How to improve your local ranking on Google

Most of you have tried to locate some businesses or services near you like ATM, Restaurants, On-demand home services such as TV technician, pest control services, etc. and many times Google have shown you the results near your current location. Have you ever thought, how Google lists these services or sometimes you also want to get listed for your own services so that you can get maximum benefits and customers for your business?

Also it is a known fact that people finds it easy to visit your shop/business as it is one of the key trust factors. They depends on you as you are near to their location and thus ranking on Google local search is very important for your business.

The best way to get local traffic is via Google My Business and In this blog, we will learn how we can improve Google My Business according to the suggestions given by Google itself.

You might be interested in our one of the old blog in which we have mentioned many key points for this. Do not get confused, that blog was written as per our practical experience and this blog is one of the key additions to our previous blog.

Keep your business info updated for better visibility

You might not see your business with relevant keywords/queries and the main reason behind this is outdated information of your business. To maximize output, keep your Google My Business accurate, complete, and engaging so that your customers finds it easy to search for your business and thus you will have an engaging audience.

Tip: If you want to edit business info for more than 10 locations at once, you may create a bulk upload spreadsheet.

Google

Enter complete data of your business

Google local search always keeps itself updated and for this purpose, it updates its algorithm on a regular basis. To make sure that your business has all the relevant info is the key to getting listed on top of Google local search as Google favours those businesses which have the most accurate and relevant information related to the user’s queries.

Important: Keep your business information up to date as your business changes.

Your Google My Business must be updated, so the customers will be able to know what you do, where you are based out of, and when they can visit your business physically. Provide information such as:

  • Your Physical address(complete)
  • Phone number(with country code)
  • Category(your business category)
  • Attributes(accessibility, health and safety, service options)
attributes of Google my business

Verify your locations

Unverified locations are generally not shown on Google and Verified gets listed generally as compared to unverified. You have to make sure that your business is verified. Google send your a Postcard at your business location with an OTP for verification.

Google says that it will reach you in 12 days in India but generally it takes much more than that and sometimes it might not reach you. To avoid such problems, make sure to give locations that are easy to find.

Keep your hours up-to-date & accurate

Keep your business hours updated, including any special hours for weekends, holidays or for any future events. Accurate hours info helps customers to visit your store at open timings thus avoiding any disappointments.

Manage & respond to reviews on your GMB

Always respond to reviews that any users are leaving on your Google My Business profile. Whenever you reply to reviews, irrespective of their type, Google thinks that you value your customers and their feedbacks. Positive and 5-star reviews show that there is a very high chance that the potential customers will visit your store and thus Google shows your business to most of them.

Add pictures

Adding pictures is the best way to show your services/products to your customers. This helps to attract more and more customers to their business and thus creates lots of positive actions on your GMB profile. Accurate and appealing pictures are very helpful and may increase the quantity and quality of the traffic exponentially.

How Google determines a local ranking for your business?

Local results mainly depend on the relevance, distance, and prominence of your business listing with the customer’s query. A combination of these factors helps Google to determine the best match for users search. For example, Google’s algorithms might decide to show a business that is far but still had relevance to what users are searching for and has a higher chance of getting checked

Relevance

Relevance means how close is your business to what users are enquiring for. If your business is relevant for the search query then Google will show it to that customer else it will find another suitable listing for the user. So make sure that everything related to your services and products is mentioned on your Google My Business profile.

Distance

Distance means how far each search result is from the location term used in a search by the customer. If a user doesn’t mention a location in their search query, then Google calculates distance based on what it knows about that location.

Prominence

Prominence means how well known a business/listing is. Few areas are more prominent in the offline world, and so search results try to catch this in local ranking. For example, famous monuments, landmarks, or well-known store brands have a much higher chance to be shown up on Google search and maps.

It is also based on info that is available to Google about that particular business, from across the web, like backlinks, news, and directories. Google review also gets into the count into local search ranking. More positive reviews and ratings will improve your business’s local ranking. Your position in SERPs is also one of the key factors, so SEO best practices also help you.

Conclusion

You may yourself get the ranking by following the above steps and you may contact an agency like Apptians. We use ethical ways to get your business listed on GMB and thus increasing your local presence.

Do you want to write a blog for us, drop an email at hello@apptians.com

By Swastik Saraf

Swastik Saraf is a growth hacker, negotiator, & strategist with a sharp mind & having 5+ yrs of experience. He mainly worked with the CxO's and learned from them.