Google My Business not only drives traffic from Google Maps and the local pack, but it also boosts your website rankings in local searches. It’s important to use both together, as they complement each other and are both important factors in any local inbound marketing campaign.
In this article, I’ll explain how your Google My Business profile can affect your rankings in local searches, and which factors affect GMB rankings.
How Google My Business helps you get more traffic from local searches
By creating and optimizing a GMB profile, you can get more local visitors. Here’s how.
1. GMB helps Google understand local websites
Google owns Google My Business. Therefore, creating a GMB profile with your business’s information and linking it to your website can help Google understand and collect more data about your business, its opening hours, and the products and services you offer.
For example, reviews on your GMB profile or GMB posts you publish might mention certain keywords or products that people are looking for, and you may have forgotten to add them to your website. Vice versa, a keyword on your website can help your linked GMB profile rank for it.
2. GMB signals help boost rankings
Local backlinks, including backlinks from directories, are a major factor in local SEO. Google My Business is one of the most important directories to be listed on, and it provides a powerful backlink to your site.
Not only that, but GMB profile optimization helps Google value your website more. For example, if your profile has tons of five-star reviews and is linked to your website, Google may start boosting your website’s rankings in local searches as well.
3. GMB helps you understand your audience
One of the benefits of creating a GMB profile is that Google My Business provides in-depth analytics about your audience. Of course, Google Analytics is a valuable resource that tracks your website visitors. Nonetheless, GMB can help you gain additional insights into what local searchers are interested in.
You can understand which events they are interested in, for example, based on the GMB posts they interact with the most. Using the information gleaned from Google My Business Insights, you can optimize your website accordingly to drive more traffic to your main website.
4. Your GMB profile will appear in local searches
When users conduct local searches, the first thing they often see is a list of GMB profiles, even before the regular website results. Many users click on those first GMB profile results without even bothering to click on the websites that appear after.
GMB profiles are more eye-catching — users can see images, read real reviews, and call or get directions to the business with just a click.
If you only have a website, you’ll miss out on all the traffic going to the GMB listings.
What impacts GMB rankings?
What can you do to make your GMB profile rank higher? Here are the top factors that affect GMB rankings.
1. Keywords in your title and description
Google tries to display results relevant to each specific search. By including the right keywords in your business name and title, you can get more targeted traffic and increase your conversion rate. Including keywords elsewhere on your GMB profile and website can also help boost your rankings, if your website is linked to your GMB profile.
2. Your categories
You can choose a main category and multiple secondary categories for your GMB profile. Google uses the categories you choose to determine how relevant your profile is to the searcher. You don’t need to be relevant to every search — only to the ones most likely to bring conversions and sales.
3. A completed profile
By filling out your profile with your full details, such as contact information, hours of operation, and a verified address, you can boost your rankings. It gives Google more data to determine how relevant you are to a search.
4. Reviews
The number of reviews and your average rating also play important roles in determining how high in the GMB listings you appear. Businesses that have few reviews tend not to rank as well. Responding to reviews can also boost rankings. Some people find reviews important enough to even ask clients and customers to leave reviews on their GMB profiles.
5. Prominence
Google also uses prominence to rank GMB profiles. A business or tourist attraction that is more well-known will rank better.
How does Google determine this? It uses other information from across the web to decide how well-known and popular a business is.
That’s why creating profiles on other directories, such as Yelp, and getting reviews there can help your GMB profile rank higher.
6. Website rankings
While your Google My Business profile can affect your website rankings, the opposite is true as well. Using local SEO practices for your website to help it rank higher can influence your GMB profile rankings as well.
7. Other factors
There are other factors involved, some of which are out of your control. For example, the distance between you and the searcher can play a role, but you can’t do anything about that.
Final thoughts
If you need help optimizing your GMB profile, check out our GMB Foundations service. By filling out your profile and publishing posts regularly, you can boost both your GMB and website rankings for local search.
