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Google Maps Optimization is the process by which your Google My Business listing is optimized in such a way that your chances of breaking into the top most relevant local listings increase exponentially.

GMB has a review feature where customers can rate and review business. It is necessary from an SEO perspective because it carries a lot of weight in deciding your ranking.

One way to get more reviews is by asking customers directly for feedback after they have interacted with your business. You could also put a link to your review page on marketing platforms, sms, whatsapp, emails, newsletters, etc. to encourage your customers to review the business.

DMT, Our six-step GMB optimization process addresses your local SEO needs and helps you meet your business goals and increase customer footfalls.

Here is a brief overview of the process:

1. Filling your business description:

Google loves information! We try and fill in as many details as possible on your GMB profile to ensure profile completeness so that its algorithms give you a good ranking.

2. Getting your page verified:

This is a key part of GMB without which you cannot proceed with the optimization of your page.

3. Adding ‘Services:

Do you run a restaurant or a service-based business? We can help you add your menu or list of services to make your page more informative.

4. Creating posts:

Google Posts allows you to communicate with your customers by keeping them informed about events, new launches, discounts and offers, and so on. We will manage Google Posts for you so that your customers are always kept in the loop.

5. Getting reviews:

Reviews and ratings are an important parameter for Google. We will help you get more reviews for your business.

6. Images and videos::

The Google algorithm tends to favour businesses with images on their profile and promotes them up the order. We will help you take high-quality photos and videos of your business establishment to boost your ranking and make your page more appealing to customers at the same time.

The top 10 ranking factors for GMB are as follows—

1. Distance from the searcher.

2. The relevance of the business to the search.

3. Presence of photos.

4. Keyword optimization.

5. The number of citations; consistency of details across platforms (NAP consistency).

6. Backlinks.

7. Reviews–including review velocity and review diversity.

8. Clickthrough rate, dwell time, etc.

9. The organic rank of your website.

10. Social signals–high engagement on social media can push up your local search ranking although how this happens remains unclear.

GMB SEO (full form: Google My Business search engine optimization) refers to the art and science of making strategic modifications to your Google Business page with the intention of pushing up its ranking and increasing its online visibility. Doing this will attract more customers to your business and help drive conversion numbers.

Google Maps is important for local businesses because Google Maps shows top -3 spots of everything that is being searched for in Google Maps.

Statistically, 80 % of consumers who searched for a local business on their phone visit that business within 24 hours. The interactive nature of Google Maps means that people can directly find directions to the business and even make a phone call to the business from the search results.

According to a Google study by digital marketing tiger, 70 % of mobile searchers use this click-to-call feature. Therefore, it is very important for a local business to show up on Google Maps.

Google My Business is an important marketing tool for local businesses which is available for free. With an increasing number of people resorting to online search engines (especially Google) to find and locate businesses, GMB is a important platform that helps service provider, traders and professionals enhance their online visibility and attract more customers.

It is possible to auto-post to Google My Business using third-party tools. Examples of such tools include OneUp, Sendible, Social Report, and Social Pilot.

Yes, Google allows you to claim your GMB page and list your business absolutely free of cost.

No, you do not have to pay anything for a Google Business Listing. It is absolutely free and can be optimized and managed by you at no extra cost.

But If you hire a GMB optimization service company then you will need to pay a certain monthly amount.

GMB posts can have a significant impact on SEO in two important ways–by directing users to your website and enhancing your website SEO, and through the inclusion of keywords, improving your GMB SEO.

GMB optimization is a complicated process that involves the following steps:

1. Ensuring the Completeness and Accuracy of Your Data

Google likes businesses whose details are complete, accurate, and up-to-date. Details include your business name, address, phone number, website, description, category, etc. Remember to ensure that this information is consistent across local directories. They must also match the data provided on your website. A mismatch here could lead to a lower GMB ranking.

2. Obtaining Reviews from Clients

Reviews and ratings are a key factor in determining your GMB ranking. One way to obtain good reviews is to directly ask your clients to leave feedback. Also, include links to your review page on marketing collaterals such as emails and newsletters. Google encourages business owners to seek reviews from their clients as long as they do not violate the company guidelines.

3. Using Various GMB Features Efficiently

Google has been consistently innovating to add new features to make GMB more appealing to users and businesses. These innovations include posts, messages, a menu or services feature that enables you to list your offerings, and so on. The intelligent and judicious use of these features and facilities can help you attract more eyeballs and increase customer footfall.

4. Uploading Photos of Your Business

This is a hugely significant ranking factor. Experts have noticed that businesses without photos are often pushed down the rankings while businesses with an adequate number of pictures on their GMB profile are promoted.
Though there is also space for videos, there is no evidence yet that their presence or absence has any impact upon your ranking.

5. Responding to Questions from Users

There is a Q&A section on GMB where anyone can post a question and any person can answer it. Many of these questions come from people who are genuinely interested in your services. Answering them promptly increases your chances of turning that person into a customer. Your replies also help clear the doubts of other potential customers with respect to your business.

It is possible to access your GMB page by going to Google Maps and then typing the name and address of your business into the search bar.

You can access your GMB account through the Google My Business website.

Mobile users can download the GMB app to access their accounts

In order to reach the top of GMB listings, it is important to optimize your page. The basic steps for GMB optimization have been covered under How To Do SEO For Google My Business Page.

The actual process of GMB optimization is much harder than it sounds. It is best to get in touch with a professional SEO service provider to help you with it. An SEO company, Digital marketing tiger, will not only save your time and energy but also deliver a high standard of work.

Unlike websites, GMB has limited opportunities for keywords.

Keywords can be included under the business description column on your profile and also through posts.

While including keywords, make sure that they appear natural. You should avoid keyword stuffing at all costs.

GMB added a video feature in January 2018, giving business owners an additional avenue to communicate their story.

Using this feature, business owners can upload videos that are up to 30 seconds long to showcase their business to prospective customers.

New videos could take up to 24 hours to show up on the page.

Remember to keep the following technical specifications in mind while uploading your video:

1. The minimum resolution should be 700p.

2. The file size should not exceed 100 MB.

3. The video should not be more than 30 seconds long.

GMB allows both customers and business owners to put up videos related to the business. These videos are grouped under separate categories–i.e. you can find them under the ‘Customer’ and ‘By Owner’ category. You can find all of them together under the ‘Videos’ category.

Google has made it easy for business owners to track their GMB data through Google My Business Insights.

The tool offers a host of statistics including how customers are finding your listing, the questions that are leading them to your page, whether they are finding you on Search or on Maps, and via desktop or mobile, what actions users are taking after finding your business and so on.

Voice search is the next big thing in the online world and the important thing to realize about voice search is that it works just like text search–i.e., it uses keywords to generate search results.
The key difference between text search and voice search is the length of the query–voice search commands are generally longer than text search and often more conversational.

If you want to optimize your GMB page for voice search, it is essential to incorporate voice- based keywords into your page. You can find voice search keywords from sources such as the Search Console, Autocomplete, and competition analysis using tools like SEMrush.

SEO is necessary if you want your GMB page to rank and this can be achieved through several ways such as ensuring the completeness of your profile, optimizing it with the right keywords, and getting positive reviews and ratings.

There could be many reasons why your business is not showing up on Google but some of the most common and primary reasons are

1. Your GMB is not verified

2. No location authority

3. Suspended GMB

4. Your business has relocated

Depending on the kind of post that you’re doing you need to make sure that you have added clearly optimized photos and videos.

Dimensions of a photo that you’re posting should be within 1200×900 px. There should be no grammatical errors in what you have posted as it will not portray a good image in front of a potential client.

Or, you can hire a digital marketing tiger, GMB optimization company at a very nominal fee to optimize your GMB posts.

Google My Business listing needs to be updated because this helps

1. A business to get discovered and get seen

2. Drive leads – People are actively searching for businesses such as yours. In order for these people to find you, you need to update your Google Business listing.

3. Attract customers – The easier a business is to find online, the more likely it is that a customer will make a purchase after searching for a business.

4. Improve your SEO – Updating your GMB listing helps Google to provide the most accurate and reliable search results.

Google has strict policies when it comes to reviews. Any violation of these policies is not a good idea. Here are guidelines about what you can and can’t do while posting a review

You can’t post spam and fake content

You can’t post off-topic things

You should not post restricted content

You can’t post illegal content

You can’t post terrorist content

Sexually explicit content is not allowed

Offensive content that uses offensive language and gestures is not allowed

Dangerous and derogatory content

Impersonation of other individuals, company or organization will lead to the removal of accounts or even legal action in select cases.

Conflict of interest such as reviewing your own business, posting content about a competitor to manipulate their ratings is not allowed.

Yes, Google Maps Optimization is helpful for a business as it can bring in more leads for a business. Optimizing the GMB listing should be high on the to-do list of businesses as it has huge benefits for them. Proper optimization can make the business more visible in front of its target audience which will result in more leads and potential walk-ins. A Google study has shown that more than 80 % of people tend to visit a business after searching for it online and finding it online. Google My Business optimizations are also known as Google Maps optimization and the two terms are used interchangeably.

Questions and Answers feature on Google My Business listing is a great way to engage with potential customers. You can add frequently asked questions and answers so that people who are searching for your business on Google Maps can easily get answers to common questions.

You can also get a push notification from Google whenever a new question is asked about your business.

It is always a good idea to engage the services of a professional SEO company, Digital marketing tiger, for GMB optimization. Not only will it save your time and effort, but it will also ensure a high standard of service. Moreover, while GMB optimization may sound easy in discussions, it is a really complicated process. It is better to leave the job to a specialist company that employs expert professionals.

If you want to rank higher than your competitors on Google Maps (or GMB), you need to optimize your GMB page.

You could also get in touch with us, digital marketing tiger for high-quality professional GMB optimization services at affordable rates.

Yes, Google Maps can help even if you have your offices in multiple locations.

If your services are spread across the entire country, you can still use Google Maps to register your branches. This will prove helpful as it will enable local customers to visit or contact you using Google Search.

If you want your customers to visit all your locations, you need to register them on Google Maps. However, you do not need to open a new GMB account for each location. Google Maps (or GMB) allows you to manage multiple business locations using a single account. Availing of this facility requires you to add your locations to the GMB dashboard.