Why is SEO for Google My Business listing essential?

If you own a local brick-and-mortar store, an online business or a hybrid business then you should get a Google My Business (GMB) listing. It is free and when you get a listing your business can appear in local results like Google Search and Google Maps. It can help to improve your business’s visibility and rankings in the local search results. It is important to optimise your GMB listing and provide accurate information to reach more customers. An optimised GMB listing will help you to rank higher in the local search results. In this article, you will learn why SEO for Google My Business is essential. 

What is Google My Business listing in SEO?

When people search for products and services in a specific area they will get local search results in Google Search and Google Maps. The local search offers nearby results which you can visit. When you get a GMB listing and provide accurate and engaging information you can appear in the local search results.

In GMB you can enter information like name, address, phone number, business description, website and working hours. You can add photos, products and posts and manage and respond to reviews. SEO for GMB helps to ensure that all this information is optimised so that you can appear in the local search results.

Why is SEO important for Google My Business?

The purpose of GMB is to provide the potential customer with accurate information immediately. Optimising GMB is a must to improve your local search rankings. When you provide accurate and optimised information your business will appear for the relevant search queries in your area. 

GMB also allows you to communicate with your customers through posts. You can create posts to provide information to your customers, announce new offers and items, seasonal offers, event details and more. SEO for Google My Business helps to optimise the posts and by regularly posting you can appear in Google’s Local Pack 3.

GMB allows customers to add reviews and when you respond to the reviews whether positive or negative it shows that you are a reputable business. Reviews can help to improve your local SEO. SEO for GMB helps to improve customer engagement, visibility and rankings. This will lead to more customers converting.

How to do SEO for Google My Business?

Providing all the information will help you rank higher in the local search results.  Add the name, address, phone, website and working hours information correctly.  The other sections like categories and attributes, products and services, from the business and question and answer should be filled in. The ongoing sections are posts, reviews and questions and answers (generated by customers). The SEO is as follows:

• Your business name should be the same as the one on your business signage. Adding other information like location or keywords is considered to be spam by Google.
  
  
• The business address you provide should match with your other listings. For example, if you are using ‘St’ instead of ‘Street’ then you should use the same consistently. Google checks such inconsistencies when assessing credibility. GMB SEO checks this.
  
  
• The ‘From the Business’ should have a description of your business and should be consistent across platforms. You can use keywords in this content and talk about how you are different from your competitors.
  
  
• It is compulsory to choose a category for your business. You should use a category that best describes your business and use sub-categories for different departments. Also, add the category-specific features that appear based on the category. You should be specific and if you are a restaurant you should add ‘Egyptian restaurant’ instead of just ‘Restaurant’.

• Select applicable attributes which are the qualities of your business as customers seek such options. For example, ‘Free WiFi’, ‘Outdoor seating’ and more.
  
  
• Add photos of good quality to make your profile look good and by regularly adding photos you can show Google that you are active with your profile. This can positively affect our rankings. 
  
  
• The results that appear in the Local Pack 3 are the ones that have multiple reviews and star ratings. Reviews can influence consumer buying and are a ranking factor. You can ask your customers to leave reviews and respond to them. 
  
  
• You can add posts on your GMB profile about products, local news, offers, announcements and events. Posting regularly can positively affect your rankings and you should include links and CTAs in every post. SEO for Google My Business helps to optimise the posts.
  

• You can make a list of frequently asked questions, answer them and add them to your profile. You can add keywords to them to help improve your rankings.
  
  
• Add products and services to help you rank for relevant searches. This is helpful when your business name does not make your offerings clear.
  
  
• You can set up messaging to communicate with your customers directly.  

Benefits of GMB SEO 

The main benefit of doing SEO for GMB is that it helps to improve the visibility and the rankings in the local search results. When you optimise your listing you can appear in searches for relevant keywords. SEO can help you rank in Google’s Local Pack 3 which will increase the number of clicks your business gets.

Google My Business ranking factors

The ranking factors for Google My Business are prominence, relevance and distance. Prominence is how well your business is known. Relevance is how relevant your business is to a search query. Distance is how far the searcher is from your business. 

SEO for GMB is an ongoing process and by updating posts and photos regularly you can improve your rankings. Monitoring and responding to reviews creates a positive impact.  

Conclusion

Local and online businesses can benefit by getting a Google My Business profile. When you provide accurate information in the GMB listing the right customers will be able to find you.  

By optimising the GMB profile local businesses can improve their chances of appearing in the local search results. SEO for Google My Business helps to improve the visibility and rankings of a business.