Many small businesses appeal to a local audience, meaning people are searching for them online with localized terms. A few examples include “plumber near me,” “restaurant with reservations tonight,” and “estate lawyer in Seattle.”
This means that your business has the opportunity to show in the search results organically in multiple ways - through a regular listing, a rich snippet, and a Google Business Profile (GBP - formally known as Google My Business (GMB)).
Customizing your GBP is a vital part of optimizing for local search and targeting potential customers, but there are a ton of options on the platform that can make things confusing. Here are some of the features in the GBP business dashboard that impact your local search rankings and a list of the ones that don't.
According to Moz and Webfx, these are the GBP fields that are most likely to have an impact on rankings and the ones you may want to make a priority for your local search visibility.
Believe it or not, the thing that has the most direct impact on your local search ranking is your business name field. This might be a bit frustrating because it's not something you are likely to change just to appease Google.
As a business owner, you might see the advantage of having certain keywords in your business name, but that generally comes in retrospect. Few businesses give this much thought when coming up with something that will appeal to their target audience.
Some businesses add descriptors to their business names and submit the change to Google, but the search engine doesn't want you to do this. In fact, you can even report competitors that are going against Google's guidelines to “game” the system.
The takeaway here is that you might want to include certain relevant keywords if you haven't started your business yet. Otherwise, this is just good information to have.
While not as pertinent to Google business rankings, local business info like business location and physical address, hours of operation, and general contact information, as well as a business listing on Google Maps, allows your customers to find and connect with you in other capacities.
The next field that impacts rankings is your categories. Fortunately, you can control this one - to an extent.
The challenge with categories in GBP is picking the right ones. You see, there are roughly 4,000 available business categories, and you are limited to just 10. Your primary category holds more search engine equity than your secondary categories, so being mindful of your choices is paramount.
On top of this, Google is routinely making changes to its search algorithms and categories, adding some and deleting others. So, you might rank well for one category and then find that it's been deleted. Or, there might be some additional categories that are more descriptive of your business.
Over the years, Google has added a lot of categories related to auto dealers and restaurants. “Dental implants” is another category that is fairly new, allowing dentists who offer this service to add the category and claim another Google Maps search spot.
The bottom line is that you should choose your categories carefully and continue to check back for any changes or updates.
When it comes to local search, it's no secret that Google values consumer input. Knowing this, it's no surprise that the number of online reviews you get, their recency, and your average star rating will impact your local search ranking. Additionally, prospective customers are swayed by quality reviews from other real customers.
If you start out with no customer reviews, you'll begin to see ranking improvements as you increase the number of positive reviews on your profile. But, at some point, there will be diminishing returns.
Beyond the rankings boost, consumers also want to see that others are leaving feedback for your business as well as your response to negative reviews.
Google Business Profiles allows you to include a link in your profile, and that link can affect your rankings. Most businesses link to their homepage, but you have other options.
For example, a multi-location business might want to link to their location pages. If your business has a lot of departments or practitioners, you can also link to one of those pages.
The key to getting this right is to test different links to see what produces the best results.
These fields don't have as sizable an impact on rankings, but they can still help you get traffic by engaging consumers and increasing your brand's authority and SEO strategy.
You would think that the services section of your GBP would have an impact on rankings, but it probably doesn't because it would be too ripe for keyword stuffing. In this section, you can insert various descriptions of the services you offer.
While you can spend some time creating a nice business description, it's not clear how many people are going to see it. Unfortunately, this part of your GBP is somewhat hidden. On a desktop, it's not really visible at all. If a person accesses your profile from a mobile device, they can only see “services” if they click on a tab.
Similar to “services,” whatever you list in your GBP “products” section isn't going to impact your local search rankings. However, this feature is certainly worth your time.
Products is an excellent section because it is largely visual, giving you the opportunity to upload photos of the “stuff” you sell. These items can also show up on Google's knowledge panel for a relevant search.
So, if you're a car dealer or florist, complete the section and keep it updated based on your current product offerings.
Google Business Profile has a Question and Answer (Q&A) feature - sort of like the FAQ page on your website. While it's useful to answer common questions for consumers, it's not going to have an effect on your search engine rankings. But, if a consumer posts a question to your listing, you'll get a notification that gives you the opportunity to engage and drive traffic.
Blog posts, images, social media profiles, and business ads or offers make our honorable mentions list because of their impact on engagement as well. While there are some individual factors that may demand some extra attention, your local search optimization strategy should include a complete Google Business Profile that informs and engages your prospective customers.
Focusing on local search engine optimization should be a priority for any business that wants to attract customers from “near me” and geographic searches. At Connection Model, our team of search experts and SEO strategists will assess your current digital marketing strategy and implement a plan designed to achieve results.
Business websites with high domain authority often rank higher in local and organic search results, so it's always a good idea to keep your website updated and optimized. Contact us today to learn more about how our proven SEO services provide solutions that can improve your local search results.