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2021 Local Search Ranking Factors – Applying Them in 2022

Last week, we looked at the disastrous effects of a poorly optimized Google Business Profile. This week, we’re switching focus to the 2021 Local Search Ranking Factors report – an industry survey developed by David Mihm originally in 2008.

2021 Local Search Ranking Factors

If you’re unfamiliar with the Local Search Ranking Factors report, each year local search experts are surveyed for their thoughts on SEO rankings and conversions. We discussed the 2020 survey results on the Advice Local blog and now it’s time to see what, if anything, has changed.

And remember, results won’t always mirror your own findings – we certainly don’t agree with everything in this report – but they are a good gauge for what the industry is thinking and the local marketing strategies that are working for others. Apply these findings to the businesses you represent in 2022 and you can expect to see improvements to local marketing results.

2021 Local Search Ranking Factors

What Local Ranking Factors Will Be Important in 2022?

The report starts by looking at the important ranking factors for the local pack/finder results. Participants were asked how much weight Google placed on each factor. The results were as follows:

  • Google Business Profile Signals 36%
  • Reviews 17%
  • On-Page 16%
  • Links 13%
  • Behavioral 7%
  • Citations 7%
  • Personalization 4%

Google Business Profile (GBP) signals have been on an upward trajectory as Google continues to update the platform. By a significant margin, an optimized GBP is considered the most important factor for gaining visibility in local search.

In particular, the signals that stood out to the contributors were the primary GBP category, keywords in the GBP business name, proximity of the address to the searcher, and additional categories on the listing.

It’s important that we clarify that this doesn’t mean we recommend putting keywords within the business’ name that are not part of the actual name. However, if you were to do this, this could cause the listing to get suspended at worst. The lightest penalty would be Google automatically renaming the business name to what they believe it to be.

Businesses often have added keywords within their business’ name on a Google Business Profile.  And in some instances, have actually renamed their businesses, filing a new DBA, etc.

As a reminder, Google My Business recently rebranded to Google Business Profile. References to GMB throughout the ranking factors report are in fact referencing GBP. This survey was completed prior to the renaming.

1. Google Business Profile Ranks No. 1

Results indicate that much of the focus for 2022 should be the development of the business’ Google Business Profile. This includes categories, titles, reviews and photos. If your local marketing strategy for business clients has been marginalizing Google listings, now might be the time for a different approach.

As we have discussed before and in our free Google Business Profile guide, there are many other GBP factors to consider like E-A-T (expertise, authority and trustworthiness).

Here are the top 20 local pack/local finder factors you’ll want to use when evaluating your local business clients’ Google Business Profiles.

2. Google Business Profile Reviews Are Next

The local experts were asked to give their top GBP conversion factors and four of the top five results highlighted the importance of reviews. A high numerical Google rating and positive sentiment in review text led the list, with quantity and recency of reviews at four and five respectively. The third position – completeness of the Google Business Profile – is another factor we frequently recommend.

At Advice Local, we have long been recommending making reviews a key strategy for clients. The addition of positive, recent and keyword-driven reviews provides clear benefits for local search visibility and conversions, with the survey backing this up. It is important to note that keywords should originate from the reviewer, not the business owner.

Did you know that our Enhanced Google Business Profile Tool offers a review-management component that makes it easier for agencies to respond to reviews. While responding to reviews is not one of the top factors according to this study, it is extremely important, which is why we included this as part of the Google Authority Score we created.

Top 20 Local Pack Finder Factor

Image Credit: Whitespark

3. The Business’ Website On-Page SEO Comes in Third

It’s worth noting that the business’ website optimization, specifically on-page SEO went up significantly in importance in the 2021 Local Ranking Factors’ analysis. For those who are in the website SEO game, they know how important this is, but for those offering other local marketing services (not specifically website SEO),  they do not always prioritize it.

In fact, one of our Advice Local agency partners has clearly demonstrated how optimizing a business’ website content, along with the Google Business Profile, has greatly improved the appearances in the local pack and maps.

Where Does Citation Building – Listing Management Fall?

There are many other signals in between building citations within this survey, but we are going straight to it. While citations are not as important as they were in the past, listing management is a very important key factor in a comprehensive local marketing strategy. And we are not the only ones who feel this way. Whitespark has addressed this topic in the past and Moz recently did with its survey of more than 6,000 enterprises.

Results revealed significant increases in local pack visibility when these businesses had their data pushed to more than 10 directories, compared to only the big four platforms. We discuss this further in our Advice Local blog.

So now we ask, have you tried our listing management solution yet?

2021 Local Search Ranking Factors – Applying Them in 2022 by @BernieColeman #SEO
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It’s Time to Help Your Clients Take Control of Their Citations

A consistent business name, address and phone number (NAP) data is important. Not only does this impact the business’ visibility in the local pack, but also elsewhere on the web including mapping apps.

Customers do not like getting lost en route to a business and this means making sure your local business clients are easily found in mapping apps. And when the business is found online or in an app, make sure it is the correct information about the business.

Our listing management solution enables you to quickly distribute a local business’ data in real time and real fast, to the top directories, data aggregators and mapping apps. Request a demo today. Call (214) 310-1356 to get started.

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Using Google My Business for Holiday Marketing Campaigns

We’ve been looking closely at map listings recently and last week we delved into the various mapping apps available. But with the holiday season fast approaching, it’s time to shift gears and focus on creating local marketing campaigns to help your local business clients get more business.

Holiday Marketing Strategies With Google My Business

The busy holiday season is closing in and no doubt most of your clients will be pleased with an upswing in new customers. Among the many marketing tools at your disposal this year is, of course, Google My Business (GMB). If applied effectively, GMB posts will be a key driver of sales for local businesses, with the chance to apply offers, discounts, flash sales, limited-time coupons and event announcements.

It is, however, best to assume that competing businesses will also be going all out to reach local consumers. Therefore, the businesses that plan their seasonal campaigns are best poised to capitalize on consumer interest. In practice, this means developing a joined-up marketing approach that ties GMB posts to social media profiles, along with video uploads, graphics and even influencer marketing if appropriate.

Using Google My Business as a Promotional Channel

It is clear Google wants to provide searchers with detailed information requiring as few clicks as possible. We’ve actually shared some data on this before. And with this in mind, leveraging all the features available within Google My Business will definitely help.

Utilize These Types of GMB Posts for Holiday Marketing

  • Offers – Create a time-sensitive offer, including coupon codes, sales copy, graphics and video.
  • What’s new – You could add a new seasonal product – product bundle, limited-time deal – and use this section to draw attention to it.
  • Events – Hold a holiday-themed event and promote it using GMB.
  • COVID-19 – Reduce COVID-19 concerns by publishing your safety and hygiene protocols.

Add Services & Products Including Descriptions to GMB

Have you noticed how services are only available in Google My Business on mobile? That’s ok. You definitely should add them to a GMB listing anyway. Make sure you also add a description for each service.

You can also add products on a GMB listing. For most categories, this is viewable in desktop and mobile on a business’ listing. You can update the pricing and other details related to seasonal sales. Make sure to include a description for each product.

And while we know you are thinking about tangible products, Google is fine with your utilizing products to add services (at this point). Below is an example of a service that has been added as a product on a GMB listing.

product image example of a service

Visual Appeal Makes All the Difference

Ultimately, the reason for enhancing a Google My Business listing is to increase the number of actions taken by targeted consumers. An often-overlooked part of increasing customer activity is the use of custom graphics. In fact, Google indicated that adding photos to business profiles leads to 42% more requests for directions on Google Maps and 35% more website clicks than websites without photos.

BrightLocal’s Google My Business Insights Study found that businesses with more than 100 images on GMB get 2,717% more direction requests, 520% more calls and 1,065% more website clicks than the average business.

If your customers are in an industry in which having lots of photos on their GMB is a challenge, creating custom graphics can help solve this.

image of dentist image

Above is an example of an image created for a dentist’s GMB listing for Halloween. This image could be used as a photo or with a GMB post. It could work well with either one. Below is an example of an image created for an allergy doctor’s GMB post.

image used in GMB post

In both examples, the images are promoting useful content that is seasonally relevant and provides value to a searcher. We previously discussed the fact that Google is becoming more social and these are examples of content that would work on GMB and across social media.

Holiday Disruption Could Be On the Horizon

Over at Street Fight, they have been discussing the potential for supply chain issues this coming holiday season. Many customers are aware of the need to start shopping early and will have expectations when they buy from local businesses. To alleviate most issues, work with your local business clients to communicate openly on timelines and set clear expectations with customers. Utilizing Google My Business and social media can help alleviate their customers’ concerns.

Using #GoogleMyBusiness for Holiday Marketing Campaigns by @BernieColeman #GMB #SEO
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Google My Business Listings Made Easy

Are you managing listings for multiple clients or multi-location brands? Our listing management services and Google My Business Tool manage your client’s business data and GMB listings from our partner dashboard. Request a demo by calling (214) 310-1356 to see how we can help you better serve your local business clients this holiday season.

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Apple Maps Ratings – And Its Impact on Local Businesses

Today we wanted to tackle Apple Maps and the changes they’ve been making, specifically in relation to ratings. But first, a recap….

Apple Maps Added Ratings in iOS14

As reported by 9to5Mac in August of 2020, iOS14 beta 6 included a new UI that let users recommend a place. Mike Blumenthal actually wrote about it then, sharing some insights and speculation on the value of this move, such as will review spam be an issue, could this mean a bigger decline for Yelp business users, etc.

Back then we had this to say – “If they roll this out to all businesses it could be a game-changer for local search. At this point businesses don’t have a way to respond to consumers that give their business a ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ on Apple Maps.” Today this is still the case.

Apple Maps Prioritizes the User Experience

In November of 2020, Apple sent out emails to users stating “now there’s more to Maps than just maps,” and directed us to an announcement about the changes they’re making to Apple Maps.

While Apple didn’t actually use the words user experience, from the changes made you can determine that they are focused on improving the user experience. Changes included more detailed mapping in malls and turn-by-turn spoken directions whether walking, driving or cycling. We actually covered these Apple Maps changes here, along with a few more.

Apple Maps Ratings Are Now Hitting the Mainstream

Fast forward to the present day… it seems Apple Maps has now released the ability for most businesses to get reviews on their mapping platform to the US. And once again, Mike covered the topic in great detail.

As Mike pointed out in his article, “Apple has made leaving feedback on a business very simple with a Netflix-style thumbs up or down for many business categories. The rating feature does not include any written review, but for many categories Apple also allows for an additional thumbs up and thumbs down rating of attributes.”

At Advice Local, we dug into this a bit more. For many categories it allows for additional attributes, and naturally we wanted to see those categories for ourselves.

What Categories Have the Additional Apple Maps Rating Attributes?

We got the same results as Mike for doctor listings in Apple Maps. We checked an eye doctor, a dentist and an allergist – all of them only have the single thumbs up or thumbs down. We also checked his other examples – restaurants, jewelry stores, tire stores and hardware stores – and confirmed they have the additional attributes.

What Business Categories Do Not Have the Apple Maps Rating at All?

According to Mike, “lawyers, professional services, government and academic institutions do not allow ratings,” so we wanted to identify specific categories that didn’t allow for ratings.

At first, we thought perhaps it was only home services businesses that didn’t have ratings, since we checked a plumber, electrician and air conditioning repair company. Then we checked a flooring store in Dallas – nope, no ratings available for them either. Interestingly, a paint store does have the ratings feature. Their category was set as paint store vs. the flooring store, which has their category as flooring. Seems store may be one of the differentiators.

paint store apple ratings example

We are sure there are more categories that do and do not have Apple Maps ratings at this point. We can confirm that if you want your local business clients to be able to receive ratings on Apple Maps right now, the category for their listing will be extremely important. And you’ll have to do some research before you determine what that best category is.

Local marketing and agency partners, we checked for you too. Seems those in the marketing category don’t have ratings either, which was expected since this falls under professional services.

How Can Apple Maps Ratings Impact Your Local Business Clients?

Since the user has to be logged into their Apple account on their iPhone to leave a rating it will be harder to spam the system, which is good. However, since it’s so easy to click to give a thumbs down, with no ability for the business to reply, it’s also not good.

At this point, in the US the rating is only visible to the person giving the rating. You can expect these ratings will be visible in the US soon. Apple reviews have already replaced Yelp reviews in some countries. You can expect it will happen here soon as well.

Apple Ginza in Tokyo example

We can only assume that once Apple ratings rolls out to the US, the more thumbs down a business receives will mean that the less Apple Maps will surface that business as a recommendation in typed and voice searches. Just like negative reviews impact a Google My Business listing in maps, you can expect the same with Apple Maps.

Apple Maps Users Are Encouraged to Upload Photos, Too

Perhaps you noticed above the upload photo option when a user is adding a rating. Apple has provided ratings and photo terms that include details on the types of photos that are not acceptable. They also clearly say that “Apple may, in its discretion, suspend and/or terminate the accounts of users who violate these Terms (including users suspected of engaging in illegal activity) through their use of this Feature.”

apple ratings photo example

In the US, currently the photos and reviews are pulling from Yelp for Apple Maps. When the ratings change on Apple Maps the photos certainly may too. It is changed for the Apple Ginza listing, if you want to search that on Apple Maps and give it a look for yourself.

#Apple #Maps Ratings – And Its Impact on Local Businesses by @BernieColeman #SEO #Reviews
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What’s Important to Know About Apple Maps for You?

We’ve covered this before, but we’ll say it again – every local business with a brick-and-mortar location needs an Apple Maps listing. If you are an Advice Local partner, we take care of creating Apple Maps listings for you. If not, we share details on how to create and optimize an Apple Maps listing here.

Request a demo of our solution, and our team can walk you through all the business listings we create for local businesses, including Apple Maps, Waze and much more. Call us at (214) 310-1356 to learn more today.

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Google’s Spam Update & Title Tags Rewrites Have SEOS Puzzled

Last time we were here, we talked with you about Google My Business facts & data you can’t ignore. For the last few months, Google has been rolling out what seems to be update after update. For example, the Spam Update that started rolling out at the beginning of August is still rolling out – Danny Sullivan confirmed on Twitter it may be finished next week.

gmb spam update

Are You Concerned About the Google Spam Update?

We’ve been getting calls from our Advice Local partners concerned about this update, and wondering if we think it’s going to impact their clients negatively. There’s no way for us to tell you how this will affect your clients’ websites. Unfortunately, it’s a wait-and-see for us all.

Google Is Rewriting the Title Tags Displayed in Search

Google has been busy rewriting title tags for our partners’ clients’ websites this week. It’s actually been quite the hot topic online. We did some testing with the Advice Local website and found we were not immune from this rewriting of page titles.

rewrite page title example

We thought this example was a funny one. Just why Google decided this was a better title tag, we’ll never know. This is not an H1 on the page, so the theory that they are pulling from H1s doesn’t apply here. Also, since we did a site search in Google to see all the page titles for our site, keywords are not a factor – at least not for the pages we noticed the title tags are being rewritten for.

If you speculated (like Marie Haynes) that this is related to the Passages Ranking, Danny Sullivan has responded with a resounding no. Barry Schwartz reported on the topic.

What Is the Passages Ranking?

Since we haven’t mentioned this update before, the Passages Ranking enables Google to index not just a web page, but individual passages from a page. For some websites this could mean the visibility in search they were getting before will go away. For other sites, it could mean they will get more visibility. The websites that will win are the ones that have the best answer for the search query – this has always been the priority for Google.

Passages rolled out in October of last year, so any aftermath from this has most likely happened already. Google says passage-based indexing will affect 7% of search queries across all languages when fully rolled out globally.

What’s the Big Lesson With These Google Changes?

We can sum it up with one word – diversify. Make sure the local marketing strategies you implement for your clients bring a multi-pronged approach. That way, if one strategy is falling off, while you’re focused on correcting or resolving the issues, the other strategies can still help your clients get visibility in local searches.

#Google’s Spam Update & Title Tags Rewrites Have SEOS Puzzled by @BernieColeman #GMB #SEO
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This is where listing management, Google My Business, Bing, Yelp and voice search optimization come into play. Request a demo today and find out how we can help you to better serve your local business clients.

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Update Local Profiles With COVID Delta Variant Precautions

With COVID-19 numbers on the rise due to the Delta variant, it may be a good time to make sure the safety precautions your local business customers are taking are updated on their local profiles.

Update These Local Profiles to Include COVID-19 Safety Precautions

We actually talked with you last week about optimizing local profiles on Yelp, Bing & Google My Business. This week we are covering the added features available that they can update to share about their COVID-19 protocols.

Add Yelp Attributes to the Listing

yelp coranavirus updates

Just last week Yelp announced the addition of Proof of Vaccination Required and All Staff Fully Vaccinated attributes. They already had Masks Required and Staff Wears Masks attributes.

yelp banner message image

Within this same section of the Yelp profile, businesses can add a banner message for the top of their Yelp page. While businesses can’t publish regular posts on Yelp, this banner message is a great way to communicate important notices to the public.

Add a COVID-19 Announcement on Bing

Yelp isn’t the only one that has a banner message option. When a business logs into their Bing Places listing they immediately see COVID-19 Related Announcement front and center.

bing announcement image

Along with the announcement, the business can specify a timeframe during which the announcement is valid – and include a link to the business’ website that relates to the announcement. Adding announcements such as these will help to communicate how they are protecting their customers and their team.

Google My Business Has COVID-19 Communication Options, Too

Google My Business (GMB) allows the business to add a COVID-19 Update. Just head over to posts and make sure COVID-19 Update is selected to add one.

google my business covid 19 update

Even before Google added the COVID-19 Update option, businesses could utilize the post feature to put up their message. We recommend that the message is added under COVID-19 Update, because Google calls it out differently in search. We’ve talked with you before about COVID-19 actions to take on your client’s listings.

google my business covid attributes

You should also make sure all the GMB Health & Safety attributes are added for the business. Adding attributes to a GMB listing can really help the business listing to stand out in desktop and mobile searches. Adding Service attributes will help with this too.

Local Profiles Need Updating to Include COVID Delta Variant Precautions by @BernieColeman #GMB #Yelp #Bing #SEO
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We Help You Better Prepare Your Businesses for Success

At Advice Local, we’re all about helping our local marketing and agency partners to better help their local business clients. We can help with all your listing management needs. Google My Business, Bing & Yelp is just one area of our expertise. Request a demo today to learn more.

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Voice Search Has Changed the Nature of Search

It’s safe to say there are three things we really love to talk about at Advice Local – local business listings, Google My Business – and voice search. Since Google My Business has been the hot topic for us the last several weeks, we thought we’d mix it up and discuss voice search – specifically voice apps for small businesses.

Popularity of Voice Search

Over the last few weeks we’ve had quite a few partners contacting us to inquire about our voice app technology. Voice search has been gaining popularity since 2016 (and even before that). Here’s some data to back this app.

  • In fact, Mary Meeker revealed in the 2016 Internet Trends that Google Voice Search Queries were up. They were up 35x compared to 2008, and up 7x over 2010.
  • Her 2017 Internet Trends revealed 20% of mobile searches were via voice, and 70% of voice queries were in natural/conversational language. Yes, people were already talking to their voice assistants like they were buddies way back in 2017.
  • Then, the 2018 Internet Trends revealed that the Amazon Echo user base grew by 30 million, Alexa had increased by more than 30,000 skills – and Google’s Machine Learning word accuracy was at 95%. This was in 2018.
  • Meeker’s last published report, the 2019 Internet Trends, revealed that the Amazon Echo user base had grown to 47 million, and skills had increased to 80,000 – more than 2x the previous year.

We can only imagine how much the Amazon Echo user base would be today.

mobile voice usage 2020

Image Credit: Perficient

Mobile Voice Search Usage

A study by Perficient of 1,123 users on mobile voice search usage in 2020 revealed that 4% used voice search more than 10 times per day while driving, and 5% used it 6–10 times per day while driving. Finally, 19% used mobile voice search a few times per week while driving.

This means people are not just sitting at home using their Amazon Echo to perform voice search queries. Users are on-the-go, counting on the Google Assistant, Alexa and Siri to:

  • Help them decide where they want to eat
  • Give directions to where they want to go
  • Find the closest oil change place
  • Provide information like business hours or services offered

This Is Where a Voice Search App Comes In

It’s not easy for a business to manage the information related to their business online. They need to:

  1. Make sure their NAP (name, address & phone number) is correct in online directories
  2. Submit their business to in-dash navigation and mapping apps
  3. Manage their Google My Business, Bing & Yelp listings
  4. Make sure they can get found by voice assistants

At Advice Local, we not only make it easy for our local marketing and agency partners to provide all the services listed above to their local business clients, but we also have voice app creation technology for small businesses.

#VoiceSearch Has Changed the Nature of Search by @BernieColeman #SEO
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We Make Voice Apps for Small Businesses Simple

We’re not sure if you know this or not, but we created the first-of-its-kind Voice Search Readiness Score – and we’re one of the first to integrate a conversational voice app solution within our technology. We also have voice profile technology on our directory Judy’s Book – and voice markup available for every active business listing in our listing management solution.

When it comes to voice search optimization, we know what it takes to help our partners better serve their local business, brand and franchise clients. Request a demo today online or call (214) 310-1356 to learn all about our voice search solutions.

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how create apple maps listing

Our team just attended the Rocks Digital Marketing Conference, as they do every year. For our agency partners that attended, it was great to see you online. Today we’re going to share the highlights from Eric Shanfelt of Local Marketing Institute’s presentation, Why and How to Claim an Apple Maps Listing.

Why You Need to Claim the Apple Maps Listing

Andrew Shotland of Local SEO Guide estimates there are 100 million U.S. adults that use Apple Maps. Have you considered that Siri always returns Apple Maps results? And typed searches on iPhones and tablets return Apple Maps results. Apple CarPlay is powered by Apple Maps. So everything in the Apple-verse uses Apple Maps by default – period.

If your customers are not on Apple Maps, you definitely want to get them listed there! For those of you who are Advice Local partners, we submit your clients’ businesses to Apple Maps within our solution. If you are on our legacy platform, Apple Maps is not included.

 

apple maps connect

How to Claim an Apple Maps Listing

The good news is this – you can go directly to Apple Maps to submit your client’s business. It’s not as simple as getting the listing created through a listing management solution such as ours, but it’s possible.

To create/claim an Apple Maps listing, start by going to Maps Connect. Eric shared these observations about the Maps Connect solution:

  • You’ll need to create an Apple ID to go through the claiming process for the business listing.
  • Be sure to use an email address with the same domain as the website.
  • User management is not available in Maps Connect, so you’ll need to create an Apple ID that the business owner can own.
  • You can have multiple listings per Apple ID, which is perfect for multi-location businesses.
  • Maps Connect does have bulk submission available, but only for over 10,000 locations.

Just like with a Google My Business listing, you start with finding the business in Maps Connect in order to claim it. From there, you will go through the verification process with a phone number to claim this listing.

Can You Optimize an Apple Maps Listing?

As Eric pointed out, you can’t optimize much on an Apple Maps listing, but you can include the basic business information. The business name, address, phone number (NAP), business hours and category are available.

You can also add web links. Be especially sure to include Yelp, since most of the reviews on Apple Maps pull from Yelp. So, to get reviews on Apple Maps you need to get reviews on Yelp.

A powerful tip Eric shared was to “ask customers to check in on Yelp. While a business can’t directly solicit reviews on Yelp, they can ask for a check-in. After the customer checks in, Yelp will prompt the customer to give a review.”

How to Control Photos Featured on Apple Maps

Here’s some important information Eric shared related to photos on Apple Maps.

  • The photos in Apple Maps are pulled in from Yelp. This may change later, but for now, they are from Yelp.
  • Make sure the business has photos on the Yelp listing. By default, the photos featured on Yelp are random, and include photos from both the business and customers.
  • The only way the business can control which photos are featured on Yelp and Apple Maps is to purchase the slideshow upgrade. If the business controls the photos on Yelp, they will be controlled on Apple Maps, too.

Will the Apple Maps Data Stay Intact?

Apple Maps pulls in data from other sources, so while you can claim the listing and have the correct information listed on Apple Maps, the data can get updated by other sources. If the business data changes, Apple Maps will not notify you – you’ll have to check it manually. Eric suggested doing this weekly… yet another reason to use a listing management provider like us to monitor and maintain this data. It’s efficient and highly beneficial.

Why Every Local Business Needs An Apple #Maps Listing by @BernieColeman #SEO
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Now we’ll ask: Are your clients listed on Apple Maps? Is their map listing claimed? Is the business’ NAP correct?

Making sure the local businesses that you represent are found in all the maps is extremely important. Request a demo today online or call (214) 310-1356 to find out how we can take care of all your listing management needs.

The post Why Every Local Business Needs An Apple Maps Listing appeared first on Advice Local.

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We’ve talked with you quite a bit about Google My Business over the last few months. As you may recall, just a few weeks ago we shared how changes are coming to Google Maps that were announced at Google I/O.

We follow what’s happening in local SEO and Google My Business (GMB) specifically because this so dramatically impacts you, our agency and local marketing partners. This week we’d like to highlight an agency partner that is accomplishing quite a bit by utilizing Google My Business for their clients. We’ve been following this agency partner – and specifically one of their client’s listings – to see how it’s been performing since March 9.

Optimizing a Google My Business Listing Increases Search and Maps Views

Back in March we discussed the value of optimizing a Google My Business listing, and shared screenshots showing that once the partner added products and services to their client’s GMB listing, the search and map views started to spike.

A screenshot from March to April compared how the client’s GMB listing went from getting 2.76K views to getting 6.18K views in search and map views. A screenshot taken this week reports 12.2K combined views in search and maps.

map search views june 2021

How Customers Search Within a GMB Listing Can Be Revealing

In April we discussed Google My Business with you and its place in local search. This post was a follow-up to the March article. At that time, we looked at the How Customers Search for Your Business data from GMB insights.

In March, their client’s GMB listing was reporting 2,479 searches in a quarter (3-month timeframe). In April they received 2,912 searches in a month (30-day timeframe). This week’s screenshot revealed this is maintaining, and is currently at approximately 3,145 searches in a given month.

how customers search gmb

The detailed breakdown on this data is 713 Direct Searches (22.7%), 2,423 Discovery Searches (77%) and 9 Branded Searches (0.3%).

To understand the difference between Direct, Discovery and Branded searches you can look to Google My Business Help. Google explains these as:

  • Direct searches: A customer directly searched for your business name or address.
  • Discovery searches: A customer searched for a category, product, or service that you offer, and your listing appeared.
  • Branded searches: A customer searched for your brand or a brand related to your business. This category will only appear if your listing has appeared at least once for a branded search.
  • Total searches: The total number of direct, discovery, and branded searches.

Customer Actions Taken on a Google My Business Listing Can Be Tracked

Today, we’d like to take this a step further and look into Customer Actions taken on this client’s Google My Business listing. While we don’t have screenshots from the previous periods, this week we captured a quarter view.

gmb customer actions taken

As you can see for this reporting period, prior to March 19 this GMB listing was getting less than 10 total actions taken daily from the GMB listing. For background, our agency partner started publishing GMB posts to this listing on March 24. Prior to that time, no GMB posts had been published on the listing. The partner published a second GMB post on April 5. Once the partner started publishing GMB posts, the Customer Actions started increasing.

On April 19 the partner increased to publishing a GMB post every week. The actions taken on the GMB listing started increasing even more. So instead of getting 10 total actions a day, now the business is getting upwards of 35 total daily actions. We realize that 35 total daily actions might not seem like a lot compared to other listings, but we can tell you this – it’s a significant number for this industry, especially when we compare it to other GMB listings for a local business (in the same industry) in a smaller city.

On March 14 this agency partner launched a new website for this client, and along with that they set up Google Analytics Goal Tracking and put UTMS on all the links on the GMB listing. We can report that they have had 1,880 sessions on the website occur from clicks on the Google My Business listing – along with 99 goal completions, which for this website is either a form fill or a click-to-call. So, if you’re still wondering if Google My Business is important or if your local business clients need a website – well, we can confirm both with a powerful yes.

Google My Business Adds Services by Scraping the Business’ Website

Have you looked at your clients’ Google My Business listings lately in the GMB dashboard? Have you noticed extra services being added to the business’ GMB listing that you didn’t add? These services are pulling from the business’ website.

Google is looking at your clients’ websites to confirm the services listed on their website match the GMB listing, and when they don’t, they will remove those services – and in some cases add additional services to the GMB listing. It’s important to monitor your clients’ Google My Business listings on an ongoing basis – we’ve said this before and we will continue to share this truth.

This includes taking the following actions:

  • Monitoring reviews and responding to them
  • Adding Questions & Answers
  • Uploading EXIF-data optimized images
  • Publishing Google My Business Posts

#GoogleMyBusiness & the Business’ Website Works Together by @BernieColeman #SEO
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We’ve Got the Google My Business Tool to Help You

At Advice Local, we pride ourselves on providing our partners with solutions – and our Google My Business tool can help you accomplish all of the above and more. Request a demo today and take a tour of our complete listing management solution.

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DexKnows Joins Advice Local’s Data Amplifier Network

We’re dedicated to providing the best listing management solutions available to our agency, brand and local marketing partners. And when we get the chance to add a new high-quality directory to our Data Amplifier Network, we jump on it.

DexKnows Joins Advice Local’s Data Amplifier Network

DexKnows Is Now Available in Advice Local’s Listing Management Solution

Today we get to share that DexKnows has been added to our network. For all of our platform partners, if you log into your dashboard today, you’ll see DexKnows along with a synced status for any active business listing. For our partners using the legacy dashboard, we highly encourage you to consider making the switch today. Along with new directories such as DexKnows, there are many other amazing features such as data aggregator submissions being included for free.

SuperPages and YP Have Been Refactored, Too

Part of our commitment to being the best in listing management means we’re continually improving on our listing management technology, and how we submit a business’ data to directories.

We have refactored YP and SuperPages. Now when you list a local business with Advice Local, the data within our technology is submitted to these sources even faster.

As you might have observed, at Advice Local we are very particular about the directories we add to our Data Amplifier Network. We look at the characteristics of the directory such as domain authority, page rank, backlink trust flow, backlink citation flow and organic traffic.

We also consider qualities such as whether they amplify business data to other trusted data sources. We actually discussed this back in April – and now’s a good time to find out why all listing management services are not created equal.

Data on DexKnows, YP and SuperPages to Consider

DexKnows

  • 78 Domain Authority
  • 14,300 Linking Websites
  • 5.8M Do Follow Backlinks

YP

  • 76 Domain Authority
  • 8,781 Linking Websites
  • 17M Do Follow Backlinks

SuperPages

  • 84 Domain Authority
  • 40,293 Linking Websites
  • 54.6M Do Follow Backlinks

When It Comes to Listing Management, Quality Is More Important Than Quantity

When you are submitting a business’ data online, you always want to consider quality over quantity. When it comes to listing management, the well-known saying less is more applies here. Simply put, being listed in a smaller number of top-quality directories will outrank the visibility of being in many directories that are known to be infused with spam.

Google clearly states that “low-quality directory or bookmark site links” can hurt a business. They are considered a link scheme, as outlined on the Google Search Central blog. A sure sign that the directory is of low quality is revealed if they require a link back to publish the business’ listing.

#DexKnows Joins Advice Local’s Data Amplifier Network by @BernieColeman #SEO
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We’re All About the Data – You Can Be Too!

At Advice Local, accurate business data distributed on quality directories, data aggregators, mapping apps, GPS and in-dash navigation solutions is our priority! Request a demo today and learn how we can help you to help your local business customers.

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Why Is Google My Business So Important

Yes, I’m talking about Google My Business again today! And there’s a reason … Do you fully understand why Google My Business is so important? Besides the fact they are Google, it’s so important because consumers trust Google.

When it comes to search, Google pretty much has a monopoly. According to Statista, as of February 2021 they have 86.6% of worldwide desktop market share.

statista google desktop market share

As local marketers, while we don’t always love Google and their many algorithm changes, where would we be without them? Local businesses wouldn’t need to hire us to help them place in Google search, and more than likely, we’d all have other careers!

So, Why Is Google My Business Important?

First, it’s time to think beyond the reason “because consumers trust Google” (even though they do). The more obvious reason is that Google owns Google My Business. This means they prioritize the businesses that are using their products and services. By having an optimized Google My Business (GMB) listing, Google can better understand the business, their products and services – and deliver relevant search results that are based on the user’s query, and the location of the user in relation to the business that’s closest to them.

Back in January, I discussed zero-click searches and website mentions, and covered how mentions in conjunction with an optimized business listing can help a business to surface more often in Google Maps for specific queries. I used the example probate litigation mckinney in our January search.

In April I looked at this again, and shared how adding detailed product descriptions to the business’ GMB listing moved the business to the first position in Google Maps. And when the business is surfacing, notice it’s for the information within the GMB listing – the website wasn’t mentioned as a factor.

These local justifications – as Miriam Ellis discussed on Moz’s blog this week – had us wanting to test this once more. Just like the other times I started with a desktop search.

Instead of getting a local pack when searching for probate litigation mckinney and then advancing to maps, there is no local pack at all. Instead, the business Lucé Evans Law (which is referenced in the prior examples) is returned as the single result. For transparency’s sake, I have actually been testing this query over the last month, and this business is returned as the single result each time in a desktop search, and is holding in the first position on Google Maps.

Why Is Google My Business Important

The optimization of this business’ Google My Business listing moved Lucé Evans Law from not appearing in the local pack until clicking through to Google Maps (in approximately the fifth position in January), to now being the only result in a desktop search – and also in the first position in Google Maps. As you can see in the example above, the business’ website is also placing organically for probate litigation mckinney in the first page of desktop search results. They were not placing in search on the first page for this phrase back in January.

So, Now We Ask You… Is Google My Business Important?

Well, if you want your local business clients to place in local search results, then yes.

At Advice Local, we equip you with all you need to fully leverage a Google My Business listing for your local business clients.

  • Our Google My Business tool allows you to schedule posts, upload EXIF-data optimized images, add questions & answers, plus monitor & respond to reviews from a single interface for single location or multi-location brands. And you get access to 18 months of historical data for the business’ GMB listing.
  • We have a free guide that walks you through how to apply E-A-T to a Google My Business listing to help it appear more often in maps. This includes strategies to optimize the listing.
  • And, through your Advice Local partner dashboard you can find out the Google Authority Score for each active business listing.

We also have a Google My Business Sync option in your partner dashboard, and a feature where you can auto-reject GMB public edits.

Why Is #GoogleMyBusiness So Important? by @BernieColeman #SEO #GMB
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Do You Need Help With Your Clients’ Google My Business Listings?

Just like with all our other features, we’re here to help you – our agency and local marketing partners – work smarter, not harder. Request a demo to learn all about our Google My Business tool, listing management solutions and much more.

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