Google maps are not just a side application from Google, its an independent search engine for business, services or locations people wish to locate near their physical location. Most businesses listed on Google maps are not even owned by businesses to start with but are a result of third-party sites like TripAdvisor, yellow pages and competing for map applications like Apple Maps.
Businesses can no longer take for granted the automatic listings; they are there primarily for Google users to locate you and do not benefit you in that many ways. Unless of course, your business has a large following and a large number of great reviews on multiple sites like Yelp, Tripadvisor, HungryGoWhere and what have you. These sites are used by Google maps algorithm to verify your business authenticity. A high number of reviews, low or high, would indicate a business more legitimate than one that only has a few reviews. Right now, it may not necessarily matter if all your reviews are right; a business can get good reviews as long as you are not using any underlying tactic to manipulate the outcome. For example, if your business served a customer well, and you asked the customer to review your business on Google maps, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. This is not considered a manipulation of the system, according to Google. What it indicates to Google is your business is meeting new people and doing business with new people in the real world, and an even if a business were to route only their satisfied customers to review them, a large number would still indicate that you do a decent job and there would be no harm in recommending your business. Look at it this way; it is tough to manipulate a system if a new client reads google reviews and chooses to patronize your business, only to find out your business was not very good. This client is more than likely to go back and vent off their frustration and bad personal experience on Google maps too. So the system in itself is self-correcting.
Step 1: Get on Google My Business
Easy way businesses can be found on Google maps
The first step to get found on Google maps is to register a Google account and log in to Google My Business page. Google My Business is a platform for businesses to tell Google more details about their business and allows business owners to verify the ownership of these businesses. It allows you to update your business hours, business website address, contact details, the official name of your company and physical location. Just by registering and verifying your business on Google My Business is an excellent boost for your search engine optimization strategy. You can also indicate your operational hours on a public holiday or if there is an emergency change in business hours. You can make posts on offers and list your products on Google My Business as well. The most important thing to do here is to verify your address; in most cases, Google mail you a postcard with a number to verify your physical location. For new business without any online reviews or customers, this is a great way to put your brand and products out there for people to discover on Google maps. Say you are a pet supply store owner, it would not hurt for people in your neighbourhood to know that your business is nearby.
Step 2: Make Apple maps and other map application accounts
Easy way businesses can be found on Google maps
A common misunderstanding of most businesses registered on Google My Business is how they feel that is enough. We have listed out the listing on Google, what more do you want? It is not about what we want, but what Google maps wants. Google maps does not have the monopoly of all business locations in the world; it regularly checks with other applications to verify if the information they have received is accurate. Here is a list of other map apps available for you reference:
Apple Maps
Waze
Where To?
Here WeGo
MapQuest
Sygic
CoPilot GPS
All of these applications do not just stand-alone; they continuously refer to one another to look for new locations and updates to information. Many businesses are on Google maps despite never having registered formally. Maybe your business is the same too, which makes it much easier to go on to Google Maps and claim ownership of your business. Nonetheless, it is still good practice to list yourself in all the map applications listed above; not everyone is on Google Maps; many are on Apple Maps. Waze is very famous with drivers since users alert each other of police presence. Anything that stops people from speeding on the road is a good thing.
Step 3: Submit your business to online directory websites
Easy way businesses can be found on Google maps
This step is a little tricky and can mishandle easily. Google maps does not like spammy behaviour, so avoiding low-quality directory websites must be adhered to at all cost. Yellow pages, for example, is an excellent business registry platform, it has been around for ages, they have localised offices all around the world, and it is well trusted. If you own a restaurant business, registering your company on Tripadvisor is a must, a Yelp profile applies to all businesses. Go with the big names; Google maps might push your ranking higher on its platform the more "cross-verified' your business is. There are many trusted online business listings; many are paid listings, of course, that are a great place to register your business. Free listings from low-quality sites can be considered spam, and you should avoid at all cost. Research these websites well before registering. Local website listings are also great since each country have their business listing platform that specialises in local listings, Google maps looks at these local listings too for businesses within their area. So if you are in France, and only registered on Google maps, Apple maps and but not any locally trusted french listing websites, the local Google maps office in France knows how reliable that particular website is, which may mark your business as suspicious or not as verified as a business that is on a local french listing website. Get it?
Step 4: Get more reviews
Easy way businesses can be found on Google maps
Never underestimate the power of a useful review, wherever it might come from. Even a handful of three-star reviews could put your business in a better position and above another business with only one five-star review. Google's motto is now "do the right thing", and before that, it used to be "Don't be evil". Regardless of what you might think, people fail to notice the correlation between their motto and their algorithm. Google wants a small business that makes breath-taking cupcakes to raise their Google Map rankings. They want that neighbourhood barbershop that is always professional and friendly to rank high when a person is nearby and looking for a barber. The only way it can do that is by reviews. Even if you had just one customer or client you served today, ask them if they would be willing to rate you on Google maps. Chances are, if you are a small business that just provided them with an excellent service, they would happily do so. Avoid spamming reviews or creating fake accounts. Google has measures in place to track how legitimate accounts are, and if all your reviews came from accounts freshly created, that deemed as suspicious activity. Instead, only ask for reviews from real people with real Google accounts. Even if you asked for a hundred reviews in one day, the Google algorithm would not deduct your points since all of the accounts are verifiable and currently in use by real people. Time is a terrible thing to waste; even reading this article has roughly wasted valuable time, you could have been spending creating your Google My Business page. So get going and improve the chances of your business being found on Google Map today!
Thank you for reading 'Easy way businesses can be found on Google maps' by IT Block. IT Block is an IT support services provider based in Singapore and we love sharing our IT expertise with the world. #SEO #google #IT #maps #search #support #services #Singapore
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