An important part of marketing your home services contracting company is ranking in the Google Map Pack. But while many business owners have heard of Google’s map pack, they aren’t sure where to start to improve their ranking there. And those that do often struggle to stay organized and up-to-date with everywhere their brand has a presence online.
Below, we share our top Google Map Pack strategies for home services contractors to optimize their search engine listings, get seen by more potential customers, and manage all their advertising efforts in one place with Surefire Local’s business intelligence marketing software.
Understanding The Google Map Pack
The Google Map Pack, also sometimes called the Local 3-Pack, is a collection of local businesses that appear when someone searches for a specific keyword + location. For example, if someone searches for “plumber Los Angeles”, the Map Pack will show the three businesses that are closest to them and have the best reviews. According to Neil Patel, the Map Pack gets 44% of local search clicks.
There are several benefits of ranking in the Google Map Pack. Not only will your business get significantly more exposure, but landing in the pack’s top three companies also drives up your click-through rates (CTRs) since users will be able to easily see your contact information and click on your website link. Another benefit is the ability to help build trust with potential customers by showing that your business is endorsed by a major authority like Google.
Strategies To Improve Your Ranking In Google’s Map Pack
Now that you know how your contracting company can benefit from ranking in the Map Pack for relevant local keywords, it’s time to get started optimizing your listings. These smart strategies can help you get started:
Optimize Your Google Business Profile
Google Business Profile is a free tool that helps businesses manage their local online presence across all Google-owned platforms, including Search and Maps. By optimizing your profile, you can improve the chances of your business listing appearing in the Google Map Pack results for relevant searches.
Make sure all the information on your profile is up-to-date, including your hours of operation, contact information, services, and any other important details. You should also regularly update your profile with new information such as products or services, photos, and reviews to ensure that your profile remains current and relevant. Out-of-date information or obviously old photos can give potential customers a negative impression of your business.
Manage Your Google Reviews
Google reviews have become increasingly important for businesses, as they provide potential customers with an insight into the quality of the business and the products or services they offer. Research suggests that 99.9% of customers look for a company’s online reviews before considering a purchase and that 96% of customers specifically look for negative customer reviews to see how the company responded to them.
To encourage customers to leave reviews, business owners can send emails to customers who have made a purchase or post review request cards at their place of business. Be sure to ask for reviews shortly after the customer has received a product or service, while the purchase is still fresh in their mind and they are likely to have had a positive experience.
The request should include a link to the review site, as well as instructions on how to leave a review. Remember to only ask for the review and never encourage customers to leave a positive one.
When responding to reviews, thank customers for positive reviews and invite them back for future business. For negative reviews, apologize for the poor experience and invite the customer to reach out so that you can make things right. Be sure to respond publicly so that other potential customers can see that you value customer feedback and are committed to providing good service.
List Your Business With Directories
Listing your business with as many reputable online directories as possible creates more backlinks to your website, which increases your overall domain authority and ranking by Google. It also gives customers more opportunities to leave reviews. For example, if your contracting business is listed with Yelp, Angi, and the Better Business Bureau, Google customers can leave reviews on all three websites, which further bolsters your online presence and reputation.
Improve Your Local SEO
Local keywords are terms that are both relevant to your business and include your city, state, or region. For example, keywords like “San Antonio plumber” and “commercial electricians in Brooklyn” would be considered local.
Including these keywords and phrases in your website content helps Google understand where you do business, so it can better match your pages to user search queries. This makes it more likely that your business will show up in the Map Pack for related searches.
A few ways to do this include:
- Writing them into your content naturally. This might look like the phrases “serving Boston and surrounding areas” or “our certified Seattle HVAC contractors can help you with . . ..”
- Creating location-specific pages or blog posts. A great way to gain more authority for local keywords is to create dedicated service pages for those areas. For example, you might have an entire page discussing “electrical services in Cook County” or “how to hire a plumber in Wilmington.”
- Adding them to your website’s metadata. Use the most valuable local keywords in your meta titles and descriptions to let both search engines and users know your Search Engine Page Result (SERP) matches the query.
Add Local Schema Markup
Schema markup is a special code that you can add to your website to help search engines better understand the meaning of your content. This code follows a set of structured data standards for all sites that use it, which helps Google categorize and index your content more accurately. Users benefit because the code allows Google to prominently display the most relevant data snippets for added Unique Value Proposition (UVP).
For example, if you have a page about generator installation on your website, you can use schema markup to tell Google that it’s a local service and what’s included for customers who make a purchase. By adding schema markup, you can make it easier for search engines to display the most relevant information about your site in SERPs, making it more likely for users to click on your link.
Encourage Engagement With Your Google Business Profile
As you optimize your Google Business profile, you should encourage users to interact and engage with it. This can be done in a variety of ways, including rating their service, leaving a review, clicking your website link from the SERP, uploading a photo, and more. When you’re active and optimizing your profile at the same time your customers actively engage with your profile, this can generate powerful results that catapult you into the Map Pack for multiple relevant local keywords.
You should also consider using Google Ads to boost your profile and reach more potential customers. Pay-per-click marketing for home services contractors is a great way to increase your brand’s visibility in the local search space, helping you stand out against the competition. With a well-crafted ad, you can bring a higher volume of traffic to your profile, resulting in more engagement, reviews, and ratings.
Optimize Your Brand Presence Online With Surefire Local’s Business Intelligence Marketing Platform
Surefire Local’s business intelligence marketing platform is the perfect tool for home services contractors looking to optimize their brand presence online. Our software provides business owners with a single place to manage all of their marketing campaigns, as well as detailed insights into their online performance, allowing them to make data-driven decisions that will improve their Google Map Pack ranking.
Our key features include:
- Comprehensive listing management. Manage all your online listings from a central dashboard, including adding and updating business information, enhancing descriptions, optimizing photos and videos, and more, all directly from the software.
- Reputation management. The platform also enables home services contractors to proactively manage their online reputation and user reviews. Business owners can see new reviews, respond to them, and reach out to users to leave reviews from our all-in-one software solution.
- Local SEO optimization. Surefire Local’s marketing platform allows you to optimize your pages for high-value local keywords from within the software, including adding local keywords to content, creating localized landing pages, and more.
- Social media integration. Our platform also integrates with social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, making it easier for home services contractors to share updates and engage with their audience.
Contact Surefire Local to learn more about Google Map Pack optimization or to book a free demo of our business intelligence marketing software.