Adding your business to Google’s online ecosystem is the first step in improving your search engine optimisation. But adding your business’ listing to Google isn’t enough; you also need to optimise your listing so that your profile is presented for relevant searches.
A large part of optimising your business profile on Google for SEO involves providing plenty of accurate information —remember that Google’s main objective is to interpret what its users are searching for and then provide them with relevant results.
In this article, we’ll explain the important relationship between search intent and local SEO, before going into detail on how you can get your business among the top results for local or location-specific searches.
Jump to
- What is Google Business Profile?
- Why is local SEO so important?
- Google Business Profile optimisation: 5 best practices
- 1) Accurate information
- 2) Keywords
- 3) Customer reviews
- 4) Photos
- 5) Products and services
- Conclusion
What is Google Business Profile SEO?
If you’re looking for Google My Business, don’t worry you’re in the right place. Beginning in 2021, Google began a global rebrand which saw ‘Google My Business’ rebranded to ‘Google Business Profile’.
Business Profile is a free service from Google that allows you to add a business listing to the Google ecosystem. With a Business Profile, you can manage how your business is presented on Google Search and Google Maps. This tool is available to any business that provides services from a physical location.
For new businesses, especially service-based businesses, optimising their Google Business Profile is arguably more important than optimising their website. Google Maps is used by over 1 billion people, whilst Google Search handles over 5.9 million searches every minute. Now consider how many people are using Google products to find businesses in your town or city. This is the purpose of Google Business Profile optimisation; increasing the likelihood of your business being shown to users who are searching for local services.
What affects local rankings on Google?
Google uses various factors to determine local rankings. The primary ranking factors Google uses when determining the ranking of local results are relevance, distance, and prominence.
Relevance
Relevance measures how closely your Business Profile aligns with what a user is searching for. Providing thorough and accurate business information helps Google better understand your business, making it more likely to appear in local search results.
Distance
Distance takes into account how far your business is from the location specified in the search. It’s therefore crucial that you maintain an accurate address on your business profile. If the user doesn’t include a specific location in their query, using a term like ‘near me’ instead, Google serves results based on the user’s current location.
Prominence
Prominence reflects how well-known a business is, you could think of prominence as brand awareness. Well-established brands are therefore likely to rank higher than younger brands, where relevance and distance are close to equal. Prominence is also influenced by the number and quality of customer reviews your Business Profile has.
Google also takes other information from various web sources, including its measure of your website authority.
Being dependent on the user’s search term and circumstances, these ranking factors are largely outwith your control. However, they do draw on the information you include on your Business Profile and other factors like the number and quality of customer reviews your profile has and the authority of your website.
It’s therefore crucial that you continually optimise your Business Profile and implement SEO best practices across your website.
Why is local SEO important?
If you own or manage a restaurant, an independent store or any other type of local service business, you’re probably already aware that optimising for local search can significantly impact your ability to attract new customers. This is the purpose of local SEO —optimising your online assets, such as websites, profiles and business listings so that your business is shown when people input location-specific or local searches.
The benefits of local SEO are immediately obvious:
- improve brand awareness in the local community;
- appear in local search results on Google Maps and Google Search;
- get more enquiries and in-store visits;
- attract new customers and make more sales.
We’re not exaggerating that last point about getting new customers and making more sales. A crucial point to understand about local SEO relates to search intent.
Search intent
Search intent is a phrase that the search engines, like Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo use when deciding what the goal of a user’s search query is. Another way to think about search intent is that it’s a way of categorising users’ search queries.
There are four main categories of search intent; informational, navigational, commercial, and transactional.
1. Informational search intent is when the searcher wants to know something, such as “what is search intent?”
2. Navigational search intent is when the searcher wants to go to a specific website. A navigational search intent may include a brand name or a specific page title from that brand’s website e.g. “WebHummel blog”.
3. Commercial search intent is when the searcher is doing research in advance of making a purchase. For example, they might search for “best marketing agencies in York”.
4. Transactional search intent is when the searcher is ready to take action —they might be looking to visit a store or buy something online. The classic ‘near me’ searches are great examples of transactional searches.
The key point here is that local searches are typically categorised as having a commercial or transactional search intent. By optimising your local SEO, you increase the chances of your business being shown in the results for commercial and transactional searches.
The starting point for optimising your local SEO is your Google Business Profile.
Google Business Profile optimisation: 5 best practices
Your Business Profile is a dashboard from where you can manage how your business is presented in response to local searches on Google. Optimising your Google Business Profile is an ongoing process, so revisit the following best practices periodically or when you make any changes to your business.
1. Accurate information
Aim to complete every section and as much detail as you can to your Business Profile. But also keep in mind that local searches tend to have commercial or transactional search intent and are therefore likely to lead to an enquiry or in-store visit. If there are discrepancies between the information on your Business Profile and reality, you risk upsetting potential customers. In some cases, a disgruntled customer will use a review to tell others about how their expectations weren’t met.
Whilst it’s important to be thorough and complete as many sections as you can, it’s more important that you don’t mislead potential customers. The businesses that see the most benefit from local searches are those that maintain accurate information.
Ensure that your business name, description, address/locations, opening hours, photos are all accurate and up to date. Update your Business Profile when you make changes to your business and be sure to fix any discrepancies between the information on your Business Profile, your website, and your social media pages.
Use the attributes section to highlight the amenities that make your business stand out compared to your competitors. Attributes include wheelchair accessibility, Wi-Fi availability, outdoor seating for smokers, and service options like home delivery.
2. Include relevant keywords
The keywords you include in your Business Profile make it easier for Google to understand what your business is all about. Furthermore, including location-specific keywords helps Google understand the locations you serve, which can significantly increase the chances of your profile being shown in response to local searches.
Before adding the keywords you think are relevant to your business and audience, do some keyword research to find the keywords that are relevant. Once you know what keywords you should include, add them to your Business Profile.
It’s important to avoid keyword stuffing when adding keywords to your Business Profile. Instead, you want to include your keywords in a natural way. Yes —we are writing for Google’s automated systems here but we’re mainly writing for your potential customers. When it comes to public-facing written content, it’s always preferable to write for humans rather than robots.
The primary sections of your profile to include your keywords are:
Description —the “from the business” section is an ideal place to include your keywords, including some location-specific keywords. Keep in mind that the description section is limited to 750 characters so don’t go overboard on your keywords.
Product/Service descriptions —depending on the categories of your business, you may get the opportunity to add product or service details to your profile. When you add products or services, the descriptions are a great opportunity to add keywords to your profile —keep in mind that the product and service descriptions are limited to 350 characters so be mindful of keyword stuffing.
Q & A section —the ‘Q & A’ section on your Business Profile serves as an FAQ. This is a ‘community-driven feature’ meaning that anyone can ask questions about your business, and anyone else can answer those questions. Monitor this Q&A section and include relevant keywords in your responses to questions. In some situations, your answers to individual questions can appear in the SERPs as part of a ‘local pack’ —a featured result in Google search that appears when a user makes a location-based search.
3. Leverage customer reviews
Customer reviews have a direct impact on the prominence of your Business Profile. Google considers businesses with reviews as more trustworthy and recent reviews show that your business is active.
Ask for reviews
Prospective customers don’t just consider the review rating, most are also looking for the most recent reviews for up-to-date opinions on your business. There are subtle ways you can ask customers to leave you a review on Google Maps —some businesses offer an incentive, like a discount in return for a review. The ‘Ask for reviews’ section on your Business Profile dashboard has a review URL that you can share with your customers on social media, your website or via SMS or email.
Respond to reviews
Engagement is another signal that you are active and customer-focused. Aside from social media engagement, responding to reviews through your Business Profile is the best way to engage with your customers. Furthermore, 88% of consumers report they prefer businesses that reply to reviews.
We’re not just talking about responding to the positive reviews, you should be responding to all reviews including the negative ones. Responding to negative reviews can be difficult, especially those that seem to be unfounded. Our article on how to respond to negative reviews explains how to create a company policy on customer engagement.
4. Add photos
You can add a cover photo, a logo, and a selection of other photos to your Google Business Profile. Photos play an important role in how potential customers assess your profile. High-quality images build trust and make it easier for customers to recognise your storefront and branding.
As well as adding high-quality imagery, it’s also important to add recent images that show different sides of your business. You can add images of the outside of your business, the inside of your business, or even your staff. Like reviews, images are a chance to get across your brand personality and professionalism.
If you’re operating in a competitive industry, adding images is also an opportunity to display your prices which could be a deciding factor in bringing in new customers. Restaurants might add an up-to-date photo of their menu whilst other businesses might add a photo of their standard price list.
5. Add products and services
You can also add products or services to your Business Profile, depending on your primary business category. This is another opportunity to add photos to your profile and can be especially useful for retail and hospitality businesses.
This is a chance to showcase your product or service offering and highlight your best-selling products that are closely tied to your business’ reputation. You can choose from predefined services that are common for the business categories that your business falls under, where you can add descriptions and prices.
Set your business up for long-term success with WebHummel
Google Business Profile optimisation plays a vital role in improving your local SEO rankings. By keeping your profile up-to-date with accurate information, regularly adding fresh content, and leveraging customer reviews, you can significantly improve your visibility in local searches.
At beefound.agency we specialise in SEO, creating strategies that help you appear in local search results and stand out amongst your competition. We offer a full range of search engine marketing services including web design, PPC management & SEO.
Chat with us online or give us a ‘buzz’ to get started.
