September 10, 2019There are over 11 million local listings on Google Maps. With so much competition, it may seem like an impossible feat to be featured in this listing.
Regardless of where your business is, even Westlake Village, CA, you have competition and you must take the proper steps to secure your position. If you are looking to learn how to rank higher on Google Maps, keep reading.
Here you can find new tips and solutions that will help you achieve your goals.
Why is Ranking for Google Maps Important?
Before diving into how you can rank higher on Google Maps, it’s important to know why this is so important. If a person performs a Maps search for the services or products you provide, see if your business shows up.
If it does, where?
Regardless of whether a searcher is using a desktop or mobile device, consumers usually don’t look past the first few results when conducting a search. This means it’s crucial to ensure your Map’s listing has been optimized to show up first in relevant searches.
Remember, traditional Google Search results pages also show local results when applicable, so ranking higher on Google Maps will result in you ranking higher in Google Search, too.
Now it’s time to dive into how to achieve this higher ranking.
Complete Your Google My Business Listing
Your business’s status in Google Maps directly correlates to the accuracy and completeness of your Google My Business listing. That’s because Google wants to display as much information about your business to consumers as it can.
The more information you give Google, the more Google can provide to searchers and the higher your ranking will be. If you want to achieve a higher rank in Google Maps, each of the sections of your Google My Business profile mentioned below needs to be accurate, complete, and optimized:
- Website
- Description
- Hours
- Phone number
- Verified status
- Profile images
- Business details
- Business categories
- Average star ratings
- Positive vs. negative ratings
- Review replies
- Reviews
- Questions and answers
- Posts
If you currently have a Google My Business listing, be sure you have all these things to ensure your ranking on Maps is higher.
Be Sure Your Categories are Accurate and Use All You Can
Sometimes, a GMB category may not fit your business perfectly. Be sure your primary category is matched as closely with the main keywords as possible.
A good way to achieve this is by typing in your main keywords, along with big city names in Google and copy the ones most common. Be sure to max out your secondary categories with related ones, too. This will help increase your impressions for other keywords.
Build Local and Niche Related Citations
A significant part of SEO includes building local and niche relevance through off- and on-page optimization efforts. For off-page, one way you can do this is by building local and niche citations.
An example of a local citation would be your area’s Chamber of Commerce website. A niche relevant citation example would be an industry-related directory.
You can help ensure these citations are indexed by linking out to them from your website, putting them through the Google mobile-friendly testing tool, or sending them to an indexing service. Remember, these efforts are worthless for SEO if they aren’t indexed by Google.
Get Social Signals
Today, social signals are becoming more important when achieving a higher ranking in Google Maps and in organic search results. Social signals are your site’s likes, shares, and overall social media appearance from the perspective of today’s search engines.
You can get these by purchasing social signals service or by running simple social media promotion or ad promotions with your company’s link. This is also going to help you gain more traffic and exposure in the local area, which is another ranking factor and something that may help you get more customers.
Have a Press Release Written
A press release can provide you with quality backlinks for your business. There is an array of services that will do this for you for an affordable price. In addition to the benefits offered by the backlink, it’s impressive to customers if your business has links from news outlets.
Now You Know How to Rank Higher on Google Maps
If you have a business in Westlake Village, CA, and you are trying to learn how to rank higher on Google Maps, the information here should help you get started. You can use these tips, optimize your website and GMB listing, and improve your rank in Google Maps.
If you need help to improve your rank in Google Maps, or if you aren’t sure you can handle it on your own, contact us. Our team can provide help with an array of services, including local SEO, video, PPC and more.