With such a bewildering array of marketing options — digital and otherwise — we like to focus blog posts on actionable intel. Whether it’s a staff-written how-to or a link to somebody else’s smart idea, it’s news you can use in upping your marketing communications game.
August 14, 2020
A lot of your potential customers use Google to find businesses near them—if you aren’t taking advantage of this opportunity, guaranteed, you are missing out.
As a digital marketing agency, we love Google. It offers us so many opportunities to get noticed, recognized, and found thanks to its online directory tools like Google My Business and Google Maps (thanks, Google!).
What’s even better? The majority of your prospective customers use Google to find local businesses near them, and about 80% of Google searches with “local intent” end in conversion. If you’re on the map, this information is huge! If not, you’re missing out on significant ROI.
So, how can you make your business stand out on Google Maps? It’s simple––Google Maps marketing.
Remember SEO? Google Maps marketing is the optimization of your business’s presence in Google Maps, with the goal of increasing your brand’s visibility, and therefore increasing your website traffic. Of course, you can’t do this if you don’t even show up on Google search.
Google is without a doubt the most popular search engine. This can only mean that Google Maps holds a certain level of importance within the World Wide Web. And yes, there is evidence to back up this claim. According to statistics, there is evidence that Google Maps is just as important as Google search.
Another study found that nearly 70% of smartphone users say they use Google Maps on a daily basis. What’s more, according to Google, 83% of people in the U.S. who visited a store said they did so after finding it with Google Maps.
If you want to rank high on Google, you need to utilize the power of Google Maps marketing. But, before you can start diving into this, you need to get to know Google My Business.
Google My Business (GMB) is a free platform from Google where local businesses can manage their online presence through search engines. By using GMB, you’ll be able to increase your business’s visibility and expand your reach with Google reviews, and more!
Getting started with Google My Business is so easy! We recommend using a Google account. Here’s how to get started.
#1: Head over to the GMB page and click the “Manage Now” button.
#2: Create your business listing and name your business profile.
#3: Add as much relevant information about your business as you can—make sure it matches your website.
#4: Verify your profile.
To start your optimizations, take a thorough look at all of your business listings to make sure all of your information listed is 100% accurate. This includes adding the services you offer, as well as a short description of those services.
Factors That Increase Your Rankings On Google:
These are the factors that make the biggest impact on your business in the shortest amount of time.
Reviews are one of the most important components for ranking in Google Maps, but the benefit of building more reviews is not solely for the purpose of boosting your SEO. Google reviews have much more tangible purpose as well—they build up social proof, manage customer expectations, and can sell your product before a customer walks through the door.
If your goal is to rank in Google Maps (which it probably is), you need to understand the importance of building local citations. Links are still one of the largest ranking factors in Google’s algorithm, and local links have a much higher chance of driving actual business.
Fighting off GMB spam is less of an optimization method and more of a tactic. Your goal is not to do something better than your competitors, but to completely remove them off of Google rankings.
How to remove GMB spam
If you want to remove GMB spam, head over to Google Maps, find the listing, and click on “Suggest an Edit.” Depending on the issue, you can either select “change the name” or “remove the place” from Google Maps. If you’re dealing with spam, you will need to select “Remove this place” from the drop-down list.
Unfortunately, just because you submit a GMB spam post edit, doesn’t mean the post will be removed. Sometimes you need to dig a little deeper, and file an actual complaint with Google My Business.
Make sure you have evidence to support your claim.
Tracking your results is one of the most important pieces of marketing with Google. After all, what good is it to have your business setup on Google if you’re not tracking your results? You’ll never know what to adjust or what isn’t working.
Your profile analytics can be found in your Google My Business account. From there you should be able to locate information such as:
It’s important to note that GMB Analytics does not offer any sort of rank tracking. You need to do the homework, and adjust your GMB listing after tracking results of what’s working for your business.
Are you wanting to appear on the Map, but don’t know where to begin? Contact BakerWoodward and we can help you get started.