Your Google Maps listings are a critical marketing instrument for your brand and advertising campaigns. It can help you reach your target audience much easier, put you one step ahead of your competitors, and create more business—for nothing. However, these advantages are only achievable if your listings on Google Maps have sufficient visibility. In light of the fact that your business is listed in a region, that doesn’t mean Google will consequently rank it for searches around that area.
Truth be told, proximity is just one of numerous metrics that Google’s algorithm considers when professional company listings on Maps. In this blog post, Ben Givon walks you through various strategies and techniques to get your Google Maps listings to rank higher in results and receive all the related rewards and positive outcomes to help your business expand and boost brand awareness.
What are we going to cover?
- The most effective method to set up, launch, and maintain your Google Maps listings; on the off chance that you haven’t done so already.
- The most effective method to give supplemental data that supports your ranking on Google Maps and builds your brand awareness to help draw in new and existing customers.
- Additional steps you can take on your site to improve the ranking of your Google Maps listings.
Why is ranking higher on Google Maps so important in 2020?
Recent studies have shown that it is the favored navigational mobile application for 67% of customers. What’s more, with customers seldom looking past the first couple of search results when searching for a destination on the map, it’s vital to ensure your Google Maps listings are upgraded to appear first for relevant keyword search terms.
According to themanifest.com, most cell phone owners use mobile navigation apps, and most lean toward Google Maps, as reported by recent research and studies. Themanifest.com’s report investigates why they succeed and how mobile navigation applications can diminish the innate navigational capacities of a human being.
Let’s have a look at some of the findings from the report:
- ‘Over three-fourths (77 percent) of smartphone owners regularly use navigation apps.’
- ‘Google Maps (67 percent) is the most popular navigation app by a wide margin. It is the preferred navigation app for nearly 6x more people compared to the second-most popular app Waze (12 percent).’
- ‘One-quarter (25 percent) of smartphone owners say they use their preferred navigation app because they believe it offers better directions.’
- ‘Over one-third (36%) of smartphone owners use navigation apps prior to leaving their location; 34 percent use them en route, and 30 percent use them both prior to leaving and en route equally.’
- ‘An overwhelming number of respondents (87 percent) use navigation apps for driving directions the most.’
- ‘People use navigation apps for non-driving directions such as public transportation, walking, or cycling twice as much in the Northeast as in other U.S. regions.’
Recent studies additionally show that these customers end up on Google Maps professional business listings from a keyword, otherwise known as “discovery ads,” search undeniably more regularly, 84 percent of the time, than from business name, otherwise known as “direct” search. That being stated, it’s vital that your listings rank high for these terms your potential clients are typing into their search terms.
According to brightlocal.com: ‘The average business receives 1,009 customer searches each month, with 84 percent of these coming from discovery searches and the remaining 16 percent from direct.’
‘Looking across countries, businesses in the USA receive 11 percent of views through direct searches – with a total average search volume of 1,035. In the UK, 19 percent of searches are direct, though this equates to fewer searches overall (887). Canada receives the highest number of average direct and discovery searches (1,229), at a rate of 13 percent direct to 87 percent discovery.’
An additional reason to rank on Google Maps is that the first three listings on Google’s SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) will likewise show in normal Google Search results when suitable and relevant. Furthermore, with 46 percent of searches on Google having local intent, appearing in the initial three searches can significantly increase the number of consumers your business reaches with every search.
The third reason why ranking higher on Google Maps is essential is on the grounds that the things you do to rank higher will improve the nature of your listing and add various ways for customers to connect with your brand. With 86% of customers using the app to find a business, this opens up a ton of chances to increase consumer engagement.
According to a recent study by socialmediatoday.com entitled 12 Local SEO Stats Every Business Owner and Marketer Should Know:
- ‘46 percent of all searches on Google are seeking local information whereas 97 percent of search engine users searched online to find a local business.’
- ‘86 percent of consumers rely on the internet to find a local business and almost a third (29 percent) search for local businesses at least once a week.’
- ‘72 percent of consumers who search for local businesses end up visiting stores within five miles.’
- ‘78 percent of local mobile searches result in an in-store purchase.’
Here are Ben Givon’s step by step instructions to get your business listings to rank higher on Google Maps
So how would you get your brand listing to appear higher in Google Maps search results? Much the same as how there are on-page and off-page improvements for local site SEO, there are on-listing and off-listing improvements for brand listing SEO. But before you get started with that, you will have to get listed on Google Maps and begin claiming your listing, which we’ll be diving into now.
1. Put your business on Google Map
You can’t rank higher or perform effective Google Maps advertising if you don’t have a listing. In case you do have a Google Maps business listing already, you can skip this first step. But, in the event that you don’t have one or don’t know where to get started, follow the tips below to put your business listing on Google Maps:
- Go to Google.com/maps or the Google Maps application on your cell phone and look for your brand name.
- Should it show up in the drop-down menu with an area close to it, at that point, you have a listing! Jump to the following segment.
- If the name of your business does not show up, you will find a section in the drop-down menu for adding a missing place. Once you have selected that option in the drop-down menu, you will be able to add the name of your business, category, and the all-important location.
Something to note here is that anybody on the planet can add a business to Google Maps. Along these lines, regardless of whether you yourself haven’t done it, it’s recommended to check and ensure your professional business listing doesn’t exist beforehand. What’s more, don’t stress: Whoever adds your business to Google Maps doesn’t have command over that listing. Just the person who claims the listing by demonstrating ownership for that business has that control, which is the next point that we will address.
2. How to claim your business listing on Google Maps
Claiming your Google Maps business listing is the next step in boosting your listing’s rank. This is on the grounds that when you make your business listing, all you can give is the name, category, and geographical location. However, when you claim your Google Maps business listing, you can provide a lot more information about your business, and the more data a business listing has, the higher Google’s algorithms will rank it. Besides, you won’t be able to complete any of the other steps in this post if you don’t claim your business listing on Google Maps.
The precondition to claiming your brand listing on Google Maps is to have a free Google My Business account. If you already have a Google My Business account, open your Google Maps listing, pick the choice that says Claim this business, and follow the instructions.
