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With
that said, don’t get discouraged if you do find a few mistakes. The
good news is it’s fairly easy to fix all of these.
My
goal here is to help you identify what’s wrong and what’s preventing
you from ranking high in Google’s local results, and then it’s up to
you to take action to get everything cleaned up.
Alright,
let’s get started with the easiest mistake to fix…
1. No Google My Business Profile
When
you think of search engine optimization (SEO), then you immediately
think of your website ranking in Google’s results. However, with local
SEO, there’s a bit of a twist.
Search
for “nearby dentists” and you’ll see a big map in the upper right corner.
Plus, you’ll see information for dental offices listed in the main
results (i.e. name, address, phone number, reviews, etc.) .
Here’s
the thing… that information is from each business’s Google My Business
profile page, not their website!
So
if you do not yet have a Google My Business profile page, you’re
missing out. It’s 100% free to set this up and shouldn’t take more than
20 minutes of your time. Click here to learn more and get set up today.
Don’t
forget the very last step which is to verify your business listing.
That’s an important step to ensure you’re the owner of your page so you
(and no one else) can make edits in the future.
2. Duplicate Listings
The
next common mistake I see is having duplicate Google My Business
profile pages.
Google
hates duplicate content in their search results. It’s a bad experience
for their users to see the same information twice in their results, and
it’s a waste of Google’s resources to analyze and store duplicate
information.
That’s
why creating duplicate listings is against Google’s terms of service.
Each business location should only have one Google My Business profile
page. To see if you have more than one page, use the Moz Local tool.
Simply
type in your business name and address and Moz’s tool will let you know
if there are some duplicate listings floating around online. If there
are, then contact Google to get them removed as quickly as possible so
they don’t drag down your rankings.
3. Missing Relevant Categories
OK,
now let’s look at the most common (and often most costly) mistake made
on the actual Google My Business profile page. In my experience, the
biggest mistake is missing relevant categories.
Don’t
rush this critical step when you’re setting up your page.
Think
of categories like sections of the Yellow Pages. The more sections you
advertise in, the more likely your prospects are to find you.
So
the more relevant categories, the better. Note that it’s against
Google’s terms to include irrelevant categories so be careful when you
select your categories.
Google
doesn’t make this super easy so I recommend you take a look at this big
list to find all the relevant categories for your business. Another tip
is to review the categories top-ranking local businesses have selected
in their profiles.
4. Missing Contact Information On Your Website
Go
to your website’s contact page and confirm all of your contact
information is listed on the page.
More
specifically, make sure that your business Name, Address, and Phone
number are listed as text (not an image!). This ensures that Google can
easily read your contact information and verify its accuracy.
Google
doesn’t want to show incorrect information in their search results.
That would be devastating for their credibility, and over time they
would lose users.
So
one of the measures Google takes to ensure accuracy is to compare the
information listed on your website versus the information listed on
your Google My Business profile page. If your website and profile
aren’t displaying the same exact contact information, you’ll want to
edit your website and/or your Google My Business profile to make them
consistent.
This
leads us to mistake #5…
5. Inconsistent NAP Information Online
Mistake
#5 is inconsistent NAP, which is simply an acronym for Name, Address,
and Phone number.
As
I mentioned above, it’s important to have the same contact information
listed on both your website and your Google My Business page.
But
that’s not all…
Google
takes this a giant step further and compares your contact information
listed on your website versus the information listed on other websites
across the entire internet!
That
means you must have consistent NAP on every single webpage that lists
your contact information. Mainly we’re talking about business
directories since those are the types of websites most likely to
display your contact information publicly online.
To
check for inconsistent NAP, again go use the Moz Local search tool.
Simply type in your business information and the tool will quickly tell
you if you have any problems.
6. Missing Citations
A
citation is simply a mention of your NAP on another website.
In
mistake #5 above, we emphasized the importance of consistency across
all your online citations. Well just because you have consistency
doesn’t mean you’re in the clear.
It’s
possible you’re missing some important citations that are hurting your
chances of ranking high in Google.
To
check if you’re missing important citations, you can start by using the
Moz Local search tool. If you find there are opportunities, then simply
add all of your business information to the websites.
OK,
that’s enough about your NAP and citations. Let’s move on to the
mistakes that aren’t so easy to fix…
7. No Customer Reviews
Most
businesses struggle to get customer reviews online. So if you’re
lacking reviews on your Google My Business profile, then don’t beat
yourself up too bad because you’re not alone.
The
problem is that it takes some real effort on your customers’ end to add
a review.
I’m
sorry to say there’s no silver bullet solution here. All you can do is
ask (via email, in-person and over the phone) and make it as easy as
possible for every customer to leave a review.
Of
those 3 methods, we’ve found that asking via email — along with a link
and directions — is the most effective method because your customer
doesn’t have to find your profile, you’re leading them right to it.
Getting
positive reviews will likely be a slow process, but over time it adds
up and will give you a real competitive advantage that is difficult to
replicate.
8. Low Quality, Thin Website Content
The
remaining 4 mistakes are not directly related to your Google My
Business profile. That’s because Google changed their algorithm to
incorporate more signals, like the content on your website.
Your
website plays an important role in how high your Google My Business
profile will rank in the search results. If your website is full of low
quality, thin website content (less than 500 words per page, as a
general rule of thumb), then you’re going to struggle to rank in
Google.
If
you think about this from Google’s perspective then it makes a lot of
sense…
Google’s
mission is to give searchers the most relevant webpages that are most
likely to answer the searchers’ questions. Generally, webpages with
more content provide more information than webpages with less content.
That’s why it’s so important to review all your key webpages and make
sure they have at least 500 words of relevant content.
9. No High-Quality, Relevant Links
Links
from other high-quality, relevant websites have always been a major
factor in SEO, and more recently Google is using links in their local
ranking algorithm.
That
means you can’t just rely on an optimized Google My Business profile
page and citations. You also have to invest in tactics to get high
quality, relevant links.
You’re
probably wondering how do you get other websites to link to your
website?
The
first step we always recommend is to get your business listed in quality,
relevant directories. Directories can help to lay a foundation of
links, and they also provide citations (mentions of your Name, Address,
and Phone number).
Over
the long-term, the best way to attract quality links is to publish and
to promote great content. I know it’s probably not what you want to
hear, but the best way to get other websites to link to your website is
to create something worth linking to. If you try to use shortcuts, then
you’ll likely get yourself into trouble down the road.
10. Ignoring Social Media
Take
a look at David Mihm’s local SEO ranking factors and you’ll
see that social media activity is one of the many signals Google uses
to rank businesses.
There’s
a lot of debate about this, but regardless of whether you agree that
social media activity directly impacts rankings, there’s no denying the
fact that social media is a great opportunity to create more exposure
and buzz about your business.
As
mentioned above, the best way to get links to your site is with great
content. And one of the best ways to promote your content to get it in
front of your target audience is via social media.
11. No Mobile-Optimized Website
The
final mistake is not creating a mobile-optimized website.
Local
SEO and mobile go hand in hand because more and more people are using
their mobile devices to search for local businesses on the go.
I
personally do this all the time…
Even
when I’m home, I’ll use my mobile device rather than go and turn on my
computer and wait for it to load up. As more of your prospects turn to
mobile devices, they are going to expect to see a mobile-optimized
website.
Google
has already started to experiment with labels in their search results
to tell searchers which results have mobile-friendly webpages. Then
back in April 2015, Google updated their algorithm to include
mobile-friendliness signals in their ranking algorithm. And more
recently, in 2018, Google moved to mobile-first indexing, which means
that your mobile website will be the primary website Google analyzes
for ranking purposes. And as of July 1, 2019, Google enabled
mobile-first indexing by default for all new websites.
So
if you haven’t already, you need to create a mobile-optimized website
in order to compete in the local search results in the coming months
and years.
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