What Is Google My Business?
Get your business in the Google Local 3-Pack, increase your online visibility and beat out your competitors!
Our evolving needs and our constant thirst for information, products and services have made search engines a tool we can’t live without. Have you ever caught yourself thinking about how life was before Google? I guess most of us do!
Whether we’re searching for a nearby coffee shop, home repair tips or news, Google is our go-to search engine. Every day billions of users carry out their searches there. It’s the most visited website in the world and the dominant search engine, holding 92.05% of the market share as of February 2021.
Google receives 1.2 trillion searches per year. A large percentage of these queries comes from people looking for businesses, places or services within their local area. To local business owners who are still wondering “why should I take my business online?” – the answer is simple:
Because prospects are looking for your services and products online – on Google!
In June 2014, the search engine giant launched a free tool that turned out to be any local business’s best friend: Google My Business (GMB). This tool makes it easier for local businesses and national brands to be found on Google. They can then use marketing practices to optimize their GMB listings and increase their visibility.
Being on the first page of Google search engine results pages (SERPs) is every business’s dream. Smart marketers, who want to get their clients to the top of Google, know that local search engine optimization (Local SEO) is their magic weapon. And Local SEO goes hand-in-hand with Google My Business and website optimization tactics.
Our vision for this complete Google My Business guide is to become a blueprint for all marketing agencies and local business owners who want to get to the top of SERPs and boost their conversion rates!
Table of Contents
- What is the Google Local 3-Pack?
- Why is the Google 3-Pack important to your business?
- How does the Google Local Pack help your business?
- How to use GMB to rank in Google Local 3-Packs
- How can I improve my Google Business Listing?
- Make sure your GMB listing is complete & accurate
- Add keywords to your GMB listing
- Keep your business hours accurate
- Create a short name & URL for your business
- Add a list of your products to the Product Editor
- For service-area & hybrid businesses: Specify your service area in Google My Business
- Add geo-relevant photos
- Gather Google reviews & reply to all of them
- Use Google Insights to monitor your GMB listing
- Monitor and optimize your Page Experience
- Earn or build backlinks to your website
- Make sure your business citations are claimed & accurate
- How to use organic SEO to rank in the Google 3-Pack
- Why do location pages matter?
- How do multiple locations affect the Local 3-Pack?
- How to create landing pages for each location
- What information to include on each location page
- Using Local SEO for service-area businesses
- Conclusion
What is the Google Local 3-Pack?
The Google Local 3-Pack is a listing of three local businesses displayed at the top of Google’s first page – right below Google Ads. It’s like a recommendation from Google to users to simplify their life. The listing features the top three local businesses that offer the products or services searchers are looking for. Their location is pinned on the map.
Is your business on the Google Local 3-Pack?
Then, rest assured you’ll get a lot more calls and website visits than the business listed at the bottom of the page or on one of the following pages.
Google 3-Pack listings with local retailers include the address and phone number of these businesses or even a Google review. There’s also a one-click button directing users to the businesses’ websites and Google map directions.
However, listings with service area businesses (SAB) don’t include contact details or buttons heading to their websites. They might feature images and business hours, though. For instance, is the business currently open?
Examples of SABs include local home service companies or a handyman serving the local area – we’ll discuss them in more detail below.
After clicking on a business listed on the 3-Pack, the user heads to another page within Google. Here, the chosen company sits in the top spot on the right. On the left, there’s a long listing with 20 more local businesses relevant to the search query.
The order of the top 3 spots of the Local Pack appears in rotation based on several factors. The most important of them is the searcher’s proximity to a relevant business. When two users are even just a few miles away from each other, the Local Pack listing will change depending on the searcher’s location and the device they’re using. That means that the Local Pack could allow more businesses to enjoy increased exposure!
The only downside is that a business’s GMB has a ‘reach’ between 3-5 miles. This can be further reduced in large cities or rural areas, meaning that companies might lose visibility. Even so, the more you focus on optimizing your GMB, the more likely it is for your business to be displayed in the Local Pack!
Why is the Google 3-Pack important to your business?
Google wants to display the most relevant results that answer users’ search queries. That’s the only way to keep people coming back to the search engine. This focus on relevance explains why Google has been the #1 search engine for so many years!
Apart from relevance, there’s one more important factor determining which businesses will appear high in search results: Proximity.
Proximity is the most significant ranking factor for 2021. How close is your business to the searcher?
That’s what Google calls local search intent. The search engine giant uses mobile phone tracking, WiFi and the Internet Server Provider IP address to determine users’ exact location. Terms like find or near me are the ones that best express local intent.
The Local 3-Pack is a listing that helps users with local search intent find nearby businesses more easily. Imagine that a user based in London’s Notting Hill area is searching on Google for a “restoration company near me.” Google will return the most relevant home service businesses based in or near Notting Hill.
For a local business to appear into the Local 3-Pack, it’s important to have:
- An optimized website
- A complete and optimized GMB account
Without the local pack, it would be tricky for users to find businesses and products close to the location they’re based in.
So, local businesses and marketers should invest in Local SEO – and more importantly, on Google My Business – if they want to be the protagonists on Google SERPs for local searches!
Note: It’s possible to get a different Local 3-Pack when searching from a mobile phone connected to the cellular network compared to searching from a laptop connected to the WiFi – even when searching from the same physical location!
How does the Google Local Pack help your business?
There are so many potential customers in your community searching for local businesses like yours! The best way to help them find you is by ranking into Google’s 3-Pack.
Get your business listed in the Local Pack and you’ll enjoy increased visibility on SERPs and also:
- More phone calls
- More website visits
- Increased foot traffic
- New customers
- Greater bottom-line results
Often in marketing, it’s hard to know how much exposure your business will get. That’s not the case with the Local 3-Pack, though. Take a look at these figures:
- Businesses included in Google Local 3-Pack receive from 40% to 60% of their total traffic and half of all website clicks from the listing.
- The 3-Pack ranks in the #1 spot in 93% of Google searches.
- After searching on a mobile phone for services or products nearby, 76% of searchers end up visiting the business within 24 hours.
- 28% of local searches result in a sale.
- 68% of users trust the Local 3-Pack, 27% trust the organic results below the 3-Pack, and only 10% trust paid search results
It’s clear that the Google Local 3-Pack is vital for local businesses.
So, now that you have a clear view of how important the Google 3-Pack is for local businesses, how do you get your business listed?
How to use GMB to rank in Google Local 3-Packs
To be part of Google Local 3-Packs, start by creating a Google My Business account. It’s free and, unlike what many business owners think, it doesn’t replace having your own website. In fact, without a business website, your chances of ranking higher on Google get smaller.
If you don’t have a website yet, you can use the Google My Business website. The setup is free and quite straightforward. The great advantage here is that most of the information you have included on your GMB website is automatically added to your GMB listing.
For those of you who like content writing, there’s one more feature to benefit from – Google Posts! Write short posts to communicate with your customers and these will be instantly added to your GMB website. Apart from text, you can also post images, events, stories, GIFs, and videos.
Note: A custom-made website is still the best option for most businesses as the owners can have more control over the content as well as the look & feel of the website.
Google My Business listing complements a business website by providing the most important information to Google users in the most convenient way. It’s the largest online local web directory after all!
All the information included in a GMB listing shows up in Google search and on Google maps alike.
Once you have created and verified a basic GMB listing, focus on adding all the business information required and making it attractive to searchers!
Google chooses which top businesses to display in the Local 3-Pack based on their GMB listings. Business owners and marketers who have optimized their GMB listings are more likely to feature in the Google Local 3-Pack!
How can I improve my Google Business Listing?
By optimizing your GMB listing, you boost your business’s rankings in the local maps search results.
That’s not an easy job. It needs time and effort. This is why many business owners tend to hire a digital marketing or SEO agency to properly optimize their GMB for maximum exposure properly.
For DIY business owners that want to put their own effort into it, here are some steps and tips to follow:
1. Make sure your GMB listing is complete & accurate
First off, make sure you’ve added or claimed your business on Google My Business.
When your GMB profile is all set, spend some time completing all the information required.
This might seem obvious, but many business owners often rush through creating a GMB listing and miss out on essential details. They assume that some information doesn’t apply to them, or they believe it isn’t useful. But for sure, skipping areas is not a good idea!
The GMB listing is part of Google search results. Just like all the information featured on its results pages, Google wants to make sure that GMB listings provide trustworthy and relevant business details to users.
When a listing lacks information, the search engine considers it neither useful nor accurate. Thus, it doesn’t rank incomplete listings in the Local 3-Pack. Unless of course, it is the only relevant result! This is possible to happen in non-competitive areas.
2. Add keywords to your GMB listing
If you’ve spent some time optimizing your website or blog, you know how important keywords are. They’re the words, search queries, or phrases users type into the Google search box when searching for something.
By matching the words on your website to the terms users are searching for, Google is more likely to make a match! Google has indexed over 4 trillion pages and assigned relevant search queries to them. If Google has decided your page is relevant for the search term, it will be returned in the search results.
The same concept applies to your Google My Business listing too. Specific keywords can yield a Local Pack, while others don’t. Test your keywords to see if they trigger a local listing map pack. You definitely don’t want to optimize your listing for search terms that don’t show up on the local map packs.
Use keywords throughout your listing and make sure there’s a variety of them. Use geo-targeted as well as niche-related keywords. For example, ‘Best Plumber in Tampa Bay or ‘our plumbing business serves residents in Tampa Bay. The greater the variety of your keywords is, the more matches you’ll make with search queries.
Be careful not to go mad, though. Google’s algorithm may pick up on that and demote your listing. Keep the language natural and use keywords only where it makes sense. Copywriting is a skill, so don’t be afraid to ask for help.
3. Keep your business hours accurate
One key feature of the GMB listing is that it informs customers what days and hours the business is open. Imagine that a user is around the town and in need of your products or services. They want to know if the business is open by the time they get there. They’re typing your business name on Google and see that you’re open for another two hours. But when they arrive, the store is closed. How disappointing that would be!
Instead of losing clients or making them angry, ensure your business hours are up to date at all times. Unhappy customers might leave a bad review right on your GMB listing. That will hurt your business’s reputation and may lower your rankings.
When creating the listing, add in all operating hours; double-check they’re correct and update them when needed.
Tip: Use the tool that Google provides to customize your hours for holidays and other special events, such as bank holidays. Google recently added a “last updated” note alongside business hours to increase the listing’s accuracy. For example, “Last Updated 3 Days Ago.”
4. Create a short name & URL for your business
After you’ve verified your business, you can create a short name for your Business Profile to make it easier for customers to find you.
When you share your short name, customers can type it in the browser’s search bar to head directly to your Business Profile. For example, ‘g.page/yourcustomname’.
This feature is available to most merchants and business categories.
Note #1: For bulk users, short names must be claimed for each individual profile.
Note #2: Short names don’t support non-English characters.
Your short name should be associated with your business name or the name that most people use to refer to your business. Keep it simple so it’s easy for customers to remember it.
Pro tip #1: Include your location to make the short name more distinct. You can use your business name along with your city or neighborhood. For example: “bestcleanersdallas.”
Pro tip #2: A short name means you’ll get a short URL that you can then share to request reviews from your customers.
5. Add a list of your products to the Product Editor
The Product Editor is a Google My Business feature that business owners can use to showcase their products on their GMB listings. It’s visible to all users, no matter if they’re searching on Google from a mobile device or a desktop computer. There’s the Business Profile Products tab on mobile and the Product Overview on computers – both presenting a curated list of a business’s products.
These product listings are very useful to potential customers and can increase your business’s online visibility.
The feature is available for small and medium-sized enterprises. If you own a local restaurant or a coffee shop, add your most popular and much-loved dishes or drinks. There’s a particular category for popular dishes on the Editor.
For bigger companies, use the Local Inventory Ads to inform prospects about your products and their availability.
Pro tip #1: Update your product listing regularly. Remember that when you edit a product or category on the Product Editor, that will feature at the top of the catalog. So, if you want to display a particular product at the top of the catalog, simply make a small edit to it.
Pro tip #2: Specify a price range if there are no fixed prices for your products.
6. For service-area & hybrid businesses: Specify your service area in Google My Business
Local businesses that visit or deliver to customers directly should specify the region or specific areas they’re serving.
There are two business types that can use the service-area feature on GMB.
- Service-area businesses: Local companies that don’t serve customers at their business address. They visit or deliver to the client’s location directly. This business type includes home service providers, such as plumbers, electricians or cleaning services.
- Hybrid businesses: The ones that visit or deliver to the customer’s location and serve clients at their physical store too. For instance, a dine-in restaurant that also provides food delivery services.
Important note: Service-area and hybrid businesses that don’t serve customers at their business address should leave the “business location” field in GMB’s “Info” tab blank.
Such businesses should specify the city and neighborhoods to whom they offer services.
A few more things to keep in mind:
- There are only up to 20 service areas for each business.
- You can’t add areas that extend farther than 2 hours of driving time from your business address.
7. Add geo-relevant photos
There’s a misconception among local business owners that the photos section of the GMB listing is not that important.
GMB photos verify your business and entice even more customers to visit your store!
Think of the images in the same way you would on your website or in a magazine article. Including pictures of the people who work for your business means customers will recognize them when they show up for an appointment. Happy faces can also make customers happy and lure them to click on the call button!
- Businesses that have at least one image on their Google My Business profile get 42% more requests for driving directions on Google Maps.
- They also have a 35% higher click-through rate to their website than businesses that don’t have any photos on their listing.
8. Gather Google reviews & reply to all of them
8.1. Why are Google reviews so important?
One of the best features of a GMB listing is that customers can leave reviews right within it.
Online reviews motivate potential customers who come across your business information online to call you!
It’s your chance to:
- Engage with your existing customers.
- Understand how your business is perceived.
- Get an insight into customers’ feelings and thoughts about your company.
- Attract new customers.
While reviews on other platforms like Facebook, Yell and Yelp can also show up in your GMB listing, the Google reviews are the most important of all.
Happy customers tend to leave positive reviews and recommend the business that served them best to their friends and colleagues.
Don’t get worried if you get a 3 or 4-star review. We all know that some people are just too hard to please, no matter what we do. Having a mix of reviews looks more natural and believable, so welcome those 4-star reviews too!
Even the best businesses will often have one or two negative reviews. But when the number of bad reviews is small compared to the number of positive ones, they don’t really matter.
Good reviews, of course, are going to have a positive effect on your conversion rate.
- Prospects who come across the nice things existing customers have to say about you and your business are likely to trust you and convert.
- Google might consider reviews when ranking your business in the Local 3-Pack.
To understand how important reviews are for your business and the local 3-pack listing, have a look at these stats:
- 89% of prospects won’t take any action before they read a few reviews.
- 70% of prospects need to check a minimum of 4 reviews before they can trust a business.
- 15% of Google users don’t trust businesses without reviews.
- Product reviews can increase the conversion rate by more than 270%.
About the Local 3-Pack:
- Businesses included in the Local 3-Pack have around 472% more reviews than business listings found lower in Google search results.
- GMB listings with the most reviews are 63% more likely to appear in the Local 3-Pack.
After these eye-opening stats, you can understand the importance of encouraging customers to leave reviews on Google about your business, service and products!
8.2. How to respond to customer reviews
Invest some time to reply to all reviews, both the good and the bad. Thank all satisfied customers for their positive reviews. Let them know that you’ll be happy to help them again in the future. In case you have to deal with ‘not-so-favorable’ reviews, here is your chance to reverse any negative perceptions customers might have about your business!
First, apologize, no matter if you disagree with the customer or not. Thank them for their feedback and show that you care and do take every clients’ comments seriously and into consideration. Honest reviews always help you improve your business. You can continue the discussion in private or offline.
Pro tip: Use relevant keywords and mention the business location instead of just saying “thank you for the kind review!” An SEO-friendly and nice alternative could be: “I am delighted our Chelsea plumbing service helped you when you needed it. Should you need a local plumber again, we’d be happy to help.”
Google displays snippets of reviews into the Local 3-Pack listing. Positive reviews featured in the Local Pack can give a great boost to the click-through rate.
8.3. How to collect Google reviews
If you’re just starting with your GMB listing, try to spend some time planning the review collection strategy. There are many reputation and review management software available online that can offer you a helping hand. But if you’re interested in creating your own review collection and managing process, that’s pretty simple too.
Here are a few simple ways to collect reviews:
- Share an email with your customer list asking them to write a Google review for a product or service you’ve offered them. The closer to their purchase time, the more likely they will leave a review.
- Share a short URL of your Google reviews page for their convenience
- Call your customers and write down their feedback about your business. Ask them to add their comments on your GMB listing as a review.
- Ask for a review right after a client has made a purchase. Email them a link to your Google reviews page. Follow up with a kind reminder if they haven’t responded after 3-4 days.
- Offer incentives to customers to leave honest reviews, such as discounts or vouchers for their next purchase. Incentives can definitely work in your favor. They not only increase the number of reviews you get but also boost customer trust and engagement.
- But be cautious! Google is against bribing.
9. Use Google Insights to monitor your GMB listing
Google wants to help businesses create complete, accurate and optimized GMB listings. This is why the search engine giant has built an analytics tool inside the GMB dashboard: the Insights. This tool helps business owners monitor their listing and uncover the way users interact with it.
The insights you can get from Google include:
- The number of customers who found you on Google.
- The way customers found your business listing. Did they type your business name or address into the search bar? Or did they search for a category, service or product you offer, and your listing appeared?
- The Google page where users found you and the number of views for your GMB listing. Was it Google search or Google Maps that brought prospects to you?
- Customer Actions. How do customers behave after they come across your GMB listing? Did they visit your website, call you or request directions?
- The place where customers were when they requested directions to your business. At which city or neighborhood were your customers when they asked Google Maps for directions to your business? What are the most popular places?
- When and how often customers called your business through your GMB listing. What day of the week or time of day do customers call the most?
- Your GMB photos’ views and quantity. How many images have you uploaded to your GMB? How many times have they been viewed?
- What your business is known for. This insight is helpful for restaurants and cafes. It describes the feel and ambiance of a place. This type of information is quite subjective, though.
By monitoring your GMB listing through Google’s Insights, you can give customers more of what they want and get a clearer view of how to drive more traffic.
Pro tip: Add Urchin Traffic Module (UTM) search parameters to the links included in your GMB listing, GMB website and Google Posts. These parameters give your valuable insights into:
- The links that send traffic to your website.
- The number of users who head to your website after they’ve come across your GMB listing.
Combine these insights with a heat map and visitor tracking software to create a powerful conversion rate optimization toolset!
10. Monitor and optimize your Page Experience
A website that offers a great user experience can boost your Google rankings and increase your visibility on the SERPs.
The criteria that help business owners measure and determine the level of user experience their website offers, include:
- Mobile-friendliness. How easy is the website to use and navigate on mobile devices? Is the content readable and any links and CTAs accessible and clickable?
- Safe browsing. Users should be able to browse your website safely. Make sure there’s no malware, phishing or hacked content and links on it.
- HTTPS security. Is the website being served over HTTPS? Is the website connection secure?
- Core Web Vitals. These are some new page experience signals expected to roll out in May 2021 by Google:
- Largest Contentful Paint. How much time does a page’s main content take to load? The ideal LCP is at least 2.5 seconds.
- First Input Delay. How much time does it take for the page to become interactive? The suggested FID is less than 100 ms.
- Cumulative Layout Shift. What’s the amount of unexpected layout shift of visual page content? The ideal CLS is less than 0.1. (Source: SEJ)
- Non-Intrusive Interstitials (pop up ads/ opt-ins)<. This metric shows whether any on-page content is blocked for website visitors.
11. Earn or build backlinks to your website
Backlinks have always been a crucial part of SEO.
They are links on other web pages that point ‘back’ to your website. Google considers each backlink a vote of confidence for your website. The more backlinks a website has from external relevant web pages, the higher it’s usually ranked in the SERPs.
Here are a few ways to get useful backlinks that can boost your visibility:
- Get listed in the top online local directories.
- Create amazing content that people want to share and promote through your website and social media profiles.
- Draft a useful local resource list, such as the ‘Top 5 Best Restaurants’ in your area.
- Automate your backlinks research efforts with tools like Ahrefs and Semrush.
- Be a guest blogger for relevant websites and include a link to your website in the blog post.
- Tip: Remember to link back to a high-quality, useful page on your own website, such as a resource page.
12. Make sure your business citations are claimed & accurate
Citations include any mentions of your business online. Run a quick check every now and then to make sure they’re accurate across all online platforms.
The first thing to check is your NAP: Name, Address and Phone number. This information acts as a unique identifier for your business. It should be listed on all web pages – including local directories and social media accounts – matching how it’s in your GMB listing.
Google’s search algorithm is a computer program and matches like for like. Thus, NAP consistency helps Google increase the trust signals of your business’s online pages, including your website.
Any time you get a tweet, a mention on Facebook or Instagram, or a review, these are citations too. Online services such as MOZ Local and Bright Local can help build citations for you. There are hundreds of different citation opportunities to take advantage of. Use them wisely to improve your rankings and get a spot in the Local 3-Pack.
How to use organic SEO to rank in the Google 3-Pack
When talking about ways to rank in the Google 3-Pack, there’s only one SEO strategy that matters: Going local!
Local SEO helps build and boost relevance and proximity for your Google My Business listing.
Why do location pages matter?
In the modern digital world, businesses are no longer competing against other companies in the same industry. They are competing against companies that have the best online presence. Thus, including location pages on your website plays a key role in your overall online performance and Google rankings.
A local business that serves or has stores in multiple locations should create distinct web pages for each of these locations.
- 85% of the engagement between a brand and a customer occurs on the location pages
- 4 out of 5 customers are looking for ads tailored to their location
For example, a plumber that serves many neighborhoods in and close to Northampton may create 3 distinct landing pages for the business website: a “Northampton Plumber,” a “Kettering plumber” and a “Rushden Plumber” landing page.
It’s crystal clear that customers have high expectations when it comes to what they see online. If they don’t find what they want, they can swipe to another business at no time.
It’s now more important than ever to invest in Local SEO strategies for optimizing your website and:
- Meeting customer expectations
- Improve your local rankings organically
- Feature your business in the Google Local 3-Pack
How do multiple locations affect the Local 3-Pack?
The tricky part about the Local 3-Pack is that it can filter out businesses that have the same phone number, website or are located in an office space shared with other companies using the same primary category.
It’s a common practice nowadays for businesses to share their working space with other companies. For example, the same building can house several accounting firms. This often works for everyone involved, except for Google’s Local 3-Pack.
In 2016, Google introduced what was called the “possum” algorithm update. This update started filtering companies out of the Local Pack. For example, businesses within the same industry or niche, located at the same address. For such businesses, it doesn’t matter how great and fully optimized your GMB listing is. You may find it really hard to get unfiltered. This is often very frustrating for business owners to hear. Luckily, there is something they can do about it!
When deciding which business to filter out, Google compares their local organic rankings.
The business with the best rankings and highest relevance will probably stay in the 3-Pack, while the others will get filtered. So, to ensure you’re not left out of the results, you need to:
- Increase your relevance for your niche and location.
- Improve your organic local ranking.
Below are some tips on how to do it.
How to create landing pages for each location
Creating different location pages on the main corporate website allows businesses to produce highly relevant content tailored for each location. That helps your location pages rank higher in Google search and encourages interactions that convert searchers into customers.
When creating these pages, keep the below tips in mind:
- Optimize the title, meta description and header tags for each landing page.
- Ensure each page includes customized hyperlocal content, such as driving directions, local places of interest, maps, etc. Create a mini tourist guide!
- Use both internal and external links in your posts, such as links to relevant local places (airports, parks, tourist attractions).
- Make sure each location page is mobile-friendly.
- Test whether each location page loads fast. You can use the speed test tool available on Web Page Test.
What information to include on each location page
Here are some suggestions on what pieces of content to include in each location page to boost their visibility in SERPs:
- Write about nearby landmarks that attract locals and tourists.
- Include written driving or walking directions from those locations.
- Mention any popular local events.
- Write about any exclusive services or products that you offer in each location.
Depending on your business and your location, you may also want to add localized, specialty pages. For example, a lawyer in Brighton may have a “Brighton Personal Injury Law Services” page and also: a “Brighton Car Accident Law Services” and a “Brighton Pedestrian Accident Law Services” page. To further boost visibility, the lawyer can even create location pages, such as “Preston Personal Injury Law Services” and then add specialty pages with “Preston” as the location-distinct keyword.
Both location and speciality pages should have:
- Page-ranking authority
- Logical hierarchy and structure
- Internal and external text links
- Be included on the XML sitemaps
- Schema markup
- Meta tags & optimized content
Some tips to further increase your chances of featuring in the Google 3-Pack include:
- Develop “where to buy it” locators on all local landing pages indicating where the product or service can be purchased.
- Focus primarily on “where to buy it” keywords.
- Include local reviews from customers.
Using Local SEO for service-area businesses
As previously mentioned, some local companies don’t offer services or products at their business address. They might not have an office building either. These service-area businesses include consultants, salespeople, or handymen who visit clients at their houses or offices.
Even if your business doesn’t have an address, it can still be part of the coveted Google Local 3-Pack listing.
Owners should claim a Google My Business profile as a service-area business (SAB) for such companies. They can add their home location, which won’t be visible in the listing, though. It’s only added on the GMB profile to help Google figure out the location where the service-area business operates.
Conclusion
Google is constantly updating the way it organizes its search results pages.
In this article, we talked about the top tactics and tips on how to increase the likelihood for your business to feature in the Google Local 3-Pack listings.
Whatever tips and practices you choose to follow, you should definitely prioritize the below:
- Optimize your Google My Business listing to allow Google to find your business and include it in the Local 3-Pack.
- Optimize your website using SEO strategies, such as keywords and backlinks
- Create location or service area pages that use all of the same SEO strategies.
It’s no secret that Local SEO requires good knowledge of the industry and a fair amount of your time.
If you would rather spend your time focusing on running your business or if you’re a busy marketer, then Seedhub Media’s Local SEO and GMB optimization experts can take over the project for you!
This means you’ll have more time to focus on the extra calls and customers your Google My Business listing brings to your business.