5 Easy Tips: Rank High in Local Search by Google My Business

The Internet is no more a tool for big businesses alone. Anyone can now sell and market their products/services with the most desired audience. Any business, no matter big or small, can make a strong customer base by optimizing your profile for local search. Ever since digital marketing started to make use of the internet population, search engine optimization was there. May not be in the same name or form, but it was there.

With increasing penetration of the internet, the total system of the market has altered. Nowadays, favorites are not just limited to big brands. They can range from locally operating cafes to multinational giants. Now, any business can reach the most relevant audience with minimal effort when the right tools are used.

Local search is such a tool that you can make use of for growing your local business. With right optimization for local search, your business can reach the customers with maximum conversion probability. However, just like world wide search, local search also lists out on the basis of a ranking.

Local SEO too need expertise to handle. You need a digital marketing agency with experienced expert SEO analysts who can handle GMB as well. JachOOs technologies has a team of experts in SEO department with experience in local SEO and GMB handling.

Tips to get ranked high in local search using GMB

Following are some of the tips you can follow to improve ranking of your business in local search results using Google My Business.

Update and Maintain GMB Profile (Local SEO)

Google My Business is an offering from Google in order to manage your business locally. You can create a GMB profile for free. You don’t need a website to create a GMB account for your business. An active Gmail account is what it takes. I am not going to elaborate about setting up the GMB account as it is not my topic for now.

Updating your GMB profile regularly is not a hard task. Yet it can make a huge difference. It is almost like updating websites for big businesses. Staying updated is always appealing to a customer. A single out of date information can impact your business badly. 

Also make sure you are maintaining the profile well by local SEO. This means you need to attend to any problems related to the GMB profile timely. This can be related to content posted, data submitted or customer interactions.

Fill up to the maximum possible

I know filling up the form is the most boring and tedious part of starting an account. But, just imagine the increase in clarity you can give to a search engine with a single additional information. Any information stored in your account can come in handy now, then or sometime. Because, machine learning and AI is involved in keeping track of an account.

The more information you fill in, the more accurate the search engine gets. So, don’t leave any section unattended. Fill in everything possible. Yeah, I know all sections are not mandatory. But remember, you are in GMB to make business and ranked high, of course. 

Don’t Lose the Track

Part of updating is maintaining the pace. Or, in other words, maintain the frequency of posting and check the responses at regular intervals. Many business owners start the account, upload frequently and respond to every queries and comments. 

The two basic problems regarding this are not fixing the frequency of uploading according to the convenience and attending each and not setting any priority criteria for handling the comments. Uploading frequency should be set considering the nature of your business and the probable increase in the business size. About comments, there should be a priority hierarchy to follow that some comments need more attention than the others.

Citations are important or local search

Google indeed tracks your citations and makes sure it is correct by the consistency of information in citation and by verifying phone numbers continuously. Once Google is sure about the reliability of your business the ranking will also improve. 

Citations are the basic information within your GMB account. Don’t mess with them. Your name, address and phone number are the key citations of your business. Don’t change it unless it is super-necessary. Stability and clarity in name, address and phone number is essential for a small business to flourish. Not only for small businesses, think of any confusion you experienced when an established service changed their customer care number.

Build reputation with engaging

We already touched this point. Reputation of your business is all about how well you treat your customers. People are different, I agree. But, indeed there are some common traits. Treating well and attending grievances can build a sense of belonging with your business. Nowadays, people are not just looking for commodities, they are spending for the experience as well. 

So, about GMB, just like any other social media profile engagement can generate traffic as well as positive engagement can build followers. As I wrote before somewhere else, with effective social media management, that includes GMB as well, you are not just making a customer base. Insead you are making a follower base as well. 

Of course, not all those who get good treatment will literally follow your account. But they will have an impression which will remind them of your business when they are in need. Needless to say, this will definitely improve your ranking in the search page.

FAQ – Local Search