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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.
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