Miami seo geek
LOCAL SEO
How important is doing Local SEO
for your business?
Therefore, the Google Maps listings search results have become the most valuable place by far for a local business to rank their website…as opposed to ranking organically well below the Maps listings.
Take a look at the following image:
The “first” non-maps organic listing is waaay down on the page…
The maps organic listings are displayed in a way that is colorful and attractive to a searcher…The local business search results have changed quite a bit over the last 5-10 years…The maps listings didn’t used to show up in so many of the searches…and they took up less space.
Google likes having more localized search results because it makes them more money…Google is looking to maximize their profits (just like every other company) and they do this through 2 primary means…
Increasing ad revenue
Gathering more & better data on us
Utilizing their own Google Maps systems to embed inside their normal search engine results pages (SERPs) ticks both (1) & (2) off.
It keeps a searcher on their platform for longer instead of sending them off to some other business’s website…
…therefore, they get to serve more ads to these searches — (1) More ad revenue
…and they also get to gather more behavioral data on their searchers — (2) More data
Therefore, I think we can safely conclude that the current trend of serving up their Google Maps listings, AKA Google My Business (GMB) listings, more frequently will not be reversed…
…if anything, Local SEO in Miami will become even more important in the future.So, I think it useful to think of the Google Maps Listings as the VIP line in SEO for local businesses…
Call Me At: 786-244-8241 to get a Free SEO Analysis and Recommendations for your business.
Want a real pro to take a look at your On Page Search Engine Optimization and give you specific SEO recommendations?
miami seo geek
How does a business rank well in Google’s Maps Listings?
The local algorithm is dramatically different…to the point to where even saying, “I rank [X] for local search [Y] in Google Maps” doesn’t even make sense…old ideas die hard…even in the SEO world…
and there are many SEO people out there who are trying to do local SEO, but are not even aware of the true playing field they are competing on!
You see, the Google My Business rankings that Google serves up to a searcher is heavily influenced by exactly where that searcher is located…So, the search results for the same search phrase could be very different just a few miles down the road because Google thinks that different businesses are more relevant in that location.
The result of this is that instead of trying to measure 1 data point for a keyword and what your Google My Business Listing ranks for that keyword (“I rank [X] for [Y] in the Maps”), we need to measure many more data points across a wide geographic area.
The result is a ranking geogrid. Here’s an example:
This is 9×9, so 81 data points…The business is located at the center of this grid.
Each dot is 1 mile apart.
See how this business ranks really well within a few miles all around them…
…and even 3-4 miles away to the East.
Yet, they rank much worse to the West relative to the East.
If you or your current SEO company are not tracking Google Maps ranking geogrids like this, then they don’t even know what game they are playing!
Would you like to know how your business truly ranks and what we can do to improve your ability to attract this valuable local traffic with Google’s natural search?
Call Me At: 786-244-8241 to get a Free SEO Analysis and Recommendations for your business.