If you’ve been trying to increase your business’s search engine rankings, you might be overlooking one of the most important aspects to your ranking…improving your Google Map pack impressions But is coming up with strategies to bolster your Google Map Pack really worth the time and effort?
Let’s take a look.
We will go over what is the Google Map Pack, where you can find it, and how to improve your business’s ranking in Google’s Map Pack. Then we will give you an invaluable marketing tip that will change the way you look at marketing forever!
Understanding the Google Map Pack
Before you can even begin to develop your current marketing campaigns, you will need to fully understand each facet of those campaigns—and that includes the Google Map Pack.
Here are some of the Google Map Pack basics. Then we’ll move on to developing Google Map Pack strategies for small business like yours.
What Is the Google Map Pack?
The Google Map Pack, sometimes referred to as the Google Local Pack, is the pack of top-ranking local businesses that Google displays in a box at the top of a page when a user searches for a local business. So obviously, getting your business into the Google Map Pack is pure marketing gold.
Where Can the Google Map Pack Be Found?
The Google Map Pack is in a box at the top of any given local Google results page. The Google Map Pack is what the user will see before they ever reach the organic search results. Most people don’t like to scroll, so they will click on one of the first results displayed on the page.
What Does the Google Map Pack Look Like?
The Google Map Pack is in a box at the top of any given local Google search results page. In this box, businesses are listed along with their geographic location, hours, contact information, and other important business information. A user can click on any Google Map Pack listing if they want more information about that business. It also provides the ability to directly call the contact number that’s listed there. Additionally, a user can pull up the Google Maps navigation function for turn-by-turn directions to the business’s physical location.
How Does the Google Map Pack Work?
The Google Map Pack is displayed in a box that has a set of three or more Google Maps local search results. So when a user is searching for a local business, Google will pull up and display the search results that its algorithm interprets as being the most relevant businesses according to what that user searched for.
Google’s algorithm understands that the user’s search intent is to find the physical location of a local business. So Google makes it easier for their users to find specific local businesses based on their location, their search query, or browsing history for a specific category such as “dentists,” etc.
Why Is the Google Map Pack So Important?
The people who click on any of the businesses in the Google Map Pack are users with high purchasing intent. Therefore, getting your business into the Google Map Pack can bring you better results and a higher ROI than any other marketing strategy. A Google Map Pack listing results in improved visibility and more clicks for your business, regardless of your industry.
Additionally, the Google Map Pack receives the majority of actual clicks on any given local search results page. In fact, according to Think with Google, 75% of people who perform a local search on their mobile device, visit a local business within 24 hours of that search. And 28% of those local intent searches result in a purchase.
Now let’s dive a little deeper into how the Google Map Pack works.
How Do You Get into the Google Map Pack?
You can start by developing some Google Map Pack strategies for a small business like yours. Let’s talk about that. There are several factors that Google uses to determine if your business is worthy of being displayed in the Google Map Pack.
You must have a strong Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) if you want your business to appear in the Google Map Pack. It must also be up to date, have accurate information, and show that you’re actively engaging with your customers’ comments, questions, and reviews.
But there’s more to it than just that. There are certain strategies you can use to improve your rankings in Google’s Map Pack once you have gotten into the listings. So keep reading…
How Do You Improve Your Ranking in Google’s Map Pack?
Here are a few ways to improve your ranking in Google’s Map Pack.
1. Optimize Your Google Business Profile
You can optimize your Google Business Profile by using your actual business name, listing a local phone number, making sure your hours are correct, writing a compelling description, and uploading any high-quality photos and videos you might have.
2. Encourage Customer Reviews on Your Google Business Profile
Encourage your customers to post reviews on your Google Business Profile. There should be as many recent and high-quality reviews as possible. High-quality reviews will have a star rating, a description of the review, attributes added, photos uploaded, and will show how many reviews the person linked to in their Google profile.
3. Submit Your Business to as Many Business Directories as Possible
The more citations/listings you have, the stronger your online presence will be. These could include business directories like Yelp, MapQuest, Foursquare, etc. More about how to do that quickly and easily in a moment.
4. Improve Your Website SEO
Improve your website SEO by optimizing it for voice search, creating content based on local news stories and events, fine-tuning your local keywords and keyword phrases, optimizing it for mobile users, including a location-specific About Us page, and adding content location pages. You should also work on getting some high-quality backlinks and create a dedicated webpage for every product and service you offer.
Your website should also be properly structured to make it easier for Google to crawl and index your content. Additionally, your keywords should be intent-driven, and your website’s internal and external linking should be logical with user intent in mind.
5. Encourage Community Engagement
Encourage your customers to ask questions and engage with you on your Google Business Profile and social media pages. Ask them to upload photos and write detailed reviews.
6. Post Regular Updates to Your Google Business Profile
Google loves active businesses and rewards them with higher visibility in Google Maps. You can show you’re active by posting regular updates on your profile. Your updates could include relevant blog posts, current specials, business updates, special events, etc.
7. Use Local Business Schema
Local schema involves wrapping code around your content to make it easier for Google to crawl and index.
Taking these steps will help you properly optimize your business for the Google Maps Pack. Getting higher rankings in the search results and the local maps pack is one of the most effective ways to grab the attention of potential customers that are near your location.
The One Tip That Will Change the Way You Look at Marketing Forever
Now…as promised, an invaluable marketing tip that will change the way you look at marketing forever.
Use a single marketing platform that will help you consolidate many of your daily marketing tasks so you can access them from one dashboard. Using local business intelligence marketing software will help make many of your daily marketing tasks much quicker and easier.
Keep reading to learn more…
Attend a Surefire Local Marketing Platform Demo
If you would like to make your daily marketing tasks quicker and easier, attend a Surefire Local Marketing Platform Demo. Surefire Local provides business intelligence marketing software at a fraction of the cost of other tools. And it’s a lot less than using a marketing agency. Surefire Local will help you manage the most important online marketing activities all within one platform.
Here is a sneak peek into what Surefire Local can help you do.
- Ratings & Reviews – request, manage, and respond to your ratings and reviews all in one place.
- Business Listings – list your business across more than 70 business directories where you can manage and update them all from a single platform.
- Content Marketing – with this software you can generate, schedule, and distribute all your digital content on different blogs, social media platforms, and websites and manage them all in one place.
- Lead Generation – track and manage your leads and where they are in the sales cycle, as well as any follow-up that needs to be done.
- Local Paid Ads – you can easily advertise on all search engines or social media platforms using our pre-built, location-based ad campaigns while tracking their effectiveness.
- Analytics & Reporting – track all your calls, monitor your web traffic, effectively measure your paid ad campaigns and social media campaigns, then get reports on the results.
- Competitor Analysis – find out which keywords and local search terms your competitors are using so you can benchmark your performance.
- Geo-Location Check-Ins – this feature will help your customers find you by providing them with location-specific check-ins that will let them know where you are and anything else you want to tell them.
- Text Message Marketing – this is the best way to increase engagement and convert more of your leads by giving them the ability to chat or text with you in real-time.
Request Your Surefire Local Platform Demo today!
Giving Surefire Local a try along with developing your new Google Map Pack strategies for small business like yours will change your life forever! Give it a try—you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.