What is Local Search?
So you might be asking what is a local search? Well, it’s when somebody goes to Google and says where is the best burger near me? Where is there a doctor’s office near me? Where can I buy some shoes? It’s people that are taking local search intent and wanting to find businesses, and we want to make sure that your business is showing up in that search result.
This is important for a couple of reasons, and the first is really how Google is starting to layout the search results. At the top, you’re going to get paid search result ads. In the middle, you’re going to start getting these local search results or the map pack. Then at the bottom, you’re going to have your organic website listings.
Let’s talk through how we can make your presence in that local map pack even more prominent and get you more exposure and customers to your business.
How does Google rank a business?
There are a couple of things that go into how Google ranks a business. The first, and what takes up a third of the ranking factor, is your Google My Business information. You want to make sure your listing is claimed. You want to make sure that your name, phone number, and address are accurate because that is going to help your listing rank higher.
It’s also important to note that proximity is important, so if your business is near where somebody is searching, you’re going to be at a higher ranking than if somebody is searching from across town. The other important thing is that people are not clicking off of Google as much as they used to. So within the local search realm, about half of all of those searches result in what people are calling a zero-click search. Users are finding all the information they need within the Google search results page and not ever clicking over to your website.
You want to make sure that the listing information that you’re posting is providing an amazing customer experience so that people can get all the information that they need right there versus going on and looking at a competitor’s information.
So step one: make sure your listing is complete, it’s verified and it’s ready to go.
Reviews
The second thing to really focus on to help make sure that your ranking higher in local search is reviews. Reviews are the second biggest factor Google looks at into how it’s going to rank you. And there are three things that you really want to focus on and you get to have control over.
The first is sentiment. Are people actually leaving you good reviews? Do people like this business? So you want to make sure you’re providing a great customer experience in creating a reason for people to leave a positive review.
The second is quantity. So how many reviews do you have? Is this off of 1 review or 100? The more reviews you have, the more established Google is going to think you are and the more credit it will start giving you. It’s also important from a non-ranking perspective. People trust reviews. It has been found that people trust online reviews as much as they do word of mouth, so the more content you have out there for them to review, the better your business is going to look.
The third is engagement. The last ranking factor within reviews that Google looks at is your response. Are you as a business responding and engaging with people who are taking the time to leave you a review? Simply saying thank you, it was great having you in our store or saying thanks, we appreciate your business, goes a long way in not only supporting customer engagement and loyalty but also in helping Google know that you mean business when it comes to reviews and that they should be ranking you a bit higher.
Activity
Local search is no longer a thing that you can just set and forget. It takes time and interaction so Google knows that your business is one that deserves a higher ranking. Be active and post on your GMB page.
This year it’s really something you need to make sure you’re owning because consumer behavior is changing and they’re going to local search much more than they have been in the past to ensure that the businesses are open, the business information is accurate, and that they can get what they want service-wise. It’s important to make sure that you invest the time and at least get those two things done.