Google Maps ranking is a crucial marketing channel that can help businesses get discovered by local customers, stand out above competitors and generate more business. However, this is only possible if your Google Maps listing has strong visibility in search results. To achieve this, you need to understand the on-page and off-page factors that Google takes into account when ranking business profiles in Google Maps.
The most important factor in Google Maps ranking is relevance. This includes both the type of product or service you offer and keywords that describe it. It also includes the location of your business. Google wants to show listings that are relevant to searches made by people nearby. To increase your relevance, you can optimize your listing, add relevant keyword to your business description and title, provide high-quality photos, improve your website’s content with related keywords, and more.
Other important ranking factors are proximity and prominence. Prominence refers to how well-known your business is in the real world and online, so you need to be active on social media and build links from valuable websites. Proximity, on the other hand, is based on your physical address and how close you are to the searcher. You can enhance your proximity by optimizing your business profile, adding relevant keywords to your business name and description, and creating links from authoritative sources.
Getting into the Google Map Pack can have a huge impact on your local and online business. However, it is not as easy as creating a Google My Business profile and filling it out to completion. Google uses a variety of criteria to decide which businesses appear in the Map Pack, including optimizing your business’s Google My Business profile, attracting positive reviews, and more.
As such, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to ranking in the Map Pack. Rather, you need to take a comprehensive approach that involves both on-page and off-page SEO strategies. This includes everything from enhancing your Google My Business profile to generating more positive reviews and building quality backlinks.
One important thing to remember is that Google Maps is constantly changing and updating, so your strategy needs to be dynamic as well. You should also pay attention to the competition. You can do this using a tool like Localo, which allows you to see the main categories and descriptions used by your competitors. Be sure to change your main category as needed so you can remain competitive in your local market. If you don’t do this, your competitors may take over the top spot. This could be a very costly mistake.