How does the Google algorithm work?

Oh the dreaded Google algorithm. While nobody knows exactly what elements Google looks at when deciding where to rank local search results, we do know the algorithm relies on three key areas - relevance, prominence and proximity. 

Relevance – Is the business shown appropriately addressing what the searcher is looking for? 

Google wouldn’t be Google if it didn’t return relevant search results. It’s why we all love to use it. You can show your business’s relevance through tactics like:

• Choosing the right Google My Business category
• Using keywords in descriptions and in your content
• Creating content that establishes your business’ expertise in areas that are relevant to your customer
• Optimizing your website with on-site SEO through title tags, meta descriptions, schema markup, etc. (don’t panic, we’ll explain what all these things are later)

Prominence – Is the business shown trustworthy?

Prominence boils down to how well your company stands out from the competition. The name of the game is trying to show that google can trust your business. You can do this through:

• Building mentions of your business online and building local links (aka other websites that link to yours)
• Creating and sharing relevant content and information
• Having strong reviews

Proximity – Is the business shown nearby the searcher?

This one’s pretty straightforward. Google is going to prioritize results that are close to the searcher. For this, there’s not as much you can do, because your business is where it is. However, there are some things you can do to help ensure Google knows your location:

• Optimize Google My Business with your location and service area
• Make it clear through on-site SEO where your business is located

Types of local search results

Local pack

Google local pack is the group of three local listings which appear when Google thinks, based on your search, that you’re looking for a local business. The listings here originate from Google My Business (more on that later).

Google Maps and Local Finder

The list also appears when you click on “More Places” from the local pack. The listings here originate from Google My Business directory information. 

Organic results

These are the more traditional Google results and are taken from Google’s index of websites.

Google provides businesses the option to create a free profile for their company on Google, and these Google My Business profiles are powerful. In fact, customers are 70% more likely to visit businesses with a GMB listing, and most experts (including us) will tell you that Google My Business is the most important aspect of local search, so it’s something we cover heavily in this Local SEO guide.

A fully optimized Google My Business profile will allow you to:

• appear in more searches
• rank higher than competitors
• get more actions (clicks, phone calls, etc.) on your profile

How to claim your GMB listing

Claiming or creating your Google My Business listing is an easy process. You’ll want to ensure that after you claim your listing you get it verified as well. There are a few methods and ways to do this, including a verification call or verification code sent in the mail. Step-by-step instructions can be found here.

How to optimize your GMB profile

Contact information

Consistency is key when it comes to the basic information in your Google My Business listing. One of the measure of your trustworthiness and prominence to Google is the consistency of your information online. Here’s a few tips to help:

• Make sure your business name in GMB is your exact business name and identical to your other online properties (website, Facebook, etc.)
• Ensure your address is the correct address used by USPS, and again, make sure it’s consistent (street vs. st.)
• If you have a service-area business where you travel to your customers and don’t have a physical location, you will still need to list an actual address on your GMB profile. Not to fear however, you can select to hide the address associated with your account.
• Service-area businesses will also need to specify the service areas you cover. You can use states, counties, cities, or even get zip code specific.
• Use a local phone number if you have one. Google isn’t a big fan of toll-free numbers because they’re frequently used for spam. Having a local number also gives credibility to your business and the locations you serve.
• Make sure your hours are up to date and accurate, this builds trust with google. You can set both regular and holiday hours, and now, special hours or temporary closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• If you have a business with more than one location, you should set up a seperate GMB profile for each location, with each profile linking to a different location-specific page on your website.

Description and category

These areas take a little more time and effort to update, but are vital to your profile’s success.

Description

Your business description should provide a 10,000 foot view of your company. Include information on what you do, where you are, why a customer should choose you. The description can be up to 750 characters, but you should include the most important information in the first 250.

Categories

Choosing the correct category is key, as it helps google determine the relevance of your business. 84% of profile views on Google originate from discover searches (when the user searches for a product, service, etc. and a business is served) versus only 16% coming from direct searches (when a user searches your company by name).

Be specific when choosing a category. Choose Italian Restaurant over Restaurant, or Probate Law over Lawyer, for example.

Choose secondary categories for other services you offer, or to get more specific. The more information you provide Google, the more accurate your listing will be. Don’t go overboard however, 2-3 categories total is best practice.

Photos

Google loves photos. In fact, businesses with photos on their listings receive 35% more click-throughs to their websites than businesses without photos, according to Google.

• Google provides a couple different categories for photos (At Work, Team, Logo, Cover, etc.), make sure you have photos in each of these categories
• Don’t use stock photos
• Focus on high-quality photos that give a potential customer a good idea of what your business looks like
• Don’t forget about videos too!

Reviews

Google reviews are believed to have the greatest impact on Google local rankings, and rightfully so. Customers want to see what others are saying about a business to determine if it’s trustworthy. More to come on reviews later on in this post.

Posts

Just like on social media, you can post to your Google Business profile about new products or services, announcements, events and more. Posts help send Google more information about your prominence and relevance.

• This is not a one and done tactic, so you’ll need to work GMB posting into your overall content strategy. GMB posts expire after seven days.
• Posts are limited to 300 words, but only the first 100 characters appear in the panel on the right hand side of search results.
• Include links, keywords and calls to action in every post.

A citation is anywhere your business’ NAP (name, address, phone number) is listed. Sometimes they link back to your website, but not always. Citations are considered a local SEO building block. They help build prominence and make your business more trustworthy to Google.

You’d be surprised how many places your business might already be listed. The first thing you’ll want to do is run a scan of where your business is mentioned online and check the information is updated and accurate. Consistency is key. You will also want to search for and remove any duplicate listings.

After you’ve cleaned up your citations, you’ll want to work on building more. A good place to start is by submitting your business information to the three main data aggregators in the U.S.:

• Foursquarre
• Data Axel; and
• Neustar Localeze

You’ll then want to look at directories and citations that are specific to your industry, such as Avoo for lawyers or Psychology Today for therapists and counselors.

If you’re a service-area business and don’t want your address to be public, there are directories that support hidden addresses.

READ MORE: List of industry-specific websites and directories to list your business on

Online reviews are key. Not only are they a cornerstone of Local SEO and can you rank higher in search, but they also convert more customers by building trust. In fact, over 7 in 10 consumers said they trust a business more if it has strong online reviews (source). It’s a win-win.

A few things to keep in mind when thinking of your reputation management strategy:

• Get reviews not only on Google but on industry-specific sites and the Better Business Bureau.
• Customers using keywords in reviews helps your listing rank higher.
• Obviously the quantity and quality of reviews matter. Aim to have at least 10 reviews that average 4 stars or higher.
• Responding to reviews is vital. Customers are more likely to consider businesses that respond to reviews, and they give you another opportunity to showcase your brand to potential buyers.
• Have a steady stream of reviews coming in. Almost two-thirds of consumers only pay attention to reviews written in the last month (source).

How to solicit reviews

Which leads us to our next subject, how to ask customers for reviews. The good news is over 75% of customers leave a review when asked.

Before you start asking for reviews, know the guidelines

Review spam is very real. Make sure you’re well-versed in the guidelines of different platforms, as each has their own rules. General good ideas to follow include:

• Never offer incentives in exchange for reviews
• Don’t ask friends, family or employees to review your company or review it yourself
• Don’t add negative reviews to competitors
• Never post reviews for customers, they need to do it themselves
• Don’t review-gate, or ask customers for their upfront and only invite customers with positive things to say to leave a public review
• And finally, never trust an agency that offers to generate reviews for you from non-customers. That’s a big red flag!

How to reach out to customers for reviews

• Ask customers face-to-face at the point of sale
• Email customers
• Text customers
• Be creative! Ask for reviews on business cards, receipts, email signatures, and more.

This is an area where local SEO differs from traditional SEO. The goal here with local search is to use your website to tell Google “Hey! Here’s where we’re located, and here’s where we serve. Please show us to potential customers!”

“Localize” your website

Localizing your website is the process of using your location (city, region, county, etc.) naturally throughout our site, with the key word there being naturally. You don’t want to deter your customers with content written for search engines instead of humans. There are a few ways to do this:

• Have a contact us page with the name, address and phone number of each of your locations. Bonus points if your phone number is clickable on mobile.
• Add that same information in your footer
• Add the name, address and phone number to the schema markup
• Make sure every page of your website has an appropriate page title, H1, H2 and H3 tags that use your location when appropriate
• Don’t pull content from other websites, even if it’s a service provider, manufacturer, etc.
• Write blog posts, articles, etc. about your community. They don’t all need to be about your product or service – talk about your community like you’re actually a part of it – which you are!
• For businesses with multiple locations, you’ll want to have a separate page, or content hub for individual locations.

Technical SEO

Techncial SEO deals with the underlying elements your website is built of. Fixing your technical SEO not only helps your ranking with search engines, but also makes your website more usable for your user. Some items to address:

• Your website load speed should be above average. Nobody wants to wait around for a website to load.
• The website should look good on desktop, but on mobile phones and tablets as well. In fact, I’d argue mobile is more important than desktop.
• Navigation should be easy to use and organized
• All web pages should be appearing in both Google and Bing’s search indexes. While you’re checking this, it’s also a good time to make sure there’s not any manual penalties on your site.
• Check your website for broken links, and check that there aren’t any 404 error pages. They make it hard for users and search engines to find your content.

One of the most effective ways to boost local SEO is by building links from local websites. This helps boost your site’s authority in the eyes of Google, while also helping establish your place in the local community. Some areas to look at include:

• Sponsorship opportunities
• Events in your community
• Local directories
• Local forums
• Newspapers
• Partner businesses
• Sponsored blog posts or guest articles on local websites

When you’re already swamped with running a business, regular reporting is often the first thing to fall off the to-do-list. Trust me, I’ve been there. But it shouldn’t be. After investing all that time and resources into optimizng your business for local SEO, you want to enure you’re seeing results.

Some questions to get you started:

• Are you seeing more phone calls?
• More customers coming in saying they found you through Google?
• Has your website traffic increased?