Get Your Business Top of Local Search
Harry Lancaster
- Last Updated: March 27, 2024
Take advantage of your Google Local listing to attract more customers and increase revenue.
3-minute Guide to Boosting Your Local Search Ranking
Did you know that you can get more clicks, calls, and customers by simply improving or updating your Google Local Search Listing?
Forget the yellow pages, people find businesses on Google. And to compete, you need to make sure you appear at or near the top of local search for your business category.
- 46% of all Google searches are specifically searching for businesses in their area.
- Nearly half of Australians conduct Google searches to research local businesses
- A massive 97% of people report searching online to find new local businesses
That means these days the biggest source of new business is from Google local search.
That’s because Google will show your business (or your competitors!) for related search terms above everything else!
Your Google Local Search listing will even beat your website to the top of the page.
So, how do you improve your Google local search position, today?
Read below for a step-by-step to supercharges your online business search performance.
1. Optimise Your “Google My Business” Profile.
Claim and Verify: If you haven’t already done so, claim and verify your Google My Business profile. This gives you control over your listing and ensures accurate information appears in local search results. You can find out how to do this here: Google Business Profile https://www.google.com/business/
Tip: Ensure you pick the right business category or your listing won’t show where you expect. And where possible, localise your business name to ensure Google preferences your listing for area related searches.
If you have already claimed your profile, take simple steps to improve your search results by regularly updating your profile with high-quality photos and even videos showcasing your products, services, and team. Do it now by clicking the link above.
Add a compelling description and keep other information up to date. Google rewards managed profiles by showing them higher in search results.
2. Reviews improve your search position, and build trust.
Whether you like it or not, anyone can write a review about your business on Google. Many SME’s do not manage this well, unaware of the impact of reviews, both good and bad.
- Positive reviews help build trust and encourage more business.
- Negative reviews can have the opposite effect, especially if unanswered.
A net score of less than 4 our of 5 stars can greatly impact a new customers perception of your business.
Getting new reviews helps both your search position and to build credibility.
You can encourage customers to go directly to Google to leave a review through links or instore codes, and while Google encourages this and can produce results, there is a risk of capturing more negative reviews than you’d expect.
That’s because it can be ten times hard to motivate happy customers to leave reviews! (Even if you are doing great, you can’t make everyone happy.)
Create a positive feedback loop Instead: You can do this by creating in-store feedback by going old-school with a pen and paper, or by creating a simple online form with a tool like Typeform to collect feedback.
You can offer a small incentive to encourage feedback. Keep it simple and make sure you ask for an email and permission to contact them. From there you can curate requests for reviews and deal with negatives at the source.
It may take a little more time to set up an instore program, however keep in mind that negative online reviews can be time consuming and impact your online reputation.
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Keep in mind Google will preference your business profile over your website so it’s an easy win to ensure your business comes up for related search and business terms.
You can drive traffic to your website with a link in your business profile, increase the number of calls, and display important information at the top of search results, which means even if your site doesn’t come to the top, your business information can!
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