Hey,
Have you ever used Google search to find your nearby restaurants or a gift store to buy some gifts?
Yes, you have used it at least once, Have you thought about how would you get this search result, and here Local SEO and GMB optimization do their magic.
Let me explain to you with an example
Just imagine you are searching for a gift shop to buy a couple’s gift for marriage and you are new to that area, what will be your first move,
Yes, you got it right, you will open your google chrome and type” nearby gift shop” and there you will get local shops in search results.
How come you get those results !! To understand this you have to understand how Google works.
Let’s dive into the backend of Google,
When you type a query in Google’s search bar, Google uses the Google index (a massive database containing information about various web pages) to serve relevant pages in the search result page.
Now you will have a question “What is Google Index?” Let me explain it to you
If Google finds any new website, It will use crawling bots (also commonly called “Googlebot,” “spiders” or “crawlers”) to follow links on websites, gather information from those pages, and will add them to Google’s index (the database).
And when you type a query the google will retrieve information from this Google Index database. That’s it, this is the backend process in the Google search engine
I hope you understood how Google works and would have familiar with how Google works for your customers.
Further down, we will see how Google works for business owners and what a business owner should do to get his/her store on the search results page.
So, read this blog thinking you as a business owner and implement the local SEO which helps your business grow.
Before moving ahead you should know some basic definitions
What is Search Engine Result Page(SERP)?
When you type something in google chrome it will display some relevant results on a page in response to your query, the page displayed on your screen is called a SERP(Search Engine Result Page).
What Is SEO?
SEO also called Search Engine Optimization is the process of guiding the search engine to improve your website’s visibility and ranking in search engine results page.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO is a type of search engine optimization that helps small, retail businesses get found in local search results. Any business that has a physical location or serves a particular geographic area can benefit from local SEO.
Additionally, there are some location-based SEO factors like having a business listing in Google My Business, citations from local directories, and reviews by your local customers.
Example: If you are a gift shop owner, when customers search Google for a gift shop or any keywords related to your business in your area, your gift shop will appear on a map with 3 listings (also known as a map pack), Refer to the image below.
What is Google My Business?
Google My Business is a free tool by Google and a very important aspect of Local SEO
It serves as a business listing platform where business owners can provide essential information about their business, such as the name, address, phone number, website, operating hours, and a brief description.
Now you would have known some definitions related to SEO, going ahead I will explain to you why Local SEO and GMB are important and what are the basic steps to optimize GMB in your business, Let’s dive in!
Why GMB and local SEO is important for your business?
Let’s look into statistics, local searches make up 46% of Google searches, and 76% perform a local search on their mobile phones.
So it is obvious that when you have your business listed in local search results you will get more customers compared to a competitor website which is having only traditional SEO ( having a business website and optimizing the search engine for it).
Local search results are based primarily on relevance, distance, and prominence according to Google’s Algorithm.
A combination of these factors helps customers to find the best match for the customer’s search term. Let me tell you what are these terms and how you can implement them in your business.
Relevance
When a customer searches for your business in your local area or in your geographic location, google will calculate the relevant factors such as a business address, category of the business, reviews, and photo and compares them to the user’s query to give the search results for the customer. This is called relevance.
Distance
Distance is a very important factor in the local results, Here comes the role of “nearby me” terms in the place, when a customer searches for “gift shop nearby me”, Google will show the local results based on his/her location, anyways it depends on various ranking factors of Google algorithm.
Prominence
Prominence is a factor to measure how well-known your business is. Your business should have at least 10 reviews and ratings, GMB profile completeness, backlinks from local directories, and basic SEO practices. so that your business is considered a well-known business according to the Google algorithm.
Now you know what Google expects you to do as a business owner, Get ready to list your business in Google My Business
What are the Basic Steps to create GMB Account?
Here are some basic steps to list your business in Google My Business
- Register your business on Google My Business.
- Update very important Business Information such as Business Name, Address, Phone number, and website URL
- Add your primary and secondary business categories (categories include bakery, educational institution, or beauty salon)
- Add Business Hours and Business Description
- Upload recent photos and videos
- Ask for customer reviews
- Create posts and updates related to your business.
- Connect your GMB listing with Google Maps.
- Monitor website insights and customer interactions, and always respond to customer’s questions as fast as you can.
- Always keep updated information in your GMB listing.
By now, I hope you would have understood Local SEO and GMB and why it is important for your business. So as my blog topic says “Do not underestimate local SEO and GMB “ Implement local SEO in your business and get more customers and obviously more income.
Thank you for your patience to read this entire blog and we will go deep into GMB with some practical examples in the upcoming blogs.
