Over the last two years, there has been a 500% increase of “near me” searches.1 People are searching for products or services and want Google to display local results without adding location qualifiers like a city or neighbourhood name. While helpful for consumers, some businesses struggle to get their listing ranked for location-specific searches.
Location-specific searches return two types of results:
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Google My Business (GMB) Listing/Places:
The first set of results for a location-specific search returns a map of your area with 3 businesses listed directly below. Organic Results: Directly below the GMB listings are the organic results Google returns based on your keyword search. Ideally, you want your business to rank in both of these places—like our client Omega Homes does. |
We were able to increase our client’s organic rank in location-specific searches by optimizing their GMB listing, creating local landing pages and creating targeted ads to drive traffic to their respective location-specific pages.
GMB Listing
| GMB is a valuable online marketing tool that is free to use and setup. After claiming and verifying your business listing, you can add contact information including your business hours, address, phone number and service areas.
By verifying your business with GMB, you have an increased chance of showing up in local searches for your industry—as Google knows exactly which areas your business services. Having positive Google reviews will also increase your chance of ranking in local searches, as Google incorporates reviews when determining which listings to display. It’s also important to regularly upload pictures and content to your listing. |
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Local Content
In addition to maintaining your GMB listing, you need to create high-quality location-specific content. Addressing unique challenges in your area and creating local landing pages can significantly increase your chance to rank higher in searches. As always, quality content will be rewarded by Google and pages stuffed with keywords will be penalized.
If you’ve noticed a drop in your organic ranking, it could be due to changes in location-specific searches. We’ve helped many clients increase their rank and as a result generate more meaningful leads for their business.
Start improving your local ranking,
contact one of our marketing specialists.
idig Marketing is a full-service digital strategy and development firm that generates meaningful website traffic and drives high value leads to your organization. By optimizing organic content with paid advertising our custom methodology is adapted to meet your requirements and to exceed your objectives.
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1 Think With Google. “How ‘near me’ helps us find what we need not just where to go.” Retrieved December 4, 2018 from https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/near-me-searches/
