5 Easy Ways to Rank Your Business Higher On Google Maps
Chances are, if you’re in business and sell your products or services locally; you want to appear on Google Maps. Even if your business is already ranking on Google Maps, learn 5 easy ways to rank your business higher on Google Maps, especially in 2021. The tips found here are easy to implement, and you should start to see results quickly. Follow this free guidance to rank higher on Google Maps to reach more potential clients. Are you looking for local SEO tips? You’re in the right place! This article assumes that you already have a Google Business Page. If not, definitely create one before moving onto the 5 ways to maximize your Google Maps listing. Keep in mind; your Google business page must be search engine optimized to achieve maximum results. We recommend keeping your Google business page as active as possible. This, alongside the following 5 ways will help your business rank higher on Google Maps search results.
1. Add your business to local business directories.
Take advantage of listing your business to free local business directories. Whether it’s a local community directory or a business directory, every community has them; make sure your business is listed in as many local directories as possible. Why is this? For a few reasons. These directories might receive a lot of traffic, so you’re essentially marketing your business for free. However, for local SEO and to rank higher on Google Maps, your website will need many local backlinks. Your website needs to communicate with other websites in your local area to appear on Google Maps. Make sure each listing has your business name, address, phone number, and of course, URL.
2. Add local schema tags to your website pages.
Schema tags are a code inserted into your website pages to facilitate smooth communication with search engines, like Google and Bing. Using schema tags on your website, you’re communicating directly with the search engine on precisely what your page is about. Schema tags can help rank your business higher on Google maps because you’re sharing relevant information about your business niche and location. If coding isn’t your strong suit, you can hire an SEO consultant to add schema tags to your website pages for you. Schema tags can help increase your Google Maps ranking quickly, thus allowing you to reap the rewards quicker!
3. Optimize your website to rank higher on Google Maps
To make sure your website appears in Google Map searches, the content on your website matters. Using your h1, h2, and h3 tags, as well as meta tags, your neighborhood should be included. For example, if you offer appliance repair services in the city of Toronto, your homepage should have h1, h2, and h3 tags with “Appliance repair Toronto.” This helps communicate to Google that you actually are in the location in which you want to rank locally. If there are specific neighborhoods that you service within Toronto, be sure to list them on your page. For optimal local SEO results, be sure to create a landing page for each neighborhood. This way, your website will gain greater domain authority for local SEO. The metadata, aka your description tag, should also contain your local information.
4. Generate reviews and use local keywords in your review responses
There is no surprise that generating reviews for your Google business listing will help boost your local SEO presence on Google maps. This something that the majority of business owners do not maximize. For example, if someone leaves a 5-star review of your spa services, most business owners will respond, “Thanks for your review. We appreciate your business”. But, this response does nothing for your local SEO ranking. Instead of using such a generic answer, develop a comeback with the necessary local SEO keywords. I suggest writing something like, “Thank you for your review of my spa services in Toronto. We appreciate you visiting our Spa in the financial district of Toronto. We look forward to seeing you again”. Notice how, in the second review, the local SEO keywords are used to better communicate with Google maps. Ultimately, be sure to ask every satisfied customer for a review, and get ready to respond with strategic keywords instead of just generic thank you’s.
5. Build partnerships with businesses in your niche but not your competition
Let’s say your business helps families with newborn babies save for post-secondary education. It would be beneficial for your business to collaborate with baby stores, doulas, midwives, and anyone else with the same target audience as you. What you want to do is create high-quality blog posts that feature these other local businesses. You want to reach out to these businesses so that they can add a link to your services on their websites. This is another example of building high-quality backlinks that help your website gain greater google domain authority while ranking higher in Google map results.
5 Easy Ways to Rank Your Business Higher On Google Maps
While I’ve highlighted easy ways to rank your business higher on Google maps, the key is consistency. Regularly optimizing your google business page with pictures, your product, and service, updating your hours, and receiving high-quality reviews are critical. But, so is continually acquiring backlinks and adding your business to different directories. Local SEO ranking is almost a full-time job. So, if you’re a busy business owner, it’s essential to know how local SEO works, but you don’t necessarily have to do all the heavy lifting yourself. That’s where I come in, hire an SEO consultant to help rank your business higher on Google Maps. Collaborate with an SEO professional so you can focus on your specialty, and the SEO professional can take the digital marketing burden off your plate.
Are you looking to rank higher on Google Maps? Contact, Kathleen Parisien, and an SEO consultant to help grow your business locally.