New Data Showing What Works on Google for Local Small Businesses

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It can be tough for small businesses to know which digital marketing levers to pull for a good Google ranking. But it may help with the Local Rank Factors Survey for 2020. It describes what has worked and what hasn’t worked over the past year.

In order to find out where SMBs could better spend their SEO dollars, Small Business Trends contacted Craig J. Mount, the founder of Classy Brain. The members of a party of local marketers are Mount and Darren Shaw. Annually, they do a broad survey that highlights the dos and don’ts of the search engine ranking.

Small Business Local Search Trends 2021

If you’re still making the jump out of a brick and mortar store, he began with a primer.

Higher Position

Google rank is a term that people relate to positioning in Google’s search engine outcomes, he writes. A higher positioning in Google’s findings is commonly understood to lead to more exposure for a website. And more profits, that means. The search engine also offers a road to digital success, Mount says.

“Google provides general direction on how to improve ranking in local search results in its support documents.”

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Local Search Results

People shopping online who are searching for stores in their region rely on local search results. They most frequently look at organic results from Google and results from Google maps. That’s why, in these two regions, many small businesses concentrate on improving.

Mount says you’ll see one popular part if you look under the hood of what drives the rankings.

“Local companies should invest time and/or money in optimizing search engines (SEO),” he says. “SEO is the practice of optimizing in its algorithm the rank factors Google uses.”

The more a small business invests in SEO, the higher your rankings for your goods and services. And that means customers looking for what you sell have a better chance of finding you.

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What Works

And that is where the 2020 Local Rank Factors Survey enters into play. How it gets put together, Mount says.

“In the local SEO industry, there are leading experts,” he writes. They are surveyed every year by Darren Shaw, founder of the company Whitespark. And the information gets compiled into the Local Search Ranking Factors Survey.”

That said, the list of what works is here. According to the experts, the top Google My Business rank signals are:

The Primary Google My Business Category

It makes sense to bring the company into a group where consumers can find your products and services. Search phrases become relevant when you add in the SEO aspect. You can begin by looking at the ones that are being used by your competition.

Keywords in Google My Business Title

An easy tip here will deliver the best results for you. Ensure that any keywords you use are important to your business. They still have to flow. To let you know if the keyword sounds spammy, make someone read the title again.

The proximity of Address to the Point of Search

Simply put, when they search on Google, how close someone is to where you sell your products and services is significant. That’s why this has become a vital consideration for rating.

Mount explains that SMBs ought to hear more about that. “How close a local consumer is to a company cannot be easily optimized,” he says. That means there’s no need to think about stuff here, such as keywords.

Other Factors

A few things small businesses could stop were also pointed out by the survey. While some companies believe they do, the following doesn’t amp up the rankings.

Don’t think too much about the keywords in your definition of Google My Business. The same goes for keywords in Google My Business services. Having activated the Google My Business messaging feature also doesn’t really bump up your rankings. The same applies to geo-tagging pictures that you upload.

Do you think the combined strength of a Google listing and SEO can be bypassed?

“Google is responsible for a lot of transactions,” Mount says. “If a local business does not invest in SEO, the competition in the market will.”


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Source: smallbiztrends

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Michael Doyle

Michael is a digital marketing powerhouse and the brain behind Top4 Marketing and Top4. His know-how and over 23 years of experience make him a go-to resource for anyone looking to crush it in the digital space. To get the inside scoop on the latest and greatest in digital marketing, be sure to read his blog posts and follow him on LinkedIn.

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