Increase Your Google Maps Ranking
Here is the consensus of opinion from several experts on what is important and what is not, even what is detrimental to your Google Map listing rankings. The importance rating runs from +5 (very important) to 0 (neutral) to -5 (harmful).
| Catagory | Topic |
Importance
|
| Local Business Listings | General importance of claiming local business listing |
4.27
|
| Local Business Listings | Local business listing address in city of search |
4.13
|
| Local Business Listings | Proper categorization of Local Business Listing |
4
|
| Local Business Listings | Product / Service keywords in local business listing title |
3.78
|
| Local Business Listings | Proximity to centriod of city being searched |
3.59
|
| Traditional Off Page Criteria | Validation of business information with third party providers |
3.57
|
| Traditional Off Page Criteria | Number of inbound links to website |
3.34
|
| Traditional Off Page Criteria | Location keywords in inbound anchor text |
3.28
|
| Customer Review | Number of customer reviews |
3.11
|
| Traditional On Page Criteria: | General Importance of On-Page Criteria |
3.06
|
| Customer Review | General importance of customer reviews |
3
|
| Local Business Listings | Product / Service keywords in local business listing description |
3
|
| Traditional Off Page Criteria | Product / Service keywords in inbound anchor text |
2.92
|
| Local Business Listings | Location keywords in local business listing title |
2.9
|
| Traditional On Page Criteria: | Address & Phone number in HTML on wesite contact page |
2.89
|
| Traditional On Page Criteria: | Address and Phone Number in HTML on every web page |
2.55
|
| Traditional On Page Criteria: | City/State in Title Tags of Website |
2.53
|
| Traditional On Page Criteria: | Local Keyword in Website URL |
2.37
|
| Local Business Listings | Location keyword in local business listing description |
2.34
|
| Customer Review | Reviews made on third party websites |
2.25
|
| Traditional On Page Criteria: | Product / Service Keyword in website url |
2.16
|
| Traditional On Page Criteria: | Local phone number, with area code in HTML on website |
2
|
| Local Business Listings | Associating a local area code with local business listing |
2
|
| Customer Review | Positive Customer Reviews |
1.95
|
| Local Business Listings | Age of local business listing |
1.81
|
| Traditional Off Page Criteria | MyMaps / Other user-generated references to your business |
1.78
|
| Local Business Listings | Product / Service keywords in local business listing “specialties” |
1.75
|
| Traditional Off Page Criteria | Address in inbound anchor text |
1.68
|
| Local Business Listings | Location keywords in local business listing “specialies” |
1.53
|
| Customer Review | Customer reviews from power reviewers |
1.5
|
| Traditional Off Page Criteria | Phone number with area code in inbound anchor text |
1.18
|
| Local Business Listings | Videos associated with local business listing |
0.96
|
| Local Business Listings | Photos associated with local Business listing |
0.93
|
| Traditional On Page Criteria: | Hcard contact info on every page of web site |
0.87
|
| Local Business Listings | Associating marginally related categories with local business listing |
0.71
|
| Traditional On Page Criteria: | Creating KML (Google Earth) file on website |
0.68
|
| Traditional On Page Criteria: | Hcard contact info on contact page of website |
0.67
|
| Local Business Listings | Coupon associated with local business listing |
0.66
|
| Traditional Off Page Criteria | Participation in local Pay Per Click ads |
0.64
|
| Traditional On Page Criteria: | Associating primary 800 number with local biz listing |
0
|
| Traditional On Page Criteria: | Listing a PO Box on webstie |
0
|
| Traditional On Page Criteria: | Multiple addresses listed on website |
-0.13
|
| Local Business Listings | 800 number listed on website |
-0.63
|
| Customer Review | Negative Customer Reviews |
-0.64
|
| Local Business Listings | Associating multiple local business listings with same business name |
-0.73
|
| Local Business Listings | Associating multiple local business listings with same phone number |
-2.07
|
| Local Business Listings | Associating multiple local business listings with same address |
-2.11
|
What’s SEO and why should I care?
SEO stands for search engine optimisation. This means optimising a website, often by cleaning the code or changing certain aspects of the site to make its content and structure search engine friendly and easily accessible to search engine robots (also known as spiders or crawlers), as well as visitors. This is a single most important factor of web presence, because what good is a website if people can’t find it on the web. So you can build the greatest website the world has ever seen but if it’s not properly indexed by the search engine robots not many people will see your site, unless you spent considerable amount of money on offline marketing.
SEO is still the cheapest and the most effective method of marketing your website and in result advertising your products or services to a wider audience. The reason it is most effective is because in comparison to other forms of marketing it is a ‘pull strategy marketing’ rather than ‘push strategy marketing’. Pull marketing is when people search for the information that you provide and are ready to learn about (or even buy) your products/service at that precise moment, and push marketing is more like TV/radio ads where people are usually not looking for the product/service being advertised at that specific moment. Needless to say ‘pull marketing’ converts a lot better.
The best thing about SEO is that you don’t really need any money to do it. Of course if you have a budget in place it helps, but it is not a must! Money helps in an aggressive type of SEO campaign but there are many other creative ways to accomplish the same goals without spending a fortune.
Search Marketing is Cost Effective!
Search marketing has become one of the most important means of promoting products, services, and ideas that capture the attention of internet users, both local and international. European markets report that they pay about 2 Euros for each time a surfer clicks their paid listing. 55% regard this cost to be relatively cheap where average cost per lead is $0.45 for Search, $0.55 for Email, $2.00 Banner Ads, and $9.94 for Direct Mail. A good search marketing strategy will take you a long way. Developing a good search marketing plan is the most crucial aspect of successful search engine marketing campaign.
With a good search marketing plan in place someone has to do the actual job of performing all the task required, including SEO (Search Englin Optimisation), PPC (Pay Per Click), and Link Building. It is better to leave it to people who know what they are doing. This way it is done much quicker and usually cheaper because various specialised tools and resources are readily available. Prices depend largely on the amount of work that is required. For limited budgets it is best to use networks such as Elance. I have used this network of providers very successfully, so I can definitely recommend it. Of course it is always better to use a provider with 100% positive feedback and with at least five projects under their belt.
SEO Software
