How to Rank Higher in Google Maps?
You are looking for a place to eat in a new neighborhood or need a technician to help you with an unexpected flat tire. What do you look for? You are not alone if you say Google Maps. We now use Google Maps to find local companies and make better-educated purchasing choices.
So, how could local firms rank better in a market when customers increasingly seek out local goods and services? This post will examine ten easy ways to improve your Google Maps ranking.
Why is Google Maps Optimization Important?
Local companies who want to attract new clients and expand their online presence must prioritize their Google Maps position. Recently, smartphone users downloaded the Map and Navigation application 25.5 million times, much more than any other application in the category.
With more individuals utilizing Google Maps to locate local businesses and voice search use skyrocketing, learning to rank better on Google Maps is a must-have skill in your local maps SEO toolkit. Furthermore, investing in your Google Maps position may provide significant benefits for local companies, and the difference between ranking first and fourth is critical for your online presence.
10 Ways to Rank Better in Google Maps
Here are ten ways that you should do to rank highly in Google Maps, generate more traffic, and gain more consumers.
1. Create and Fill Out a Google Business Profile
The first and most crucial step in gaining exposure in Google Maps is to claim and optimize your Google Business Profile. You can search for your company name on Google Maps or Google and validate your listing when you haven't already. You could change a listing after you have it and are connected to your Google account, even from inside the search results.
Because GBP is a Google property, it serves as a primary indication to Google of your company's existence - and the information provided here is presumed to be correct and up to date. Google will cross-reference these facts with those found on your website and in other resources and local directories; more on this in a bit.
2. Post Linked Content (Including Photos)
Your job is just half done after you have gotten your GBP listing. Google encourages active companies with increased exposure to add business to Google Maps and keep their GBP profile updated. These notifications may or may not contain general company information, links to relevant blog pieces, hosted events, or special discounts.
Having photographs within your posts is also suggested since visuals are more likely to increase reader engagement in terms of clicks or shares. In addition, you must include links in your postings, preferably to crucial services or product pages on your website.
3. Improve Your Online Presence for Local Organic Search
To rank highly on Google Maps, ensure your online presence, such as your external content and website, is optimized for your local target market. You may begin by doing a local SEO audit to see where you should concentrate your work on linking, content, and keywords, - since these are the three essential components around which a presence is created.
Your website must be correctly designed for Google to index and crawl your material quickly, and your content must be intent-driven keywords, locally oriented, rich in relevance, and logical internal and external connections to the answers your audience is looking for.
4. Make Use of the Local Business Schema
Google and other search engines favor standards when arranging material, particularly business facts, which has led to the creation of Schema. Local Schema allows companies to wrap code around their content to simplify crawling and indexing for Google.
Much of the same company information contained in a Google company Profile is covered by local business schema, which Google will automatically cross-reference. The more easily Google can authenticate your location, the more probably your company will appear prominently in Google Maps.
5. Include a Google Map on Your Contact Us Page
While it's not officially mentioned that embedding a Google Map in your website may affect your ranking in Google Maps, it's not unreasonable to infer that this is Google's preferred format. Google can provide a consistent user experience for its searches, which must be the goal of any company that wants to delight its consumers.
6. Mind Your Reviews and Mine
Any company may establish a GBP listing, update its basic business information, and publish valuable, local content. On the other hand, customer reviews are a significant aspect in deciding whether or not a local company appears in Google Maps. Google considers the number of reviews your company receives and how active it is in responding to those reviews, whether favorable or bad.
Try asking for evaluations proactively soon after successfully providing a product or service while a supposedly advantageous experience is on your mind.
7. Use Your NAP to Update Local Citations or Listings
Your Name, Address, and Phone Number, or NAP, are the three most significant navigational information on your GBP, website, and online. Your NAP must be constant and correct over all these sources for both Google and your audience. Citations are referrals to your company from third-party websites. To identify and update your NAP, begin by simply Googling your company name and noting all locations where your business information may be accessed.
8. Create Local Backlinks
Backlinks, also known as inbound links, are an extension of our NAP approach, in which you want to have relevant, local third-party websites connected to your principal website pages. Backlinks may confirm your company in terms of both location and goods or services. When you have listings with links in local directories, ensure they are in the correct categories if category choices are available.
9. Get Involved in Your Community
Google rewards GBP activity, but it also considers how engaged a company is in its neighborhood as a form of establishing its authority and local presence. Firms involved with local service groups, sponsoring local events, or collaborating with other significant local firms are naturally seen as flourishing community members.
10. Pay Attention to the Search Engine Results Pages and the Long Tail
When you improve any part of your local online presence, you should keep track of whether or not you rank in Google Maps and regular search engine results pages (SERPs) for the keywords you want to be discovered for. You may do your own manual Google searches or use uncanny rank tracking programs, many allowing you to expressly final ranks.
Key Takeaway
So, now that you have your laundry list, place your local company on the Map. Making your authority and competence online is similar to how it has always been in the real world, but it may take time, as any genuine connection should. Google honors companies that offer the greatest answers to their customers' inquiries, produce excellent services and products, participate in their local community, have their customers say lovely things about them, and always offer high customer service.
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