In a previous article, we talked about what local citations are, but let’s take that one step further. What can you do to maximize the power of those Local Citations to dominate your local area’s map pack for your industry? Let’s dive in!
So first, you need to set up your Google My Business and then you’ll be ready to get started!
Like we discussed in the previous article, having a consistent NAP is extremely important — NAP stands for business name, address and phone number. In addition, you need to optimize your entire GMB listing. Coupling a perfectly optimized GMB listing with powerful Local Citations can lead to total domination, so let’s talk about the most important things to edit & optimize on your listing.
The first thing is make sure your company name is correct. It may seem silly, but if you use ‘LLC’ or even a comma before the LLC in your business name, you need to use that. Our company that we go by is Steel Marketing, rather than Steel Marketing, LLC, so that’s what it shows on our GMB listing.
After your business name is listed, make sure your service type is the closest match to what your business is.
Next up, you have to make sure your business address is the same across all platforms… what I mean is all capitalization, spelling, numbers and everything needs to be the same on your GMB listing as what is used when making Local Citations. Notice that our address has capitalized ‘Unit’ in our listing, so on all our Local Citations it is capitalized. If you’re using STE, ste or suite in your address, you need to make it consistent!
Your service area should be set, and so should your hours! Both are self explanatory! If there are special hours, like during holidays, you need to set those too! Your phone number needs to be the same if you’re using hyphens, parentheses, etc. in it, especially because it is a main component of your NAP!
Make sure your website is set, add the URL where customers can go book appointments (if applicable), add all services & prices you guys offer, attributes are for women-owned or military-owned businesses and, last but not least, filling out a solid description. Your description has a total of 750 characters, but you need to include your business name, keywords for your industry, talk about any guarantees you offer and services you offer.
But remember, you’ve only got 750 characters to play with 😉 This is a great way for Google to know who you are and what you what to rank for, and your customers can find out a little more about you.
Adding the date you started, adding all types of photos relating to your business (products you sell, work/jobs you’ve done, happy customers, etc.), posting once or twice a week and make sure you get your customers to review you! Getting tons of 5 star reviews helps your rankings big time!
Posting on your GMB about things your business is doing, adding keywords and photos all combine for a great way to dominate the local map pack in your area!
So here’s the highlight and summary of it all: fill out EVERYTHING on the GMB listing. The more you posts you make, the more photos you post and the more reviews you get, the better shot you have of crushing your competition & dominating the map pack.
This can be tedious work, so if you want to dominate your local map pack but outsource the work, Steel Marketing can help. If you want to outsource your GMB optimization, check out our A La Carte services & our Premier SEO Services. With our Premier SEO Services, we include our full GMB optimization services for all our clients, so not only will you dominate in the local map pack, you’ll dominate the organic rankings too 😉