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.
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!