Author: Ryan Walsh

Date: 18/12/2024

Subject: Local SEO

 

Businesses understandably want to appear on page one of Google as much as possible.

After all, this maximises your chances of drawing in more visitors, which can ultimately improve a business’s sales.

So, a local business sometimes appears at the top of Google.co.uk, that is, in the Google AdWords section. They may also appear in the map

listings, A.K.A. Google My Business, and organic business results.
This means that for any one query made by someone, “Find me a local dentist,” businesses which have invested in improving their digital advertising can appear three times, sometimes even more, as Google’s algorithm decides to rank the company multiple times within the organic search engine results pages.

 

What are the benefits of creating a Google My Business (GMB) profile?

– Can help improve your local SEO
– Draw in more customers
– You can add your business contact information
– A brief explanation of the services you offer
– You add business opening hours
– You can gain reviews from customers

First, what is Google My Business? How is this different from organic SERP’s?

Google My Business is offered free of charge by Google. So, whether you’re a sole trader with small business premises that are not large enough to swing a cat or run a vast solicitors practice, we encourage you to create a Google My Business account.

The best part is that creating this account doesn’t take long, possibly less than 30 minutes.

Sure, it will need updating occasionally, such as if you change your address.

However, Google My Business is a potent marketing tool for optimising your listing. It says everything a customer needs to know about your business, including where you’re based and your contact details. Plus, there will be customer reviews so customers can understand what previous customers think about your business.

How do you set up a Google My Business account?

Well, thankfully, it’s a piece of cake to do and here’s how:

 

How to create a Google My Business account:

Head to Google My Business homepage and select Manage Your Business Listing.

 

Log in using your Google Account.

You can use your Gmail account or Google login details to find and manage your business.

Find and manage your business.

Sometimes, Google may have already set up an account for your business, so a Google Business profile is already live. Therefore, all you have to do is claim it.

If there is no Google Business live, you can create one.

Start by adding the business name and category.

First things first, add the business name and the business category. We recommend sticking to your company name and not trying to add a town, village, or city to the business name to better optimise the listing, as this approach doesn’t work.

It’s an old and outdated SEO tactic where businesses add “Cardiff” to the end of their business names or business citations to try to optimise the listing better.

Of course, if your business includes the city name, add this to your Google Business account. However, if your company doesn’t mention the city, town, or village where you are based, we would not include it.

 

Select a business category.

This sounds like straightforward advice, yet you would be astonished by the number of businesses that don’t select the right business category.

For example, let’s say you are a garden fence installer, and you select the business category “builders” or “general builders”.
Technically, fence building is related to construction. However, a more accurate business description, like fence builders, would improve your local SEO.

That’s because you want your business to appear in the Google Business results for your exact service or product.
So, take the time to select the proper business category.

 

Add a location or a service area

Add your company’s NAP information. NAP is an abbreviation for the business’s name, address, and phone number.

So, add these details, namely, your company address, and make sure the NAP information you write matches your website’s NAP information.

Service Area Business (SAB)

If you are a service area business, let’s say you’re a heating engineer; you can specify a radius of your business’s area. For example, it could be a 25-mile radius around Cardiff. Let’s say

Add your company contact details

Add the homepage URL, phone number, company address, and e-mail.
Make sure that the phone number is a landline. The number is on your website’s contact page, so use that number. If possible, don’t use a mobile; use a landline number instead.

Add Business Hours

Please add your opening hours. If you change them, for example, for a bank holiday weekend, please update your Google Business profile to reflect this.

By regularly logging into your Google Business account, you are also showing Google that you are keeping your listing up to date and that you want to provide shoppers with accurate information relating to your business.

That’s a good thing for improving your company’s SEO as well.
Google wants to display accurate, up-to-date business listings, so if you keep your Google Business listing up to date, your business is likely to be shown more often in the Google Business results.

Add a unique business description.

You don’t have to write massive text, but we recommend making it unique.

We recommend writing a short paragraph introducing your business, the products, and the services you sell.

We recommend that this text be unique, so don’t copy and paste a chunk of text from your company’s About Us page.

We say that the best SEO agencies globally will tell you to write unique text, whether on-page or off-page, rather than duplicating anything.
So, when writing the business description, make sure it is a unique text just written for your Google Business page.

Add some photos of your business premises.

So, a way of optimising your Google Business listing is to add photos to your account.

So, for example, if you run a used car dealership, why not add photos of your car forecourt or showroom?

This instantly conveys to the customer the amount of stock you have for sale, allowing them to understand your business. For example, you may picture the company director standing with his team.
If the staff members look friendly and welcoming, then this may encourage a shopper to call your business.

 

How does Google’s algorithm decide which businesses to display in the Google Business results:

Relevance

Google wants to display businesses most relevant to the products or services you seek.
After all, if you’re looking for a wedding dress, you won’t be looking for a summer dress, so Google wants to provide the most accurate and relevant results.

This goes for all of Google’s SERPs, whether Google Adwords, Google Business, or Google organic results. The primary way the different algorithms work is to be worked out in advance.

Google wants to supply the most relevant answer to any question.
So, the more relevant your Google business profile, the better. Accumulating positive business reviews, adding photos of your business, and writing a detailed business description help Google better understand your business and the products and services you sell to customers.

 

Proximity

So, if you’re looking for a local business, you understandably don’t want to travel too far to visit it.
So, let’s say you ask Google to find your local tyre repair shop.

If you’re in Roath, Cardiff, when you ask Google that, you probably don’t want to drive or go that far to visit the business.
Google will use location data from your smartphone to determine which businesses are closest to you. The proximity of the business location, in terms of where you are at that moment in time, will be used to determine which businesses to display in the Google Business results.

Prominence

Here, SEO agencies think there is a crossover between local SEO and organic SEO.

What we mean by that is that if your business has strong SEO ranking factors, such as backlinks, good customer reviews, and many quality business citations, then these can help improve the chances of your business being displayed more often in Google Business results.

 

How can we better optimise our Google Business listing?

So, we would recommend keeping your business listing up to date.

A reason why a Google business listing may not appear is because of “conflicting business citations”.

All this means is that the business could have changed its address.

The Google Business listing may have one address, and the company website may have another. Then, you have the business citations. Some of these may say the new address, and others may say the old one.

This is confusing for the customer and for Google’s algorithms, which are also confusing.

It isn’t clear for Google’s algorithms simply because the business doesn’t know which of the two addresses it is based on.

So, Google might choose to display a competitor’s website instead. That’s where the NAP details might be more accurate. Regarding the GMB listing, the business citations and the address on the website will all match, so Google has much greater confidence that the business is located there.

Respond to reviews, both good and bad.

We recommend that you reply to customer reviews, whether good or bad.

This is for two reasons. The first is that you offer good customer service.

The second shows that the Google Business profile is being managed. So, by regularly logging into the account and saying thank you to a customer for leaving a good and positive business review, you show that you are managing and updating your Google Business account as a business.

 

How we can help

We are an established and well-known SEO agency based in the heart of Cardiff’s city centre. We help our clients get on page one of Google. Prices for our services start from £500 for low-competition business sectors and rise to £5k a month for competitive business sectors.

We can improve your business search engine optimisation.

If you would like a bespoke quote, do contact us today.