Being Found on Google, competitive advantage, lead generation, marketing best practices, organic SEO, paid search, pull marketing, Search Engine Optimization, search terms, SEM, SEO

XYZ Near Me

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Conversations I’ve had with clients and prospective clients recently about “local SEO” have prompted me to share the following reminder.

For “near me” terms, Google is going to focus on serving up “Google My Business Profiles/Google Search & Maps Listings” vs. an appropriate organization’s website. It makes great sense since “a near me” search is all about the searcher identifying an organization near them that offers the products, services, or solutions to problems they are seeking.

Ranking Organically (Without Paying For Advertising) For Relevant “Near Me” Terms

While some organization’s products and services lend themselves more to “near me” searching like “real estate agent near me,” “brunch restaurants new me,” “roofing companies near me,” “elder law attorney near me,” and “ice cream near me” — and those organizations definitely want and need to have a Google My Business Profile (GMB Profile) and ensure it ranks well — all organizations should have a regularly updated Profile in place to support overall, broader geographic ranking.

We won’t repeat everything we’ve shared in previous posts about keeping your GMB Profile current and comprehensive, but you can access such information at the bottom of this post.

What we do want to remind organizations about related to “Near Me” searches is to regularly revisit your GMB Profile business categories. When you set up your Profile, you can select a primary “business category” and several secondary “business categories.” Google regularly adds more specific product and service terms to this list. So, make sure your organization appears in local search results for as many of your products and services as you can, by indicating to Google, via your business category selection, what products and services you offer.

This is a powder blue image that says "2 Ways To Rank Locally/For "Near Me" Terms" In Black Letters At The Top. Underneath it says "1. Organically: Via Optimized Google My Business/Google Search & Maps Listing and 2. Paid Advertising: Via Google Search Ads And/Or Google Local Services Ads." At bottom, it has the logo for our Boston SEO services company, Results Communications & Research, and says "we can help with any and all of this!"

Ranking For Relevant “Near Me” Terms Via Paid Advertising

Two forms of Google paid advertising will help your organization appear high up in Google search results for relevant local searches:

  • Google Search Ads – while these primarily-text ads appear at the top of Google search results listing for relevant searches, they also can support your GMB Profile appearing at the top of the list of all Google My Business profiles that Google serves up in what’s known as the “Local Pack,” i.e., the first 3 or 4 listings that Google serves up (see first blog post at bottom of post.)
  • Google Local Services Ads – these ads focus on getting a searcher to call or message you; therefore, cause a pretty immediate conversion. While they don’t directly impact your Google My Business Profile or cause it be served up, they do pull information from your Google My Business profile, i.e., your “reviews.” Unlike Google Search Ads, the goal isn’t to drive traffic to your website or Google My Business profile, the goal is to make someone reach out to you immediately! You can learn more in this excellent article by WordStream.

Feeling Overwhelmed By All Things Local Search/Google My Business?

Reach out today to our Boston SEO services company. We offer both local search and domestic/global search SEO services, and can help you related to ranking better locally, for the whole U.S., and beyond!

Past Blog Posts About Optimizing Your Google My Business Profile

Stay At The Head Of “The Local Pack” By Packing Your Google My Business Profile With Regular Updates
Four Things Getting & Staying In Shape and SEO Have In Common
A 10-Year Look-back: Observations on Social Media Use by Businesses
Why It’s Time To Get Back To Internet and SEO Basics
Why Combining Keyword Research With An SEO Audit Is A Recipe For SEO Success
Spring Clean Your Online Presence to Support Both Sales and SEO — Part I
Being Found on Google, competitive advantage, content marketing, good will creation, keeping up with trends, keywords, marketing best practices, organic SEO, pull marketing, push marketing, Search Engine Optimization, search terms, SEM, SEO, staying current, target audiences, Target Marketing, Understanding Your Environment, website

Give The People What They Want

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Recently, as the owner of a digital marketing agency with an SEO (search engine optimization) specialty who is always looking to improve on the SEO services we offer our clients, I signed up for a subscription to “Answer The Public.” I had learned about the tool via a free webinar offered by Neil Patel, a digital marketing expert I greatly admire and follow on LinkedIn, and one of Neil’s colleagues. The aforementioned tool allows you to see what questions individuals are asking related to the products, services, and solutions to problems that your organization offers, and to see how frequently, for a particular geography, individuals are searching Google for answers to those questions.

I’ve already used the tool numerous times with various clients to inform FAQs (frequently asked questions) on their websites, as well as topics for future blog posts. And, of course, I plan to use the tool to inform future blog posts for Results C & R too.

The data available via “Answer The Public” is so in keeping with the blog post we wrote last year about the algorithm change Google shared about placing greater emphasis on “helpful content” when determining which organizations’ websites to serve up high in search results for relevant queries.

When thinking about what to write about “Answer The Public,” the song below came to mind because isn’t that what helpful content, and answering the questions people want answered, all about? Giving people what they want and need?

Reach Out To Talk About Your Marketing Challenges and Opportunities and How Our SEO Services Might Address Them

I always love a great marketing and communications brainstorm, so reach out today to talk about your awareness-, sales-, and service-engagement- challenges. I’ll always give you an honest evaluation of whether I believe your organization would benefit from pull marketing tactics (like organic and paid SEO), push marketing tactics (like social media advertising), or both. Use my calendar app to schedule a complimentary discussion at a day and time that’s convenient for you, or e-mail me at gail.moraski@allintheresults.com.