How Important Is Google My Business to Local Search?
Conscious Commerce • December 13, 2019
You’ve probably heard a lot of buzz from us lately about Google My Business
, but there's a good reason for all the praise we’ve been giving it. You see, Google My Business is an incredibly useful tool that businesses can use to increase their local visibility.
Considering that 46% of all searches on Google are directly seeking local information
and 97% of consumers search for local businesses on the Internet
, such a benefit is needed.
These are two statistics that you cannot afford to ignore. They highlight just how important local search is when it comes to search visibility.
We already talked about this in a previous blog post, highlighting some of the advantages and benefits of Google My Business, including things like:
- How placement is everything
- How your brand can use GMB to stand out in the SERPs
- Why GMB is vital for providing value to your customers
- Why GMB is an excellent tool for building trust and social validation
But this time—we want to highlight just how impactful this tool really is with some actionable statistics from our own clients.
Why We Believe GMB is the Future of Local Search
You should think of GMB as more than just a directory for your business. Google has put a lot of effort into building the platform to:
- Highlight important business information
- Showcase events, promotions, and updates
- Ensure customers have access to vital data they need about your business
And why wouldn’t they? After all, they own the search engine, so it’s in their interest to prioritize their own solutions for indexing and visualizing the SERPs.
In response to this, we’ve been helping our clients improve their GMB presence now for several months and the numbers we’ve seen so far are impressive.
Here’s What We’ve Seen So Far:
- A wine store client saw a 30% increase in driving directions requests, a 46% increase in phone calls, and an 8% increase in listings on search.
- One of our realtors saw substantial growth with a 178% increase in local post views in search and a staggering 1,344% increase in listings on Maps.
- Another law firm witness a 33% increase in driving directions, a 20% increase in phone calls, and a 100% increase in local post views in search.
But how does GMB work exactly?
Local search algorithms are broken down into three distinct categories: relevance, proximity, and prominence. But what do these actually mean?
Relevance
refers to how a search engine handles the intent of a search. If someone searches for the best poutine in Toronto, they expect to see Toronto-based results for poutines and not ice cream.
Proximity
refers to how close a specific result is to the individual. If someone searches for the best poutine near me, the algorithm will show them the best available poutine near them even if the city’s highest reviewed location is far away.
Prominence
refers to how important a business appears. A restaurant with high reviews, good SEO
, and happy customers will likely feature higher in the SERPs than a new restaurant with zero presence.
The reason why you need an optimized GMB listing is to ensure that you meet the requirements to make your business relevant, prominent, and accurate (for proximity). An optimized GMB listing will typically rank higher for popular search queries than one that isn’t.
If Local Isn’t Your Focus Yet… It Should Be!
We are firm believers in local search. Remember, 93% of localized searches have Google’s 3-pack local results in the number one spot. That 3-pack is almost always placed above the first website link. It’s no wonder then why so many businesses are starting to see the value of GMB, as the platform clearly does a lot for businesses locally.
Are you looking to get more value out of your GMB listing? Market Advertise Promote is your go-to source for GMB specialists. We can help you improve the quality of your listing, drive more leads to your business, and increase your conversion rates.
Please get in touch with one of our PALs to learn more about this essential service and to see why so many businesses are prioritizing GMB.
This article was written by Conscious Commerce Corporation Founder & CEO Brandon Klayman with the help of lead copywriter Eric Carriere.
What is a Local Search Grid? The Local Search Grid can show you where your business is ranking on a more granular level. Instead of giving you an overall ranking for your whole city, the grid shows where you rank from one neighbourhood to the next.
Table of Contents What is Local Rank Tracker | Overview | Positions | Ranking Table | Keyword Groups | Competitors
Showcasing your reviews directly on your website, embedded from platforms like Google, Yelp, or Facebook, adds credibility and builds trust with visitors. It gives potential customers real feedback in real time, helping them feel more confident about choosing your business. Plus, it keeps your site content fresh without extra effort. To create and use your widget follow these steps: Head to the 'Review Widgets' tab in your reputation manager Select your widget style List: lets you layout up to 50 reviews in a simple list or grid format Carousel: scrolls through up to 10 reviews horizontally JSON: gives you a raw data feed of selected reviews (not recommended for beginners) Create your widget Select the reviews to display Customize the design Copy the embed code to your website
Get Reviews campaigns make it easy to generate more customer reviews. You can create custom email, SMS, or kiosk based campaigns to contact your customers and invite them to give feedback on your service, then direct them to your chosen sites to submit reviews.
Once complete, a ‘Monitor Reviews’ Reputation Manager report (or simply, a ‘Monitor Reviews’ report) will look like this:
What is Reputation Manager? Reputation Manager is the part of MAP Local dedicated to managing your online reputation. In the past, it’s been difficult for online marketers to influence online reviews. After all, marketers don’t typically have face-to-face interactions with customers, and rarely dictate processes around customer interactions — this is why Reputation Manager was built. The platform sends intelligent review invites to customers, providing the business with the best possible chance of receiving new online reviews that fit in the top review sites’ guidelines. It also gives detailed reporting and customer feedback for internal reporting, which helps you to develop your business over time.
Lock in 15% savings for life on any Robly email marketing subscription. This exclusive offer ensures you get top-notch email marketing tools at an unbeatable value, helping your business connect with audiences while keeping costs down. Book a complimentary consultation to get started!
Optimize your Google Business Profile to boost local search visibility on Google Search and Maps. Learn key features, SEO benefits, and best practices.
We recently completed a website migration for Oak Bay Family Chiropractic Centre , moving them from Perfect Patients to MAP Web . Along with the migration, we gave their site a fresh, modern look with a cleaner layout and clearer navigation to make it easier for visitors to find what they need. The services were reorganized to better highlight what they offer, and stronger calls-to-action were added to encourage bookings and inquiries. We also improved mobile responsiveness so the site works smoothly on any device. The new site is easier for Oak Bay Family Chiropractic Centre to manage internally and reflects their brand more consistently with updated colours, fonts, and design elements.
OS Systems Ltd. came to us with the goal of updating their brand to reflect who they are today. Their old branding lacked cohesion, depth, and a strong identity and their digital presence especially the website, wasn’t telling the right story. Branding Direction To help reach this goal we set out to create a bold but approachable brand that clearly communicated professionalism, innovation, and trust. The new identity started with a new logo: a stylized “O” embedded with wiring, circuitry, and a lock icon. This not only made the logo recognizable, but also reinforced OS Systems’ role in delivering smart, integrated security solutions. To support the new look, we introduced: A tech-forward iconography set A colour palette built around blues and teals (trust, safety, innovation) Clear, confident typography using Poppins for body and Oswald for the tagline A refreshed brand statement: Custom Security Solutions, summarizing their commitment to personalized, high-tech protection
