Google Maps Marketing
Your local business needs Google Maps. Why?
Get More Leads With Google Maps Marketing
Google maps marketing, also known as local SEO, is absolutely essential for any local business.
You are losing a lot of money if your local business is not paying attention to Google maps marketing and you have a business that works in specific, geographic service areas.
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Examples of these business types are AC companies, pest control companies, pool installers, anything like that.
You absolutely must pay attention to local SEO.
If you are not, then your company is most likely invisible on the largest platform for businesses in the world. That is Google and specifically Google maps is a huge, huge driver for local businesses.
What is Google Maps Marketing?
When I say local SEO, what I mean is someone is searching for, let's say an air conditioning replacement and they go to their phone or they go to their laptop and they search, "air conditioner replacement near me".
It's that "near me" that is huge.
Google's end goal is always to get the best results and outcomes for every search possible.
That has been Google’s goal since it was founded in 1998.
When someone searches "car accident lawyer near me", what Google is going to do is look at the businesses that fit that category in the geographic location of that person.
Then Google is going to give back results of car accident law firms near that person.
But it's not just determined by location.
It's also determined by how confident Google is in a business. How confident that they are open, that they are good and that if Google returns that business as a result, then the searcher (the person who's looking to have their air conditioner replaced) is going to be happy with that result.
Why Local Businesses NEED Google Maps
Why is it so important that local businesses specifically pay attention to Google? The Google maps app has 5 billion downloads since it was first released. Google maps itself has 1 billion monthly users. That's 1 billion people every month who use Google maps. Google Maps is the world's number one navigation app on every platform.
That's Apple or Android. 82% of smartphone users use local search engines. So that's Google maps or "air conditioner replacement Denver" or "tire store near me".
Anything like that? That is a local search. And 46% of all Google searches are linked to something local and of those searches, 50% of people who searched Google maps visit a physical store within a day.
And that doesn't even include the people who hire a service. For the old school out there, this is the Yellow Pages on steroids.
I'm talking Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds level of steroids
Because there are thousands and thousands and thousands of searches every day around you. And there are hundreds of potential customers looking for you, but if you are not where they're looking, you might as well be invisible when it comes to driving more leads.
How To Improve Your Google Maps Marketing
Let's say you're convinced. You're saying, " Okay. Alright. I believe you. This is important".
"Now what do I do?"
"How do I focus on local SEO or improve my local SEO? Start showing up on Google maps. Start showing up as a result for those 'near me' searches."
That's why I'm here.
Step 0: Your Google My Business Profile
The most important thing to local SEO is your Google My Business profile.
If you haven't claimed your Google My Business profile, stop what you are doing right now and make one. Because this is how you tell Google "I have a business. It provides this service, is in this location". and then Google verifies it. And I'm not just talking, they look and see if you have a website or anything. No. They send a literal, physical postcard in the mail to the address that you list. You have to type in the code that comes on that postcard.
And until then they will not accept your application for a Google Business Profile.
They are making sure that the businesses they are listing are real.
And that's great.
It's a great way to stop scammers and spammers.
If you do have a Google Business Profile, but you haven't optimized it, then I'm going to highly recommend you do an audit first.
So I said earlier that Google ranks or decides to send results based on their confidence in a business, both the location of the business and The quality of the business, I suppose.
How Does Google Determine Local Keywords?
The Google algorithm crawls every website on the planet, trillions of websites, and it looks for a business name, address, phone number, and websites all across the web. And if it sees your business name, "Chuck's Towing Shop" and the exact address, the exact phone number, and your website.
And I mean exactly down to the comma, like you're in a suite say suite 300, spelling it out. S U I T E or Ste 300. Those are two completely different things to the Google algorithm. So if you have a profile on Facebook that says Ste 300, Google's going to check your Google My Business page and see, "Oh, this isn't the same."
"They spelled it out suite 300. That's different. "
Now, obviously the algorithm doesn't know that it's wrong, but down to the comma, down to every spelling, it needs to be 100% accurate. Everywhere.
Building PAWN and NAP Citations
And then you build what are called NAP citations to increase Google's confidence in your company and your business's trust and authority with the Google algorithm.
NAP citation stands for:
Name
Address
Phone number
And I always add a fourth item, your website.
PAWN citations:
Name
Address
Phone number
Website
When you create a Facebook page or get listed with the Better Business Bureau, anywhere that lists your business's name, address, phone number, and preferably website. Update that profile with the exact address from your GMB profile.
After that you have to do an audit to make sure that there are no inconsistencies out there.
You're making sure that there aren't incorrect or misspelled, not 100% accurate listings out there. Like on yellow pages or directories.
After making these changes it Does take a little while it takes a couple of months for the algorithm to recognize these things, see these things and then update.
As the algorithm sees the updates and consistency and GMB profile it will think, " okay. I have more confidence in this business. I have more confidence in this location."
Three to six months later, you are going to start seeing a whole bunch more impressions and traffic from "near me" searches or searches for your local city.