You can seek the best SEO agency Singapore to help you with your digital marketing work if you want to outsource your SEO work completely. Otherwise this article can help improve your GMB rankings tremendously, if done right.
It’s 2021. You’ve been working hard to rank higher on Google Maps, but it seems like your efforts have been for nothing. Your competition has just released a new paper outlining how they ranked higher than you and you’re stuck on page three of the search results.
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What happened?
What went wrong?
The answer is simple: time and relevance are fleeting in the SEO world.
Your original strategy may have worked well when you first created it, but now that date has passed, your competitors are always one step ahead of you because they know what works best in today’s SEO climate—and this knowledge comes from a variety of sources including experience with previous strategies and experimentation with different techniques.
Google Maps is an online map service created by Google. The first version, which was originally named “Buzz Map,” came out in 2005 and showed maps of the United States. Ever since then it has been expanding to show maps for other countries as well. And now with google local pack or also known as three packs, it is showing local businesses with a search.
In 2021, Google Maps has quickly become the go-to app for directions in our everyday lives. With the recent updates to Google Maps, it’s no wonder that this is so. It seems like Google Maps just got better and better with every update they make. Nowadays, people are using Google maps more than ever before because of how easy it is to use and navigate.
The next big update will be coming on April 18th 2021, when we’ll see an entirely new interface come into play!
If you are a business owner, you know how important it is to rank high on Google Maps. That’s because ranking higher on Google Maps means more customers for your business! It also helps that when you rank higher on Google Maps, people can find directions and information about your business so they don’t have to call or come into the store.
So what does this mean for 2021? Well, if things continue at the same rate as they are now in 2020, then we will see even more businesses jumping onto the bandwagon of local SEO. This blog post will provide some helpful tips and tricks that will help take advantage of all these changes!
How to get in the Google Local 3-Pack?
1) Claim and create you Google My Business account
It’s important to claim and verify your Google My Business profile before you can show up in the 3-Pack. If you aren’t sure if it already exists, follow these steps:
- Claim or create a new account on google my business Profile
- Check for verification status of your listing by clicking “Verify this location” button at top right corner (under Company name)
- Enter phone number and address
- Click Verify Location Repeat as necessary until all locations are verified
- Once completed, go back to dashboard > Reports Tab > Number Of Unique Sessions tab View report from past 90 days
2) Add accurate information to your Google My Business listing
Now that you have a Google Maps business listing and account linked to it, you are armed with the knowledge of how to optimize your profile for higher ranking in local search results. As mentioned earlier, when more information is provided on your page (like pictures or videos), then this will lead to an increase in rankings within localized listings. To add even more info into your listing log-in into My Business where there are several tabs down the side of the dashboard which can provide important insights as well as additional features.
Google Maps use a measure of trustworthiness and one way to increase your rating is by ensuring that the name, address, phone number are consistent across all online profiles. For example, say you have a business called “Singapore Coffee Express Company.” Make sure this remains exactly the same on Google My Business dashboard as it does in other places like Yelp or Facebook.
Keep your business hours UPDATED.
Google Maps business listings will tell you if that particular shop is open, closed, or opening soon. (And during COVID-19 they’ll also let you know whether the store’s temporarily shut down.) Keeping these hours updated can signal to Google that your business is active and trustworthy so it might be able to impact its ranking on the maps results page. This could help reduce negative reviews which often hurt a company’s rank in search engine result pages like those for Google Maps.”
Write a nice description of your business.
The description on your Google Maps business listing should provide the big picture of what you do and boost user engagement with a concise yet eye catching summary. This will help to give potential customers or clients an idea of who they are dealing with before coming inside, as well as providing all pertinent information needed for those viewing from outside the building. Be sure not to overload visitors by giving too much detail, but also be certain that everything is included in order to ensure there aren’t any surprises once someone makes it through the door!
Categorize your business properly
Your Google Maps listing is very important for your business. Choose the primary category that best represents what you do, and choose secondary categories if any apply.
3) Get Reviews for your Business profile
Asking for reviews from satisfied customers and clients is a great way to spread the word about your company’s services. Responding regularly to those who give you feedback can also improve what people are thinking of when they search locally, both on Google Maps and in Bing/Baidu results pages. You may want to try finding ways that reviewers use keywords or city names within their review; this might help local business stand out more among other businesses which rank higher because of location alone (a huge benefit if you don’t have any technical knowledge!).
4) Upload Photos to GMB profile Regularly.
Google says that if you want more people coming into your store and buying goods, then upload photos! They say it’s pretty important. If someone is driving by the street or scanning through some search results online but can’t find a business with amazing pictures of their products because they haven’t been uploaded yet, all hope might be lost for reaching out to them and this translates directly into money not being made in many cases.
Remember to geo-tag your images as well! This will help you gain points for your location. We would recommend using this site: (https://www.geoimgr.com)
5) Increase your CTR with GMB posts!
Google My Business posts have been shown to increase click through rate, which in turn may elevate your rankings. According to Joy Hawkins at Sterling Sky, Google My Business Posts are currently not seen as having the direct ability of boosting a website’s ranking for certain keywords, but they can affect Click Through Rate when highlighted by them on their 3 Pack.
6) Add local keywords to your business website.
A great way to boost your Google Maps ranking is by targeting it for local search. This will help you rank higher in the Search Engine results, but may also influence how high your business listing ranks on Google Maps. Make sure that any time location-based keywords are mentioned
7) What if your market is competitive and your competitors are good?
If your market is really competitive, it can be difficult to rank in the 3-pack for specific search terms. In these cases, just publishing and optimizing your Google My Business profile will likely not be enough to get you into the top spots.
The best solution that there is for this problem would be stepping up your game when it comes to organic SEO as well because local marketing works hand-in-hand with organic SEO – ranking well on page one of google results means good news all around.
Conclusion
Google Maps is a powerful tool for finding local businesses, but it can be difficult to stand out at the top of search results. Follow these tips in this post and your business will show up first on Google maps. Good luck!
