Google Places for Local Listings has been a massive asset for small business owners who want to market their businesses but have no idea how to effectively leverage Google search. And one of the greatest opportunities for small business marketing comes from Google Local Listings.
Just because your business doesn’t have hundreds of thousands of followers and pages on social media doesn’t mean you can’t utilize Google Local Listings.
As long as your brand is relatable, has relevant keywords in your title and description and can be made personal, your business will appear in relevant searches. If your brand doesn’t appear for relevant keywords, contact an SEO agency NYC to help improve your rankings. In other words, one of the biggest reasons why your business will be found in Google Local Listings is because you have established an active customer base.
This allows Google to personalize searches for users. For example, if your business is in Boston and you search “Boston nails salon” and a results page is displayed, the listings page will show up for a few searches and then disappear for a long time.
This could be because the business name isn’t broad enough, the type of business name isn’t up to date or Google is even working with the listing.
But what if your business had a great page for creating Google My Business (GMB) accounts? Because it’s consistent and has a good title and description, your listing might appear. Your business will always be shown as a local business even though it’s not located in Boston.
While this will improve your business visibility, in many cases, Google will find your listing due to those other places. If you have a close relationship with Google, you might even be able to apply for an overlay listing on the Google Local Listings algorithm.
This will allow your business to remain visible and at the same time improve the search results for people who are searching your business’s specific keywords.
When you create Google My Business accounts, it’s important to make sure that your information is accurate. While it might seem silly to check a business’s information in Google Maps when you’re in the store, you’d be surprised how many listings are wrong.
Google Maps is important for users because it allows users to know how close they are to a business, where it is located, and what parking availability is like.
So when you make a GMB account, it’s important to make sure that you use accurate data on your business. By being accurate, Google can better personalize your business listing and ensure that potential customers will see your business’s most relevant information.
Also, you can see if any negative reviews have been written for your business so you can work on correcting them.
If you are serious about using Google to make your business grow and be found, you need to understand how you can maximize the effect of using Local Listings. There are three steps you can take to make sure you are maximizing your presence in the search engine.
1. Check Your Postings
Google always looks at past search trends to determine which businesses are ranking and see how much they are improving or decreasing. To make sure your business is on top of these trends, look at how your business is ranking in the organic search results on Google.
2. Make a Profile for Google My Business
The good news is that Google allows people to use up to 10 images for GMB profiles.
The bad news is that your image must be higher than 800×600. The image on your profile could be your website’s website, a photo of your business or something similar.
It’s important to upload high-quality images so that your business is properly represented in the search engine results.
3. Follow the ‘Update Pages’ Guidelines
With the right information, Google can display your business information to people who are searching. To make sure your business is up to date with the rest of the industry, your business needs to follow these guidelines:
The business’s name must be relevant to the business location. For example, if you are a landscaping business, your business name would be “Garden Designer” instead of “Backyard Designer”.
If your business doesn’t comply with these guidelines, Google will mark the listing as “not updated”. This will not show up on the Google Local Listings website or show up when someone searches for your business’s name on Google.
If the above requirements aren’t followed, Google will show it as a local business, and your business will not show up in the Local Listings algorithm.
While the above steps don’t seem like much, Google looks at how businesses use this information to optimize your visibility in the search engine. Even small things like properly using the correct name and image on your business’s page will help your business become found and rise in the search engine results.
