If you have a physical location for your business, then making sure that your Google My Business page is correctly completed and ranking accordingly is so very important, as although we go into more detail shortly, having a highly ranking Google My Business page really can deliver a wealth of relevant traffic and business.
Google My Business has rapidly evolved over the past couple of years, and although it has changed recently to remove certain features, it is still prominently placed on the majority of local searches, meaning that if your SEO is still trying to push your website up the Google game of snakes and ladders (the search results), then concentrating on your GMB page is really worth doing, as if it starts to appear in the results you are on to a big winner.
What Is Google My Business
Google My Business or GMB as we are going to call it from here on in, makes up the map results on most local searches.
For example, search for Self Storage Bristol and depending where you are in the country (or even country), you will get results that look something like this (minus the red border on the map results):
Insert image.
So, you have:
- PPC Results
- Map Results (formed of GMB listings)
- Organic Results
- PPC Results
Which means that unless you are using AdWords, your best chance of appearing above the fold on any local search result is to make sure your business page is ranking accordingly, as if you get into the top three results for the maps, then you are going to be at the top of the search results for that local search, which when it comes to getting people to use your company is powerful to say the least. As you can see, after the pay per click (AdWords) listings, the GMB listings come next, making these so prominent for local searches that working to get a place here is more than worthwhile.
Of course, to achieve this you need to be in the area that people are searching for, which means if your company is located in Nottingham, you are not going to appear for Bristol searches and you also need to make sure you have your business page 100% completed and verified before it will even get a chance to appear in the results. But, if you want local traffic for your locally based business, then being on Google My Business and Google Maps (the two go together) is just so crucial, so this is something that you should not be missing out on.
Google My Business, although has changed slightly over the past few years in terms of how many listings are displayed and the resources you can invest into it, is still a critical element of your business, as not only does it work perfectly on a mobile phone, but it also works on a location based system, which means where you are searching from will often show different results, making the prominence of being in GMB results so important. If you are searching for a Bristol taxi at the top of the county, the results will often be different to those towards the south, as Google tries to deliver the best results for the area you are searching in, making location based searches a massive leap forward for results, if not SEO.
5 Quick Wins With Google My Business
If you want to make sure your GMB page is showing, then here are 5 things you need to make sure are in place, otherwise, the chances of your map listing showing could or will be limited:
Verify Your Listing
If you have not verified your listing by requesting the pin from Google in the post and then entering this when it arrives, your GMB page is just not going to show, so never just think you can get away with not verifying the page.
Choose The Right Category
There are so many categories on GMB so make sure that you have picked the most relevant for you and also make sure you back this up with any other core categories, as this is often one of the most common mistakes when it comes to why your listing is not showing for certain search terms that you feel you should be.
Complete Your Listing To 100%
Once verified, spend the time making sure your profile is 100% complete, otherwise you will struggle to get the same traction in the results as when competing against a page that is 100% complete. This means a full about us page, opening times, contact details, photos and all of the other profile information pieces that Google requires, and always make sure you should check back in periodically as they do tend to change requirements often.
Use The Correct Address
A common mistake is to use the wrong address, which although sounds a bit strange, can come down to the order of the address, a typo or spelling error or simply missing off a line of the address you use elsewhere. Make sure that your address across the Internet is the same, as if you end up with a few different address that are just inconsistent but centre on the same physical location, this can cause you ranking issues.
Add Photos And About Us Text
Make sure you have added profile photo or logo, head cover photo and then try to add 5 – 10 photos of your business to your gallery, which as long as they are associated with your company then they can be pretty much anything you like.
