Mastering Google Business Profile Optimization: A Guide to Dominate the Google Local 3-Pack

What is Google Maps Local 3-Pack?

Let's say You are searching for a Marketing Consultant Near me, You would see a list of 3 businesses shown on SERP by Google as a pack as you can see above. You’re able to see the three businesses with their experience, services, star ratings, addresses, and Prices. Users can then click on each business and get their full information, including things like phone numbers, hours of operation, and reviews. This is the attempt made by Google to help its audience find relevant local businesses nearby. This feature also helps local businesses gain visibility over

 

Why Rank Your Local Business In the Google Map Local 3-pack?

Google Maps Local 3 Pack is the craziest feature Google introduced recently. This future provides an opportunity for local businesses to gain online visibility over national or global brands. So every local business must take advantage of its reach to its audience and improve sales. This boosts your business visibility of search local search queries for example ({%Service%} provider near me or {%Service%} provider in {%city name/location name%}, i.e. SEO service provider near me or SEO service provider in Bangalore, etc.).

 

Also, Google Business listing is one of the most successful Local SEO tactics that benefits the maximum business. Though there are multiple alternates i.e. Facebook Places, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, Yelp listings, etc. Google Business Profile is dominating the crowd.

 

For Google Business Profile Optimization, Master the 3 important Google Local SEO Hacks

1. Know the process of creating a Google My Business listing for their business.

2. Complete the GMB Listing correctly, and optimize it well to get the most benefit out of it

3. Rank on search, position the business webpages in Google Maps local 3 pack for relevant location-specific searches

A well-optimized GMB listing can get positioned in the Google Maps local 3-pack for all the relevant local search keywords it is targeted. To Rank local businesses in Google Maps Local 3-pack, all it needs is a well-optimized Google business profile

To ensure local business ownership on Google use the following guidelines

• Your business has a physical existence in/near the target location. Never create or claim a business listing on Google Business Profile using a virtual address. This is going to hit your business terribly. my business once got penalized for doing this activity. So say a big no for virtual addresses any time. – Passed

• Business owners know what is GBP profile, How GBP works, What GBP detail needs extra attention, how it helps the business, and who manages the business GBP – Passed

• Google Business Profile is a free opportunity to source business services, information, address, and contact details on Google Maps, and search.

• The listing is verified using the business owner's Gmail. If not go and create a Gmail account or use the existing one to sign up/claim the Google Business Profile – Passed

• You only use a business name for example “iamdoingseo”. Always avoid using keywords for your business name (Iamdoingseo - Marketing Consultant).

• Presented the correct business address on the business profile, and pointed the marker to the correct location on the map. If having multiple addresses take advantage of implementing ladder locations on the same GBP.

• Your business is assigned to the perfect business category. “Google suggests a category for your business, choose wisely”. For my business, I have chosen a marketing consultant over internet marketing services. There are options to choose secondary categories for a profile, but this impacts the ranking of your business on SERPs or Local Map.

• Include the phone number or website URL on the GBP profile

• Validate business for NAP consistency or if you are using the same business name, business address, and business phone number everywhere i.e. on all business profiles/listings and your website contact us page. The Nap consistency is a local SEO ranking factor.

• Used individual phone numbers and a store page for each location if applicable.

• Go and create a free website on GMB to populate your business details, updates, etc.

• Validate if GBP is showing up on SERPs. Only verified Google business profiles are shown in the SERPs

Step 1: Claimed or Add a Google Business Profile for Your Local Business

• If you see a page that says “This listing has already been claimed,” click Request access. Know the process of how to claim your existing listing

Step 2: Optimizing Google Business Profile For Improving Visibility

According to a 2017 local ranking factors analysis, Google My Business listing contributes 19% to improving local rank

Google Business Profile Optimization will help scale your website's local SEO rankings i.e., Google starts ranking your business for "business+location, service+location, and service+near me searches". Google also considers showing up a knowledge graph using your GBP information of verified businesses to provide details about businesses for your brand-specific searches.
For example, if I search for “Technical SEO consultant in Bangalore”, I will find iamdoingseo's GBP local listing in Google map local-3 pack as I have perfectly optimized it to target these terms. The same goes for every local business owner.

To leverage the local ranking strategy for the local business, follow the tasks to position the business on SERPs or Google Maps local 3 pack for local searches

1. Update the business information to the latest ( ensure the NAP consistency Rule is passed)

2. Assign a unique Store code for each business location to distinguish each if have chain addresses. Follow below best practices

   1. Character limit 64,

   2. No special characters This should be unique for each location.

   3. Include your brand name in-store code.

3. Use the exact name of your business for the "business name" field

   1. Text length < 100 characters,

   2. Use Camel case

   3. Recommend adding only “Brand name”

   4. Avoid making it keyword-rich

4. Same Address across a business profile and website's contact us page – Maintain NAP Consistency. if have a chain of addresses select the primary address.

5. Good to have Latitude and longitude mentioned for your GBP. Use this guide to find and use your business latitude & longitude coordinates

6. Assign a primary phone number & additional phone numbers for each business location as applicable – prefer unique phone numbers for different locations over common call centres.

7. Include the business website or local store website

   1. Recommended different URLs for different locations,

   2. Characters < 256 characters will be displayed

   3. Use a complete URL path, including the “HTTPS://”

8. Assign a primary category for your GBP listing. you can also add multiple relevant categories under the Additional Categories option. The category should be consistent across all locations

9. Assign opening & closing hours of business in GBP. I recommend using 24 hours format (HH:MM-HH: MM) or (HH:MMAM-HH: MMPM) can be used

10. Always good to provide extra details about the business via a business description

11. Always update holidays in GBP in advance

12. I prefer to provide the opening date on your GBP, this should grab the attention of the user on SERPs, as Google provides the age of the business on the SERPs "%no% of years old"

13. Always upload Media ((size Between 10KB and 5MB)) to increase engagement and boost trust value by showing your local presence and the impact you create

    1. Add business logo

    2. Add the team photos,

    3. Add in internal and external view office photos

    4. Recipes, service catalogues, nearby attractions, product showcases, etc vary from business to business

    5. More images on the listing boost customer actions.

14. Use Labels for adding keywords

15. Use attributes to help your customers know what your business has to offer to take care of them at the business premises – take advantage of mentioning benefits i.e. wheelchair access, etc.

Step 3: Optimized Google My Business Listing for Relevancy, Distance & Popularity:

The prominence, distance, and relevance will influence Google rankings of your Google Business Profile/ Local web pages for local searches

Google Business Profile Team says - "Local results are based primarily on relevance, distance, and prominence. A combination of these factors helps us find the best match for your search. For example, our algorithms might decide that a business that’s farther away from your location is more likely to have what you’re looking for than a business that’s closer, and therefore rank it higher in local results.”

1. Relevancy determines how closely the search user’s query matches information about a local business.

   1. Google uses the following details from Google business profile to determine the relevancy of your business to users Local search queries

      1. Business primary category,

      2. Add in 1000 words keyword-rich business description,

      3. Feed in Google Business Profile with phone no, business website, working hours, holidays, services & product prices, and other required business details

   2. Remove any listings that are duplicates

2. Distance determines how close the search user is to local businesses based on the user’s browser information.

   1. Use the website or local store pages for targeting near-me searches i.e. create the city pages targeting keywords+city name in headers, URL, etc.,

3. Prominence/ Popularity determines how popular a local business is offline.

   1. Building relevant citations from local communities blogs etc (Claim mentions for your business on profile/ business listings sites)

   2. Addition of images to showcase business presence, operations, product or service showcases, Posting business updates regularly to GBP

   3. Drive more reviews and positive ratings via GBP from your customers

      1. create a link to add reviews to your business and populate it on your business website and other sources.

Step 4: Assess the success or failure of Google Business Profile Listing

Track the performance of the business profile periodically to get insights on how people interact with your business listing on Google. This can range from

1. How customers find your business.

   1. Direct Searches i.e. using brand names,

   2. Keyword or discovery searches i.e. found using keywords ({%Service%} provider near me or {%Service%} provider in {%city name/location name%}, {%location%} near me or {%location%} in the city, etc) example ( SEO service provider near me or SEO service provider in Bangalore, Temples near me or temples in Bangalore)

2. Where customers find you on Google

   1. “Listing on Search” – this is called search view.

   2. “Listing on Maps,” – this is called map view.

3. Customer Engagements

   1. Requested directions,

   2. Visits the website,

   3. Calling the business,

   4. Views for posts, photos, etc.

   5. Clicks to other CTAs

 

Every Local Business Should Always Have a Google Business Profile That is:

1. Fully Completed

2. Claimed & Verified

3. Adhered to NAP consistency

4. Optimized for the relevant category, local keywords

5. Regularly posted with business updates

6. Feed in with media related to Business presence, operations, products, services,

7. Fully engaged Reviews

8. Showcasing the products and services offered by a business

9. Accurately updated with business operation hours & Holidays

10. Have decent visibility through local citations

Just comment below to let me know what worked well for you, and what did not work for you. You can also seek help through Local SEO from me. Need help with your Google Business Profile, request local SEO help.