By Chris Keenan on May 4, 2017
To continue our discussion on local search ranking, we are now moving onto the second biggest factor in local placement on search engines–a Google My Business account.
MOZ stated Google My Business as being the second most important factor in local search rankings for its ability to place your business on a local map within the Google search engines, which is extremely important for building trust and a reputation in your local community.
Pest control companies, like most others, have a business location and phone number, along with other bits of information. You would think these two rather basic pieces of information would not matter in the ranking factor, but when it comes to Google My Business, these two pieces of information can be the difference between a local resident seeing your company’s website or not.
When it comes to local search ranking, you want the people around you finding your business. You aren’t a national company, so you need to find a way to stand out in your local market and Google My Business is your opportunity to do so in a very easy and quick way.
Below are the key components as to why Google My Business should be a key part of your pest control companies online profile.
Adding your business to Google My Business populates your information on the local search because it now has your location, phone number, and address. As stated before, your address and phone number are key components to this working in your favor because area codes are area-specific numbers which triangulate where your business is located. That along with an address work together to then place you on Google Maps for customers to find.
An example would be typing in “restaurants in (city name),” and then all restaurants within a certain radius come up. Now, you may know there are three restaurants in a row on a certain block but only one pops up of the three. Most likely, they claimed their Google My Business account which gave them an extreme advantage when it comes to local searches.
Taking Google search a step further from above is searching for a business location on your phone. Being an on-the-go society, more and more people are opting to search on their phones than on their computers. With this being said, phones in themselves already know exactly where you are, whereas searches on your computers need to “learn” your location.
Having a Google My Business account sets you up for even more success on mobile apps because someone does not even need to type in their city or neighborhood to activate your company from coming up on Google search, your pest control company will automatically come up because they are located in an area where your phone is within the radius to show up on searches.
We all know Yelp and other review platforms exist, but Google My Business allows your reviews to show up along with all the other information you may have about your business. Having the full package with address, phone number, business hours, some photos and reviews in one space can allow customers to have a one-stop place to find all that they need to know about your pest control company.
This advantage simply comes down to the fact that people are overwhelmed with information daily, so having the ability to get people to review you and it being in one place just saves them from having to go to multiple websites to gather all the information and ultimately moving onto another business who may have everything in one space.
Now that you know why Google My Business is important, below are the three main components to staying optimized once you create a Google My Business account for your pest control company.
A lot of companies do not think to get a Google My Business account and therefore are at a disadvantage for showing up on local search. You need to actually claim your listing to start the process and continued optimization.
Add every bit of information you can about your computer. Do not leave out the address, phone number and hours which are the biggest factors. Also adding company photos and gathering reviews will make your Google My Business profile as complete as possible and help your local search results.
As a pest control company, you have busy and slow seasons which may affect your hours. If your hours change throughout the year, please take the time to update once the new hours are in effect. Other ways to update might be if you get a new phone number, the company switches hands and gets a new name, etc.
Chris Keenan WeGetLeads.com
Chris Keenan is President of WeGetLeads.com, a search marketing and lead generation provider. He has over 10 years experience marketing and consulting for local businesses.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/wegetleads/