You need to use these best methods to use Google My Business or Google Maps. One of the best ways to get your website to the front page of Google is with your GMB or Google My Business listing. Search on Google for your main keyword “cleaning service seattle”. What do you see? Google Maps…
Right there on the top of the page after the ads is the GMB listings. Did you know the “top 3 pack” or top 3 listings get 60% of the search traffic? Over half of searchers click on those links. That is a lot of traffic you miss out on if you are not there.
You want to be in the top3 pack if at all possible. How does Google choose them? They don’t tell anyone but you can spot some reasons why if you look at enough results pages.
Reviews! Number of reviews matters.
Age of Business! How long have they been around.
They post on GMB! They post articles, pictures and videos regularly.
Domain Authority! How many backlinks and citations are online?
You want authority websites linking to your website. Sites that Google likes already. Your Citations(directory listings) must all be identical. Don’t have more than one address, phone number and website listed. It needs to agree so Google knows they can trust it. You can pay someone on fiverr.com to do citations for you. It’s cheap and easy. Just don’t go overboard and get 100 of them at one time. Spread them out by getting 25 a week or 25 a month so they look natural to google.
Secrets to improve where you are listed in GMB…
- Have an appointment link or button. Getting an appointment button with Google can move you to the top!
- Fill out your entire listing. Spend time adding your business information. Add photos and videos. Add helpful articles.
- Claim your listing for sure! And get verified. Use a real street address, if you try to use a private mail box, they will stop you. Google knows where all the private mail boxes are. If you work from home, put your home address in there until you are verified. You can choose to hide it under the options.
- Google checks online about your business. They search government license databases. So get a business license and keep things legit. If they can’t find anything else about you online, they are suspicious.
- They also check Social Media- any legit business is going to have social media accounts. You want to have the big ones – Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Youtube. Don’t neglect your social media accounts. It takes a day to set them all up and link them to your website and each other. Those are all backlinks from another website pointing at your legit website. You don’t even have to be super active, just fill out all the business information on each one. Make them look good.
So the key is to claim your GMB, get it verified, add all the information, build your social media properties and get citations in directories.
It really helps how high up on the first page you get. It’ll will even help your website itself rank higher. And best of all it’s all free work you can do yourself in a day or two.
You want customers to be able to contact you easily. Add directions to your business. Phone number, website address and email address will make your GMB useful. Add a customer service link as well.
What ever you do on your listing, make sure your story of your business is up there. Talk about what you stand for, why you started your business and how you are different from other competitors. Do you support local charities? Put that on your listing. Tell them a little about you and your family. Talk about your favorite hobbies. A story is entertaining and memorable. You aren’t just a greedy business owner. You are real.
Here are a couple great links to visit:
Google My Business Listing Set Up Tutorial
4 Google My Business Features That Guarantee Higher Google Maps Ranking
If you need any help we can claim your GMB or optimize it better for you. Contact us.
Hope you learned something from this best methods to use Google My Business article.