If you’re a small or medium-sized business owner, having a Google Business Profile is essential for maximizing your online presence. By optimizing your Google Business Profile, you can improve your visibility in search results and make it easier for customers to find and contact you. As the years go on, it is becoming increasingly important and influential in the search game. Yes, HVAC, plumbers, landscaping, roofers and everyone else: this really, really matters. If you don’t believe us, take it from Moz, the leader in SEO information. Actually, I’ll take it from Moz, and break it down for you.
Why It Matters?
Google Business is the #1 way to get found locally online. Let us help you with it.
There are 8 Types of Local Search Ranking Factors that you need to pay attention to. Here is a quick outline, though there is nuance in each.
Google Business Profile Factors
- Title – your business name and branding name
- Categories – your business classification and grouping
- Website URL – your business’ website link for more information
Review Factors
- Google-based Reviews – how many do you have? are they recent? are they quality? do you respond to them?
- Third-Party Review Sites – Yelp, Angie’s List, Facebook, Yellow Pages, etc.
- First-Party Reviews on Your Website – do you even have them?
On-page Factors
- Domain Authority – overall strength and credibility in search engines.
- Page Authority – specific webpage’s strength and credibility in search engines
- Optimization – advanced content, technical setup, and design Name, Address, Phone Number
- Quality – does it perform well? is it set up properly? what is the UI/UX like?
- Technical and Security Factors – is it secure, and technically advanced?
Citation Factors
- Accuracy – is your contact info consistent across the internet?
- Distribution – are you able to be found in different places and listings?
- Quality – are the above reputable?
- Relevance – do your listings across the internet make sense for you to be there?
Links
- Domain Authority – do other reputable sites link (backlinks) to you?
- Page Authority – are the linking pages high quality?
- Quantity – only 1, or 100?
- Relevance – does it make sense why the link to you exists?
- Diversity – are there multiple sources?
Behavioral Factors
- Click-Through Rate (CTR) – do people click on it often when they see it?
- Dwell Time – the higher the better, as it means your content is valuable because people are taking time to view it.
- Clicks-to-Call – are people calling you from this link?
- Clicks-for-Directions – are people clicking for directions?
- Clicks-to-Site – you get the point
Personalization Factors
Personalization Factors, such as a user’s past search history, play a lesser role in influencing local SEOs in boosting local search rankings, with the exception of searcher location. You better be listed correctly! Wherever the user’s device is located at the time of searching makes a huge impact on the results they see, also known as “user-to-business proximity” or “distance”, and businesses have little control over this factor. Google is pretty smart, aren’t they? Lastly….Negative Factors
- GBP: Violations of the Google Business Profile guidelines, such as creating listings for ineligible locations or keyword stuffing, can negatively impact local rankings and lead to removal of the listing, and fake listings created by others can also harm legitimate local businesses.
- Google reviews: Violations of Google’s content guidelines for reviews, such as paying for or incentivizing reviews, can lead to loss of ranking, reputation damage, listing removal, and even litigation, while review spam created by others can negatively impact legitimate local businesses and their ability to compete for local rankings, and investing in excellent customer service is necessary to avoid negative reviews that can negatively influence its local rankings.
- On-Page Factors: Websites that have been hacked, contain malware, lack security protocols, have a poor internal link structure, low-quality content, are poorly-optimized or over-optimized, or are improperly technically configured will experience barriers to their local and organic ranking goals.
- Citation Factors: When citations for a local business contain inaccurate, conflicting, or duplicate information, it negatively impacts local rankings, and a lack of citations on relevant, high-quality platforms can put a business at a disadvantage compared to nearby competitors.
- Link Factors: Negative outcomes can occur for businesses that engage in spammy link building behaviors such as buying links or participating in unnatural link exchanges and link farms, resulting in penalties that erode ranking ability, while a lack of robust internal linking can miss a significant opportunity to boost rankings.
- Behavioral Factors: Businesses that do not claim and fully fill out their Google Business Profiles, or who publish low-quality websites, will not see the same level of visitor engagement as more active competitors, as neglected listings and websites negatively impact behavioral signals and miss the chance to convince search engines of their relevance to the public.
- Personalization Factors: The main negative scenario for personalization factors occurs when the physical location of a local business puts it at a disadvantage, such as a restaurant on the outskirts of town not appearing as frequently for searchers near the city center or a company located beyond Google’s mapped city borders struggling to rank for customers inside the perimeters when searching.
Conclusion
By following these tips, you can optimize your Google Business Profile and improve your online presence. Don’t forget to keep your profile up-to-date with any changes to your business information, such as your hours of operation or contact details. By regularly updating your Google Business Profile, you can ensure that customers always have the most accurate and current information about your business.
This is some pretty powerful stuff, but don’t let it overwhelm you. Get in touch with us, and in 2 weeks you’ll be on your way to more revenue.