Everything you need to rank higher on Google Maps local pack and attract more customers
Prominence is a combination of a business’ reputation, online presence, star rating, SEO… essentially any signal that tells Google Maps how aware people are of you. This is where local map SEOs tend to focus their efforts, because there’s plenty that can be done to actively influence the ranking factor, such as campaigning for reviews, posting content and building links. Managing review generation campaigns is far less time-consuming with Semrush’s Listing Management tool—and you can further strengthen your prominence with the platform’s other useful tools that allow you to schedule regular content for your Google Business Profile and pinpoint link-building opportunities. Semrush’s Listing Management tool gives you a detailed look at how you rank in the map pack (also called the “local pack”, “snack pack”, and “Google 3-pack”), so you can reliably track the results of your optimization efforts.
Be sure your category, attributes and description also reflect the reality of your business, otherwise users are likely to bounce, and your Google Maps ranking will suffer.
Your opening hours must also be accurate, including special hours for holidays when businesses tend to close (you can update opening hours across all your business listings in one go via Semrush’s Listing Management tool). Telling users your establishment is open when it isn’t is a quick way to lose a customer and land yourself a negative review.
Actively generating reviews for your Google Business Profile will not only result in a great first impression for users that come across it, but it also directly impacts your ranking in Google Maps.
Reply to everyone that leaves a review—even the negative ones—to build strong client relationships and show other users that you take feedback seriously.
Regularly adding photos builds trust with potential customers (it proves your business operates as claimed) and it’s an easy way to put your team’s personality across.
Bonus tip: Make sure your images are relevant to your location and aren’t promo shots or advertisements (use updates for that). Show off your building, site, entrance, interior, team members… and encourage your customers to upload pictures they took at your business too!Updates let both Google Maps and potential users know your business is active. Share links to relevant blog posts, promote special offers and let people know what you’ve got going on!
Your Google Business Profile’s products and services sections also need to be kept up to date so users can quickly confirm that you offer exactly what they’re looking for.
On top of the completeness of your profile, Google Maps also looks at your website’s relevance, organic ranking and backlinks.
Optimizing your website for local keywords helps boost your organic positions and, in turn, your Google Maps ranking.
You should also ask your developer to add schema markup code to your NAP data to make it easier for Google to find what it's looking for, as well as embedding a Google Map with your pinned location directly on your contact page for extra Google brownie points.Google cross references your NAP data with other prominent business listing directories to check its validity, so it pays to invest in your general online presence if you want a higher Google Maps ranking.
Time saver: Semrush’s Listing Management tool is the fastest way to build out your business’ online presence. Submit your information once and it’ll be distributed to all the important directories, including Yell, Bing Places, and, of course, Google Business Profile.And if you’re willing to pump a bit of cash into your Google Maps presence, Google Ads allows you to promote your profile natively in the local pack.
Google Business Profile has made it even easier for users to update their information, doing away with the old dashboard and allowing users to edit directly from Google Search and Google Maps.
If you’re editing your Google Maps information on desktop, search your business name on Google Maps and click “Manage your Business Profile” (or simply look up your business name in Google Search). This brings up “Your business on Google”, where you can edit your profile, read reviews, answer messages, add photos, check your profile performance, post updates, and edit products and services.
On the Google Maps app, you can also bring up the interface by searching your business name, or clicking your profile icon and selecting “Your Business Profiles”.