Google's Own Advice to Improve Local SEO & Google Review Rankings

How to Improve your Google Reviews Ranking - from the mouth of Google.

What helps your google my business profile rank above others?  Why do some businesses rank above others in the Google local maps?  There are hundreds of ranking factors for local SEO, and I want to show you 2 things small business owners should pay attention to in order to rank above their competition. Here are some of my favorite resources to help you understand what all goes into the local SEO and Google reviews ranking factors.

Best articles about local SEO:

• Safari Digital Local SEO Guide
• Backlinko's Local SEO and search guide.
• Cardinal's Local SEO Guide
• Feedbackwrench SEO for accountants resource

What Goes into the Local SEO Ranking Factors?

How do you improve your Google My Business ranking EXACTLY.  Well, the answer to that question is complicated, but Google, and the SEO community can show us some of the core ranking factors.  The best sources are from Google itself.  Here's what Google uses when developing the information it shows in your local profile, You should also read the Google My Business Terms of service, and abide by them by at all times. Seriously, you need to read these terms and understand the overall spirit of what Google is trying to embody, so you don't try to manipulate your ranking improperly.

Remember, there are even humans that will check the quality of a page in order to make sure it's of high quality, and you'll want to avoid playing games that trigger a manual action.

From Google's Own Words: Relevance, Distance & Prominence.

Proximity of your office to the searcher, the relevance of your business listing to the query, and the prominence of your business will determine how you show up.

Google has a blog post that talks about how to improve your local ranking, and we should pay attention to the heart of the 3 factors it lists.

Think about it, this is LOCAL SEO, and the more local you are, the more likely it is that you'll show up on the maps.

Besides that, your website and Google My Business must be relevant to the search.

Your website and Google My Business combine together to show what services you provide, the areas you service, and the relevancy of your website and business to the searcher.

Your website and Google My Business Profile provide the factors to show how relevant you are to a query.

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My Top Tips about Local Ranking Right from Google's Article:

1. Fill out your information properly
2. Only one profile allowed for a metropolitan area
3. Your service area can be within a 2 hour drive
4. You can, and should, add up to 20 service area locations within that 2 hour drive
5. Don't lie and don't create additional profiles in your metro area to try to manipulate
6. More reviews help you rank higher
7. Higher reviews lead to better ratings
8. Your website's ranking on Google informs your Google My Business ranking
9. Overall SEO for your website will improve your Google My Business Ranking

Quick Guides to Search Engine Optimization:

1. Google's Advanced Guide to SEO found here.
2. Avoid Link Building Schemes
3. Create excellent content that solves queries
4. Focus on creating content that's helpful for users, don't create it for search angines
5. Add structured data if you can
6. Create excellent content

Googles Own Advice on Local Rankings:

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Google's Advice on Local Ranking Factors:

1. Relevance
2. Distance
3. Prominence

Understanding Distance & proximity

There are 2 types of business listings, those with a physical address, and those that are service area businesses.

If you don't service customers at your office, you are a service area business.

Google tells us that the distance from your off

Google's Own Advice on Service Area Types

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How your website & Local Google My Business Work Together

We've found, and Google has showed us that your website plays a vital role in your local SEO rankings.

We've learned over time that there ar e handful of things that ar ereally important to add to your website to help with the local rankings.

Things to do with your website to help LOCAL Seo:

1. Have a compelling, clear, and succinct business title
2. Idnetify and target the core services that show up on Google My Business
3. Create an individual page for each of your core services
4. Add user interfaces throughout the website to keep your core service pages only 1 click away
5. Add relevant links on your own pages, to other internal pages, showing they are important to your site.
6. Build up quality backlinks to your home page and core services.
7. Add Local Business Schema, and Structured Data to your home page and services pages
8. Add your core service, and no more than 3 services, to your Google My Business
9. Create authoritative, helpful content concerning all relevant questions and topics within your core services
10. Make your website fast loading and mobile responsive
11. use good markup for H1, H2, H3 and alt image tags on your website.

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The Bottom line for Local SEO

When you're trying to rank higher on Google reviews, you'll want to optimize your Google My Business profile, get more reviews than your competitors, create a hyper optimized website, and build up your SEO for that website.

Here's the bottom line about how to get your business to rank higher on the local Google Maps pages:

1. Setup your Google My Business properly & optimize it
2. Create an SEO Optimized website
3. Get more reviews than anyone else in your industry
4. Create authoritative content about your core services

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Here's an example that shows the website was a factor taken into consideration when deciding to pot this listing into the local search rankings.

Here's another example, this time for life insurance, that shows the website is playing an important rol in the ranking factor.

Your website will play a major role in your local SEO and google my business rankings, so make sure you take a measured, excellent approach to your website, page content, ontology, and hierarchy within your website.