How to Rank Higher on Google Maps 2021

Every local business with an online presence definitely looks forward to having higher rankings in Google Maps. Learn how to rank higher on Google Maps in 2021 by reading this article!

Well, just having your business’s profile on Google Maps means that you already have a valid listing, and chances of your business appearing on organic search results are much higher than a business without a Google My Business listing.

However, the business scene is highly competitive and having a presence isn’t enough. Having a high ranking in Google Maps search results is what matters if you want more local customers and traffic. 

How to Rank Higher on Google Maps 2021

How to Rank Higher on Google Maps 2021

56% percent of local businesses have not claimed their business on Google

According to a study by Local Marketing Institute, less than 44% of local business have actually claimed their Google My Business listing. If you already have already added your business to Google Maps in the first place, then you should claim its listing. A Google Map business listing highlight’s the name, location, and category. 

The best way to claim or verify such a listing is to provide accurate and comprehensive details. The more accurate and detailed the information is, the higher your chances of getting a top ranking.

Write a good description of your business such that it gives a vivid representation of what you are offering. This is the best opportunity for you to attract your target audience. You want to engage them from the word go hence you shouldn’t overload them with excess details.

Make your business profile fun and engaging by offering additional information such as working hours, official website as well as questions and answers. Remember that local SEO can be highly competitive and if there are multiple businesses within your region with the same type of business, then you need to put extra effort to clinch the top spot when it comes to Google Listing based on your location.

2) Include Target Keywords in Your Google My Business Profile

Including your target keywords in your Google My Business profile is one of the best ways to ensure that you rank higher on Google Maps. Its 2021 and SEO is critical in creating a high-ranking business on Google Maps. 

It’s worth noting that the best way to implement SEO is by using different chains of keywords by including them in a post, picture, business description, and in the services/products area of Google My Business.

Well, why is this important? When clients are searching for a business and location, they are more likely to use specific keywords. For instance, if a customer wants to buy sushi near them, then they can type something like “Where to buy sushi near me [location]”. 

The basic keyword here can be “Sushi” and “Sushi in [Location]. So your listing MUST have the word “Sushi” in the description and in every possible place if you want to rank higher on Google Maps in your area for the word “Sushi”. 

Generally, you have to make sure that you utilize the primary keyword in as many places as possible in Google My Business without looking spammy. This helps to reduce the complex uphill battle that your business would have otherwise faced against its competitors.

Want to Seriously Increase Your Traffic and Rankings on Google?

3) Build Local Relevance and Get Citations

Based on your business’s niche, building local relevance as well as citations is an important aspect of on-page and off-page SEO. Note that a citation is simply a mention of your business on a different website. While some business owners may choose to use backlinks that are clickable, citations don’t need to be linked back to your business profile all the time. 

There are two types of citations that you can use for your business: structured and unstructured. Using structured citations means that your business will get mentioned by business directors that usually hold a wide range of businesses within your locality. 

So, when a person performs a local search in such directories using specific keywords that complement your business, then the Google search engine will first look at the local citations and provide the relevant results based on the best fit.

An unstructured citation is when your business is mentioned on other platforms such as blogs and online news platforms. The reference may have your business’s partial or full contact. The best and simplified form of unstructured citation are links

But regardless of the citation you choose, understand that there is a direct correlation between Google Local rankings and citations. They have also proved to be beneficial to businesses that want to rank higher on Google Maps.

Importance of Citations

For starters, you will get a major visibility boost. Online directories, for instance, usually allow users to filter their search results by using specific categories such as business category, location, and services, etc. This means a structured type of citation can quickly give you’re the visibility boost that your business needs.

Secondly, citations help to improve your business’ reputation by eliminating doubts. It shows that your business isn’t questionable and is in fact customer-oriented.

There is also a good chance that citations can attract potential business partners and other clients. Your local listings aren’t just designed to solely benefit your current clients in a business-to-consumer model. Investors who might be scouting for business opportunities may stumble on your business’s name on other online sites or directories and make contact.

However, if you are want to know how to rank higher on Google Maps in 2021 and beyond then you must consider citation distribution and alignment. These two factors can take your business further than your hand initially anticipated.

So, what happens when you have built quite a number of quality citations? Do you continue to build more until you reach a point of saturation? Well, continuing to build more saturation can have a significant negative impact on your business’s ranking. In fact, its marginal impact on your business’s overall authority locally will diminish.

So, you must do a citation audit to ensure that everything is balanced. This can be best done with a local Houston SEO company or a reputable SEO company that has knowledge in local SEO. You should consider doing a clean-up of the existing citations and then do a balanced distribution to ensure that you reinforce your top local in Google Maps.

Besides that, once you have attained a higher ranking on Google Maps and your business location has been solidified, then there is no need to build more citations.

What to Focus On:

Going back to the backlink as a form of unstructured citation, you still have to consider the quality. There are three main things that you need to focus on:

• The type of content where your business is mentioned is highly authoritative and is likely to attract good traffic.
• Ensure that you use more natural backlinks within the authoritative content.
• The context in which the backlink is used should be relevant to the anchor text.

Generally, high-authority citations lead to higher rankings on Google Maps in 2021.

4) Add Relevant Images

Adding relevant images to your Google My Business is very important for ranking higher on Google Maps in 2021. 

The advantage of doing this is that it signals you have a legitimate and active listing. As a result, you stand a better chance of ranking higher on Google Maps search results. Secondly, understand that Google normally uses photo-recognition technology that can be optimized to show images found in local search results.

Lastly, there is the SEO rule of thumb that indicates Google loves what consumers usually love. It’s true that consumers love photos since they offer a great visual representation. That’s why you should aim to add high-quality and esthetically pleasing photos that would most likely compel the customer to make positive decisions.

Generally, business listings that lack photos tend to rank lower as they are less appealing to consumers. To add photos, simply go to your GMB dashboard and then select the “Photos” tab. Click the circle with the white plus sign. This will allow you to easily drag several photos. 

Besides that, you can also add videos. From various SEO analyses, the best results are usually attained if you consider adding at least one photo daily. Some of the useful photos and videos that you can add include:

• Publish the front part of your business
• Your business logo
• Inside the office
• Products
• Employees
• Parking spaces

5) Optimize Your Website's Homepage

Google Maps’ ranking is all about the content of your business and how you decide to package it. So, if you optimize your web content, there are higher chances that you will rank higher locally. For starters, you need to take care of your website URL. Initially, when you add your website’s URL to Google Business Page, you are basically creating a landing page for your Google Maps listings.

This is an important aspect of your local SEO strategy that directly determines how you rank. When customers are looking at your business’s listing on Google, they also want to check how your website looks like. 

Google uses this association to determine how you have packaged your website content. Some of the factors that you should consider optimizing include:

Title Tag

It’s also known as the H1 and it’s the meta-tag found on your website’s homepage. You need to be keen about the title tag since it should highlight important details such as your business name, business category, and your local metro area. For instance, it can be something like – Melbourne Dental Clinic. You notice that we have the metro area, category, and overall business name.

Meta Description

After the title tag, this is another key element that you should consider. Note that the description tag needs to match the title tag. In this case, it would be something like – top dental clinic in Melbourne and its suburbs. Contact us today with any questions regarding our services and charges-. Notice that in this case, we are still using the business name. metro area, and business category.

On-Site Content

On-page elements must be fixed for you to acquire higher rankings on Google Maps. While you must continue to reinforce the content that’s found in the title tag and business description, you need to also use other elements such as keyword density and bold words. These are strategies that help to reinforce your home page’s dominance.

User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX)

In 2021, UI and UX have become an important Google ranking factor. UI, for instance, needs to be user-friendly to aid easier navigation. This normally helps to reduce the amount of search time and increase user satisfaction. As a result, a great UI fulfills the needs of the client in a faster and efficient way. This will consequentially result in improved sales volume and customer loyalty.

On the other hand, UX experience is based on the design of your website, especially when it comes to loading performance. Faster loading performance is a result of faster server response time as well as visual stability. 

Ensure that your content doesn’t jump around while the page is still loading. Besides that, focus on offering a mobile-friendly UX since a lot of people access websites by using mobile devices.

online review generation and reputation management

6) Get More Reviews

The top-ranking businesses on Google Maps usually have lots of positive reviews. If you want to get a quality business review, then you should put up your Google Maps link for a review on your email signatures, invoices, and business cards.

While it may seem unprofessional to directly ask your clients to leave reviews on your Google listing, encourage them to always give feedback on your purchases so that you can improve the quality of your services/products.

Conclusion

If you are operating your business in a highly competitive area, then it can be quite difficult to rank in the 3-pack when it comes to specific search terms. However, you can still optimize your business’s profile by optimizing your presence on Google Maps using your Google My Business Listing.

Google Maps has proved to be a powerful tool that can be used to attain higher search engine rankings. Ranking higher, in this case, means more customers for your business and definitely more returns. 

Implementing the above-mentioned factors will help your business rank higher on Google Maps, resulting in more customers and traffic to your local business.

 

Want to Seriously Increase Your Traffic and Rankings on Google?

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If you ever need a helping hand in getting your Houston company at the top of Google, look no further and book a call with BizcaBOOM, an SEO Company in Houston, so that you can get more calls coming in. Or if you’re in need of a professional web designer in The Woodlands, feel free to contact us here.

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