Small Business SEO - Google Business Profile Optimization

In our last post on small business SEO, we covered getting our Google business profile created and updated with comprehensive information. In this part, we’re going to be specifically looking at ranking factors and how we can improve our ability to rank in Google Maps.

Google has told us there are three primary ranking factors for Google Maps listings. Those are relevancy, proximity (distance to the user), and prominence.

While there isn’t much we can do to influence proximity unless we change locations, there are things we can do to improve relevancy and prominence. So we first have to Define what each one of these is and how we’re going to influence them.

Let’s start with relevancy. At it’s very core, Google needs to give its users the right answers to their questions. The more relevant you are to what the user is searching for, the more likely you are to be ranked higher as an answer. So what exactly is relevancy as it relates to Google business listings?

• Category match. Probably one of the strongest relevance signals is being in the correct primary category that the user is searching for. That’s why it’s important to determine what your primary category is, but also list out the other related categories for your business.
• Products and services. This additional information about your business is going to give Google Vital Information on whether you offer a product or a solution that’s going to help the user accomplish their search goals. If the products and services you have listed match the search intent of the user, you’re going to have an opportunity to compete and be ranked higher.
• FAQ questions and answers. This is where you can give some very specific questions and answers based on your experience. Having keyword-rich and service word rich content here is going to further boost your relevance.
• Business description. Including relevant terms and keywords about your products and services is going to help you be more relevant for users looking for those things in search. So just like these other areas, be intentional about including your services and keywords in your business description.
• Business name. While the guidelines say this should be your official business name, keywords in your business name do move the needle for rankings. Unfortunately, this has not been effectively enforced and is a ranking Factor. So in many cases, it does make sense to include a primary category or keyword along with the business name for clarity. This can also help in ranking in the map listings.
• Google posts. Having posts on your listing that are relevant to the services that are being searched for by prospective clients will also improve the overall relevancy of the business listing. While not as big of a factor as some of the previously mentioned items, we have seen relevant posts have an impact on ranking ability.
• Photos. Properly named photos about the products and services can also add relevance to the listing. Having several photos for each product or service is a great starting point to having additional relevance from your photos.
• Website landing page. The relevance of the connected website or landing page can have a big impact on your Google business profile ranking potential. We’ve even seen rankings fluctuate based on changing the title of the associated landing page. It can’t be overstated that the website and landing page that the business profile links to needs to be highly relevant for the categories, keywords, products, and services that the business offers.
• Review content. We’ve also seen a lift and relevance when reviews include the products, Services, or categories of what they are reviewing. So when you ask for reviews, be specific and ask them to include the products or Services they used from your company and their experience with them.

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it will give you enough coverage to be able to find ways to increase your Google Business profile’s relevance for the keywords you want to target. It’s important to include the terms you want without stuffing or forcing keywords where they don’t fit naturally. Make sure this still sounds good to users while including keywords where it makes sense.

Prominence is one of the hardest things to influence from a Google business profile perspective. Relevance could be seen as what I am saying about my listing, but prominence could be viewed as what others are saying about my listing. Let’s look at a few factors that will influence and improve your business listing’s prominence.

• Reviews. This includes the total number of reviews, review velocity (which is how often you acquire reviews), average review rating, and review responses. Reviews can be the difference in competing in competitive local search spaces. It’s important to have a process to acquire reviews on a regular basis.
• Citations. This includes the number of citations, the strength of each citation, and the category data and relevance associated with the citation. Consistency across citations used to be important, and can be important from a user perspective, but isn’t as important as it used to be from a ranking perspective. Getting citations from the right places including aggregators and larger websites is important, but it’s equally important to gain citations from category-specific resources and niche websites. Citations from within the market (think the city/state/region) are also valuable.
• Brand. A local business profile that’s tied to a known brand or entity is going to have more prominence than a listing that is not tied to a known brand or entity. Building a brand locally is not as difficult as building a brand nationally, and with the right approach over time, you can build brand Authority locally. Branded searches, mentions, and links can all point to strong brand signals that enhance your ranking potential.
• Links. Specifically links pointing to the website or landing page connected to the business listing. These links pass important metrics and factors that can influence the business listing’s prominence. The more prominent the website is that’s attached to the listing, the more prominent the listing is.
• Social signals. I would not have placed this here until recently, but there is some data and evidence that suggest social media activity and reviews can influence the prominence of the attached Google business profile.
• Third-party reviews. Reviews on other websites are sometimes highlighted on Google business listing profiles and can be a signal of third-party validation and prominence. This means don’t just go after Google reviews but find a select set of users that are willing to put those reviews in multiple places, specifically on other profiles and citations like Yelp, Facebook, Trip Advisor, and others.

Working towards building prominence in these areas will also elevate your ability to rank when people are searching for products and services in your Market. When you put together relevance and prominence with the proximity of people searching for what you do in your area, this gives you a great strategy that will help you earn more business from your Google business profile.

This doesn’t happen overnight, but if you have a steady approach to improving these areas, what you’ll see is improving visibility, and increasing profile engagements.