steps:
- Sign in to your Google My Business account and click “Verify now” for your business location.
- Select “Mail” as your verification method.
- Enter the necessary information, including your business address and phone number.
- Click “Send a postcard” to request a verification postcard.
- Wait for the postcard to arrive in the mail, which can take several days or weeks.
- Once you receive the postcard, follow the instructions to complete the verification process. This typically involves entering a code that is printed on the postcard into your Google My Business account.
- Once you have entered the code, your business location will be verified on Google My Business.
Note that verification through a postcard is only available for businesses with a physical location that can receive mail. If your business does not have a physical location, you may need to use a different verification method.
How do I verify my business on Google without an address?
If your business does not have a physical location and therefore cannot receive mail, you may not be able to verify your business on Google My Business through a postcard. However, there are other verification methods available, such as phone verification or email verification.
To verify your business through phone or email, follow these steps:
- Sign in to your Google My Business account and click “Verify now” for your business location.
- Select “Phone” or “Email” as your verification method, depending on which option is available for your business.
- Enter the necessary information, including your business name and contact details.
- Click “Send code” to request a verification code.
- Wait for the code to arrive via phone call or email, depending on the method you selected.
- Once you receive the code, follow the instructions to complete the verification process. This typically involves entering the code into your Google My Business account.
- Once you have entered the code, your business will be verified on Google My Business.
- Note that phone and email verification may not be available for all types of businesses, and in some cases, you may need to use a different method to verify your business on Google My Business.
Can I have more than one Google my business listing at the same address?
Absolutely, it is possible to have multiple Google My Business listings at the same address! However, they must be operating legitimately with distinct legal entities. With office sharing being so popular these days, having more than one business in the same building has become quite common. Therefore, when a single location contains several businesses simultaneously – there’s no need to worry about managing additional addresses for each listing!
Can I have more than one Google my business listing at different locations?
Google understands that many franchise companies have multiple locations. To make sure your business is accurately represented, you must create a location group by following the next steps:
- Sign in to Google My Business
- Click Manage locations. Choose the right organization that your business is a part of.
- Click Create location group.
- Enter the name of your group.
- Click Create.
- Start adding locations.
Does CTR manipulation Help Rank Google my business listings?
If you want your Google My Business listing to rank higher, GMB CTR is the key. To maximize this ranking factor and gain an edge over competitors, you’ll need a reliable CTR tool that can bring in geo-targeted visitors and create positive engagement signals for your business.
If you want to increase the rankings of your website, discover different methods for driving geotargeted traffic from places like Twitter Moments, YouTube Videos or even paid advertising. Doing so will bring more attention and engagement to your property.
