3 Keys To Reaching #1 in Google Local / Google Maps Search Results with Local SEO

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Reaching #1 in Google local / Google Maps

Below is an ongoing dialogue regarding strategies, tips, & tactics to help local businesses get ranked #1 in Google local / Google Maps. This local SEO article has been a work in progress since around April, 2014. Since then, we've received a lot of phone calls, new clients, and general questions from readers. So we've decided to come back periodically to update the content based on trends we see happening in the local SEO / Google Maps optimization. We hope you find the content below helpful to your local rankings and presence in Google Maps!

Update: September 7th, 2017

Why we don't worry about keyword rankings in Google local / Google Maps

About a year ago or so, Google My Business opened up access to the full scope of Insights. This gave us complete access into what we now call local productivity metrics (or Insights) for all of our local SEO clients.

As such, we've been able to graph out the trends, month over month, on local productivity metrics such as:

• Phone Calls: phone calls directly from Google Maps search results
• Website Actions: visits to your website from Google Maps
• Direction Actions: requests for directions from Google Maps
• Direct Searches: branded searches, i.e. people searching your business name
• Indirect Searches: non-branded searches, i.e. people searching for the products or services you provide.. for example, dentists in atlanta, or car accident lawyer houston, etc...
• Search Views: number of views your GMB listing received from Google searches
• Maps Views: number of views your GMB listing received from Google Maps searches (these are typically direct searches for your business as people are looking for directions to your location)

Here's an example of client's local productivity report broken into three segments:

Action Elements: Local SEO Productivity Report

Search Actions: Local SEO Productivity Report

Views Actions: Local SEO Productivity Report

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As you can see in the reports, productivity is the most important element that we report on to our local SEO clients.

And as we'll discuss more below, you can see the exponential take-off in productivity metrics in the last 4 to 6 months.

What do you don't see in our reporting is specific keyword phrases...

Why is that?

The reason we don't focus on specific keyword phrases is because our main focus is optimizing at the local category level.

Local SEO: Optimizing for Categorical Level Authority

Based on our experience, we've moved to focusing more on the top level category that our local business clients operate in vs. focusing on a single, or group of keyword phrases.

For example, let's say you are a Personal Injury Attorney in Chicago. The category Personal Injury Attorney is one that is found in Google My Business, and in most cases would be the primary category for your Google Maps listing.

Since we have a lot of personal injury attorney clients, we know there are a wide range of keyword phrases that fall under the top level category Personal Injury Attorney, such as:

• car accident lawyer
• slip and fall lawyer
• accident attorney
• brain injury attorney
• truck accident lawyer
• and so on...

We've learned that if we can achieve enough location authority for our local SEO client in their top level category, they will ALSO rank for the wide range of subcategories that fall under the top level category.

So basically, if you reach enough location authority for the top level category in local SEO, you can rank for the higher volume of keyword phrases found in the long tail variations of your top level keyword phrase / categorical level keyword phrase.

Most people don't realize this, but the overwhelming majority of search volume is found in the long tail keyword phrase variations.

And this dynamic is even more profound with local long tail keyword phrase variations.

Read more: Increase Local Search Traffic with Long Tail Keyword Phrases

Here's a graph showing the power, and volume, of long tail keyword phrases:

Image via HitTail: The Hidden Value of Long Tail SEO

Coming back to the local productivity charts above, you can see the exponential growth rate that occurs when you reach location authority at the category level.

This local SEO client has seen triple digit growth in all of their productivity metrics.

And this is happening because they are now being found whenever someone searches in Google for anything related to their top level category.

Again, when you tap into the local long tail keyword phrase market and achieve authority at the category level, your business will rank #1 in Google Maps for not just a few targeted keyword phrases... but potentially hundreds, or even thousands of long tail phrase variations.

Because of this dynamic of tracking productivity metrics vs. keyword phrases, we've been able to produce exponentially more profound results for our local SEO clients.

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Update: April 14th, 2017

The Rise of Near Me Searches in Google Local Markets

For any business, large or small, having a presence in Google local / Google Maps is critically important. Over half of searches are now done via mobile devices, and studies show that 78% of local searches results in a new customer either calling or visiting a local business.

Likewise, the growth of near me local searches have also taken off exponentially over the last 5 years (see chart below).

These local search data points are important to local SEO because, as you probably know, for any search query that indicates local intent will typically show the local / Google Maps search results at the top of your computer or mobile device.

Like so...

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20 Local SEO Tips for Top Rankings in Google Local / Google Maps

Since publishing this original article back in 2014, a lot has changed in the Google local ranking strategies. Google mobile search has becoming the most popular way customers search for products and services, over 70% of locally related search result in new customers, and Google Maps has become a primary source for new business for many local business categories.

As such, it's time to update this article with some relevant local SEO / Google Maps optimization tips that are relevant for today.

So below you'll find some updated information to include 20 local SEO tips for top Google Maps rankings.

First, let me give you the 20 local SEO tips:

Tip 1 – Use LOTS of images.

Adding a lot of images to your GMB (Google My Business listings) will increase actions on your listing easily by a factor of 10x. Actions = authority, and authority = rankings.

Images dramatically increase engagement on your local Google business page from mobile devices. People who find your local Google business page via mobile will find it easy to open your photos and swipe through. And on mobile, someone can swipe through hundreds of photos on your GMB listing in a matter of minutes.

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Tip 2 – Create a virtual tours.

Perhaps the only thing that can generate more actions on your Google business listing than images are virtual tours. The rise of popularity in virtual reality will only increase in importance of providing virtual tours of your local business.

Tip 3 – Generate more “time on site” opportunities.

Understand that Google’s ranking algorithm favors relevance and authority, and the more time someone stays on your listing, the more authority you’ll build into your Google business listing.

Tip 4 – Use videos, images, and virtual tours for “time on site”.

Creating more interactive media content such as videos, images, and virtual tours will help you boost the “time on site” metric A LOT!

Tip 5 – Create a strong “About” section.

Update: Sept. 13th, 2017

A fast way to get your About Me section:

First, make sure you are logged in to your Google account (Gmail, Google Apps, etc...)

Next, click your profile image in the upper right hand corner at Google.com:

Then, once you click to circle icon, a window will pop down... go ahead and click the Google+ Profile link:

I think the updates that I've written previously (see below) now apply from this point forward.

But as always, let me know in the comments below if you are having trouble with the About Me section (this is important to get right...!).

It’s a bit obscure now, but you can edit / create an about section for your GMB listing by first going to aboutme.google.com/.

Note: you must first be logged in to your Google account (i.e. gmail, etc...)

As long as you are signed into your Gmail (or Google Apps) account, you should be redirected to the page when they click aboutme.google.com/.

Once you are logged into Google and click on the link above, you should be taken to a screen that looks like this:

Then scroll down to the section called "Story".

The Story section looks like this... and once you find the Story section, click the edit (pencil) icon and you will now be looking at the edit text box where you can update your About Me section of your Google My Business listing.

If you've never filled out your About Me Section in Google+, then you may only see a red circle with a plus button. Go ahead and click that to begin filling out your information, including your "Story".

Again, the "Story" section is critical as Google creates a direct relationship between this data and your Google My Business / Google Maps listing.

Tip 6 – Use niche category in title.

if your main business category isn’t available, include your niche category in the title tag of your GMB listing.

Tip 7 – Include tags.

in the “aboutme” description section of your GMB listing (see tip #5 above), included a section called “Tags”, and then list a bunch of your most optimal and related keyword phrases for your local business.

Tip 8 – Link to sub-pages.

in the “about” description section of your GMB listing (see tip #5 above), create anchor text links pointing out to sub pages with your website. For example, if you are plastic surgeon, link “face lift” out to your Face Lift specific landing page within your website.

Tip 9 – Create Citations.

Citations are the presence of your business name, address, and phone # published on the web (otherwise called NAP). Increase the relevance and volume of citations to improve your local rankings (check out Moz Local as a start).

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Tip 10 – Create exact match NAP citations.

When creating your citations, it’s CRITICALLY important that every one matches your GMB / Google Maps listing. Even the slightest discrepency can create volatility and dilute the relevance of your local business data, and in turn your local rankings in Google Maps.

Tip 11 – Publish citations in niche directories.

Find directories to your specific metro area, and your specific industry, to get highly targeted NAP citations published.

Tip 12 – Include Schema on your website.

When you publish your NAP citation on your website, wrap your NAP in Schema language. I recommend using JSON – LD to create Schema for your website.

Tip 13 – Create City Pages.

Create city specific landing pages within your website. We call these city pages, and they help give your business a high level of relevance and authority for your targeted location.

Tip 14 – Add your city page URL in your GMB listing.

In your GMB listing, you have the option to link to a URL. Make sure the URL you use is the most relevant landing page for your business and geo-targeted area. This is not necessarily always going to be your homepage.

Tip 15 – Embed your GMB listing.

Embed your Google maps business listing (GMB) into your city specific landing pages. It’s also valuable, for some businesses, to embed your Google local listing map into the footer of your website.

Tip 16 – Use Schema on your website.

Include another instance of your NAP citation on your city specific page, but wrap it in Schema language (see the JSON – LD comment above).

Tip 17 – SEO for City Pages.

Add your targeted metro area as the first instance in the title tag of your city page.

Tip 18 – Link from city page to GMB listing.

Within your city page, make sure to include a link directly to your GMB listing. This is also accomplished when you embed your GMB listing directly into your city page (see point #15 above).

Tip 19 – Start a blog.

Start a business blog and write about local news and information relevant to your targeted metro area, and share your content across all social media platforms, including your GMB listing.

Tip 20 – Get reviews.

Over 88% of consumers trust reviews as a resource when deciding what business to buy from or hire. One of the fastest ways to generate reviews is to send an email to recent customers or clients asking for a review and including a link directly to your GMB listing.

Get your business ranked #1 in Google local search with these 3 easy local SEO tips.

Written by Bobby Holland, Founder at BipperMedia.com

Call: 706-363-0335

Need help with local SEO? Get a free diagnosis today.

A question I'm asked quite frequently is: "how do you get my business ranked letter A (or #1) in Google's local search results?"

Of course, my off-the-cuff answer that just about gets me slapped everytime is, "really...? you didn't know there was a button for that? just push the "rank me letter A" button and BAM!!!!, you'll be #1!"

Feel like biffin' me in the head? It's ok... I get that a lot!

I'm obviously being fisicious here - there is no button to push that will launch you into the top search result in Google local.

As it is with organic search rankings, getting your business ranked letter A takes hard work, patience, and a ruthless pursuit of attention to detail in your work.

In fact, I've found that when you do the "attention to detail" better than your competitors, you can almost alwasy expect to shoot straight to the top!

This has worked so well for us here at Bipper Media, and I'm convinced that it's what will work for you as well.

But before I dive too deep into the "how" of getting your business ranked #1 (or in this case, letter A), some of you may be scratching your head wondering what, exactly, do I mean by "Google local search results"?

Fair question - so let's quickly clear the air and get on the same page here...

Do this - go to Google real quick and search the phrase "homeowners insurance smyrna ga". Look down to where you see the map bubble icons in the search results and notice the first one (should be Waggoner Insurance) is ranked letter A, and then there's letter B, and so on... down through G. These rankings (letters A - G) are the top 7 search results in Google's local search listings - sometimes referred to as Google map listings.

*** Disclaimer: my client, WaggonerInsurance.com, in this case is ranked both letter A and #1 in organic search results. I'm using this search query as an example so as to add validity to my teaching you how to reach #1 in Google's local search results. This IS NOT a lesson on how to reach #1 in Google's organic search results - that's a lesson for another day!

For any business that has a physical address, and provides products or services to a geographically targeted area (i.e. a local customer base), then Google's local search results are your absolute best friend and can play a VERY big role in driving new phone calls, leads, or customers into your business.

The relevance of Google local search results is augmented further by the explosive growth in mobile device use. People are searching for local businesses from their mobile devices just as much, and in some cases more, than people searching on Google from desktop computers.

And in most cases, when someone Google's a locally oriented search phrase from a mobile device, Google recognizes this and shoots the local search results (again, the letter A - G) straight to the top.

As you can imagine, the business found in letter A is going to be dominant brand for that search. This means, the business in letter A is going to get the majority of the clicks (or taps), the majority of the calls, and as a result, the majority of the sales. Even sweeter is that Google places a convenient little "tap to call" button in the search results along with your Google local listing, making it even faster and easier for new customers to call you.

3 Steps To Reaching Letter A / #1 in Google Local Search Results

Ok... ok, enough of the tech talk on relevance - let's get down to the nitty gritty of actually getting your business from "who knows where..." to letter A in Google's local search results.

Ready... set.... let's go!

#1: Get Your Business Added & Verified To Google Local

The entire party starts right here >> http://www.google.com/+/business/.

After visiting the link, click the "Get your page" button in the middle > select the proper category for your local business page (in most cases, this would be the 'Local Business or Place' option) > then proceed with typing in your business name or phone number in the maps search bar that says "Search for your business...."

Once you search for your business, Google will let you know if found relevant information about your business that already exists in Google maps. Don't let this confuse you - if you see your business listed already, it's simply because Google aggregates a ton of data from sources all around the web (Yelp, Merchant Circle, YellowPages.com, Yahoo, etc....) and compiles the data into what it sees as "the most likely business represented by the data."

If Google does give you a business name / listing and asks if this is your business, I'd recommend going ahead and clicking it and then proceed from there to filling out the rest of your information. Otherwise, just go ahead and click "my business isn't listed" or "this is not my business", and fill out the forms to create your new business listing.

Pay close attention to these things while creating your new local business page:

• Do not spam the name of your business by putting a targeted keyword phrase in your title - this is a quick way to get your business listing booted out of Google maps.
• Use your real business name as the title / business name of your business.
• Maximize your categories: make sure you use as many relevant categories to your business as possible. Google has recently expanded their category list, so you should have at least 2 categories to add your listing.
• In the "about your business" description section, one thing I do - and I've actually confirmed with Google this does not violate any terms or rules - is add a "tags" section at the bottom of the text box and list out a bunch of different keyword phrases. For example, at the end of my text box, you might see something like "tags: auto insurance smyrna ga, life insurance smyrna ga, smyrna ga car insurance, homeowners insurance smyrna".
• completely fill out your Google local page - basically, DO NOT leave any field blank.
• add your website URL to your contact information section.

Now that you've got your Google local business page filled out thoroughly, it's time to proceed to submitting it to Google. Go ahead and click thru the screens and you'll get to the part where you have to verify your business listing. It used to be where you'd be able to do this over the phone, quick and easy. But now, phone verification has been dramatically cut back to due spammers who are taking advantage of some loop holes in the phone verification system (thanks spammers....). So expect at this point to have a verification card mailed to your business address.

In approximately 5 - 8 business days, you should receive a post card from Google that has your verification number on it. Now all you have to do is visit www.google.com/local/verify > enter the verification number you see on your post card, and that's it!

You have now successfully verified your Google local business page - it's now time to move on to step 2!

Are we having fun yet....????

#2: Citations

For those of you who own a locally targeted business in a metro area like Atlanta where competition is heavy (i.e. 'injury lawyers in atlanta'), you'll need to do a whole lot more than just create and verify your Google local business page. Reason being - all of your competitors in your city have done the exact same thing!

So when you have a crowded market of competitors that all have local business pages verified in Google, what's a business owner to do?

The answer is.... create volume and consistency with citations.

Wait a minute - what in the world is a citation?

Great question!

Let's say you Google'd your business and address and MerchantCircle.com (or Yelp, YP.com, Manta.com, etc...) came up and click the search result. Once on MerchantCircle.com, you are now probably staring at a page that has at least your business name, street address, and phone number - and perhaps even your website URL.

What you are looking at is what's called a citation.

Citations, inclusive in volume, accuracy, and domain authority of the host directory site, hold a lot of weight in Google's local search algorithm that calculates who ranks where in the local search results. Don't get this confused with the algorithm that ranks sites organically in the normal top 10 search results on the front page of Google - the two are dramatically different.

So the way you get "volume, accuracy, and domain authority" for citations for your local business is by either:

a) hiring Bipper Media (couldn't help the plug opportunity...)

b) paying for a self service platform such as Yext or any other citation creation service.

c) doing it manually

I'll refrain from another plug here by telling you what my #1 recommendation would be of the 3 choices above!

Actually building citations manually can be one of the best ways to create high quality citations within authoritative domains. For example, I can manually create a local business page on Facebook, add my address, phone number, and URL to the Facebook business page, and that's it - I've just created a citation on Facebook (a very strong site indeed to build your citation). You'll then proceed to other authoritative local directory type pages such as Yelp, Manta, Merchant Circle, YP.com, SuperPages.com, and more...

#3: Get Reviews

Finally, the last step in the process to building a Google local business page that reaches letter A in Google is to get customers to review your business in Google plus. Reviews and ratings help your local listings by adding credibility, activity, and viral distribution exposure and traffic for your page that you otherwise would never have received.

And once people start adding reviews your Google business page, make sure you take the time to interact with the people who are leaving the reviews. These people should become your most valued online customers and fans. Treat them with respect, engage them in conversation, and give them a reason to keep coming back to your page and leaving more feedback.

One strategy I've seen work really well at increasing reviews from customers to do free give-a-ways to current customers who go to Google+ and leave a review. You can offer something like a $20 gift card give away to the group of people who left a review and rating during the past week (just an idea...).

The point is, now that you have your Google local business page and it's verified, you need to solicit ratings and reviews on your Google plus business page. Again, these will start to distinguish you from the competitors both in interaction and engagement, but also in the rankings in Google local.

So those are 3 tips that I've found to work extremely well at driving our clients into the letter A position in Google's local search results.

What about you - do you have any other tips that you've found work particularly well at ranking letter A in Google local?

Please share your feedback, and I look forward to hearing to what you have to say!

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Written by Bobby Holland, Founder at BipperMedia.com

Call: 706-363-0335

Need help with local SEO? Get a free diagnosis today.