Google has, beyond doubt, taken over the search engine market as well as people’s lives. Today, we will not be able to take one step in the world without using some Google service or the other. Like individuals, businesses have come to rely heavily on how Google operates to give their companies the visibility they want. Today, 84% of users on Google conduct local searches to find a nearby business. Turning this around, 46% of all Google searches have local intent. Moreover, 88% of local searches result in either a physical visit or a call. It only proves how important it is to be prominent on Google for the success of your business.
How Are Businesses Ranked On Google Maps
Google uses mainly three parameters to decide in what order to show businesses to a searcher on Maps. These are:
- Relevance – The business should provide the product or service that the person is looking for. If they add any other detail required from the industry, such as “nursery near me for succulents,” that will be taken into account.
- Distance – The closer your business is situated to the address, current location, or specified area of the user, the higher you will rank in the search.
- Prominence – If you are a well-known business that is highly active online, offline, or both, you have a better chance of ranking higher in Google Maps.
How Can You Rank High In Google Maps
Ranking high in Google Maps is not tricky and highly profitable. 86% of buyers will look up a business on Google Maps before visiting it. If you want to gain better visibility in Google Maps for local searches, here are some excellent tips to follow:
- Optimize your Google My Business profile by filling in all details, keeping them accurate and up-to-date, adding necessary labels, responding to people’s actions on it, and regularly posting on there.
- Remove spam and copycat profiles from Google.
- Build up your citations in local and niche directories and keep your NAP citations updated.
- Build strong backlinks from authoritative sites.
- Earn mentions in local news and event updates.
- Network, sponsor, organize, and participate in local events.
- Add schema markup in your snippets that primarily pertain to local details like branches.
- Build separate landing pages for every location so that the corresponding page can rank in Google Maps.
- Respond to reviews and questions to build up authority and increase online mentions.
- Use local keywords and SEO tactics to optimize your website and profile.
- Use data analytics to track results and incorporate improvements.
- Leverage local paid ads for extra visibility.
- Set up custom maps and include keywords in their titles.
Conclusion
Google Maps is an extremely convenient way to go about local searches. Optimizing your business for Google Maps ensures better success through better visibility. Knowing how the Google algorithm works in terms of Google Maps ranking and what steps to take to win over this algorithm will help you achieve your goal faster.