10 Local SEO Tips to Boost Your Google My Business Rankings

If you’re a brick-and-mortar business or a local service area provider, then your Google My Business page is a vital part of your online marketing. Having a robust Google My Business listing can lead to more organic traffic and potential customers. In fact, Google’s data indicates that the first three businesses in their local search results pack split a whopping 80% of the calls resulting from the search term.

With that in mind, here are ten local SEO tips that every business owner should know:

1. Make sure your business is verified on Google My Business

If you have a local business, it’s vital that Google knows about your physical location so users can see your information in the local search results. You can get this done by verifying your business through Google My Business. To do this, go to Google and search for “Google My Business” in the search bar. Once you’ve opened up the Google My Business landing page, click on the button that says “Get verified.”

If you’d like a detailed walkthrough of the entire verification process, check out this video here.

2. Add a photo of the interior of your store or office to show what it looks like inside 

Searching for a local business and seeing pictures of the outside of it or generic stock images can be a bit uninspiring. So if you have a physical store, add an interior photo to your Google My Business page to give people searching for your services something that looks unique. It’s also beneficial for those who want to see what the inside of your store is like before they make the trip to your location. This way, they can see if it would be a good fit for them.

One pro tip is always to geotag the photos you upload. Geotagging is the process of adding your location to the file. So when Google sees this photo, it associates it with the location you’re trying to rank for. And the more images that are geotagged, the better your chances of ranking higher for those search terms.

3. Always fill out as many fields as possible on Google My Business 

Google takes this information very seriously, so don’t think filling in these fields isn’t necessary because they already know about you from other sources. Make sure you include accurate addresses, phone numbers, hours of operation, specific information about your business’s service area, and further important details.

One of the services we offer at Stature Optics Management is our Google My Business optimization package, where we optimize every single field on your Google My Business page for you. We find that this is among the most effective ways to increase your local search rankings in Google.

4. Use keywords for each category that you can rank for in Google search 

If you can rank for a specific keyword or phrase, that means you’ll show up in the local search results when people search for that phrase. Try to use these exact phrases in your title, description, and other fields that you can fill out. You have a small amount of space for each category, so be as concise and thorough as possible when filling these out.

5. Include images and videos on all pages to help with SEO rankings 

Images and videos are an integral part of your Google My Business page. They not only make the post look great, but they also can help your SEO by filling up space on each page you fill out for Google My Business.

If you’re going to include a video, make sure it is short (less than 2 minutes) and relevant to the category you choose. Just like with titles and descriptions, Google will look at these page elements and use them for ranking purposes.

6. Update your website’s content regularly so that it stays fresh in Google search results 

If your website doesn’t have fresh content, it can be hard to keep up with the rankings because Google looks at each page for possible updates. This means that new and updated pages are more likely to rank well in search results. Adding a short mission statement or unique quote can give Google enough information to maintain your page’s position in search results.

The easiest way to provide fresh content that Google loves is through your website’s blog. Regularly adding content to your blog can be a great way to keep up with SEO and rank well in Google search results.

7. Keep up with social media accounts and post new content often to stay relevant online 

If you’re active on social media, that can also help boost your rankings in Google search and other search engines. This is especially true if people talk about your business regularly or share positive reviews with their friends and followers.

Google places a lot of value on social signals, which is their term for frequent social media activity. So be sure to frequently post on your accounts – but not so often that it becomes annoying to people following you.

8. Add social media buttons to your website’s pages

Using social share buttons is a great way to get your href=”https://opticsmanagement.com/the-basics-of-online-reputation-management-10-strategies-for-protecting-your-reputation-online/”>online reputation and presence out there. Adding these buttons gives people a quick and easy way to spread the word about your business. You can put them in various places like the bottom of each page or on your “Contact” page.

9. Get backlinks from websites related to your business

When people link back to your website using anchor text that includes keywords you’ve targeted, it can boost your rankings. That’s because Google will see these keyword-rich links and use them in ranking efforts for your target phrases.

Getting backlinks is an art form unto itself, but some common methods include:

• Doing a Google search on related phrases for your business and finding sites that have linked back to other’s websites. You can also use tools like Moz and Authority Labs for this, but they aren’t free like Google.
• Using a search engine optimization agency to do it for you, like Stature Optics Management.

Guest blogging is also an option, but you need to be sure that the site is related to your business and gets a lot of visitors regularly. You can use tools like Authority Labs or find sites manually using Google searches.

10. Make sure your website loads fast and doesn’t have any errors or broken links

Google will rank you based on your website’s speed, and how relevant or unique it is to the searcher’s query. If your site takes too long to load or if there are any broken links, Google won’t rank you and may push you down in search results.

If you’re looking for professional help in ranking higher in Google’s local search results, visit our site at OpticsManagement.com to see how Stature Optics Management helps local businesses dominate the first page of local search!