10 Working Local SEO Tips To Dominate
Google Maps

Since the Google update in 2015 that brought about the “3-pack” search results, businesses have been dealing with a lot more local search competition. So, if you have a GMB listing and are trying to get the highest visibility possible on Google Search and Maps, you need a well-rounded SEO strategy to boot.

The good news is there is a definitive checklist that local businesses can follow to rank higher on Google Maps results. And, as there’s a higher degree of connection to Search results, businesses stand to register more overall impressions for their profile.

So, what are the things you should focus on as a local business to come up on top on Google Maps?

Here are 10 tips that will give you a good chance to rank in the 3-pack.

1. Have A Physical Address Close To the Target Area

If you are targeting a specific town or metro area for your business, make sure you have a physical address. This should be included in your Google Maps listing as well as any other citation.

Additionally, this physical address must be in or as close to your target area as possible. Make sure the map directions to your address are updated and correct and add a map to your website.

If you are targeting different areas and, as a result, have multiple store premises, build in different sections and relevant information for the various locations on your business website.

● Apart from the code for the map to your premises, your website contact page should integrate key details like store opening and closing hours and driving directions.

● In this day and age of mobile search, you need to have phone call links directly opening up to call applications and share buttons, including for social media.

2. Verify And Optimize Google My Business Listing

To launch your race for the 3-pack on Google Maps, you have to claim your GMB listing. Once you have signed into Google My Business, verify your listing.

The next step is to choose the business category that is the closest description to yours. Make sure to optimize the content for your listing and choose the permitted 19 categories per listing.

Don't forget to claim different listings if you have multiple locations for your business. It is also essential to build subcategories for your listing. Choose primary and secondary categories and include category-specific attributes.

So, if you have an auto repair business, you can use a tool like SEMrush to determine the apt subtypes for your GMB category.

● The content you add to your GMB listing should be unique. The more content you populate within permitted character limits, the more keywords you can include to rank higher.

● Having differentiated Google Maps listings segmented for your various retail departments will give you a leg up in the local markets. Each department presents an individual and cumulative advantage to rank in the local search market relevant to the specific category.

● Fill in every section, including business hours, service areas, business descriptions, product descriptions, etc. Maintain and update ongoing sections.

3. Have Distinct Pages For Different Categories

To truly rank high for local Maps searches, your website needs to have differentiated pages for the different locations you serve. If you just list the cities or towns you serve on your website, you might just lose out on conversions in a stream of information.

Instead, have separate landing pages for each of your service areas. These should be populated with hyper-local content that mentions the services you extend in particular areas.

Also, develop different pages for each service category. You can present these as tabs on your primary service page, which can be linked to each of the location pages.

This way, you can present information in an organized way to users and signal the relevance of your content to search engines to rank for specific ‘near me’ searches.

● Add appropriate location and business category-specific headers for each page. Also, add meta titles and descriptions for all pages built around the key terms.

● Make sure your website pages are built for mobile search, focusing on design, loading speed, and local keywords in content, among other aspects.

● You can use tools like Google Test My Site and Merkle’s Mobile-First Index Tool to test and improve your site for mobile SEO.

4. Include Local Business Schema

On to the next tip — Schema markup. The use of schema language or structured data markup will go a long way in helping you boost your organic ranking for Maps.

This bit of coding that goes into your website’s HTML will help search engines more easily recognize and understand pieces of information. By telling search engines which parts of your info are relevant to a local search, you stand a better chance of turning up in the local 3-pack.

You can use the easily implementable JSON-LD language to mark up data sets such as your local business category, logo, address, business hours, telephone multiple locations, map, geo coordinates, etc.

● You have to test and troubleshoot while adding schema markup to your pages.

● If you are doing this with a developer, get them to validate your schema and test for your site’s optimization as a rich result with Google's structured data testing tool.

● You can also try other free, easy-to-use applications like RDF translator and Structured Data Linter to test your schema markup before deploying your pages.

5. Focus On Citation Distribution For Authority

Citations, as we have seen in previous blogs, are any mentions of your NAP (business name, address, and phone number) on other websites. In some cases, a citation may include your website's URL.

The higher the quality of that website, the better its authority as perceived by search engines and ultimately an enhanced quality signal for your site in Google Maps and related rankings.

● You have to audit and update your citations for consistency with your Google My Business listing.

● Scrub through and clean up every single mention of your NAP on the internet to ensure there is no volatility in the smallest of details.

6. Improve Citation Quality

Another element of improving your citation quality is to build highly niche ones. Identify those websites that are as closely relevant to your business and location as possible and approach them for a mention.

For instance, if your automotive business offers detailing services in Wichita, target those sources linked to that metro area and car care services. This would help augment your location authority.

While the process of claiming business directory listings is mostly free for local businesses, do not hesitate to fork out a fee for including additional features, such as business photos and videos, maps, and links, in high-quality directories.

● Apart from getting the base citations such as Yelp, Bing Places, and Foursquare, keep an eye on your competitors’ citations to identify industry-specific and locally relevant citations you may be missing.

● Make sure your citations are in line with popular questions on voice search. This will help you easily achieve “position zero” (snippets featured at the very top of a Google SERP).

7. Optimize Your Website Homepage

When creating your Google Maps listing, don’t forget to add your website URL. The homepage of your business website then, essentially, becomes the ‘landing page’ from Google Maps search results. It contributes to your relevance, quality, and domain authority signals as parsed by the search engine.

So, you must ensure that the on-page and technical SEO is on-point for your website homepage. To begin with, the name of your business, its location, and what you do should be reinforced in the page title and headers.

For the page content, focus on integrating copy semantically related to your category and location. Key strategies to employ here are keyword density and bolding to further emphasize relevance for Google Maps.

Then, move on to optimizing the different page elements or tags.

● Your H1 or title tag should include your business name, business category, and metro area (location).

● Your description tag (meta description) should similarly reinforce your relevance for the particular local search in Google Maps.

● If you aren’t using the inbuilt WordPress navigation, the Yoast SEO plugin or the SEMrush Site Audit tool are easy ways to analyze and fix your page’s metadata.

● Your NAP should be current and consistent on your homepage and across your website. An easy way to ensure this is to build it into the page footer so it loads uniformly.

8. Build Quality Backlinks

The more backlinks to your website you target, the more traction and traffic you can see in Google Maps and organic Google Search as a whole. The factor of targeting high-quality backlinks is often overlooked by businesses.

It is key to target backlinks from sites with high domain authority (DA) as, all things with citations being equal, businesses with the highest quality (most authoritative) portfolio of backlinks, will always emerge the winner.

You can use a platform like Website SEO Checker or Ahrefs’ free tool to gauge the website authority or strength of a given domain.

Target quality backlinks on a multitude of sites, including directories, which are relevant to your business.

● Once you have developed a significant number of backlinks, you will have to regularly perform a comprehensive audit and cleanup to reduce inconsistencies and correct broken links.

● Optimize your Google My Business profile to lead to and improve traffic and conversions on your website landing page.

● Target diverse and locally relevant domains for DA 40 and above level backlinks.

● Contextually relevant anchor text, natural-sounding backlinks from quality content, and backlinks in authoritative publications are key factors to focus on.

9. Leverage Business And Website Reviews

In a world where brand communication is completely two-way, businesses cannot but stay on top of customer reviews. Increasingly, reviews are written specifically through the Google Maps website and app.

You also have to track reviews on diverse sources. Monitor and respond to each individually. This effort towards customer relationships will be a sufficient incentive for users to keep coming back to your website.

You also have to weed out fake and irrelevant reviews. You can easily flag and report them on Google Maps. You may also have to solicit reviews now and then. Keep a steady trickle of reviews coming in — never hesitate to ask your returning and long-time clientele.

● Focus on Google My Business reviews to make it to the local 3-pack with verified reviews and solid star ratings.

● Create and optimize a “Reviews” page on your website with a CTA leading your customers to it. Make it easy for them to leave a review.

● SEO applies to reviews too. Note the keywords that Google emboldens in reviews in search results and integrate them into your brand promises. For example, phrases like “quick turnaround,” “express service,” etc., can grab eyeballs, conversions, and positive reviews.

10. Integrate Keywords Effectively

Your SEO strategy is never complete without thorough keyword research and seeding. Make sure you integrate different permutations and combinations of topical keywords related to your product or service.

Figure out all the keywords that trigger local results in Maps. These might be related to your business without including the location name. They should be appropriately and naturally integrated into your GMB profile, directory listings, website, and social media posts, among other content.

● Generate and include LSI keywords in your GMB profile. It is always a best practice to have related and natural variations of a keyword so your content sounds like it is written for humans.

● Seed location-relevant keywords in reviews, query sections, and other less obvious content.

● Use an SEO content template to create a thorough brief for yourself or your agency. For this, you can employ a tool like SEMRush, Backlinko, or seoClarity.

Key Takeaways

● To rank high on Google Maps, there are certain things to focus on in your SEO strategy, apart from keywords. This includes optimizing your GMB listing.

● One of the first steps is establishing a physical address in or close to the location you are targeting for ranking in local search results.

● You also need to amplify and streamline the information you are putting on your website. Additionally, pay attention to technical SEO.

● Citation distribution and quality are two other factors for achieving better visibility on Maps and Searches. Ensure consistency and currency across details.

● At every step, try to integrate a map and directions as part of the business information you publish on various platforms.