I’ve written about how important Google Maps are becoming to home improvement dealers; see “The New Rules of Local Search”. More and more, those maps show up in Google’s search results. In fact, homeowners are now using Google’s maps much like they have used the Yellow Pages in the past.
Having presumably acted on that great advice, you hopefully now have your company’s Google Maps listing up and running.
But the next question is: how can you improve your ranking on Google Maps? Well, while that’s something of black magic, here are three tips that consistently prove their worth:
#1) Proximity & Your Business Address
Google likes to display listings that are close to that of the searcher. To that end, your business’ address is an important key to where you show up.
The challenge comes about when you realize that many home improvement companies cover large territories. . .but only have one business address. A company with an address in Southern New Jersey may well serve the Philadelphia market, but Google Maps may well deem that as “far away.” In other words, Google may not display your business based in Southern New Jersey on maps it displays for homeowners in Philadelphia.
What to do? You must make your business appear to Google as “local” across as broad an area as possible. If you have multiple addresses for your business, log them with Google. The more addresses you have, the more likelihood Google will display your business in Google Maps.
#2) Your Company Name
Why is your company name important? Because Google is looking for keywords that match the user’s search. When a homeowner in Seattle searches on the term “bathroom remodeling”, Google will consider your company name in determining what to display. A business named “Seattle Bathroom Remodeling” is naturally going to rank higher for this search than a company called “Beautiful Home Remodeling Inc.”
You probably don’t want to change your company name just to improve your position in Google Maps. However, you can indeed modify your company name within your Google Maps listing. For instance, you can easily re-cast “Beautiful Home Remodeling” as “Beautiful Homes & Bathroom Remodeling.”
#3) Thumbs Up to Reviews
As companies like Yelp and Google compile reviews of businesses, they tend to favor those with more reviews from homeowners. I’ve noticed that Google Maps tends to – but doesn’t always – favor companies that have more online reviews. The favorable vs. unfavorable nature of those reviews doesn’t seem to have a significant impact. Rather, Google appears to value the sheer volume of reviews and will rank your listing higher if it finds a good number of them.
In summary, just having your company listed on Google Maps isn’t good enough. You’ve got to ensure Google Maps lists your company on the search results for the maximum number of homeowners in the territory you serve. Hopefully these three tips will help you do just that.
Homeowner Connections Through Performance Online Advertising
