7 Practical Strategies to Boost Your Rank on Google Maps
How To Rank Higher On Google Maps
Introduction
No doubt, any modern business needs to realize the impact of visibility on the web. For this reason, many local businesses are exploring ways to improve their rankings in Google SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). Being one of the most widely used sites for local businesses, Google Maps is the most actively used local search engine with an active user base of around 800 million users worldwide. Adopting a few steps to increase visibility on Google Maps is certain to place any local business right in front of potential customers.
How To Rank Higher On Google Maps
To begin with, pinning down the 8-12 fundamental points to rank higher on Google Maps is imperative. Here's a quick snapshot for each:
Optimizing Your Google My Business Account
The first step is, of course, to create and verify an account on Google My Business (GMB) to begin optimizing your ranking. Additionally, be sure to provide accurate information about the business, with an up-to-date website URL, hours of operations, contact details and include pictures and videos of the establishment. All of this ensures better user experience and allows your business's profile to stand out amongst its peers.
Generate More Online Reviews
Consumers in general, place significant reliance on reviews when making local business decisions. Therefore, encouraging customers to leave reviews and ratings on your website is key to success. Incentiving customers to leave positive reviews not only helps your businesses appear more credible but also leads to higher rankings on GMB.
Implementing Local SEO Strategy
Apart from optimizing your profile, registering for local directories and encouraging reviews, implementing a strong local SEO strategy is a must. This includes ensuring that relevant keywords are placed in titles and meta descriptions and engaging customers with helpful and informative content. All of this helps with the improving the visibility of your business and attaining higher ranking on Google Maps.
Track Competitor Rankings
Being aware of your competitor's ranking is important when trying to outrank them on GMB. Installing a specialized SEO tracking tool to observe your competitors activities, such as when they post online reviews or change the website's content, is definitely a plus point to stay ahead of the competition.
Figure Out What Works
With numerous parameters that contribute to rankings, it's important to understand the most important ranking factors associated with your particular category or region. Moreover, analyzing both current trends and historical data is a great way to fine-tune your SEO strategy.
Brief Recap
To summarize, there are numerous ways to better a business's visibility on Google Maps. From creating and verifying GMB accounts to optimizing content using relevant keywords, these are some of the most cost efficient ways to boost your rankings on Google Maps. As such, putting in the extra effort to target prospects through improved organic search rankings will make it easier for local business to be found and stand out in Google's SERPs.
Looking Ahead
As time marches on, it is essential for any local business to realize and recognize the need to engage the users and search engines with regularly updated content, emphasizing its own unique selling points. Thus, preparing an SEO strategy, which balances the creative approach of being found through GMB as well as maintaining a current presence in local SEM listings and GMB directories, is the way to go in order to ensure higher visibility and ultimately higher rankings in Google SERPs.