Local Search Archives - SEO Ahmedabad

What Is Google My Business? A to Z of Google My Business (GMB)

What Is Google My Business?

Google My Business is a free tool that allows you to promote your Business Profile and business website on Google Search and Maps. With your Google My Business account, you can see and connect with your customers, post updates to your Business Profile and see how customers are interacting with your business on Google.

The following A to Z list gives you an idea about the Google My Business (GMB) aspects.

Address

You need a business address. This needs to be added and Google may send you a verification code by post on this address.

Business

You need to specify the type of business you engage in.

Customers

All the details on the My Business Page are basically to offer details to your customers. The customers can use this same platform to interact with you.

Description

You need to give a detailed description of your business.

Events

In the posts section you can create an event and post it.

Full Access via Google My Business Apps

You can access your GMB account via mobile apps too.

Google Account

You need to have a Google Account in order to create this page.

Highlights

You can add the highlights or the USPs of your business on GMB.

Insights

Insights give you detailed analytics about the GMB presence of your business.

Join ‘My Business’ Support Page

The GMB support is very active and you can get answers to your queries easily.

Keep your customers updated by sharing what’s new via Photos & Posts
Locations

You can add as many locations you want. You can add different businesses and you can also add multiple addresses for branch offices for one business.

Messages

Customers viewing your listing can message you directly. You can respond to them and connect with them. All this is free.

New Locations can be added easily
Ownership

You own the listing and can make changes as per your preferences.

Products & Photos & Posts

You can post product details, photos and also textual posts.

Queries to know the audience profile

You can ask queries to Google on the support forum or also to customer via posts directly to customers.

Reviews & Ratings

Customers can post reviews about your business by logging in to their Google account. These reviews are considered reliable and genuine by Google which can boost your search presence further. Your customers now get notified when you reply to their review.

Services

You can add the services from the list which Google has already created or you can also add services which are not mentioned in the list.

Try to connect with people posting reviews

You can try to engage and interact with the people posting reviews, ratings or comments.

Users

You can add other users to manage the GMB account. You can give them ownership rights or make them a manager.

Verify

The GMB listing has to be verified via email or by postal card. This depends on which geographic location you are and what Google has specified for that location.

Website

You can specify the URL of your website or Google also gives you an option of creating one on this platform.

Customer eXperience

A GMB listing enhances the customer experience. This has the Google maps integrated in the listing which is of great help to the customer. Y & Z Actually could not think of anything starting with Y or Z but to sum it up the above reasons are enough to understand why (Y) a business needs a GMB page and presence. The overall return will surely give a Zen like peace for the business owner if the page has all the correct details and shows in the search results for the targeted search queries.

Google's Advice To Businesses Affected By Coronavirus COVID-19

March 11, 2020

Google has advised businesses which are affected by the Coronavirus to provide the most accurate information on Google My Business. Google wants these businesses to update the correct timings and any other changes in the information on their GMB page.

If your business is affected by COVID-19, update your Google My Business profile to provide the most accurate information to your customers. Learn more: https://t.co/IUX8QXI71h.

— Google My Business (@GoogleMyBiz) March 9, 2020

This is to help the business owner and the potential customer looking for the relevant services on Google. The accuracy of the business info will surely help the people to prepare in advance if they are planning to meet them. This at least make them aware of the changes in the timings and services of the business. This tends to avoid any unnecessary delays and confusions.

Additionally on their GMB help page they have published the following guidelines for businesses affected by COVID-19.

Google's Advice To Businesses Affected By Coronavirus COVID-19

Here are some ways to make sure your customers have the latest information about your business if it is affected by Coronavirus.

1. Change your business hours

If your business hours have changed, update the times when you’ll be open or closed.

2. Manage your information

Explain whether or not your business operations are affected by COVID-19. You can share information about any extra precautions the business is taking, if you’re providing any extra services to the community, or whether you’re experiencing delays.

3. Create a post

Share more detailed and timely updates about what’s going on with your business through Posts. For example, add information about what products and services you have available, and link to other resources. You can continue to use Posts to directly communicate with your customers on a regular basis as your business changes.

4. Update your phone number

Make sure your phone number is correct so that customers can reach you.

The Pigeon Algorithm And Local Search

Author : Bharati Ahuja

There are many businesses which majorly cater to the local market and would like to focus on targeting the local traffic on the search engines. For such businesses even on organic search the search queries with a local intent are the priority for their search presence.

Google also takes local search very seriously and since a long time has been improving the quality of local search results in terms of display, listing management and also trying to measure the public opinion in terms of reviews for these listings.

The recent development being discussed is the Pigeon Algorithm (A name given by Search Engine Land after Google discussed about an upcoming algorithm for local search with Danny Sullivan)

The update has been pushed out to U.S. English based search results and the update impacts both the organic local listings within Google Map Search and Google Web Search.

SEL shared that Google has also informed Danny Sullivan that the new local search algorithm ties deeper into their web search capabilities, including the hundreds of ranking signals they use in web search along with search features such as Knowledge Graph, spelling correction, synonyms and more. Furthermore, Google has not commented on the percent of queries impacted by this algorithm update, nor if certain web spam algorithms were deployed in this update.

The local search listings are majorly influenced by submitting details in Google places now known as ‘My Business’ which also creates a default local Google+ page when you add the address details and also updates it on Google Maps. Once verified by the owner the listing goes live and depending on the details submitted it gets co related to the service and the place where the business is located. Any business can claim such a listing even if they do not have a website.

Further this listing gets a boost when people (Customers and Clients) add genuine reviews and ratings logging in to their Google Accounts.

A business targeting local traffic must not only focus on local search but should also focus on search queries having a local intent. As in many countries the local search results are not displayed on Google search results and in such cases they can benefit by having a presence on organic search results as such long tail queries will be less competitive and the potential of getting better rankings will be higher and more targeted.

Google And Place Search : The Latest Update On Local Search Listings On Google.

Google announced Place Search yesterday : A faster easier way to find local information. Google surely seems to be giving importance to local search and this move in fact gives me an impression that Google is trying its best to balance organic search results, local search results and paid listings on the Google results page.

If you search for ‘SEO Ahmedabad’ The results appear as below:

This results page shown above shows a balance between organic, local and paid listings. But the search for all queries having a local intent does not display the similar layout.

For e.g if you search for ‘Malls in Delhi’ it still shows the 7 pack as local search along with the map on the RHS and the paid listing pushed below and the organic listings after the 7 pack local search listing.

Google's Place Search is rolling out now and will be available globally in more than 40 languages in the next few days.

People surely want a global as well as local presence for their business and the importance and attention given by Google to both the results is surely a welcome step.

What is Local Search?

Local search as the term suggests caters to geographic location specific searches. Business details can be submitted on the basis of geographic constraints to search engines which display local business listings for geographic specific keywords.

The search engines display local based listings from their structured database of local listings. Usually the data is collected from the local yellow pages directories and also from the direct submission of details of the business from their maps option where you specify the address of your work place and contact details. These details get a listing in the local search even if you do not have a website.

Hence, the benefit of the search engines can be adhered to even if you do not have a website and have an online presence for your business. These listings in a way have a global reach in the sense that if anyone is having a location based search query like ‘seo ahmedabad’ or ‘corporate services London’ from any part of the globe they get the same listings under local search results.

In order to get good rankings for local search results it is essential to have the complete address submitted and verified. If more people write reviews against the results then it boosts the rankings further.