When somebody wants to find a specific business or a place near their location, they will search for it on Google. They will inevitably discover the local results in their search results and Google maps. For example, if you want to find an Italian restaurant near your location, you can easily locate it if you search “Italian restaurant’ in your Google search engine. It will show you every possible nearby restaurant that you would like to visit. This is one way how Google helps to improve the businesses reach, marketing, and engagement.
It is likely that your business does not show up for related searches in your region. Thus, you must ensure that the business information in Google My business is engaging, complete, and accurate to maximize users’ visibility of your business in the local search results. Some ways in which you can improve the local ranking of your business on Google are:
The most relevant results are favored by local results for every search on Google. The right searches match easily with those businesses that have complete and accurate information. It is necessary to make sure that every information about your business is up-to-date. Data such as what you do, where you are, and when they can visit you are most important and needs to be entered completely so that users can find you easily. This can be related to a physical address, category, phone number, and attributes.
The location of your business should be verified so that they are more likely to display across Google products such as search and Maps in its local search results.
The business hours should be updated regularly. Keeping in mind the opening and closing, events, and special holiday hours. The information about accurate hours can let customers have info regarding your availability. This type of data can also give them confidence in your business opening and visiting time.
You should respond to the reviews left by users about your business regularly. The reply to reviews shows the value for customers and for their feedback. The business visibility can improve by positive and high-quality reviews from customers that can increase the likelihood of consumer visits to your location.
You should add photos to your business profile for the display of your services, products, and story of your business. Attractive and relevant pictures can show the associated product that the user is searching for at your business store.
The results on local searches are primarily based on prominence, relevance, and distance. A blend of these factors helps us in finding the best match for our search. Such as, the algorithms might decide that a business that is far away from your area is more likely to have your desired product than a nearby business, hence ranking it higher in local results search.
Relevance denotes how well a profile of local business matches your search keywords. The business information should be complete and added in detail to help Google better know your business and relevant searches match your profile easily.
Distance reflects how far each prospective search result is from the location term used in Google search. If a user does not state a location in their search criteria then we will measure distance based on what information we have about their location.
Prominence shows how familiar is your business. It depends on information that Google has about your business from social media platforms, articles, links, and directories. Google reviews the count and score factor into the ranking of local search. Positive ratings and more reviews can help progress your business local ranking. The SEO best practices also apply and are a factor in your position in web results.