What does your SEO need to make your website visible to your local target audience? Why,Google Maps marketing, of course! You must have heard of it already, here and there, onthe fly. However, we do not blame you if you do not know what it exactly is. Google MapsMarketing is not a new component of SEO, but it has gained popularity only recently holding hands of local SEO. If you want your company website to stay on top of all GoogleMaps Listings, you need to perfect your marketing game with Google Maps before you can progress any further.
How does local map SEO help your company?
Local map SEO drives organic traffic to your website. Most of this traffic is from yourvicinity, which boosts your sales even from your land-based store. For example— if youare a restaurant located in NY, and you have listed your business with NAP details, itincreases the chances of the local crowd discovering your physical location. Yourrestaurant will enjoy an increased footfall from the local crowd who have the knack forbrowsing the web before deciding on services.
Research shows that about 73% of all website users refer to Google Maps and onlinebusiness listings to read business reviews. Among them, about 92% only visit the stores,restaurants and establishments with at least 90% positive reviews. If your business islisted on, Google Maps that makes it easier for your customers to leave reviews andratings that act as sales magnets. This is why Google Maps optimization has become apowerful tool of local SEO marketing.
Why is your business now showing up on Google Maps?
Optimizing Google Maps is not child‘s play. You will need more than just keywords andbacklinks to make your business visible. It is more challenging that on-page SEO simplybecause your business has to be visible in the local 3-pack. Organic SEO is a breezecompared to Google maps marketing.
Here are a few of the ranking factors we count on, for giving your website a push:
Verification of a company‘s Google My Business page
Cross-referencing across social media platforms, review platforms and business listingplatforms. Your business name must be present on Yelp, Facebook, LinkedIn, YellowPages,and whatever else people check out regularly.
The average rating and the frequency of reviews on Google My Business Local Page.
How well you are using your Geo-target.
Your website‘s domain authority.
These are 5 simple factors that contribute heavily to your Google Maps 3-pack game.
What do you need for Google Maps marketing?
You need gears for every new adventure in life. Marketing is no different, especially whenit‘s Google Maps. You will need at least 3 of the following things before you can startyour new marketing campaign—.
Google My Business Account: this is a single dashboard that will enable you to contentyour business information from the search results. You will need complete and verified NAPto make sure that people can find your location.
Claiming your address: this might sound very redundant, but this is the basic step towardsbeing listed. Include zip code. Use USPS verified address information on your website andmentions. In addition, make sure, you use the same address everywhere your business ismentioned.
Business radius: this is important for businesses that offer home services. You need todefine your area of delivery before orders can start pouring in.
Business category: your business category can become your USP in your locality. Forexample— if you run a dog spa, your business can be the only one in a 5 miles radius. Sodefining the category of your business is very important to get noticed by potentialcustomers as well.
Getting verified: the verification process can be a little taxing. You may have to wait acouple of weeks before you can verify all your business details over phone. You will begiven a unique PIN on your local address with which you can verify your web listing.
Optimize your listings: after you verify your business, you will need to get otherinformation updated. This includes your open hours, business descriptions and yourconsolidated contact information on your website.
Do not forget to include photos of your business. Including images of a restaurant‘s food,menu and kitchen has shown to increase footfall. You should not forget that Google Maps isalso a visual platform where your customers can interact with the images. Optimize yourimages by adding meta data rich in information and targeted keyword.
Collect reviews: the key to being noticed on the web is collecting as many mentions as youcan find of your business. People love social proof before making a decision and yourpotential customers are no different. Curate all reviews and ratings from businessdirectories. You can even encourage your customers to give reviews (do not manipulatereviews) in return of discounts and gift coupons. Here are a few ways you can collecteffective, authentic reviews:.
Ask them immediately after delivery via email or SMS.
Interact with your customers via your website or Facebook page and ask for their valuablefeedback.
In case you get a negative review, do not try to delete it or refute it. Ask your customerwhat was unsatisfactory and try to resolve the issue amicably.
If an old customer returns, ask them what brought them back and request them for reviews.Repeating customers are your asset and you must not waste the opportunity of getting areview from them.
Digital marketing campaigns like these can not be a success overnight. You need to investtime and energy in perfecting your stance. It may be a month or even more before you seethe results. These months can become trying if you are a novice. It always helps to haveexpert help and expert advice during your marketing endeavors. Having a team of expertSEOs while designing the campaign will give you confidence. Besides, experienced marketingteams are the best assets while trying out new digital marketing gigs like this one.
Is there an easy way to master Google Maps Marketing?
Google Maps Marketing is not as easy, and you have probably gauged it by now. There are no“hacks“ for perfecting the marketing strategy. Sadly, there is no magic wand either thatcan get your business to # 1 rank within 24 hours.
However, you can definitely follow 3 quintessential steps that will work towards boostingyour Google Maps ranking.
Increase the accuracy of citation—.
Google spiders never sleep. They are always crawling the internet (and your website) foraccurate data. They can find and relate all the mentions of your business from variouswebsites. This is why you should list your NAP (Name, Address and Phone number) correctlywhile listing your business. The correct NAP is very important for your business profits.If you include incorrect or incoherent data in multiple places, it gives Google spiders ahard time to relate relevant data.
You can look up your own brand name to understand what users and bots are seeing rightnow. Simply type your name into Google search and look for citations. You will commonlyfind your mention in AOL, YellowPages, Yelp, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. The businessdirectories depend on the country you function from. For example, if you are a restaurantin India, you should be able to find citations in Zomato, FoodPanda and TripAdvisor.
You may want to list your business twice, because, well, “two is better than one!“ but.
Matt Cutts from Google advices against it. New Google updates including Panda penalizesduplicate listings. So, if you find your business listed more than once in multiple placessimply log in and delete one of the lesser populated listings. Alternatively, you canrequest the website admins to merge the listings if possible.
If you had old phone numbers, try using that as a search term as well or Google using anold business address. If these are still linked to your business, simply severe the ties.Anything old and out of business should be removed from your business listings.
Create new local landing pages for your business—.
The information provided about your business on your website and other listings affectGoogle ranks directly. If your website is filled with local information that Google canaccess and index, the search engine makes it available to the local audience.
Be sure to use original content. Include address, directions, landmarks and mention localplaces along the way. You should also include case studies with local references. Do notforget to use reviews and testimonies from customers as well as a part of your websitecontent. In addition to being great on-page SEO elements, they contribute towards a betterGoogle Maps marketing endeavor.
Local content is not very different from website content. It is just more focused on yourbusiness location and your services that are available in a particular area.
Build your website links—.
This is one factor common between off-site SEO and Google Maps marketing. You need toinvest good amount of time in building backlinks to your website. If your friends,business partners, neighbors and family members have websites, simply link your contentand web pages to them.
Since you are working on local SEO, linking to your neighbors is a good idea to be noticedby the local crowd. For example— if you have a tourism company that is advertising yourlocality, you can insert a link into their “eat out“ or “restaurants“ section to benoticed by the travelers.
Linking is an ingenious way to increase business without investing a lot of money. Ittakes some time to build a resourceful link repository for your website however; it is aninvestment that will pay off in the long haul.
Why go for Google Maps marketing?
This is Google‘s way of streamlining all business data. If you have your Google MyBusiness Account in place, you can update your data from Google Search, Maps and Google+.Management of local business data will not be a nightmare anymore thanks to the coherentefforts of Google.
This is a great opportunity for SMBs since they can mend their business data and updatetheir Google Business Accounts without spending a single buck. According to Google, “It isan easier way to connect with your business associates, clients and other people, whereveryou are“.
Why should you get professional help with this marketing venture?
Learning the ways of this new digital marketing strategy can be time consuming. There aremore factors in play than you can count on two hands. It depends on the continuallyupdating Google Algorithm as well as PPC rules and regulations. The recent changes broughtin by Google on their Google Business Maps has also had a great effect on the businesslisting and visibility. Now you can only see 3 results instead of 7. The competition to benoticed has become tougher than ever.
There are a number of tools and software programs that you can use to work on the pointswe have mentioned above. But, you will have to learn about the strategies before you canemploy these tools. Keeping track of SEO and algorithm changes is not easy. In 2017, theonly thing constant is the change in SEO and marketing. Keeping your business visible isquite impossible unless you have expert help round the clock. A good agency can neverpromise you to get the # 1 spot in a week or in 30 days. However, they can definitelyincrease your CTR and website traffic after the implementation of necessary changes.
Do you need help from a niche Google Marketing Agency that knows the Google Webmasterpolicies and Google algorithm changes inside out? Then contact us without any delay. Wehave the best plans and strategies to give your business the boost it deserves withoutcompromising your business values and finances.
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