Google My Business Optimization Service | NetLocal
Netlocal has been partnering with local small businesses to help them get found on the web by people searching for their services for over ten years.
Google is so ubiquitous that it has become a verb. More importantly, for local businesses it’s the primary way customers search for goods and services near them. Google’s goal is to deliver its users the highest quality information from the best websites.
Your Google My Business listing is your first impression with the majority of your prospective customers. Omitting it as part of your digital marketing strategy or having a low-quality page can prevent you from reaching customers or turn them away once they finally interact with your site.
The Local SEO 3 Pack
An optimized GMB profile requires insight into how customers search, knowledge about Google’s evaluation criteria, and a multi-faceted strategy that leverages your website to climb the rankings. A quality profile will magnify your online presence and put you in front of prospective customers before your competition can reach them.
What is Google My Business Optimization?
Every business has a Google My Business profile page that lists its name, contact information, a summary of its offerings or services, and its customer reviews.
Google pulls data from the web to make the best approximation of each business’s hours, industry, and location. They then use those snapshots to create brief summaries of businesses that users see at the top of local search results pages and within Google Maps.
Google My Business (GMB) is a free tool that allows you to control the information on your profile. To use it, you just simply claim your business from Google, verify your ownership, and then craft the most appealing and engaging profile possible to drive potential new customers to your site.
Optimizing your GMB listing involves implementing the same marketing strategy across your Google profile, website, and social media pages. Presenting a consistent brand across the internet is key to your reputation and online visibility.
If you optimize your GMB listing, you can also verify all of your contact information and business information across the web. That way, you can ensure that your business pops up on all relevant search results pages.
google my business optimization 2022
Your business’ success or failure on the web is tied to your search engine ranking. Few searchers look past the first few results Google presents and virtually no one goes beyond the first page. Google ranks sites using a broad set of criteria to assess their relevance, design, and the amount of quality information they offer.
An optimized GMB listing affirms your business’s identity. Once you claim and optimize your account, you tell Google, and by extension each searcher, that you’re legitimate and reputable. Google wants to send its customers to verified, reliable businesses.
A well-constructed and well-managed GMB listing tells Google your business is active and up-to-date. Proper keyword use in your profile and detailed descriptions of all of the products and services you offer can propel you up Google’s rankings.
Today, search engine optimization, or SEO, is driven by location services. Google returns searches with map-based results near each user’s location. Your GMB listing pushes relevant data to all of Google’s apps, like Search and Maps. An optimized GMB listing will improve your search ranking on both desktop and mobile.
How Do We Optimize a Listing on Google?
Optimizing your GMB listing involves claiming and verifying your business with Google. Then, you must provide additional information about your business. Accurately listing your phone number, hours, and industry is critical for maintaining your reputability.
You then need to conduct keyword research on your industry and locality. Naturally weaving high-quality keywords throughout your business description and GMB posts will help you attract more clients.
Tailoring your GMB to the nuances of your market and prospective customers’ needs will help you climb the rankings. Google’s results are oriented around each user’s location, so you must focus on promoting in-demand services or products specific to your local clientele.
You’ll also need to upload eye-catching photos that draw searchers to your profile. Stock images from the internet, low-quality photographs, or irrelevant photos won’t help optimize your GMB listing and may even be rejected by Google.
It’s advisable to take the photos yourself using quality equipment. The images should highlight your business location, employees, industry, products or services, and company history. Strive for authenticity over production value. Overly staged photos can make searchers distrustful because your business will seem overly curated.
Google will publish your business’s rating from its customer reviews as well as ones they aggregate from social media platforms. Those reviews are prominent and can entice or repel searchers. Work to cultivate reviews from satisfied customers that reflect positively upon your business.
You must also monitor reviews that are posted and respond to negative ones to maintain your brand’s image.
Linking your company’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media accounts to your GMB listing is an excellent way to drive traffic to your site. Outbound links to social media sites from your GMB listing can bolster your authenticity and announce your market presence.
Benefits of Optimizing Your Listing on Google
An optimized GMB will enhance your metrics on Google’s core vitals, which they use to rank sites. You need to appear prominently in searches to capture clients before your competitors can. Fortunately, when you climb the rankings you push the competition down them, decreasing their odds of even being considered by prospective customers.
Additionally, an optimized GMB listing will net you better placement within Google’s apps, which play key roles within each searcher’s mobile experience. An attention-grabbing GMB profile can capture a prospect, feed them directly to your site, and push your contact information to their phone or email.
Collecting clicks and increasing engagement with your GMB listing will also drive users to your site. The longer they spend with you, the more likely they are to book a service or make a purchase. This means they’re less likely to visit (let alone choose) a competitor.
What is a GMB Optimization Service?
A GMB optimization service is a company that can perform an assessment of your Google My Business profile, an analysis of your competitors’ strategies, keyword research, and an implementation of a unified strategy to drive your site to the top of Google’s rankings.
Why Choose NetLocal for Your Google Local Optimization?
Optimizing your GMB requires an understanding of what makes a quality profile, insight into the way people search the internet, and knowledge of each facet of your marketing strategy.
NetLocal researches the specifics of our clients’ local markets and tailors detailed GMB strategies according to their target markets. We combine our knowledge about Google’s SEO standards with our clients’ industry expertise to help them capture and convert new prospects. Our SEO services consistently net new conversions for all of our business owners.
When we work with you, we make our SEO strategies clear by establishing measurable goals and sharing the metrics we collect to keep you up to date on our progress.
Some aspects of SEO are straightforward, while others seem counterintuitive, which can make optimizing your GMB page and your site confusing. But when you work with NetLocal, we guarantee that you’ll not only be able to understand how we’re optimizing your web presence, but why we take certain steps to do so.
What's Included in Our Local Listing Optimization Services
The services NetLocal’s local SEO packages can vary based on your goals and the number of locations you’d like to optimize. But in general, local listing optimization includes services such as:
- Claiming and managing your Google My Business profile
- Crafting a business description with keywords relevant to your market
- Populating your GMB with posts
- Uploading high-quality photos
- Responding to customers’ reviews
- Updating your products, services, and industries
- GMB Website Set Up
- Local Landing Page Development and Optimization
- Cittion Building
Schedule a meeting with the owner for an analysis of the search volume for your business and what it will realistically take to displace your competition in google organic search.
About Our Local SEO Services
LOCAL SEO EXPERTS
Optimization for google local business listings and organic search is our specialty.
10+ YEARS EXPERIENCE
We have been driving new client acquisition for our clients through SEO for 10 years now.
TOTAL TRANSPARENCY
Total transparency means total accountability. We create a monthly plan for you to follow.
NO CONTRACTS
Our SEO services are on a monthly no contract basis. We will earn your business every month.
DATA DRIVEN
All of our processes are data driven. There is no room for gut checks when data is available.
PROGRESS TRACKING
We benchmark each client's data at the start of a campaign and show progress as we proceed.
OUR Team
John DiBella
Owner/Founder
Zubair U din
Technical SEO Specialist
Jake Peters
Content Manager/Local SEO
What’s Included in Our Local Listing Optimization Services?
The contents of NetLocal’s local SEO packages can vary based on your goals and the number of locations you’d like to optimize. But in general, local listing optimization includes services such as:
- Claiming and managing your Google My Business profile
- Crafting a business description with keywords relevant to your market
- Populating your GMB with posts
- Uploading high-quality photos
- Responding to customers’ reviews
- Updating your products, services, and industries
FAQ
Prices for Google My Business optimization services can vary based on the current status of your GMB profile, the amount of research needed, and the extent of your goals. Scheduling a free consultation such as the ones NetLocal offers is the best way to determine the cost of your optimization.
It’s more important than ever in 2022. Google is still the most prominent search tool for your prospective customers. Plus, location matters more than ever when it comes to online searches, and more and more users are now conducting their searches on mobile devices.
Your profile is likely the first interaction a user will have with your business. Therefore, it needs to convey professionalism, trustworthiness, and legitimacy.
While Google has a user-friendly interface and multiple support documents available to its users, optimizing a GMB listing is a time-consuming and high-stakes endeavor. An optimized GMB listing must deploy the right keywords in a way that appeals to users and Google’s fickle algorithm.
A quality GMB must provide up-to-date information, accurate industry categorization, properly labeled and appropriately categorized photos, and informative posts. In addition, it needs to be updated and expanded regularly to keep up with Google’s ever-evolving policies and criteria.
Virtually all Google searches are tethered to users specific locations. That way, Google can visually present information to them. Without appearing prominently on Google Maps, your business is essentially invisible.
Claiming your business and verifying your information is vital. You then need to geotag your business and ensure that your street-view photo provided by Google is accurate.
If your business is located in a professional business park, strip mall, or office building, you must make sure that’s accurately depicted online. And in general, better SEO also improves your Google Maps ranking.
Optimizing your photos before uploading them to your GMB will improve your SEO and Google Maps ranking. Geotagging means adding precise location data to a photograph that shows where it was taken. This info tells Google your photos are high-quality and accurate.
To geotag an image, select the photo you want to use and upload it to Geoimgr. Then select the precise location of your business using the “write EXIF tag” function. You can then save a copy of the tagged photo and upload it directly to your GMB.
Beyond tagging photos, it’s important to correctly categorize them for Google.
The local SEO 3-pack is the top three search results a user sees when they search for a product or service. These three businesses appear at the top of the results within a map showing their locations. Searchers are unlikely to view your site if you aren’t visible here.
Google pulls data from your GMB and displays it in the 3-pack to give searchers a rundown of your business.
Selecting the correct business category based on your area and the search habits of your prospective customers, presenting a description that highlights relevant keywords, and keeping your profile active and updated will drive you to the top of local searches.
Reviews are vital and are front and center in your GMB listing. Soliciting responses from satisfied customers, monitoring your social media accounts for positive comments and directing those posters to Google, and having links on your website to leave reviews will help you capture the organic feedback that Google rewards.
You can access ranking data, traffic statistics, and customer trends through the Google account used to manage your GMB.
GMB posts are pieces of content you publish to your account that share announcements, promotions, inventory updates, event details and more. You should post at least once a week because posts expire after seven days.
Posts boost your SEO by telling Google that your page is managed by an engaged owner who is sharing current, relevant information with potential customers. Google has guidelines for posts regarding content and spam, so you need to be vigilant about how you write your posts.
Google does not cap the number of photos you can post, but the rule of thumb is at least 10. You should share three distinct exterior photos, three interior photos, three photos of management or ownership, and three photos of products or services being rendered.
You should also share a photo of your logo and select a dynamic cover photo that conveys what your business is all about. These photos should be the same as those used on your website in order to reinforce your brand identity and visibility.
You can only create a GMB listing for businesses with a brick-and-mortar location or ones that travel to meet customers. In addition, you can only have one business per GMB account.
If you have a business with multiple locations, you can add each site under one GMB account. Each location will need to have its own contact information, hours, photos, and posts to differentiate its physical location from the others. However, you will be able to manage this information from a single account.