Any business today needs a targeted presence on Google. Most businesses understand that this requires optimizing their website and Google Ads, but many are unaware that there is a third entity that must also be optimized: their Google business listing.
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Officially called your business profile, this powerful listing is a dynamic picture of your company that showcases your greatest qualities and allows potential consumers to find, learn about, and engage with you directly from the SERP. What is the best part? It is absolutely free.
Understanding Google Business Profile Optimization Local Ranking Factors
Understanding how to optimize Google Business Profiles for local ranking factors will help your medical practice gain visibility. Google uses a complicated algorithm to determine the ranking of businesses in local search results based on:
Relevance is the degree to which your company matches search questions. Providing extensive, precise, and up-to-date information about your practice will help boost your relevance score.
Distance is the proximity of your local business to the searcher’s location. While you have limited control over this, making sure your practice’s address is correct in your Google Business Profile will help you rank higher. This is why business owners will improve their profiles by including specific service area information.
Prominence showcases your company’s internet presence through reviews and SEO efforts. It is essentially the “off-page” part of optimization, which includes external aspects like your website’s SEO authority and customer feedback.
Google’s algorithm is flexible; it favours listing rank for closely matching a user’s wants, even if the “best” match is further away. This technique should encourage local businesses to improve their profiles so that they better fit specific Google search intents.
10 Strategies to Optimize Google Business Profile
Create a Google My Business account
To explain, a Google Business Profile differs from a Google My Business account. The latter allows access to and improves on the former. This means that in order to do the optimizations detailed in this tutorial, you must first set up a Google My Business account and then request that Google link it to your Google Business Profile. To create an account, visit Google.com/business and log in with the regular Google/Gmail account you use for business.
Complete every section
The completeness of your Google Business Profile not only helps Google rank you higher in local search results, but it also enhances the number of activities people do after discovering your profile. There is a lot of information to present, so here are some tips for prioritizing.
These aspects of your profile should be completed right away:
- Name
- Address
- Phone
- Website
- Hours
These sections take a bit more time and thought:
- Category and Attributes
- Products and services
- From the business
- Questions and answers (owner-generated queries)
Be meticulous with contact information
Here are the steps for optimizing the contact information in your Google Business Profile:
Check that your business name matches the one on your store signs. In other words, just as it appears in the actual world. Adding place names or keywords (except in your brand name) is considered spam by Google and may result in penalties.
Check that your business name and address match exactly with your other online listings. This includes regularly using “st” instead. “street” and “co” vs. “company.” Google’s algorithm considers these inconsistencies when determining your credibility.
Indicate your regular and holiday hours. This increases the likelihood that customers will come to your business while also lowering the likelihood that they will leave a negative review after traveling to your establishment only to find it closed.
Write your “from the business” description
The first thing to remember is that the brief description that displays directly below your company name in your business profile is not under your control. This is the editorial summary that Google creates to ensure consistency throughout the platform.
You do have control over the “from the business” part of your Google My Business account dashboard. This area shows lower in your profile, usually beneath the reviews section.
Choose a category
Choosing a category is essential for maximizing your Google business profiles. Here’s why. Get found during discovery searches. On Google, 84% of Business Profile views come from discovery searches (searching for a product, service, or category) and only 16% from direct searches (typing the business name or location). This is especially true for companies whose names do not reflect their service (such as Fresh Express or Amelia’s Catering).
Emphasize category-specific traits. When you select a category, Google provides you with category-specific features that improve the appearance and effectiveness of your profile. Restaurants can include a menu or reservation button, hotel profiles can display star ratings, and hair shops can affirm experience with thin or curly hair. These details may help customers choose you over the competition.
Select applicable attributes
As previously stated, once you have selected a category, Google will provide you with a list of criteria that you can check off to further characterize your business. Attributes are unique qualities that potential buyers look for, such as “gift shop on-site” or “free wi-fi.”
Attributes are not unique to the Google My Business platform; they also appear on review sites such as Yelp. However, Google’s qualities become more specific, such as “good for working on a laptop” or “popular among travellers.”
Add photos
Uploading photographs to your business profile via the Google My Business account dashboard is critical for three reasons:
Ensure quality. Anyone can upload images to your business profile, so you’ll have a variety of quality options. Adding high-quality photographs to your profile can enhance its appearance.
Be active. Adding photos to your profile on a regular basis shows Google that you are active and keep it up to date, which improves your ranking.
Get photos as results. Google is improving picture recognition and starting to add photos to local searches. Increase engagement. According to Google, if a company’s business profile has photos, customers are 42% more likely to request driving directions and 35% more likely to click through to its website. A BrightLocal analysis found that businesses with over 100 photographs receive 520% more calls, 2,717% more directions, and 1,065% more website hits compared to the average business.
Get Google reviews
If you were presented with a list of businesses similar to the one below, which one would you choose? The one with four appealing yellow stars, or one of the two below with no reviews at all? Google’s algorithm prioritizes reviews as a crucial ranking component due to their significant influence on consumer purchasing decisions.
You may also see for yourself how reviews affect rankings. For the majority of Google searches, the first three local results that display (known as the “Local 3-Pack”) are those with several reviews and strong star ratings: Google may also show a business profile in search results if it has reviews with such keywords.
Post to your Google Business Profile
You may use your Google Business Profile to post announcements, deals, events, and products, just like you would on other social networking networks. Posts are created in your Google My Business dashboard and appear in the “Updates” area, near the bottom of your business profile. However, depending on the search query, they may become more apparent.
Ask and answer questions
Have you noticed that, in addition to the product description and customer reviews, Amazon has a section for questions and answers? Google Business Profiles include the same feature. Answers to these questions may be the driving force behind a customer’s decision to choose your firm. Optimize this section, as anyone can ask and answer questions on a business’s Google profile. This can result in erroneous information on your profile, similar to the Q&A on the pizza restaurant’s profile.
You can’t turn off the Q&A feature of your business profile, but there are ways to optimize it:
Set up alerts to stay on top of questions and answers posted on your profile.
Start your own Q&A section. Make a list of the most common queries your company receives. Then ask, respond, and upvote your response on your own profile. This does not violate Google’s terms and conditions. In fact, Google encourages it.
Keep the keywords in mind. Questions and answers containing keywords can help your business profile rank higher for that term. Keep your keyword strategy in mind while seeding your Q&A area, but use them sparingly and organically, and avoid keyword stuffing.
Monitoring and seeding your Q&A area will ensure accurate content, emphasize your strongest features, and lower common entrance barriers.
Benefits of Optimizing Your Google Business Profile
Optimizing your Google Business Profile provides numerous benefits that can greatly improve your online presence and local business success. Here are a few important benefits to boosting your Google Business Profile.
Increased Online Visibility
One of the key advantages of improving your Google Business Profile is the huge boost in online visibility it delivers. When potential customers search for items or services connected to your business in your area, a well-optimized Google Business Profile boosts your chances of showing up in the highly sought-after “Local Pack” or “Map Pack” search results. This premium positioning draws more attention to your company, resulting in higher brand exposure and website traffic.
Improved Conversion Rates
An optimized Google Business Profile not only attracts more visitors, but it also improves your conversion rate. You may establish trust with potential customers by offering accurate and extensive information, such as company hours, contact information, and customer reviews. They are more likely to take the desired action, whether it is making a phone call, visiting your store, or placing an online order, which increases your conversion rates.
Enhanced Customer Engagement
Engagement with customers is critical for establishing trust and loyalty. An optimized Google Business Profile makes this easier by including features like postings, Q&A, and chat. Regularly posting updates, reacting quickly to concerns, and engaging with customer feedback demonstrate your dedication to providing outstanding service. This not only keeps current clients happy but also attracts new ones who value your proactive and responsive approach.
Improved Reputation and Credibility
Your Google Business Profile is often the first impression that potential customers have of your small business. A thorough, up-to-date profile with positive feedback boosts your online reputation and credibility. Customers are more likely to trust and choose a firm with a well-maintained Google Business Profile, which results in increased customer trust and a better chance of winning their business.
Enhanced Local SEO
Optimizing your Google Business Profile is an important part of local search engine optimization (SEO). When your profile is well-optimized with correct information, relevant keywords, and a strong backlink strategy, Google is more likely to regard your company as a trustworthy source of information for local searches. This can result in higher organic rankings, ensuring that your business shows up in the top results when users search for relevant terms in your area. Improved local SEO can increase organic traffic and search rankings.
Conclusion
Your Google Business strategy, like any other Google SEO strategy, should centre on providing as much quality information about your company as possible, not only in your business profile but also in the sources that Google uses to populate it—your website, review site profiles, and even your social media profiles.
We can never know every specific ranking component, but we do know their ultimate goal: to connect searchers to the best business for their needs by providing detailed, trustworthy information. So, focus on using your Google My Business dashboard to create a business profile that represents your company as correctly and comprehensively as possible, and then make sure to update it, and you will enjoy the advantages.
Vijay Sood is a seasoned digital marketer with a passion for driving online growth and innovation. With a robust background in developing and executing comprehensive digital strategies, Vijay excels in leveraging SEO, content marketing, and social media to boost brand visibility and engagement. His expertise lies in transforming data-driven insights into actionable marketing campaigns, helping businesses achieve their digital objectives.