local SEO?
Google in its attempt to offer increasingly relevant answers seeks to cross the information it has. For this reason, many services are linked: the Google search engine, Google Maps, Google My Business, etc. Concretely, this means that to display information in a service, Google can rely on its other services. For example, having a page on Google My Business allows you to appear on the Google Maps mapping service.
Another example: to refine the answers it offers, Google relies on what is called the Knowledge Graph. It is a database used by Google to provide relevant and personalized answers. To do this, he draws from Wikipedia, Facebook as well as … Google My Business. When we know that these many elements are linked, we can start to make the link between the local pack and local SEO. The latter encompasses all the techniques aimed at improving your SEO in the context of local searches.
Thus, improving your local natural referencing by being present on Google Maps with an optimized Google My Business listing will impact your rate of appearance in the local pack. Then, this better visibility will increase your chances of converting prospects who have found you via the local pack into customers.
How to improve your local SEO using the Google local pack
Optimization of your Google My Business listing
The first step is to create a listing on Google My Business if you haven’t already done so. Then, you have to optimize it as much as possible. For any business, Google My Business is an opportunity if your listing contains the necessary information. In this way, customers will have all the elements they need on hand. Remember to add a photo, indicate your opening hours, and a description of your activity. All information relating to the establishment must be carefully indicated.
In addition, there must be strong consistency between the information on the sheet and the reality. Ask yourself these kinds of questions: “Is the address the same as the one indicated on my website? “ or even “ Did I select the right category for my activity? “.
Google reviews: a major factor in ranking
Customer reviews are an essential factor for arriving first on Google Map and therefore for the success of your local SEO strategy. Indeed, 56% of customers select an establishment if it has good reviews in the local pack. The reason is simple, good reviews increase a company’s reputation and reassure potential customers. This is why the work on Google reviews is a very important step. These reviews appear on the business listing of Google My Business.
It is obvious that for the benefit of its users, the search engine seeks to favor the most and best-rated establishments. The latter are considered safer and therefore more likely to offer a pleasant experience to Internet users who use the Google search engine.
Quality reviews
For a company, the impact of good customer reviews is significant. Thus, companies with an average of 5 stars have a 39% higher click-through rate than those with 1 star. Also, going from a 3-star rating to a 5-star rating increases the click-through rate of the local pack by 25%. This tells us two things. On the one hand, it is essential to have a good average of Google reviews. Then, if a company manages to improve its customer reviews, it boosts the click-through rate.
Many opinions
Reviews need to be qualitative, but they also need to be quantitative to have weight. Thus, the companies that appear in the top 3 of the Google local pack have an average number of 47 customer reviews. If you want to get noticed, you need to get a lot of customer reviews. On average, businesses display 39 Google reviews. It is therefore essential that you are not below this average.
Other factors that can influence your ranking
If customer reviews and the business listing on Google My Business are the pillars of your local SEO, there are still other factors that can influence this ranking.
The local referencing of a company by Google is based on the relevance of the results for the Internet user. To reinforce this relevance, distance is an important criterion. Thus, the further the company is from the Internet user at the time of the search, the more it will go down in the ranking. Then, the main website of the company also weighs in the ranking. A well-built, optimized website with a certain authority will allow your establishment to rise in the rankings.
To improve its authority, your site must be quoted by other sites. External links must therefore point to it. This is fundamental because it allows Google to judge the seriousness and therefore the interest of the presence of your website in the search results.
To conclude, your local SEO strategy on Google must therefore be a global strategy. Being present in all the services of the company allows you to reinforce the effect of your work and will allow you to appear in the local pack. The pillars of this strategy are Google My Business and customer reviews.
Finally, do not forget that a local SEO of a well-done company has real advantages. Your visibility among local businesses and therefore your turnover will be deeply impacted.
