Help with Google map ranking

[Prosperity]

Hi. My Seo is good.
First page for numerous keywords.
However the Google map position is hit and miss. Iv e got my Google page reviews up to 48 the second highest in my sector but sometimes sites with far lower and not as many positive reviews.. rank higher.
Does anyone offer a guaranteed first place listing service or is there anything I can do myself to improve it. I used to disregard the map listing but as it appears before even the normal search results and doesn't automatically filter by distance I think it may be beneficial to be ranked first.
Thanks for any input

 

[neel patel]

analyze the title of the opponents and remodify your title of the business listing.
it worked for me.

 

[Prosperity]

My business listing is my company name. I don't want to change that obviously. Everyone else's is just their company names. And as we just sell tyres I can't see it making a difference. Or a big one. Our names are all very similar just like Smith tyres Jones tyres Liverpool tyres Manchester tyres etc

 

[fisicx]

However the Google map position is hit and miss. Iv e got my Google page reviews up to 48 the second highest in my sector but sometimes sites with far lower and not as many positive reviews.. rank higher.

Map ranking is based on how well your website, business listing and keywords all line up. It's things like an exact match for the phone number (including spaces and dashes) and address and even your whois data.

 

[Simon.P]

I use Express VPN mainly for Netflix reasons and have used it with a linux live usb (so Google doesn't know its me) for manually checking serps and looking at competitors content etc.

As far as i can see the maps are a lucky dip of the page one serps.
Google reviews do not appear to make any difference. I have 4 compared to competitors with 20+ although i seem to appear on there more often then some of them (i am higher up in the serps).
At first i thought things like opening hours were relevant, although i have seen myself at the top fo the maps at 23:00 when my hours are set to closed and a competitor is listed below me showing they are open 24 hours - so you would think they would be more relevant, but not the case.

One thing occured to me that may (or may not!) be relevant is lets just say you are targetting "liverpool tyres". Mr Google may have liverpool as 53.407341, -2.991795 and when someone types in your keyword; businesses relevant to that query with the nearest location are listing in order of the maps/local listings.

I always ask a customer how they found me and its surprising how many find my website not by City, but election area. So in your case people maybe searching for "tyres anfield, tyres riverside, tyres wavertree". Google adwords, serplab etc might not have any data on these (they didn't in my case), but Mr Google is clever enough to know that anfield, riverside and wavertree are all related to liverpool.

All this and much more is covered in the excellent DIY SEO course over at https://www.freshbananas.co.uk which is well worth signing up for.

 

[Prosperity]

Hi Simon,
Thanks for that. I’m beginning to think it may be lucky dip also. Re the sub areas.. I was aware of that so i have that boxed off in my ares covered tab.. Like you say if it was Liverpool, I’d have Kirkby, a field, HUYTON, watered, Walton, etc etc. I now this definitively helped as I noticed my ranking, and calls increase after I done this.

 

[Prosperity]

@fisicx thanks for that, actually there is a space on my website between the last 6 numbers and not on my google listing. Which one would you recommend changing for best effect, google to match site or vice versa. I don’t know whether one way is preferred.
Thanks again

 

[fisicx]

Makes not real difference as long as they are both the same. The address needs to be identical as well, even down to the commas and spacing.

Demonstrate to Google that you are who you say you are. So make good use of your footers, case studies and other trust marks on the site.

 

[Prosperity]

Makes not real difference as long as they are both the same. The address needs to be identical as well, even down to the commas and spacing.

Demonstrate to Google that you are who you say you are. So make good use of your footers, case studies and other trust marks on the site.

Thanks
Re making good use and being real. I have my FB reviews apppear on my site pretty much real time via a wp plug in, my instagram phot feed also gos on there and I have a blog I update too. I’m trying to tick all the boxes... I may have a look at the fresh banana too if this doesn’t work although feel as I’m hitting first page its just the map I end help with.

Thanks again for your help, genuinely appreciated

 

[fisicx]

Google ignores just about all SM content so they aren't going to help. The blog will only be of use if it adds value. For example does the blog post refer to locations and activities relating to the keywords you want to promote? Posting for the sake of posting may not be helpful. Far better to post once a month with a well written and really useful article than chuck up lots of short meaningless or self promotional posts.

 

[Prosperity]

Cheers @fisicx
I naively assumed because it was the review that were being posted from my fb on my site that Google would CREDIT me for these. Regardless I know try serve a purpose as so many customers mention them having visited the site. Likewise the photos I thought Google liked fresh content so I was posting my In st photos... the blog is updated once a month..targeting key words and making it useful not just blah blah blah.
Thanks for your input

 

[fisicx]

Have you linked your FB business page to your Google business page?

https://www.en.advertisercommunity....s-in-the-section-reviews-from-the/td-p/834631

Forget your instagram images, they have no value at all. But if a client posts an image on Instagram and you link to the image on a case study page that also has a testimonial from the client then you begin to add value.

 

[Prosperity]

Have you linked your FB business page to your Google business page?

https://www.en.advertisercommunity....s-in-the-section-reviews-from-the/td-p/834631

Forget your instagram images, they have no value at all. But if a client posts an image on Facebook and you link to the image on a case study page that also has a testimonial from the client then you begin to add value.

Yes. Fb Insta and Twitter all linked to website.

 

[fisicx]

No, not your website. Link them to your Google business page.

 

[Prosperity]

No, not your website. Link them to your Google business page.

Ahhh. Apologies... not sure but I'll have a look. Actually probably not. Thanks very much I'll look into this...

 

[justinaldridge]

Local rankings do seem like a lottery at times but it's obviously not the case.

There are quite different signals that work for local search but there are actually so many these days that it's like ranking a website, you need to have them all properly in place to make it work.

Changing your company name to include keywords, as suggested above, is definitely NOT something you should do. This is actually against Google's TOS.

Where are you actually ranking in the local pack for your local search term? In the map, where is your business relative to the others being shown above you?

Let me know so I can understand if you are nowhere or nearly there!