In this article, we’ll provide 10 tips to help mortgage and insurance businesses optimize their online presence for local search.

Claim and Optimize Your Google My Business Listing

Google My Business (GMB) is a free tool provided by Google that allows businesses to manage their online presence across Google, including in search results and on Google Maps. Claiming and optimizing your GMB listing is one of the most important steps you can take to improve your local search visibility.

To claim and optimize your GMB listing, start by verifying your business information and adding accurate and up-to-date information, including your business name, address, phone number, and website. You can also add photos, respond to customer reviews, and post updates to your listing.

Having an optimized GMB listing can help your business appear in local search results, and it can also help you stand out from competitors.

Build and Manage Citations

Citations are online mentions of your business name, address, and phone number (also known as NAP). Citations can come from a variety of sources, including directories, review sites, and social media platforms. Building and managing citations is an important part of local search optimization.

To build and manage citations for your business, start by ensuring that your business information is consistent and accurate across all platforms. This includes your business name, address, phone number, and website. Powerful tools such as 220 Local can automate this process for you across the most important platforms.

It’s also important to claim and verify your business listings on major directories and review sites, such as Yelp, Angie’s List, and Yellow Pages. Additionally, you can create listings on industry-specific directories to help improve your local search visibility.

By building and managing citations, you can help ensure that your business appears in local search results and that customers can easily find accurate information about your business.

Encourage Customer Reviews

Customer reviews are an important factor in local search optimization. They not only influence customers’ purchasing decisions but also affect how search engines rank businesses in local search results.

To encourage customers to leave reviews, start by asking for them. You can ask in person, through email, or by including a call-to-action on your website or in your marketing materials. It’s also important to respond to all reviews, both positive and negative, in a timely and professional manner.

When managing customer reviews, it’s important to follow best practices, such as avoiding fake reviews, not incentivizing customers to leave reviews, and not removing negative reviews unless they violate the platform’s policies.

Use Local Keywords

Local keywords are search terms that include a specific location, such as “mortgage broker in Los Angeles.” Using local keywords in your website content and online listings can help improve your local search visibility.

To find and use local keywords for your business, start by conducting keyword research using tools like Google’s Keyword Planner or Moz’s Keyword Explorer. Look for keywords that are relevant to your business and include local modifiers, such as your city or state.

When using local keywords, be sure to include them in your website content, meta descriptions, and online listings. However, it’s important to avoid keyword stuffing, which can harm your search rankings.

Optimize Website for Local Search

Optimizing your website for local search is another important step in improving your local search visibility. This includes including your business name, address, and phone number (also known as NAP) on your website, using structured data markup to help search engines understand your business information, and ensuring your website is mobile-friendly and loads quickly.

When it comes to website structure and content, it’s important to have a clear and organized layout, with pages dedicated to your services, locations, and customer reviews. Including location-specific content, such as blog posts or landing pages, can also help improve your local search visibility.

By following these tips, you can help optimize your mortgage or insurance business for local search, attracting more customers and growing your business.

Use Social Media to Build Local Presence

Social media can be a powerful tool for building your local presence and improving your local search visibility. By creating and maintaining active social media profiles, you can engage with customers, promote your services, and build brand awareness.

To use social media to build your local presence, start by identifying the social media platforms that are most popular with your target audience. It’s important to maintain consistent branding across all channels, including using the same profile picture and cover photo, and ensuring your business information is accurate and up-to-date.

When it comes to content, focus on creating engaging and shareable posts that highlight your services and showcase your expertise. It’s also important to engage with your followers by responding to comments and messages in a timely and professional manner.

Implement Schema Markup

Schema markup is a form of structured data that helps search engines understand the content on your website. By implementing schema markup on your website, you can provide search engines with additional information about your business, such as your address, phone number, and operating hours.

To implement schema markup, start by using Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper to create your markup code. Once you’ve created your code, add it to your website using your content management system or by adding it directly to your HTML.

The benefits of schema markup for local search optimization include improved search visibility, better click-through rates, and higher-quality traffic to your website.

Leverage Local Link Building Opportunities

Link building is the process of acquiring links from other websites to your own. Local link building focuses on acquiring links from websites that are based in your local area or industry.

To find and leverage local link building opportunities, start by identifying local directories, industry associations, and other relevant websites that may be willing to link to your website. You can also reach out to local bloggers or journalists and offer to provide expert commentary on relevant topics. Our Recommended Professionals page is setup to help you provide a quality profile for these local professionals so that they are encouraged to provide a link to your site in return. Taking advantage of this tool can greatly improve your local presence.

When building links, it’s important to focus on high-quality and relevant links, rather than quantity. Avoid using spammy tactics, such as buying links or participating in link farms, as these can harm your search rankings.

By implementing these tips, you can help optimize your mortgage or insurance business for local search, driving more traffic and generating more leads for your business.

Monitor and Track Local Search Performance

Once you’ve implemented the tips outlined in this article, it’s important to monitor and track your local search performance to see what’s working and what’s not. This can help you identify areas for improvement and adjust your strategy accordingly.

To monitor and track local search performance, start by tracking key performance metrics, such as search rankings, website traffic, and conversion rates. You can use tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and SEMrush to track these metrics and gain insights into your local search performance.

It’s important to regularly review your performance data and make adjustments to your strategy as needed. This can help ensure that you continue to see improvements in your local search visibility and generate more leads for your business.

Conclusion

Optimizing your mortgage or insurance business for local search can be a powerful way to attract new customers and generate more leads. By claiming and optimizing your Google My Business listing, building and managing citations, encouraging customer reviews, using local keywords, optimizing your website, using social media, implementing schema markup, and leveraging local link building opportunities, you can improve your local search visibility and drive more traffic to your website.

Remember to monitor and track your local search performance to ensure ongoing success. With the right strategy and ongoing optimization, you can position your business for long-term success in the competitive mortgage and insurance industries.

The post 10 Tips for Optimizing Your Business for Local Search appeared first on 220 Local.

As a business owner, you have the ability to respond to reviews left about your company. You can also take action against fake reviews and spam reviews that violate the review policies of the many different review sites such as Google, Yelp, and Facebook. While we can try our best to prevent negative reviews, they are likely to happen at some time or another. How you respond to these reviews is crucial for managing your online reputation. Not only should you be responding to negative reviews, but you should also be responding to positive reviews as well.  Mortgage, real estate, and insurance professionals receive reviews based on the service that they provide. Your response to both positive and negative reviews will give potential customers valuable insight into how you conduct yourself and your business. This week we are going to take a look at some of the most common types of reviews you can receive and how to respond to each.  

5-Star Reviews 

People often ask if they should be responding to their positive reviews. The answer is a definitive yes. We have mentioned the importance of engagement on social media numerous times in recent articles. This is true for review management as well. It is important to acknowledge and engage with your satisfied customers. Not only do does it further solidify your reputation with those clients, but it also shows potential clients that you appreciate and value your customers. Hopefully your business is receiving mostly positive reviews. When this is the case, it can often be a bit time-consuming to respond to all of them. Do your best to respond to each positive review, even if it takes a bit of time. 

Strategy: 

• Never use a templated message that you copy and paste into each review response.  
• Respond to each review by mentioning the client by name or mentioning something specific that they brought up about your business or their personal experience. This shows you are taking the time to read their reviews and that you are not simply using templated messages. 
• Your responses do not have to be lengthy, especially if you have many reviews.  

3-star Reviews 

3-star reviews are some of the most important reviews you can receive. When someone leaves a 3-star review, it means they are on the fence about your business. During their previous experience, there are likely some things they were happy with, and some things they were unhappy with. You can often get the most feedback from these types of reviews as they will go into detail about what was good, and what needed to be improved for them to consider a higher rating. Since these customers are generally on the fence about your business, you have the greatest chance of turning these reviews into 4- and 5-star reviews, so handle them with extra care. 

Strategy: 

• Respond specifically to their complaints with your plan of action for correcting them. This could be an offer directly to the customer such as a coupon or discount for a future purchase. It could also be a specific plan of action that you are going to take in order to improve in the future. 
• Never attempt to shift blame to the customer, or even specific employees, regardless of what their complaint may be. Potential customers will see that you take ownership of problems and are willing to correct them. 
• Be thorough in your responses to these reviews. A brief review may make the customer feel as if you aren’t really concerned about the issues that they had.  

1-Star Reviews 

Negative reviews are the hardest reviews to receive and to handle. They are often harshly written and there is very little chance of turning these individuals into repeat customers. However, as a business owner, you still want to respond to these reviews. They can be some of the most important reviews you receive because your response . While you may never make things right with these customers, the effort you put into these reviews will again show potential future customers how you conduct yourself and your business.  

Strategy: 

• You will want to handle these reviews much like 3-star reviews. 
• Start by acknowledging the client’s issues and apologizing for the bad experience they had.  
• Take ownership of the problem and again, do not attempt to shift blame to the customer, or to other employees.  
• Respond to the client’s specific complaints along with your plan of action for correcting them. While it may never be used, make an offer directly to the customer. 
• Be very thorough in your response. Potential clients will certainly see negative reviews so your response to these reviews is very important.  

Fake Reviews 

If you have been in business long enough, you have certainly encountered a fake review in some form or another. This could be a review from a competitor, a past employee, someone who has a personal grudge against someone working at your company, or anyone else who isn’t an actual customer. Unlike the other types of reviews in this article, you do not need to bother responding to these reviews right away. If you know the review is fake, follow the procedures of the review site you are on to have the review removed. Unfortunately, this process can take a bit of time so do not get discouraged if the review is still visible for a week or more. You may even have to follow up on the review more than once. Hopefully once the process is complete the review will have been removed. Occasionally the review will not be able to be removed for one reason or another. Here is a bonus tip for when this unfortunate situation occurs. 

Bonus Tip: 

• Post the fake review on social media! 
• This won’t do anything to get the review taken down, but you will often find that loyal customers will stand up for a business they believe in. 
• Many times they will leave 5-star reviews of their own in response to the fake review you posted. 
• If the fake review is eventually removed, you have not only taken care of the problem, but you have gained a handful of 5-star reviews from real customers! 

Reviews are incredibly important in the online marketing world. Potential customers use the reviews of past customers to evaluate and form an opinion of your company before every speaking to you. Your responses to these reviews are critical as they provide insight into how you handle feedback, both positive and negative. If you have not been responding to the reviews you receive, it is time to start!

The post How to Respond to Your Online Reviews appeared first on 220 Local.

Google Posts were made available to all businesses in June of 2017 so they are a fairly new Google feature. They have become quite impactful for local businesses looking to improve their local SEO and client engagement.  

So, what exactly are Google My Business Posts? Google Posts are essentially a micro-blogging feature accessible through your Google My Business profile. These posts allow you to share important information with individuals searching for your business. You are able to create micro-blog style posts, share product information, post COVID-19 updates, and much more. These posts are visible in your Google My Business profile when your business is viewed in a Google search result. 

Types of Google My Business Posts 

There are five types of Google Posts you can currently create. These are: 

• COVID-19 Update 
• Offer 
• What’s New 
• Event 
• Product 

Let’s take a closer look at each of the five types of Google Posts. 

COVID-19 Update  

COVID-19 Updates are self-explanatory. These posts are to alert your audience of any changes to your business that are a result of COVID-19. This could be that you are requiring masks in your store, you are shifting business hours temporarily, or that you are closed due to an in-office outbreak. Any news that you have to share related to COVID-19 can be included in these posts. 

Offer 

Offer posts allow you to promote upcoming sales, special discounts that are available, and more. You are able to set a start and end date for each offer you want to post so that they are visible only when you want them to be. You also have the ability to add coupon codes, or direct links to redeem an offer, allowing you to track how each particular post is doing. Terms and conditions for any promotions can be added as well. Offer posts are a great way to entice your audience to visit your site versus a competitor when they see your business in a Google search result.  

What’s New 

What’s New posts are the most generalized. Any news you want to share with clients can be posted here. This can be a change in business hours, a mini-blog post or preview of a full blog post you have created, a great review you recently received from a customer, or a photo of a recent charity event you did. If you feel there is something that your clients should know about your business, that doesn’t fit directly into one of the other four categories, you can likely create a What’s New post for it.  

Event 

Event posts allow you to share the details of upcoming events that your business may be hosting or that you may be attending. Much like Offer posts, Event posts allow you to create a start and end date, as well as start and end time for each event. You can provide a brief description of the event along with a button that you can direct to a page with full details of the event.  

Product 

Lastly, we have Product posts. Product posts allow you to list an individual product along with a price, or price range, a product description, and a link back to the direct product page on your website. This is a great way to advertise your products directly from your Google My Business profile in search results. Prospective clients are often searching for something specific and if they see that you offer that product or service directly from a search result, it can encourage them to visit your site directly. 

Creating Effective Google My Business Posts 

Google My Business posts are very easy to create. Simply log in to your Google My Business account and you will see posts on the menu to the left. While they are easy to create, there are few keys to making successful posts. 

Post Frequency 

Google archives posts that are more than one week old that do not have a set date range, so it is important that you post often. You want to ensure you have some type of post visible to your audience to encourage interaction with your profile. 

Proper Post Type 

First and foremost, always be sure you are choosing the correct type of post. Google can often suspend or remove posts that are incorrectly categorized. Post types are self-explanatory and you should have no issue selecting the correct one.  

Post Length 

You are allowed 1500 characters for each post, but you do not want to create lengthy Google My Business Posts. You have limited space in your profile that appears in search results. A preview of roughly 100 characters is available but your audience has the ability to view the full post. A lengthy post will push other information off the page and it is unlikely a viewer will remain on the page to read the entire post. Keep posts to roughly 150-300 characters to provide enough information without being overwhelming. 

Call to Action Buttons 

Most post types allow you to add a button with a link to a webpage. Always use these when available. It not only encourages clients to seek out more information about your post, but it will also boost direct website traffic. Google has a preset list of CTA buttons so be sure to choose what is most appropriate. 

Images 

High-quality images are highly recommended by Google to make your posts stand out. Ensure they are at least 400 pixels wide by 300 pixels tall to meet their minimum requirements. Videos are acceptable as well. Posts that include high quality images perform better than posts that do not include them. They attract your audiences’ eyes and encourage interaction with those posts.  

Google My Business Posts are often underutilized by many local businesses, but they are a great addition to your online marketing and advertising efforts. They can directly increase sales, website traffic, brand awareness, and more and they could not be any easier to create. Be sure you are taking advantage of this free feature each and every week. 

The post A Quick Guide to Google My Business Posts appeared first on 220 Local.

Advantages of Local Imagery 

If you are branding yourself as a local business, you can further emphasize this with the images you choose on your website. Generic stock photos make it difficult for users to quickly get an idea of your location and where you do business. A website that utilizes local images makes it clear to your visitors that you are a business focused on the local area that you are in. This helps establish your brand and will make your business easily recognizable with visitors from your area.

As a local San Diego company, photos of the beach resonate with our clients.

One of the biggest advantages of using local imagery is the ability to establish a connection with your visitors. When people visit your site and see local images of the city or town that they call home, it can create a feeling of comfort and even trust. As an example, San Diego has many small beach communities. An image of a family together enjoying a day on the beach will be relatable for many people. That image may remind people of the great times they have had during those family beach days and now your website is associated with those good memories. People are more inclined to work with someone they are comfortable with and that they trust. If you can create these feelings and emotions through imagery on your site, you have an advantage over competitors using stock imagery. People can recognize stock imagery these days because of how prevalent it is. Stock imagery does not resonate with people the way that local imagery can. 

Choosing The Best Images for Your Website 

Now that we understand the value of local imagery, it is important to look at a few other factors for selecting the images for your website. 

It should go without saying, but it is important to use high quality images on your website. If you find a local image of something you want displayed on your website, but it is poor quality, or you need to stretch and blur it to make it fit a certain area, do not use it. Using low quality, unprofessional images can make people think that you are unprofessional in everything that you do.  

You should also focus on the style and feel of your images. For example, if you are targeting homeowners in a mostly rural area, do not use an image of a downtown skyline just because it is a local city. Focus on finding images that your potential clients can relate to and that fit your brand.  

If you are unable to find quality images of your area, a local photographer can provide you with the images you need.

One issue you may encounter is finding local images that meet these exact requirements. There are free sites such as Pixabay.com and Unplash.com that offer high quality images for free, but you may have to search quite extensively to find the right images. You can also take photos yourself. Cell phones have great cameras these days and you can take exceptional images using them. If you take this route, make sure the photo is free from distractions, it is crisp and not blurry, the lighting is good, etc.  

Another great solution is to consider working with a local photographer. A good local photographer can take images of exactly what you need, and they will ensure the photo meets the requirements above. You may even be able to get the photos for a minimal fee, if not free, for crediting all of their images on your website. It gives them a great opportunity to showcase their work in a professional setting and provides them with something new to add to their portfolio. This is a win, win for both your business and the photographer and your website will have a unique professional feel that no one else has!

If you are still using generic stock photos on your website, it is a good idea to think about updating them with quality local imagery. These images are important for your brand, connecting with your clients and target audience, and ultimately conversions and sales. If you are a local business and need advice on website images or design, the team of marketing experts at 220 Marketing can help you make the updates that you need to succeed!  

The post The Importance of Using Local Imagery on Your Website appeared first on 220 Local.

1) What is Local SEO?

When we think of SEO, we think of the work we put into our website such as content and keywords, to attempt to reach the top of search results for various queries. Typical SEO can have a global reach. You may have a small business in Florida and someone from California may find your website. If you offer online services this can be a good thing but if you are a small business focused on local customers and service, this type of broad reach may not be ideal.

This is where local SEO comes in. Think of local SEO as a collection of all of the various things you do for your business, both online and offline, to attract people in your area to your business. This can include updating your business information across various online platforms, or asking clients to leave you a positive review to boost your online reputation. The goal of local SEO is to ensure you land in the “local 3 pack” for search terms related to your business.

2) What is the local 3 pack?

When you conduct a search for a term, if Google thinks you may be looking for a local business, a list of 3 local results will be displayed along with a map showing the location of those results. This collection of 3 local businesses is called the local 3 pack. Below is an example of the local 3 pack for the search term “pizza.”

3) How are local 3 pack results determined?

Local 3 pack results are determined by three main factors. Relevance, distance, and prominence.

Relevance

Relevance is how strong of a match your business is for the particular search term. To ensure your business is found for appropriate searches, it is important to update your business information in Google My Business, as well as other various online directories. This includes making sure your business name, address, categories, hours, phone number, and all other relevant fields are accurate and up to date.

Distance

Distance is simply how far you are from the location of person conducting the search. If someone is searching for pizza, they are most likely looking for something nearby. Businesses closer to that person will have a greater chance of appearing in the local 3 pack.

Prominence

Prominence is a measure of how well known your business is. Information is gathered about your business from various sources and compiled by search engines to evaluate prominence. This can include information on your own website, information about your business on other websites such as news sites, and most importantly, reviews of your business. Positive reviews about your business that are posted online will have a strong impact on your prominence ranking.

4) Do I need local SEO?

The easiest way to answer this question is to ask yourself, “do I serve any customers face-to-face?” If the answer is yes, you will likely want to put some effort into local SEO. Google recognizes numerous different business structures including

Brick and Mortar

Service Area Business (SAB)

Mobile Business

Hybrid (physical location but also provides services at customer locations)

& more.

Any of these business structures will find an investment in local SEO to be beneficial. Generally, the only businesses that won’t have a need for local SEO are companies that do strictly online business.

5) Where do I begin with local SEO?

Local SEO is an ongoing effort that will get easier with time but if you are new to local SEO, there are a few things you can do now to get on track quickly.

First thing that any local business should do is create and optimize a Google My Business profile. As mentioned above, it is very important to fill out as much information as accurately as possible. This includes your business name, address, phone number, hours, a description of your business, appropriate categories, etc. Be as thorough as you possibly can be so that Google can get the most accurate picture of your business. Add pictures of your office, staff, and some of the products you may offer. Make sure that when you complete your profile that you verify your business.

Next, you can begin to do this on other sites such as Facebook, Yelp, Bing, Yahoo, and the other various search engines and online directories. Claim as many of your business listings as possible on the numerous directory sites and ensure your information is accurate. If your business appears differently across many of these directories, Google many struggle to build an accurate profile for your business.

If you have not already, begin gathering as many positive reviews for your business as you can. If customers have a pleasant experience, simply ask if they can leave you a review on Google. You might be surprised by how many customers would happily do so after having an enjoyable experience. Set aside time to respond to reviews as well, both positive and negative.

Local SEO might not be as straight forward as traditional SEO, but it is not something that should be ignored if you are looking to compete in a local market. If you are curious how your business information appears online, run a free online scan at 220local.com.

The post 5 Frequently Asked Questions About Local SEO appeared first on 220 Local.

So, what is referral marketing? Referral marketing is a tactic of gaining new business through word-of-mouth recommendations. Have you ever had a friend rave about an amazing experience they had at a local business? This is the backbone of referral marketing. Getting your customers to share their positive experiences with friends, family, co-workers, etc. 

It is in our nature, as humans, to want to share our experiences with others when we socialize. According to Nielsen.com, 92% of customers trust recommendations from friends and family above all other forms of advertising. Consumer opinions posted online are 2nd to recommendations from family and friends, but when we shop online, we may have to spend a bit of time reading various reviews to get the best idea about a product or service. On the other hand, when someone shares an experience with a friend, it may only take that one single interaction to convince them about the quality of that same product or service. 

This is why referral marketing is such a powerful tool. Ken Krogue, President of InsideSales says, “A direct referral lead is over 36X more valuable than a lead generated by a cold call, 10X more valuable than a trade show lead, and at least 4X more valuable than a web lead.” As a local business in a small community, this impact is even greater. Cold calling within a community can quickly earn your business the reputation of being bothersome whereas referrals throughout the community can rapidly build trust. 

While we mentioned above that it is in our nature to share experiences with others, not everyone does. This is where referral marketing comes in. As a local business, you want as many of your customers as possible to share their positive experiences others. Let’s take a look at some ways you, as a local business owner, can ensure you are generating as many referrals as you can. 

Make the Experience Something Worth Sharing 

Whether it is the product you are offering or there service you are providing, you need to give customers a reason to get excited about sharing their experience with your business. Start by making sure your product or service is perfected. If what you are offering needs work, or is incomplete, it will be very difficult to generate positive referrals. Make sure you iron out any kinks in what you are offering so that customers are truly happy with the experience you are providing.  

Always be sure to provide outstanding customer service. Go above and beyond what your competitors are doing. Even if a customer doesn’t end up buying what you are offering, you may even generate positive referrals based on your service and attitude towards your customers alone. If your product is perfected and you are providing exceptional service, you are likely creating an experience that customers would be happy to share. 

Always be Asking for Referrals 

You may be providing an experience that blows your customers away, but as we mentioned, sometimes people simply don’t share their experiences with others. The best way of increasing your chance of someone sharing their opinion with others is just to ask!  At the end of a sale, customers are often the most excited about your business or their experience. Think about buying a car. It can be a bit of a stressful experience but when everything is said and done and you take the keys, the stress fades and the excitement of driving off in your brand new car takes over. These are the moments you should capitalize on. Ask your client if they don’t mind sharing their experience on social media, or leaving a review on Yelp or Google for you. Mention your referral rewards program, which leads us to the next point. 

Reward Your Referrers 

You can ask your customers for reviews as much as possible and you will certainly generate more than if you were not to ask, but a referral rewards program can boost your referrals tremendously. The rewards program can be simple and it doesn’t have to be much, but that little extra incentive can go a long way. 

You can offer your customers 5% off their next purchase if they leave a review on Facebook for you. Offer $10 off for any client that sends you a direct referral. Enter clients into a monthly raffle where anyone who leaves a review or sends a direct referral is entered into a drawing for a $50 gift card. Rewards do not have to be large. Keep them simple and make it easy for your clients to participate. 

Referral programs are also a great way to keep in contact with clients. You may ask that customers join the referral program using an email or phone number so that you can send them details of the program. Not only does it serve as a reminder to post reviews or to refer you to friends, but it provides you with a way to contact clients down the road. Let your customers know that when they sign up for the rewards program, they will get additional notifications with sales, or coupons, or news about your company. This is an excellent way to stay in front of past clients. 

Referral marketing is one of the most highly effective forms of marking any local business has at their disposal, and the costs are minimal. Create an experience that your customers will want to share with everyone. Always ask your customers to do so and incentivize them to give that little extra push. If you can do all of this, your reputation in your local community will soar and so will your business.

The post Capitalizing on Referral Marketing as a Local Business appeared first on 220 Local.

The local pack includes some important at-a-glance information about your business. This includes your most basic contact information including your business name, address, and phone number (NAP). Additional information such as your business hours and star rating based on Google reviews can also be displayed. You may find other information is displayed for different industries. For example, restaurants may give information on whether they offer dine-in or carry-out options. Below you will see a typical local 3 pack for the search term “pizza.” 

Why is visibility in the local pack so important? According to a study by SEOClarity, the local pack is displayed in the top position in 93% of Google search results. By landing in the local pack, this makes your business the first thing a potential customer sees in 9 out of 10 search results. Equally as important, Google shows that 76% of people who do a local search on their mobile device will contact a business within 24 hours. 28% of those searches result in a consumer making a purchase. 

How Does Google Determine Local Ranking? 

There are three primary factors that Google focuses on when determining who makes it into the local 3 pack which are relevance, distance, and prominence. 

Relevance  

Relevance is how well your local business profile matches the search that a user makes. To ensure you are appearing in the local pack for searches related to your business, it is important to accurately complete your Google My Business information. This includes: 

• Phone number 
• Business name 
• Physical address 
• Business categories  
• Business hours 

It is also important to verify your location and to manage and respond to reviews left on Google. All these things give users confidence that you will be open and available when needed. 

Distance 

Distance is how far you are from a specified search location or from a searcher’s current location if one is not specified. Of course, there is not anything you can do to change your physical distance from a search location, but it is important to know how certain search terms can cause Google to place more weight on the distance factor. For example, you can see below how the results change when you add “near me” to the search conducted earlier. In the original search, Capri Pizza and Grill may have appeared due to having a higher prominence factor. However, when placing more focus on distance, Giant New York Pizza was favored. 

Prominence 

Prominence is a combination of factors that equate to how well known a business is. Google gathers information about a business from various places such as your own website, online directories, articles, and links to evaluate prominence. Additionally, prominence is affected strongly by the number of reviews you have and the positivity of those reviews. The organic placement of your website will also have an impact so be sure to keep your website updated and you adhere to SEO best practices. Maintaining accurate business information across as many online directories as possible is also important for helping Google understand your business. Inaccuracies can lead to confusion and difficulty evaluating the information that is available about your business. 

Local SEO is more important than ever and as more searches are being done on mobile devices year after year, it will only become more impactful. If you are not ending up in the local 3 pack, it is time to take action. Take a look at your Google My Business page and determine if you are providing the most accurate information about your business. If changes need to be made, do not hesitate to make them. Work on gathering as many positive reviews as you can. Be sure to monitor and respond to new reviews as they come in to inspire confidence in potential customers. Stay on top of these things to ensure you work your way into the local pack and your business is seen.

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