You’re on vacation, walking around and exploring the sites, and suddenly get the urge for an ice cream cone. What do you do?
You take out your phone. Google “ice cream near me” and are met with a list of locations for the closest ice cream shops in the area.
You choose a local ice cream shop and order your favorite flavor on a cone with sprinkles and think to yourself, “Thank you Google.” OK, maybe you don’t do the last part, but you should.
Being able to quickly find the location of any business near you is a huge convenience that is easy to take for granted. And it’s all thanks to those businesses setting up a Google Business Profile.
Google Business Profiles are a valuable tool for getting your business in front of local customers who are searching for your products and services. For a complete overview of how local SEO works, read our beginner’s guide to local SEO.
The following steps for how to improve your local SEO are key for making sure your Google Business Profile ranks above the rest.
1. Create and Verify Your Google Business Profile
When you think about improving your local SEO, you likely focus on getting your website to rank in Google’s results using various content and keyword strategies. With local SEO and Google Business Profiles, there’s a bit of a twist.
When you search “ice cream near me,” you’ll see a map at the top of your screen in addition to information on shops listed in the main search results such as the name, address, website, phone number, and reviews for each business.
What many people don’t realize is that this information does not come from the business’s website. It comes from its Google Business Profile. If you don’t have a Google Business Profile set up and verified, you are missing out on a valuable opportunity to get in front of local customers.
Google Business Profiles are free and they take about 20 minutes to create. Click here to get set up today.
But don’t forget to verify your profile. Verification is critical to ensure you’re the owner of your page so that you can make edits in the future. Google will send you a verification code and you’ll need to enter this code in order to verify your profile.
2. Check for and Remove Any Duplicate Google Profiles
You may not remember setting up a Google Business Profile in the past, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t realize they, or another person from their company, started creating one before.
The problem is Google hates duplicate content in their search results. Google wants to provide the most accurate search experience for its users, and if a user sees the same information twice, it’s a waste of Google’s resources. Creating duplicate listings is against Google’s terms and can affect your ability to rank in results.
To see if you have more than one profile, you can search in Google Maps for your business name. You can also use a citation audit tool like BrightLocal or WhiteSpark. Type in your business name and address and the tool will tell you if there are duplicate listings online. If you find duplicates, contact Google to get them removed as soon as possible so they don’t hurt your rankings.
3. Add Categories, Description, Hours, Products/Services, and Photos
Once you have verified your Google profile and cleaned up any duplicate listings, it’s time to flesh out your profile.
Categories
Setting your profile up with relevant categories is a critical step to improving your rankings. Categories are how Google matches your business to what people are searching for. The more relevant categories you select, the more likely your business information is to get in front of prospects.
Make sure the categories you choose are actually relevant to your business. It’s against Google’s terms to include irrelevant categories. A good tip is to review the categories other top-ranking local businesses in your area have selected in their profiles and use the same ones.
Description
You can add up to 750 characters of text in your Google profile, and we recommend taking full advantage of this by adding a detailed description of your business, products or services, and geographic focus.
Products and Services
Google also allows you to add detailed blurbs about specific products and services. We recommend filling out these sections as well.
Hours
Be sure to list your hours, and make sure they match the hours on your website and other online business profiles.
Photos
We also recommend adding photos to your profile. Profiles with quality images capture attention and help push potential customers toward a decision. Add photos of your location, your team, your products, and your work.
4. Ask for Google Reviews
Reviews are one of the ways that your business can stand out from the competition. Specifically, you should aim to have more reviews, higher average ratings, and more frequent reviews. To achieve this, you’ll need to ask for reviews on an ongoing basis.
Most businesses struggle to get customer reviews online. This is because it takes effort on your customers’ end to write a review. At the same time, reviews are extremely important for building your online credibility and improving your local Google rankings.
Make It a Part of Your Business Process
The important thing is to continually ask your customers for reviews (using email, phone calls, and in person) and make the process as easy as possible. Of those 3 methods, we’ve found that asking via email, along with a direct link to review your business, is the most effective method because your customer doesn’t have to find your profile on their own.
Getting positive reviews will likely be a slow process, but over time it adds up and will give you a real competitive advantage that is difficult to replicate. The key is to incorporate asking for reviews as a part of your regular business processes. If you ask for reviews, you’re much more likely to get reviews.
Ask Customers to Be Specific
If possible, ask your customers to include references to specific services or products in their reviews. Google is more likely to highlight your listing for a particular service if a reviewer has referenced that service in their review. For example, if a reviewer mentions “dental implants” in their review, Google may highlight that snippet when someone searches for dental implants in your area.
5. Publish Regular “Posts” to Your Google Business Profile
We also recommend publishing regular updates to your Google Business Profile using the “Posts” function. We’ve found that posting regularly can have a positive effect on local rankings.
Google’s posting function is similar to social media posts. You write a short blurb and you can add an image and a link.
Some ideas for posting updates include:
- Promotions and sales
- New blog posts
- Quick tips
- Announcements about new services, new hires, or other company news
6. Make Sure Your “NAP” Information Is Consistent
A critical factor in improving your local SEO is the consistency of your business contact information, specifically your business Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP). The more consistent this information is, the more trust Google will have in displaying your Google Business Profile.
Between Your Website and Your Google Business Profile
First, you want to make sure that your business contact information is consistent between your website and Google Business Profile.
Go to your website and make sure that your contact page and your footer both list your business NAP, and that this information matches the information listed on your Google Business Profile.
We also recommend adding your business NAP in the footer of every page of your website.
Other Business Directory Listings
Google also compares the contact information on your website to information listed on other websites across the Internet. Mainly we’re talking about business directories since those are the types of websites most likely to display your contact information publicly online.
To check for inconsistent NAP, use a citation audit tool like BrightLocal or WhiteSpark. Type in your business information and the tool will quickly tell you if you have any problems.
It’s OK if there are some slight differences such as some listings showing Suite 101 but other listings saying Ste 101 or #101. The main things to look out for are inconsistencies with business name format, phone number, and street address.
For example, if you have previous addresses and phone numbers that are still listed on online profiles, you should clean those up so that all online profiles are consistent with the current information on your website and Google profile.
7. Build More Citations
We just talked about how you need to have consistent mentions of your business Name, Address, and Phone number. A mention of your NAP on another website is called a “citation.”
In addition to making sure your citations are consistent, it’s also important to build up a healthy number of citations.
Submit Your Business to Directories
It’s possible your website isn’t being listed on important directories that could give you more citations and help raise your rankings in Google.
To check if you’re missing major listings, use BrightLocal or WhiteSpark. If you find opportunities, simply add your business information to those sites.
Publish Online Press Releases to Build Citations
Another way to build citations is to publish online press releases.
If you have a major news announcement, we recommend distributing an online press release via a quality press release service. Include the Name, Address, and Phone number of your business in the final “About” section of your press releases as a way to build citations.
Here’s a case study about how we’ve used press releases with success for our local SEO clients.
8. Add Relevant Keyword-Based Content on Your Website
Many people think that improving your local SEO has little to do with your website, but that’s not actually the case. While your Google profile and your website are two separate things, your website can have an impact on your local rankings.
Google will sometimes display map listings along with the phrase “Their website mentions [keyword]” next to a local result. For example, Google may display “Their website mentions kitchen remodeling” next to your listing when someone searches for kitchen remodeling services in your area.
If you want to improve the chances that your business will appear in these types of local results, make sure your website references all of the different services that you want to rank for in Google.
Better yet, build out separate pages for each of your priority services with substantive, high-quality content on each page, including text that asks and answers your prospective customers’ frequently asked questions.
9. Get High-Quality, Relevant Links
Links from other high-quality, relevant websites are a factor in Google’s local ranking algorithm too.
Here are some tips for building more links to your website:
Directories: Getting your business listed in online directories is a good first step for building a foundation of links.
Competitor research: We also recommend analyzing which websites are linking to your top competitors’ websites and seeing how you can gain similar links. Tools like Ahrefs make this research straightforward.
Leveraging your offline relationships: Do you have any real-world relationships that you could use to gain links back to your website? For example, do you have partnerships or referral relationships with other businesses that might be willing to link to your website? Or are you a sponsor or member of an organization that might link to your website?
Continually publishing high-quality content: Finally, we recommend continually publishing and promoting high-quality blog content. We’ve found that a sustained investment in content often allows websites to naturally attract more links over time. And those are the types of high-quality, natural links that Google values the most.
10. Get Active on Social Media
There’s been a lot of debate about whether social media activity is one of the signals Google uses to rank businesses.
Regardless of where you stand on that debate, there’s no denying the fact that social media is a great opportunity to create more exposure and buzz about your business. Social media is also a great way to promote the content you’ve created, and this in turn can help you attract more links over time.
In addition to being active on social media, it’s important to double-check that your social media profiles contain consistent NAP information and have detailed descriptions of your business.
11. Optimize Your Website for Mobile
The majority of local searches happen on mobile devices, and Google uses mobile-first indexing, which means your mobile website is the primary version Google analyzes for ranking purposes.
If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, fixing this should be a top priority. Most modern website platforms and themes are responsive by default, so if you’ve redesigned your site in the last few years, you’re likely fine. But if you’re running an older site that doesn’t adapt to mobile screens, this needs to be addressed before you invest further in local SEO.
Need Help with Local SEO?
If you need help improving your local search rankings, we can help. Request a free SEO quote, and we’ll review your current local SEO and identify the biggest opportunities to improve.
