Google Now Showing Queries used to find your business In Google Maps
Written by webtechs

Google Now Showing Queries used to find your business In Google Maps

Seemingly overnight, Google just started showing queries customers use to find your business on local Google maps. This has been something local SEO companies have been waiting for since forever ago. This will extremely help local SEO companies figure out exactly what keywords customers are using to find a client’s local business on Google maps. This allows for better optimization of Google map listing which means better rankings. This will also help SEO’ers understand what keywords trigger a map listing vs. only showing organic keywords.

Google Now Showing Queries used to find your business In Google Maps

How To Use Queries Used To Find Your Business To Your Advantage

In order to trigger your Google maps when a customer is searching for a product or service like the one you offer, Google uses a list of signals to tell if the business is the right fit for a specific keyword or keyword phrase. These signals are usually: Your website, Pictures in your Google maps listing and reviews. Google looks through your listing into your website to understand what pages/products/or services are there. If the keyword the user typed in was in your local service area and the keyword matched information on your website, Google will show your maps listing. Furthermore, if you have pictures in your map listing with the keywords the user typed in, that can trigger the maps listing as well. Lastly, reviews have all kinds of keywords in them. Having a review from a customer that has your most important keywords in it will also help Google show your listing. They will even bold out keywords in your reviews that match the phrase the user typed in.

Google Showing Bolded Queries In Google Reviews

Not Sure How To Use This New Opportunity To Your Advantage?

WebTechs.Net has been helping local business owners all over the United States optimized their Google My Business listings and websites to earn strong rankings and increase sales. Local SEO where we truly shine!!

Why Most SEO Companies In Phoenix Suck
Written by webtechs

Why Most SEO Companies In Phoenix Suck!

If you are searching for phrases like “SEO Company Phoenix” or “SEO Companies Phoenix”; one or more of the following statements is probably true about you or your business:

  • You are a business owner offering products or services in Phoenix, Arizona or surrounding cities
  • You own a website (or know you need one)
  • You want more traffic to your website (if you have one already) and heard that SEO or Search Engine Optimization can get you there
  • You want more qualified leads coming from online marketing efforts
  • You want to increase sales to your products and services
  • You want to be found for specific keywords related to your industry and service area
  • You want to increase your service area to include new cities in surrounding areas
  • You hired another SEO company that didn’t work out and now are looking for SEO services that actually work
  • or You want someone to manage your online presence so you can continue business as usual

If any of the above statements are true, then yes, a SEO company in Phoenix can definitely help you get that accomplished! However, you should know that NOT all SEO companies in Phoenix are created equal.

Why Most SEO Services In Phoenix Suck!

We are sorry to be so blunt about it but the statement is true. Our team here at WebTechs.Net truly loves to business owners win with online marketing and when we hear horror stories about other SEO companies in our neighborhood area giving SEO a bad name it doesn’t make us happy. We are in the business of offering SEO services that work and a lot of the time we get scared clients that left another SEO company to come to us for a consultation. Often these business owners experienced bad SEO and now are not sure whether it works and what SEO company to trust.

However, once we help the client understand why their SEO wasn’t working (only takes a little research to find missed and potential opportunities) and had time to implement our own strategies we rarely lose those clients because we fix the problem and implement content strategies and solutions that actually work!

Read more below about why most SEO services or companies don’t work out:

Most SEO’ers are Lazy

Most SEO companies will try their hardest to get your account but don’t do a whole lot once they get it. Most will create you a business listing, change the titles of your web pages and then put your account on autopilot. For some niche businesses this “set it and forget it” strategy actually works (believe it or not), especially if the business owner had no previous online exposure. However, for plumbers, lawyers, AC contractors or any other types of businesses that actually has competition, that same set it and forget strategy will get you nowhere fast. Most business categories in the Phoenix, Arizona area are extremely competitive and take a whole lot more than a single business listing to get rankings, and more importantly, keep them.

Don’t Add Or Create New Content

This is one of the biggest mistakes we see other companies making all the time. Every SEO’er should know, “Content Is King!” and having content rich pages/posts on your website is the fastest way to get your website ranking.

We have actually lost clients in the past that went to another company because they believed the other companies SEO efforts would work better. Would you believe that in both cases we’ve experienced that the other SEO company actually removed pages from the clients website vs. adding more content. We have had that happen twice and both times the client ended up leaving the other company and to come back to us. Both times the clients came back and said “We just want to be where we were at before we left”. They realize how much business they actually lost by trusting the wrong company with their website and realized how much business we were actually pushing to them after they lost. “You never know what your missing until it’s gone

However, most SEO companies either 1. Don’t know which content to create or 2. They just don’t want to do it. In either case, this is a huge mistake because you can build as many listing and backlinks as you want, but without quality content on your local product or service pages, you will never rank highly on Google and you won’t see more sales to your products or services.

1 Man Band

95% of people who start an SEO business are a 1 man band performing SEO out of there basement or home office. Most start learning about SEO because it is a job that you can do from home. Here at WebTechs.Net, we know that having a team with different sets of skills that complement each other, is the only way to provide local SEO services that work!

In the SEO field you need to know (or have a team that knows) programming, website design, hosting, content writing, mobile friendly web design, and more. There are tons of skill sets that are needed to do SEO the right way and a 1 man band could never master all of those individual skills, and still be great at all of them. WebTechs has a whole team of designers, programmers, content writers and more to ensure we all master our individual skills and provide the best SEO services possible. Our team has over 50+ years of SEO & Web Design experience! Our company has been in business since 1997!

Most SEO Companies IN Phoenix Make False Claims or Give Unrealistic Expectations

If an SEO company makes any of the following statements you should run fast:

They tell you they will get you in the top 3 spots within 6 months or less with a brand new website.

It’s not even close to possible to get a brand new site ranking within the top 3 spots on Google unless it is a super niche business. That might be possible if you have an existing website with rankings already but if your niche is really competitive it is unlikely. We usually tell people to not expect anything super lucrative until a year or so in the game.

They tell you they can’t share with you what they are doing to get your website ranking

If they won’t share their strategies with you they are probably hiding something or not doing the work. Furthermore, if they won’t provide ranking reports you won’t be able to tell if what they are doing is working or not. But, don’t be fooled by SEO companies tracking “easy-to-rank” keywords like your business name or something that would happen automatically. It’s super easy to rank for your business name and you should never take that as a sign that your SEO is working.

Make sure the keyword(s) that your SEO company selects are popular words that are commonly typed in by potential customers in your area. The only way to know for sure is to ask another SEO company or do the research yourself using Google Keyword Planner. Just pop different keywords in that you think potential customers would be searching for when looking for products or services like the ones you offer.

Most of the time, the most popular keywords that people are searching for are ones that include the kind of product or service you offer and the city. For example: If you are a lawyer in Phoenix, your keywords would most likely be “lawyer phoenix”. Those are the kind of keywords that actually bring new traffic/leads to your business website.

They Tell You They Will Get Reviews For You

I know it would be easy if you just paid your SEO company to find people to leave fake reviews for you but this should never be your focus if you want to have a real positive reputation online. If the company is willing to be this devious, you can only imagine what they are doing while you are not looking. We would never post fake reviews for clients as it could get them and us in trouble if Google were to ever find out.

Most of the time Google’s algorithm can spot fake reviews and won’t even allow them to be posted on your listing. Your SEO company should be solely focused on content marketing and getting you new leads. Focus your time on servicing those leads, making customers happy and asking for positive reviews. It only takes about a minute of your time and means the world to other potential customers thinking about buying your products or services and helps increase your ranking in Google Maps.

Other Commonly Asked Questions By Potential SEO Customers

Does SEO work?

Yes it does as long as the SEO company performing the services knows what they are doing. Ask for case studies or proof of other client’s rankings if you aren’t sure who to trust.

What do SEO companies do to my website to increase my rankings? Most SEO companies will tell you that NAP listings, backlinks and content are what makes your site rank. That is true but Content should be the #1 focus for anyone who wants strong-continual rankings that don’t go away as soon as one of Google’s algorithim penalties hit. The sites we manage for SEO almost never see a dip in traffic due to an algorithm update because we are producing content we know Google wants to see. They want to understand your products and services as much as possible to give you a strong ranking. If your internet marketing company confuses Google’s algorithm the wrong titles or thin content, it will be hard for Google to give you a strong ranking.

Which SEO companies can I trust with my website?

The best way to find out about an SEO company is to look up their reviews. For example, find an SEO company you are interested in and type in “Company Name Reviews”. If you were looking up our company you would type in “Webtechs.net Reviews” and see nothing but 5 star ratings on Google. Our services actually work and our clients are more than happy to give us a review when we request one. We usually wait at least a year before asking a client to leave a review.

How long does it take before I start getting more calls or leads?

If you have a niche business it is a chance that you could get calls right away. Although, most people start seeing increasing in leads and calls right around the 6 month mark. We are not saying you will rank in the top 3 spots for all of your keywords but you should be getting calls and leads by that time if your business has a regular amount of competition. However, if you are a plumber, AC repair contractor or another highly competitive business in Phoenix, you can’t expect to see calls or leads for up to a year. The competition out here is fierce but not unbeatable. We have tons of high competition clients on our books and some have been with us for over 12 years.

I already hired an SEO company in Phoenix, why I am not getting more calls or leads?

If you are only paying around $300 or so for SEO services, your account is most likely on autopilot. Companies like Yodle will offer cheap SEO services but only build and optimize your Google listing in hopes that alone will increase your sales. However, this never works; we get SEO clients from Yodle, DEX and others all the time because what they can’t deliver on what they promise. Our company actually does the hard work to make sure the account becomes successful. Your website’s content should be your number 1 focus if you want to rank highly on Google. So many companies try to find a way around  building content but there is no way around it and Google is starting to penalize a ton of old black-hat or gray-hat SEO tactics internet marketers use back in the day.

Why is another SEO company in Phoenix telling me I am not ranking?

We get questions like this from our current SEO customers. It’s actually mind blowing but our SEO company even gets calls telling us we are not ranking in the top 3 spots in Google and are losing out on a ton of business lol. They will actually go as far to tell us that they work for Google when we are in constant touch with the Google My Business team and know that “No SEO Company” works for Google. Furthermore, Google does not make outbound solicitation phone calls. So if you ever get a call from a company saying that they work for Google, run fast!

Conclusion

Hiring an SEO company in Phoenix can be one of the biggest headaches you can have as a local business owner. Do your best to research reviews about potential companies and ask for a free SEO consultation in their office. If they won’t allow you to come to their office there’s a great chance they don’t have one or don’t even have the time for you or your business. WebTechs.Net always offers free SEO consultations for you to understand more about our SEO services and meet our awesome team of web designers, programmers, content writers and SEO experts.

Schedule A Free SEO Consultation With WebTechs.Net Today!

Schedule your free SEO consultation with WebTechs.Net by giving us a call today at (480) 348-0550 Ext 105

LOCAL SEO STRATEGY FOR 2018
Written by webtechs

The Best Local SEO Strategy For 2018 and Beyond!

If you are searching for the best local seo strategy, local seo tips or local seo guide, this post/video is about to make growing your local business a whole easier! Get ready for the best local seo strategy guide for 2018 and beyond!

Hey guys, my name is Erick “Efreezee” Carlson and I am the head local seo strategist for WebTechs.Net, a successful web company that started back in 1998.

Ive been working with WebTechs since 2013 and have had the pleasure of performing local to national seo services for many different types of local businesses including contractors, designers, lawyers, HVAC experts and even plumbers, one of the most competitive local business types out there and we are winning with these strategies.

With so many different types of clients to experiment with, Over the years, I have learned what works and what doesn’t; What’s worth spending money on and what’s not.

In this video I will show you:

  • Local seo strategies you can implement right now while watching this video
  • Why your Google listing, website and only a few other elements are all you need to rank well
  • How to make your on page optimization stronger with a few easy local SEO Tips
  • Why you don’t really need links to rank organically on Google (yes I just said that)
  • How to build your local seo product or service pages from scratch and what type of information needs to be listed on that pages to rank highly and get more calls to your busienss

Almost all of the local SEO tips I will show are things you can do for 100% free, with no money out of pocket. People pay us 1000’s of dollars a month to do this for them guys, have been with us for years and they are still paying and/or adding more accounts as they grow. No one in their right mind would pay thousands of dollars for something that doesn’t work, continue to pay and then add more accounts on.

Everything i’m about to show you has worked more than once or twice, and is tested and true for many different types of business categories.

1. The Best Local SEO Strategy Starts With A Business Listing

Google My Business Listing

Google is the number one place to get new customers so creating a google listing is an absolute must. Create your Google My Business listing by clicking here. You will have the option of creating a service area business or a physical location. We have a Google maps marketing guide that shows you how to completely optimize your Google Maps Listing.

True or False: You have to have a physical location in order to rank well on Google search and maps?

False: It doesn’t matter what type of listing you have. As long as your web pages have the information I’m about to show you on them, you will rank extremely well in the organic listings and the maps.

Focus On Adding New Pictures & Reviews To Your Google Listing

The most important thing you should be focused on with this new listing is adding new pictures and getting new reviews on a regular basis. This will show Google & Potential Customers: You have proof of your work (pictures) and other people like it too (reviews).

These are all positive signals that it needs to see to rank you highly. Google needs to trust you in order to rank you highly. The more proof you provide via pictures and reviews; the more Google will trust you, rank you highly and send customers your way!

However, you’re not going to be able to rank with only a Google business, you need to create a website that talks about your products and services in depth. That’s the only way to rank a website or business listing higher. You don’t actually build up your business listing, rather, your website that is attached to your business listing.

Dowdload This SEO Plugin Before You Do Anything Else

Before you build any page or add a single keyword you should download the Keywords Everywhere plugin for Google Chrome immediately. This is an incredible local SEO tool that will help you find the right keywords to use when building your pages. This keyword tool will actually show you how many people are searching for the keyword phrase you chose and how much advertisers are paying per click.

Google Search

You don’t want to pick a random keyword, you want to pick a popular phrase that gets searched often. Go get this plugin and install it in Chrome, if your not using Chrome, Go download Google Chrome, install it and set it as your default browser. This plugin is that important and if you won’t even do that then stop this video now, you aren’t ready for the next level yet.

2. Build New Pages On Your Website

Any good local SEO strategy should include adding new product/service pages to your website aka content you hear all these SEOers talking about. CONTENT IS KING!! Some SEO strategists say that isn’t true anymore and that adding backlinks is the most important SEO tip.

I have 1,000’s of pages of proof where we used 0 backlinks to rank clients in the number 1 spot on Google search for competitive keywords like the keyword phrase “garage door repair costs”. Advertisers are paying over $21.00 per click to show up for that keyword and our client has the featured position organically. Meaning, we aren’t paying to show up there. Google knows we have the best answer to that query and chooses to show our sites answer as the featured result.

Guess what got us there… Content. We did not build a single link to that post. It got their organically because we noticed what type of content was out there, made our own unique version of it and expanded it to be better for the end user.

What kind of pages do I build on my website?

Whether you offer products or services will determine what type of content you need on your website but the general idea still remains the same. If you sell products, you need to create local product pages focused on your individual products and city you’re doing business in. If you sell services, you need to create local service pages focused on your individual services and city you’re doing business in. We go into way more depth below, keep reading.

What should I talk about on my product and service pages?

No other seo strategist talks about this. No one knows what they should be saying on their local seo service or product pages because all SEOers do is talk about titles, meta tags and alt tags. They never actually show you what type of content should be listed on your pages to rank higher and dominate your competitors. I had to learn these local seo tips over years of experience in building thousands of pages and analyzing 1000s of competitor websites every year while performing research.

To keep it simple, all you really need on your pages is about 800 words of text, a couple heading tags, a picture and the right formatting on your important keywords. I will show you exactly how to put your content together right now. No matter what type of business you have these strategies should work for you.

3. Create Individual Pages For Your Products & Services

This is the most important thing you can do to rank organically without ever having to pay for PPC or ads. Most business owners who do their own SEO and even some season SEOers still make the mistake of listing all of their services on only one page. Google likes to see individual pages created for each product or service you have. This will give them a clear explanation of what your site is about and the types of keywords/categories they should rank you for.

4. How To Perfectly SEO Each Product & Service Page

Depending on the competition where you live, you may or may not need that much content on your pages at all but any wise SEO guy or gal would tel you that having at least 800 words on each page is best practice.

Although, research your competition first to find out how much content they have on their individual product or service pages.

Here is what should be listed on every product or service page you create for the best possible chance of taking a strong ranking right away.

Step 1. Create Good Page Titles

Create Better Website Pages - Local SEO Strategy

Make the title of your page a combination of the following elements: The general name of your product or service (the most general way people know it, not the name you gave it. If you’re a plumber, say plumber etc), the city you do business in and then your company name. Here is an easy format for titles of your pages:

Service City – Company Name

For example: Local SEO Services Scottsdale – WebTechs.Net

If you are a plumber in Houston and your company name way John’s Plumbing Service, you would make your page title like this:

For example: Plumber Houston – John’s Plumbing Service

Upload an Image

Make an image relevant to your product or service and use your keywords for the file name of the image and use the same keywords for the title and alt text of the image after uploading.

Add An Intro Paragraph (Plus a good Call To Action)

Adding an intro to the page will help Google and the reader understand your page better. Furthermore, bolding and italicizing your keywords will make them stand out to Google for a better chance to rank.

If you are searching for the phrase “Service/City“, Company Name can help!

For example: If you are searching for the phrase “Local SEO Services Scottsdale“, WebTechs.Net can help!

Add a Call To Action With A Link

If you are interested in our SEO Services In Scottsdale, give WebTechs.net a call today at (480) 348-0550.

Add Your First H2/Sub Topic

This is where we are going to add meat to the page that will help Google understand your page better and offer more information for your potential customers.

H2 – Your general product or service + City name

For example:

H2 – SEO Services We Offer In Scottsdale

Add a paragraph under hear that generally talks about your services or products.

For example: WebTechs.Net has always been focused on helping small to mid-sized companies in The Greater Phoenix Area increase their web presence since 1997. We achieve great results by using cutting edge search engine optimization (SEO) strategies and keep up with the most current techniques at all times.

Next you need need supporting headings and content for your 1st h3 heading. This is where you list the individual types of products or services and write about them too.

H3 – 1st type of product or service

For example: National SEO Services could be our 1st h3 heading where we have a paragraph that talks about national SEO services. (3-4 sentences about your product or service)

H3 – 2nd type of product or service

For example: Local SEO Services could be our 2nd h3 heading where we have a paragraph that outlines our specialties in the local SEO side of our services. (3-4 sentences about your product or service)

H3 – 3rd type of product or service

This is where you would list a 3rd type of product or service and (3-4 sentences about your product or service)

Don’t have 3 services or sub services you offer? No problem, see “add more supporting paragraphs” below for more h2 topics you can easily add to your page.

Add More Supporting Paragraphs

An easy way to add more content or sub topics to your page is to ask yourself what your customers are searching for when they think about your specific product or service. More often than not, customers are usually searching for the same things; How much does X service cost, How does X service work, what are the benefits of X product or service and so on. These questions can be used for sub topics on your web pages to expand the text length for and make your pages rank better.

Also, Are there any benefits of what you offer vs your competitor? This can also help create more content. For example: List your differences or benefits in bullet points like you see below.

Example 1.

H2 – Why Hire Us For Local SEO Services?

  • We do better research for content topics
  • We fully build out your web page to rank higher on Google search
  • We use very few links and 100% white hat content to get your site ranking
  • We offer SEO services for small, medium and large business
  • etc

Example 2.

H2 – Benefits of service

For example: Benefits Of SEO Services

  • Get found on local search
  • More traffic to your website
  • Get new customers
  • Make more sales

Example 3.

H2 – How Much Does X Service Cost

We gathered up information from around the web to find out the most common plumbing repairs and how much those plumbing repairs cost. From our research and experience we have found that the average cost of plumbing repair is around $247. (2-4 more sentences) In this example you could break down the individual services and how much each of them cost. I can’t tell you how many solar leads I’ve gotten my partner Aaron Basques just by building a post called “How much do solar panels cost”

Example 4.

H2 – Common X Problems

A big topic in the repair fields or in the plumbing field in “bathroom plumbing problems” so we listed an h2 in our clients page that lists the most common types of bathroom plumbing problems. We also used our page jumps on this page and got a special link in the meta description to our content.

Create A Page Jump - Local SEO Tips

Not only did this rank #1 organically for the phrase “Shower Plumbing Problems Mesa” but our client also took #1 in the maps listing instantly after indexing this page as well and got this pretty link in his content to the customers actually problem. This works for almost any word you want to show up there as long as you use you h2’s, h3’s and page jumps properly. I show you how to use a page jump below.

Electricians could use, most common electrical problems and HVAC repair guys could use most common AC problems.

Create a Outro or Conclusion to The Page

Your conclusion can be a heading such as, Free SEO Quotes in Scottsdale or Free Local SEO Consultations in Scottsdale. Embed a map with your business name in it and then use your same call to action you used for the intro for the outro as well.

Your Conclusion and Outro should look like this:

<h2>Free SEO Consultations In Scottsdale</h2>

<i frame>(Embedded Map of your business) width=”100%” height=”150″</i frame>

If you are interested in our SEO Services In Scottsdale, give WebTechs.net a call today at (480) 348-0550.

What It All Looks Like Put Together

H1 & SEO Meta Title – SEO Services Scottsdale – WebTechs.Net

(Image to fit the page) alt texted and titled with keywords

If you are searching for the phrase “SEO Services Scottsdale“, WebTechs.Net can help!  If you are interested in our SEO Services In Scottsdale, give WebTechs.net a call today at (480) 348-0550.

H2 – SEO Services We Offer In Scottsdale

Take a look at the SEO services we offer in Scottsdale, Arizona:

H3 – Google Maps Marketing

We provide Google Maps marketing services to help get your business listing found by new customers on Google Search.

H3 – National SEO Services

We provide national SEO services for companies who want to show up on more searches than just local.

H3 – Local SEO Services

We provide local SEO services to help local business get found for their products and services.

H2 – Benefits Of SEO Services

  • Get found on local search
  • More traffic to your website
  • Get new customers
  • Make more sales

H4 – Contact Us For SEO Services In Scottsdale

(Map of City) width=”100%” height=”150″

If you are interested in our SEO Services In Scottsdale, give WebTechs.net a call today at (480) 348-0550.

4. Optimize Your Website’s Home Page

I know you think we probably should of done this first but its actually easier to make your home page stronger once all of your product or service pages are filled out. Your home page should be the hub of all of your products and services. Your home page should link to all of your individual product or service pages I’m going to show you how to create.

Step 1. Create A Good Home Page Title

A good home page title should be a combination of the type of company you own, your city and the company name.

If you are a plumber in Houston whose name was John’s Plumbing Services you would make your home page title like this:

<title>Plumbing Company Houston – John’s Plumbing Services</title>

Step 2. Make an h2 with the types of Services you offer

Take all of those services pages you built and list each one of your home page in a bullet point format. For example: If we are use the plumbing example again, A plumber would list his services with an h2 and bullet points like this:

<h2>Plumbing Services We Offer</h2>

  • Shower & Tub Repair
  • Toilet Repair
  • Drain Cleaning
  • Sink & Faucet Repair

Another great h2 for your home page could be:

<h2>About Our Plumbing Company</h2>

<h2>Benefits Of Choosing Our Company</h2>

Although, you home page doesn’t need to be as in depth as your product and service pages do. You will be your worth through these secondary pages vs stuffing your home page with a whole bunch of text. Plus Google will list your home page sometimes even though you have created individual product and service pages there is no way to avoid this that I’ve learned.

After Implementing These Local SEO Strategies, How long will It take for me to see a difference in my ranking?

The tips I’m just showed you will instantly change your organic ranking on Google search, most of the time within minutes to a day, after fetching your newly created or updated page in Google search console. However, the fetch option doesn’t instantly update Google’s index for all keywords equally. Some niches that don’t get searched as much take longer for Google to update. You will most likely see a just immediately but major increases or changes in ranking and traffic usually happen after 3-6 months.

You will notice you page jumping around in rank a bit at first. That’s just Google testing your click through rate, how long people are staying on your site and other factors to see if ranking you highly would please their searchers/consumers. Google is all about trust and wants to send a consumer to a site where they know the consumer will have a good experience.

One Of The Best Local SEO Tips I Ever Received

One of the best local seo tips I received was “adding page jumps” to my product and service pages

Basically you are creating a table of contents of what is listed on your page with links that jump to those individual portions of content.

Table Of Contents

  • <a href=”#1″>Plumbing Services</a>
  • <a href=”#2″>Why Choose Our Company</a>
  • <a href=”#3″>Get A Free Plumbing Estimate</a>

<h2 id=”1″>Plumbing Services</h2>

<h2 id=”2″>Why Choose Our Company</h2>

<h2 id=”3″>Get A Free Plumbing Estimate</h2>

These page jumps actually can show up in your meta description on Google search, can be clicked by searchers and will take them to that individual portion of content. These page jump links are automatically tracked in Google search console so you can figure out which parts of your content your readers or potential customers are interested in most.

Need Help Getting With Adding More Content To Your Website? Need Help Creating Your Google Maps Listing?

Local SEO Services By WebTechs

WebTechs.Net can help you get your local business found on organic search and Google maps. We can add content to your website that will increase your calls and visits to your maps listing and website which will increase your sales. Get a free SEO consultation today by giving WebTechs.Net a call today at (480) 348-0550 Ext 105 or fill out our contact form and ask for Erick.

 

Google Maps Marketing
Written by webtechs

Google Maps Marketing: 5 Factors That Impact Local Visibility

When web marketers and SEO’s hear about Google Maps marketing, most of them immediately think of the local 3 pack listings. If you’ve conducted any Google search for a locally-oriented product or service (i.e. “chiropractors Scottsdale AZ”), then you’ll see local Google Maps listings reserved for only three of the most relevant businesses.

Google Maps Marketing 3 Pack

No doubt, the Google 3 pack is the most valuable and highly-sought form of local search visibility for all types of businesses. And unlike organic search, these local listings are based on unique variables. This helps level the playing field for small businesses that don’t have massive marketing budgets.

Further, there are other avenues beyond the 3 pack that make up the complete picture of Google Maps marketing. These include the search results shown directly from Google Maps, in addition to its new advertising features. Below we share insights as to which factors influence each of these potential search placements and how you optimize each accordingly.

Your Website

seperator

Sure, your website maybe 100% SEO-friendly and populated with unique, keyword-optimized content. But if your citation is not mentioned properly on your website, then you’re weakening your chances at ranking in the 3 pack.

Your citation is the technical term for the mention of your business’ Name, Address, and Phone number (keenly acronymed “NAP” by the SEO community.) Your citation must be completely accurate and cited in that exact structure (see the figure below.)

Google Maps Optimization Citation

Any discrepancy in the structure of you business’s citation will hinder local SEO and your 3 pack ranking.

Google My Business

seperator

When it comes to Google Maps marketing, your Google My Business page is arguably more important than your website. This asset is the listing that ranks in the local 3 pack. Additionally, your Google My Business page is the most influential ranking factor in the ranked Google Maps results.

For these reasons, you need to claim, optimize, and verify your Google My Business page accordingly. Professional Google Maps marketing agency, Captivate Local, provides the following tips on how to embrace this important listing.

  • Populate your page to 100% completion. This includes all the fine details like your businesss hours of operation, location, contact information, etc.
  • Choose the most relevant categories that describe your business, making the primary category the most relevant top pick.
  • State which areas your business services (names of nearby cities or towns that you serve, or a defined radius [in miles or kilometers] from your businesss location.)
  • Properly link from your business website to your GMB page (youll see instructions for this on the page with specific code to drop on your site.)
  • Verify your GMB listing via phone verification or postcard submission (Google will send a postcard to your businesss location with a 4 digit PIN.)

For further instruction on how to claim and setup a Google My Business listing, see the video below.

Directory Listings & Social Profiles

seperator

If you’re familiar with organic SEO, then you’re well aware of the importance of backlinks. When it comes to local SEO and ranking in the 3 pack, citations are like backlinks.

Commonly found on directory listings and social media profiles, Google crawls these mentions of your business NAP and compares this data with that on your website and Google My Business listing. In short, it’s critical that your business’s citations are both accurate and consistent across all platforms.

A couple reliable tools to help you get started in auditing the citations that surround your business are Yext and Whitespark. You can use their free tools to see how your citations appear. You can also use their services to optimize citations in a timely (but somewhat expensive) manner. Nonetheless, this is one area of local SEO and Google Maps marketing that plays a pivotal role in Google’s 3 pack rankings.

Yext Citation Scan Google 3 Pack

The figure above is Yext PowerListings scan of Paradise Chiropractic, the top ranking chiropractor shown in the first image above for “chiropractors Scottsdale AZ.” Because this citation profile is modestly well-aligned compared to most businesses, it may be contributing to his #1 position in the 3 pack (sans a high volume of customer reviews.)

Reviews

seperator

Contrary to last point, customer reviews on your Google My Business listing are indeed still a 3 pack ranking factor. Although less weight is placed on reviews compared other local SEO ranking factors, they can give some businesses an edge.

For example, the Minnesota dentist below is crushing his competition with 100 customer reviews.

Dentist Google Maps Marketing

And how does a local dentist score so many 5-star reviews? By establishing an effective review generation strategy.

Below is snapshot of the dentist’s “Reviews” page where he incentivizes happy patients to leave a positive review on his Google My Business page, and other key listings. This not only influences SEO and Google Maps marketing, but also reputation management and converting potential customers.

Reviews Google Maps Marketing

AdWords

seperator

The last factor that impacts local search visibility (but is not a ranking factor, per se) is Google Maps ads.

Advertising in Google Maps (via AdWords) has become one of the latest integrations from Google, offering four specific features:

  • Promoted Pins
  • In-store promotions
  • Local inventory search function
  • Customizable business pages

These ads can be displayed in the search results shown on the desktop and mobile versions of the Google Maps site, the Google Maps app, and on Google.coms Expanded Map listings. The most common are promoted ads shown at the top of Google Maps search results, as seen in figure below below:

Ads Google Maps Marketing

As shown in the figure above, the ad is indicated by a purple flag at the top of the listings corresponding with the advertiser’s location on Map. In essence, this ad model provides a great opportunity for all types of businesses to capitalize on greater search exposure. And because it’s an underutilized advertising platform, it can be a minimally-competitive and cost-efficient opportunity for Google Maps marketing.

For more insights on how to increase you company’s local search visibility, stayed tuned on the WebTechs.net blog or contact us for professional SEO services.