Loading ...The fact that the average person doesn’t go beyond the first page of search results is well known, and when it comes to Google Maps listings, it’s important for a business’s name to be prominent, too. KeyRelevance’s director of optimization strategies, Chris Silver Smith, gave some tips on this issue at SMX West.
Smith began by naming four factors that can influence search rankings in Google Maps. The first is how close a company’s address is to a city center. He admits that this is hard to control, of course, and luckily for far-flung firms, Google has been deemphasizing it lately.
The second factor is how many ratings a business has received and how positive the ratings are. Then, there are regular SEO factors like how well a business’s website ranks, and finally, more specific matters of keyword relevance.
But what’s one business to do if it serves several different cities? Smith suggested creating targeted content on the main website and listing the cities. There’s also the less conventional approach of obtaining a mailing address in each city, but Smith warned that Google may regard this as spam.
As for whether businesses should give up on advertising in traditional printed yellow page books to focus on Google Maps, Smith doesn’t recommend making hasty decisions. Look at the question on an “is it working for you?” basis, since the answer will depend on the industry, and any move should be results-based.
Please expand on your explanation for
“how many ratings a business has received and how positive the ratings are”
I also would mention to work the keywords related to the main keywords but focused in the geographical target of this mentioned keyword. For me this one is the main key, also I would agree that positive coments factor is to be considered as really important.
Although the above explanation is good for one to understand how to improve their google map listings, however a few more pointers below may further improve.
Adding relevant keywords within the business description
Adding relevant brands
Placing your listing in the right category (you can add more than 1 category)
There is a bulk upload option if your business has many locations
You don’t need to have a website to be listed on google maps which is a benefit to business owners without a website
Last and the most important pointer is that relevancy is the main factor.
Hope this helps
Tom
One of our listing on google maps gets 15,000 impressions every 30 days which result in 15 clicks on our web page. We have 16 other stores that average about 100 impressions and 10 clicks every 30 days. One of the biggest problems comes from negative entries from people that know nothing about our industry. It’s what your blogger article calls “spit in the face.” 99% of the entries are done via Yahoo local listings which show up with google maps. Also nearly 30 directories have taken our address and phone number out of the phone books listed it in their directories and many have links to web sites that we do not own. With 17 stores bringing in 30k a month were losing around 100k per year because of google maps and other services that are mismanaged.
How exactly do the number of impressions and clicks factor into google map optimization?
Thats what I thought and you really helped me prove my point with this post. I cant wait to show my friend so he can see he was wrong. – Walter