5 ways to rank better on Google My Business

Posted on 28 December 2021

Google MyBusiness gives further oppurtunity to being seen in search (not that you should neglect SEO on your website) but it can open another avenue where you can gain organic traffic on your website, calls and physical visitors just from getting above your competitors with Google My Business.

Reviews

Reviews aren’t entirely in your control but with the right reviews you can get above your competitors (even bad reviews). It’s all about frequency, content quality and quantity.

Say your business is based in the New Forest and you want to rank better for searches looking for… “SEO New Forest” for example. A review that says:

“I was looking for someone that offers SEO in the New Forest. With luck I found Plexaweb who have helped my business rank much better than it ever has. Highly Recommend!”

Would be much better than:

“Very good, highly recommend!”.

This is because of the quality. Google knows that your business offers SEO in the New Forest based off this review.

Frequency also comes in to play. If you have a load of reviews from last year, a competitor could get a review this week and it could mean they’ll blow you out of the water.

Quantity is another, by increasing the amount of reviews, not only are you increasing how much a new customer is likely to trust you but you’re increasing the content that will help your GMB/Google My Business listing rank.

Services

Services are vital and shouldn’t be left out. They will help you rank for different services and if you don’t include services you offer you likely won’t even show up for these.

Of course you might find it better to list only the services you offer and not variants of these services as that might muddy the waters (Probably something worth experimenting with)

Posts

Posts can and do help. We’ve tested this and time after time we’ve had results as expected. So if we wanted to rank better for potential clients in Lyndhurst for example (Village in the New Forest). We could put a post out saying something like:

“Recent website project for a client in Lyndhurst, website design and development followed by SEO”.

It’s important to note that you should always use pictures where you can. These help too.

We try and post at least once a week although sometimes we’re busy so this may turn into once every two weeks or less.

Providing correct NAP (Name, Address, Phone)

Providing the correct details for your business provides credibility and will help you rank your GMB better. This should also apply across all directories you can get listed on. The details you absolutely must make sure are correct are:

• Name
• Address
• Phone number
• Website
• Opening hours

We once tried altering our name (experimental) to include one of our biggest services “Plexaweb – Web Design Southampton”. As we thought, our listing dropped like a stone in water. So if you’re business has a name thaat doesn’t include the location of where you are or the service you provide. Don’t.

Description

This is vital. By providing a lenghty description that includes your keywords (not oversaturated) you’ll increase your chances of ranking for said keywords and areas. You’ll also have an oppurtunity to tell your potential customers/clients why they should use you and what your business is all about.

Don’t neglect the description and you may even find you change this multiple times as time goes on to optimise it further for better results.

And there we have it…

That’s 5 ways to rank your business in the New Forest or Southampton or wherever you are better with GMB. Good luck and If you’re looking to have this done by a company that does SEO. Please feel free to head to our contact page and get in touch today.

On a final note. If you’re reading this around the time this post is published, happy christmas and happy new year!

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