There are three potential reasons why only one of your business locations is ranking in Google’s local search engine results page:

1. Proximity: Proximity refers to the distance between the business searched for and the searcher. For example, you may be within a certain radius of one of the locations, so Google feels that showing you the closest location is the best search result!

2. Relevance: Google wants to make sure that whatever it shows you in search results is as relevant to your query as possible. That being said, if you incorporate more into your search query about the business (e.g. adding service information), Google may only show the location it feels is most relevant to your query.

This could depend on the content you have on the page linked to from your location’s Google Business Profile or the information included directly on your business profile.

3. Prominence: Google takes into account how well the business is known on or offline. For example, one (or more) of your locations may be featured more online; therefore, Google is showing the one location it believes to be most prominent.

What can I do to increase the visibility, relevance and prominence of all of my business locations for branded searches?

Google provides users with the following guidelines for helping your business rank in local search results:

• Create and claim a Google Business Profile
• Make sure all information about your business is correct and complete
• Verify all locations
• Maintain accurate business hours
• Manage and respond to reviews
• Add photos
• Include product information (if relevant)

We’ve found that this issue can still persist or occur when all of these steps were completed to begin with. We scoured online forums and still weren’t quite satisfied with the responses:

In this forum post, a user explained how “relevance, prominence, and distance” are primary factors of how a local business is ranked and how search results may differ depending on the query, but ultimately, they didn’t actually help the original poster.

We recently worked with a multi-location business who experienced the same problem the forum user (Zeta) outlined in the above screenshot. The comments and advice included:

• The age of the listing is affecting its ability to appear
• The need for more reviews
• Recommending mentioning both locations on the website
• Recommending linking to the location page from its Google Business Profile
• Waiting it out, and seeing if Google will solve the problem

This Reddit post’s responses included similar advice of:

• Making sure there’s a location page for each location on your website
• Add more images of each location
• Ask for more reviews
• Internally link to location pages throughout the website
• Make sure all information is filled out, and accurate

What if you’ve made the necessary changes mentioned in these forums and by Google? What if you’ve waited half a year (or more!) and are still not seeing more than one location appear — without proximity being the issue?

We had a client reach out to us about one of their locations not being shown when completing a branded search query of “Just Mind Counseling.”

Just Mind Counseling is a business made up of two locations in Austin, Texas:

1. Spicewood Springs Location (North Austin): 4807 Spicewood Springs Rd building 1, #1140, Austin, TX 78759, United States
2. Westlake Location (Central Austin): 7004 Bee Cave Rd Bldg 3, Suite 200, Austin, TX 78746, United States

These two locations are located 9.2 miles apart (or about a 20 minute drive) and when Googling the brand “Just Mind” or “Just Mind Counseling” — without being directly next to, or too close to a single location — a user would only ever see the North Austin, Spicewood Springs location.

Based on the advice given in many forums, this client felt they had completed all of those items and were given further advice to wait 3-6 more months for Google to figure it out — however, after waiting over 8 months, nothing changed. This is where we jumped in.

We made note of a few potential reasons both of these locations might not be appearing in search results — even though each location had a Google Business Profile, a dedicated location page on the website, accurate local citations, and at least 10 or more reviews on each listing!

1. The Westlake (Central Austin) location opened in 2022 and its Google Business Profile was created in August of 2022. However, the client was still seeing only the original location’s business profile appear for branded searches up until April of 2023. The fact that this Westlake location is newer may be causing a prominence issue.
2. When completing different searches, like adding “Austin” or “Austin, TX” to a branded query, we would sometimes see both locations appear, however, this wasn’t a consistent change when just Googling the brand. Meaning, providing Google with more details in the query wasn’t always helping.
3. It was clear through off-page factors that the original location, in Spicewood Springs, was the primary location. This is possibly a strong clue for Google to only want to show the more prominent location in search results.
4. Content on their location pages supported evidence that the Westlake location was a “newer” business, potentially further limiting its prominence signals.

Based on the items listed above, we dug a little deeper to help improve the relevance and prominence of both locations to test if we could see a difference sooner.

#1. Optimize each location’s Google Business Profile

We started with recommending some updates to their Google Business Profiles, including:

• Adding more images of each physical location
• Adding Service Areas (that don’t overlap!)
• Asking for more reviews on their Westlake location

These recommendations weren’t implemented until September of 2023 — while Service Areas haven’t been added yet.

#2. Improve title tags

We wanted to test adding the address to the title tag for each location page to make it even more clear that there are two, separate locations, with different addresses.

For example, the new title tag for the Westlake location (see screenshot above) would be “Just Mind Counseling South Austin, Westlake | 7004 Bee Caves Rd Bldg 3, Suite 200, Austin, TX 78746.”

We then recommended making the same edit to the North Austin, Spicewood Springs location page.

#3. Remove outdated content from the Westlake location page

On the Westlake location page, the text at the beginning of the page read “OPENING AUGUST 2022” (see screenshot below), even though it had already been open for a year.

We felt this could be a potential prominence signal to Google that it’s newer or not a primary location.

#4. Update the H1 header tags to include “Just Mind Counseling”

By adding the branded search term of “Just Mind Counseling” directly in the H1 header tag along with location information, we thought it might also make an impact on relevance signals.

For example, the old H1 header tag was just “South Austin — Westlake Location.” We recommended the H1 header tag to be “Just Mind Counseling Located On Bee Caves Road In Westlake, South Austin” (see screenshot above).

#5. Incorporate more content about each location

There wasn’t a lot of high quality, location-specific content on the original Spicewood Springs and Westlake location pages (see screenshot below).

Therefore, we recommended including more details about each location in the page introduction and include images of both inside and outside the location directly on the page. Rather than just finding driving directions, a user would learn more about the location and visually see its a physical location.

We also recommended reformatting the page to incorporate the following information higher up on the page:

• Google Business Profile map embed
• Name, address, and phone number (N.A.P)
• Hours of operation

#6. Fix errors with schema markup

Each location page had the following schema types added:

• Place
• Article
• Person

None of these schema types were relevant for a location page. Instead, we recommended removing these incorrect schema types and added LocalBusiness schema to each location page (see below for an example):

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org/",
"@type": "ProfessionalService,Organization",
"name": "Just Mind Counseling",
"address": {
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"postalCode": "78759",
"streetAddress": "4807 Spicewood Springs Rd Building 1, #1140",
"addressCountry": "US",
"addressRegion": "TX",
"addressLocality": "Austin"
},
"telephone": "512-843-7665",
"priceRange": "$100-$165",
"url": "https://justmind.org",
"logo": {
"@type": "ImageObject",
"url": "https://justmind.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/header-logo-150x150.png",
"height": "150",
"width": "150"
},
"sameAs": [
"https://facebook.com/justmindaustin",
"https://twitter.com/justmind"
],
"openingHours": [
"Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday,Saturday,Sunday 09:00-20:00"
]
}
</script>

#7. Improve internal linking between service and location pages

We recommended improving internal linking across the entire website to make it clear to both users and search engines that there are two locations providing their services.

We first recommended a section on each service page to introduce each location and link out to each location page (see screenshot below).

We then recommended incorporating a content block linking out to each service from each location page (see screenshot below).

#8. Include locations in the main navigation

Lastly, we wanted to make sure Google knew the importance of each location page by linking to each from the primary navigation. The original navigation didn’t incorporate each location page (see screenshot below).

The new navigation included “Locations” with a drop down that linked to both the Spicewood Springs and Westlake location pages (see screenshot below).

Some limitations we want to make note of include:

1. We weren’t in direct control of when and how each recommendation was implemented.
2. We didn’t implement one item at a time to test. Instead, we shared a complete list of recommendations which were all implemented over the months of October and November, 2023.

So, while we aren’t sure exactly which changes had a positive impact, we feel confident that taking steps to improve the prominence and relevance of all locations in any of the ways above might help all of your locations appear in Google Search Results — apart from when proximity is a factor!

When you set up a new location, it might not always be enough to:

• Create Google Business Profiles
• Set up primary local citations (e.g. Yelp, Apple Maps, Bing, Facebook, etc)
• Build location pages
• Wait for Google to figure it out

There are many more optimizations and things to think about to make sure you’re giving all locations as much visibility as possible.

1. Review the primary category in GBP
2. Add all relevant additional categories in GBP
3. Add predefined and custom services in GBP
4. Embed a Google Map on the contact and location pages
5. Review title tags and target keywords
6. Optimize your header tags (H1, H2, and H3s)
7. Add more business information on your contact and location pages
8. Incorporate social proof, reviews, testimonials, and awards on your landing pages
9. Internally link to your most important content
10. Get more reviews
11. Score easy local links by leveraging job openings, existing partnerships, and local events or sponsorships

Local brick and mortar or service area businesses need a Google Business Profile (GBP) to rank in the local pack and on Google Maps. Local SEOs believe that GBP signals account for 32% of local pack and finder ranking results. Having an optimized Google Business Profile is a minimum requirement and many businesses are missing out on taking advantage of this free and easy-to-manage platform. If you’re short on time and looking for an easy win when it comes to your GBP profile, then here are some quick optimizations to get started on.

Review your primary category in GBP

The primary category has a direct impact on your rankings. This is why you need to make sure that you’re selecting the best possible primary category that accurately reflects what your business does.

Google is constantly adding and removing category options, so taking a minute to review what’s available to your business can have a big payoff. You can search for primary categories within your GBP dashboard to view options, but you can also take your efforts to the next level by seeing what categories your top competitors are using and which categories are the most relevant to your business based on your top keywords. Here are some helpful tools:

1. Google My Business Category Helper – Use this tool to review your current categories and missing categories from your profile.
2. GMB Spy (Chrome extension) – View the categories that your top competitor is using or for the Top 20 results for a keyword search.

Tip for seasonal businesses: If you are a seasonal business, keeping your primary category up-to-date is even more critical. Make sure you update your primary category to reflect current services. For example, if you offer snow removal services in the winter and lawn care services in the spring and summer, then you need to make sure that you are updating your category selections so that you can connect with searchers looking for what you do.

Add all relevant additional categories

Now that you have added the best primary category for your business, take advantage of all related and relevant additional categories to maximize your exposure and boost your local rankings. You can add up to 9 additional categories. When you incorporate additional categories, this will also trigger recommendations from Google for predefined services.

Only include additional categories if they are relevant to your business. There’s no point in ranking for business categories that don’t match your business offerings.

Add predefined & custom services

If you provide services, then you will most likely have access to the services feature in your GBP. Services provide you the opportunity to add the name, a full service description, and pricing (if applicable). You can also have multiple categories to group your different services together and keep the information organized.

This feature has recently become prominent on both mobile and desktop in the local finder and Maps. Google will even highlight the services you offer on your profile when someone performs a local search; this is known as a Justification (see screenshot below).

Justifications are any highlighted content on a Google Business Profile in local pack or Maps results which Google matches to a user’s search query and showcases in local search results. The results will often be bolded and/or include an icon that draws the searchers attention. In addition to the Services feature, other justifications are: website mention, Post content highlight, review snippet quote, menu highlight, in stock, and sold here.

Depending on the primary and additional categories that you have selected, Google will suggest predefined services to add to your profile. Adding these predefined categories can help boost local rankings (as tested by Whitespark and Sterling Sky).

Add all predefined services that are relevant to your business to positively impact your local visibility and results. Google will continually suggest new predefined services based on feedback from Google and other sources, so make sure you check back regularly to accept or reject the services and keep your profile up-to-date.

It works soooo well! So helpful for spicing up a list of features for a Google product. pic.twitter.com/12qVaKYCF1

— Sydney MacKay | She/Her (@SydneyMarchuk) May 18, 2023

Bonus: Consider changing your business name

Having keywords in your business name is a powerful tactic that can help with relevance and ranking higher in the local pack, finder, and maps. This is why many businesses spam their profile business name with keywords.

However, there are cases in which businesses may want to legitimately change their official business name. Now, we are not suggesting that you spam your business name just to rank. But hindsight is 20-20 and if it makes sense to legally change your business name to incorporate keywords it may be worth the time and expense.

This isn’t necessarily an easy optimization, but it is a valid strategy and one that can have a positive impact on rankings and help businesses in highly competitive markets gain more visibility.

There are three primary factors that determine a business’ ability to rank in Google’s local search results, they are Prominence, Distance, and Relevance.

Relevance is the one factor that you have absolute control over and can use to your advantage. Google defines relevance as:

“Relevance refers to how well a local Business Profile matches what someone is searching for. Add complete and detailed business information to help Google better understand your business and match your profile to relevant searches.”

Here are ways that you can enhance your website’s relevance signals:

Review your title tags

Don’t underestimate the power of title tags! There are a lot of businesses that forget to update their title tags or worse, they just have their website default text of “Home” showing up.

Title tags are a descriptive HTML element that specify the title of a web page to Google and searchers. Title tags are one of the most important on-page ranking signals.

The text you use in your title tag drives relevance for a matching search query that Google returns in search results. Without matching search terms/keywords, a business will struggle to rank or show up in search results. While you should review your current title tags on all of your landing pages, start with your Home page, Contact page, Location or Service Area pages (if you have them), and Service or Product pages.

Title tag best practices

1. Add your most relevant keyword to what your landing page is targeting in your title tag.
2. Add your target locations, neighbourhoods, or even postal codes/zips (especially on contact us and location pages!) to your title tag.
   1. Not sure what localities to add? View your business on Google Maps and look at the areas that Google highlights. For example, if we look at this neighbourhood coffee shop, The Colombian Coffee Bar & Roastery, on Google Maps and look at the surrounding areas, we also may want to target the following additional areas:
      1. Bonnie Doon
      2. Strathearn
      3. Mill Creek Ravine North
      4. Idylwylde
      5. King Edward Park
      6. French Quarter* (Locals call this area the French Quarter which Google doesn’t seem to be aware of, so as a business owner/local you would have these insights and adding it could have an additional benefit!)

3. Don’t worry about the length of your title tag! We recommend that you include your target keywords in the first 30-60 characters.
   1. While many tools will tell you to keep your title tags to 50-60 characters long, we don’t subscribe to the belief that this is the best course of action. Having more characters means that the content will get truncated by an ellipsis (…)
   2. Even though a title tag gets cut off for a searcher,Google’s crawlers can still read and process the information. Don’t stress about long title tags, if it makes sense for a page there are still benefits to using a long title tag.
   3. As a bonus, mobile search results on Google will often show more characters than they will for desktop results.
4. Write interesting and descriptive title tags—you want to make your title tag catchy and enticing!
5. Incorporating your business name isn’t critical – start with focusing your optimization efforts on including your target keywords, location, and making it descriptive and engaging rather than including your business name – unless you are a business that has keywords in your name and your brand is popular and well known then include it in your title tags.

Bonus Tip: For the landing page that you link to from your Google Business Profile (home page or location pages/contact page), add your Primary Category as a target keyword to help further drive relevance.

Optimize your header tags (H1s, H2s, H3s)

Your words matter! Are you targeting your top keywords and any topically relevant keywords throughout all of your header tags? Ask yourself:

Do the H1 header tags include the primary keywords?

Your title tag should inform your H1 header tag on each landing page. Your H1 should include the most important, and relevant, keywords being targeted in your title tag.

Do not stuff your headers with all your keywords, it’s not helpful to your customers and website visitors. Your headers should be easy to read and compelling.

Do the H2 and H3 tags incorporate topically relevant keywords?

Don’t leave out adjunct and topically relevant keywords from your H2 and H3 header tags. There are easy ways to weave relevant keywords into your subheadings and within the content on the page so that it is not spammy and adds additional subject matter relevance to your landing pages. Here’s an example of a blog article that incorporates topically relevant keywords.

Enhance your contact & location pages with relevance signals

Contact pages often get missed when it comes to website optimization and content. For a local business a contact page, or location page (if you have more than one location), can be really powerful.

There are a lot of opportunities to enhance your contact pages, but here are a few quick and easy wins to improve your page.

Embed your Google Map

This is so simple and may seem obvious but some businesses don’t add this as they are worried about page speed or just aren’t thinking about it.

Why should you embed your Google map?

• When you embed your Google map it showcases your business name, address, and total reviews (the review count will update in real time!).
• Customers and prospective customers have the ability to request Directions.
• The map provides visitors with a better understanding of your location and surrounding areas.

Overall, embedding a Google map is yet another point of reference for Google to connect your GBP to your website.

Add more business information

Treat the contact page like a Google Business Profile for your website. Add more business information so that it’s engaging and your visitors don’t have to search for any additional details. Here are some important pieces of content to include:

• NAP – business name, address, and phone number
• A short business description
• A simple contact form and email address (if available)
• Hours of operation:
  • Remember to update your hours if they are seasonal
  • Remember to update your hours for holidays and any special hours
• All (or your most important) services and products and then link to those corresponding pages
• Accepted forms of payments (e.g. Visa, MasterCard, cash, etc)
• Nearby information:
  • Are you located near any landmarks?
  • Is your parking lot paid or free? Is it easy to find?
  • What does your location look like? Share an image of your store front and inside.
  • What amenities that are available (wheelchair accessible, washrooms, free Wi-Fi, etc.).
  • Frequently asked questions with answers

Check out this example from a Einstein Moving Company who has optimized location pages that include all of the relevance signals suggested in this post.

Incorporate social proof

Build trust by adding elements like industry organizations your business is part of (e.g. Law Society, local organizations, or chambers of commerce).

Don’t forget about awards you received either (e.g. Consumer Choice Awards, industry awards, or local awards). Awards are a great trust factor and it helps more when you link out to any referencing sites that highlight your awards (if available).

Showcase customer reviews and testimonials—don’t just save these for services and product pages—incorporate them throughout your site! Some review management software (like GatherUp) and WordPress Plugins (like WP Review) allow you to create review widgets that pull reviews for specific services or products to provide a tailored look into more relevant review content.

Internal links help search engines find, index, and understand all of the pages on your site. It also helps to guide both Google and users through your site, making it easier to find relevant content.

Internal links are important and powerful because they:

• Help with indexation. When pages are not linked to from other site pages or navigational menus they can become “orphaned pages”. An orphan page is when search engine crawlers can only discover pages from the sitemap file or external backlinks, and users can only get to the page if they know the URL (or are able to scroll through all the content and find it).
• They provide context to Google and website visitors through the descriptive anchor text. This provides insights as to what you can expect when you visit the page before actually clicking the link.
• Encourage further exploration of the site and content while helping guide the visitor’s journey and making navigation easier.

John Mueller, Search Advocate at Google, touched on the importance of internal linking and how it is super critical for SEO during a live office hours session.

“I think it’s one of the biggest things that you can do on a website to kind of guide Google and guide visitors to the pages that you think are important.

And what you think is important is totally up to you.

You can decide to make things important where you earn the most money or you can make things important where you’re the strongest competitor or maybe you’re the weakest competitor.

With internal linking you can really kind of focus things on those directions and those parts of your site.”

Re-evaluate your internal linking strategy

When you add internal links, do so strategically and consider John Mueller’s advice: “what do you care about the most and how can you highlight that with your internal linking”

1. Review your current internal links using Google Search Console links report and/or the SEO Pro Chrome Extension. Are there any major pages that you aren’t internally linking to from important content?
2. Link to product or service pages, top resources, and related content that sets the business apart from competitors.
3. Craft the anchor text so that it is relevant and succinct. Adding a bunch of keywords doesn’t make it optimized.

Reviews directly impact rankings and consumer behaviour. According to recent research by Emplifi, “90% of consumers say customer ratings and reviews have the biggest impact on purchasing decisions.” When it comes to local businesses according to BrightLocal’s annual Local Consumer survey, “98% of people read online reviews for local businesses!”

How to implement an easy review strategy for local businesses

1. Ask every single customer to leave you a review.
   1. Get whomever is interacting directly with customers to ask for a review and feedback at the end of the service or transaction.
   2. Include signs at your business to “Please review us on Google” where you can include a QR code. Take it a step further and print little cards (or stickers) that you can attach to receipts, bags, or leave in waiting rooms, etc. You can use this free Google Review Link Generator tool to create a QR code.
   3. Add a prompt to your receipts, invoices, and email signatures.
      Some customers aren’t willing to post online but they are willing to share direct feedback – ask for their permission to share their testimonials on your website and social media channels.
2. Follow up on your ask. People are busy and forgetful. Happy customers want to promote your business so don’t forget to reach back out and ask again.
3. Respond to reviews. Take the time to check your GBP daily for incoming reviews and respond to them. This helps further build your relationship with your customer and it shows prospective customers that you’re listening and care.
4. Diversify your reviews. Once you’ve built up your Google reviews, expand your review request to include other important third party review websites. Focus on prominent industry sites and sites that you’re already familiar with or that are organically getting reviews.
   1. See what third party review sites Google is pulling into your GBP “Reviews from the web” section and target more reviews to those sites.
   2. Go a step further and complete a search for “Your Business Name Reviews” and see what websites are coming up. Target your review request to these channels.

Link building is hard, and getting your client on board with local link building can present even more challenges. That being said, there are some easy wins that you can take advantage of to get started and help create momentum.

Create posts on local job sites

Having a static job opportunities page on your website is a great way to leverage local links while simultaneously building your team. Even if you don’t have active job listings, but are open to inquiries you can often get listed on local sites.

Why start here? Because it can be an easy win and why not take advantage of it! You may even find top talent and grow your team.

Focus your posting efforts on local job sites versus generic websites like Indeed, Monster, Workopolis, etc. Think community job boards, niche specific local sites, local newspapers, magazines, and so on.

Partner links

Think about the partnerships and existing relationships with clients, vendors, and other organizations that you can leverage. Ask yourself:

• Do you collaborate with any other businesses in the area and would they be willing to feature the collaboration on their website?
• Do you supply or offer services to a well known local business? Could you be added to their site as a trusted vendor?
• Does anyone your business works closely with have a resources page on their website or recommended vendors page that they would feature your business on?

Do some quick brainstorming and then reach out to the list of potential businesses you could partner with. There’s no harm in asking and perhaps it can lead to further collaboration and connection.

Local sponsorships & events

Are there regular events that your business attends or participates in? Are there local organizations that the business sponsors? Take a look at the original event website to see if there’s a sponsorship page to be listed or featured on, then reach out to your point of contact to ask about website placement.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help come up with possible local sponsorships or events to take part in:

• Are you part of a weekly spring, summer, or fall farmers market?
• Are you part of a specific community group and can be featured?
• Could you give an interview as a business owner and speak to why you participate in the event and be part of their blog or some kind of long form content?
• Could you reach out and provide a testimonial about an event as a participant and get a link back to your website?

Ready to improve your local visibility with these quick wins?

Building a strong local SEO presence takes time, but if you continue to invest your efforts on many of the areas outlined above you will have a strong foundation for local visibility and long term success.

Link-building is important because search engines use inbound links (links pointing to your website from outside sources) as one of their many ranking factors. According to the Whitespark Local Search Ranking Factors study for 2021, both the quality and quantity of inbound links are important for ranking well in the local finder (#4) and for ranking well in organic results (#2). Therefore, the more high-quality links you have pointing to the important pages on your site, the more likely you are to rank higher in Google’s search results.

With increased rankings, come higher click-through rates, higher conversions, and even more indirect benefits. We also know that a quality local link, like a partnership highlight from a related business, can bring with it valuable referral traffic, in turn improving your clients’ brand awareness.

However, it’s not always easy for clients to see or understand these benefits. For example, your client may have had a previous agency convince them that the more backlinks the better! They made unrealistic promises around the number of links they’d build each month and that a big jump in organic traffic would follow. Instead of building quality local links, they paid for 50 low-quality links that did absolutely nothing.

Rather than just telling your client the benefits of link-building, we’ve set out a six-step action plan to truly show the benefits of link-building to get them on board with a local link-building strategy!

Link-building isn’t a one size fits all approach, to benefit the client, links should be built around their goals.

Goals will look different for every client. You may have very specific traffic and organic conversion goals. For example, 10% growth in organic conversions year over year for non-branded search traffic. However, you might also know that your client’s goals are all built around improving their overall brand awareness online. For some (even clients of ours), their local business goals may be built entirely around crushing their competitors!

No matter what drives your client, you’ll want to gather these goals and list them from what’s most important to least! This will help you prioritize what types of links to find and build later on in this plan.

As we mentioned earlier in this post, there are many different benefits of local link-building! In this step, you’ll connect each benefit of local link-building with your client’s goals and what’s important to them.

For example, your client is a local pest control company who wants to improve their organic conversion rate and it’s really important for them to outrank their competitors for their ant inspection service.

As SEOs, we know building quality local backlinks to a related service page can help boost organic rankings. To tie this benefit of link-building to what’s important to this client, you want to play on the psychology of stealing their competitor’s rankings! You can do this by introducing competitor link-building tactics such as finding ways their competitors have built links to their ant inspection service page in the past, what links their building now, and present this information to your client that will get them excited to steal links and in turn, steal their traffic—and hopefully leads that come with those rankings!

Another example, instead your client is a local physiotherapy clinic that wants to increase the number of leads that come from branded search traffic and it’s really important for them to improve their overall brand awareness.

We know that building local links that refer to the business as the expert in the field for a particular subject can help to increase referral traffic from local sources and encourage future branded searches by introducing the brand in potential customers’ minds.

To tie this benefit of link-building to what’s important to this client, you’ll want to present local link-building opportunities that involve your boss or client taking part in the overall conversation about their industry in their local area. Suggest they take part in local:

• Industry podcasts
• Industry webinars
• Industry workshops
• Industry trade shows

You want to position this benefit as a way to get your client excited to talk about their business and share what they do. A local physiotherapy clinic getting featured regularly on a local news station for an expert advice health segment is a great example of a local business positioning themselves as experts in their field!

It’s one thing to get your client to understand why local link-building is important, but there are a lot of additional obstacles you’re likely to face when trying to implement a local link-building strategy. These obstacles include (but are not limited to):

1. Not having enough budget.

A lack of budget is usually the most common obstacle that in-house marketers or agencies face. A lack of budget could mean everything from not having enough budget to hire someone to help write content, create helpful resources, take part in donation or sponsorship-related link-building activities, or a combination of all.

We’re confident that most, if not all SEOs have heard a client say “we don’t want to spend budget on that” or “we don’t have enough budget.” If you don’t have enough budget and your client is rarely open to giving you more, you’ll want to prepare your case on why link-building doesn’t need to be an expensive undertaking. Focus on link-building opportunities that are easier to acquire, less expensive to get, and that foster already existing relationships.

Finding these easier-to-acquire link-building opportunities will help you avoid needing or asking for a lot of budget upfront. Instead, once you begin seeing the benefits from less expensive links, that’s when you can start asking for more budget because you’ll be able to prove the benefit.

2. Not having enough time.

Link-building is a lot of work and it can take up a lot of time depending on the type of business and the number of links that need to be built to move the needle. Link-building can also mean needing your client (the subject matter expert) to spend time helping you create content for link-building opportunities or take time out of their day to build any relationships necessary for local link-building.

If you, or your client, are already too busy to complete important daily tasks, it will be hard to convince them that there’s enough time for you to work on a local link-building strategy. Instead, focus on gathering link-building opportunities that are quick and easy to acquire, like unlinked brand mentions or taking advantage of any current partnerships or sponsorships.

If you’re reading this and thinking, “what if I’ve already acquired these quick and easy link-building opportunities?” This brings us into our next obstacle: not enough resources.

3. No resources to build links to.

Link-building is harder when you don’t have the resources to build links to (e.g. tools, calculators, whitepapers, blogs, etc). Even the tools we use (e.g. BuzzSumo, SparkToro, or Ahrefs) to find local opportunities aren’t accessible if you don’t have the budget!

If you lack the resources to build links to, you’ll want to focus on where you can build links that don’t require creating new resources (or resources that are too difficult to build like calculators, tools, videos, etc). Instead, take advantage of the different ways you can gather content from your clients to update or build other necessary resources. This could include phone calls, shared Google documents, or even taking part in local industry forums like Reddit, or Quora to access subject matter experts.

If you also struggle with a lack of time, there are different ways to gather information from your clients for new resources that can save you a lot of time! For example, one of our clients here in Alberta, Canada, treats clients with back pain (they’re physiotherapists!). We noticed that at the beginning of the pandemic more people were going camping because it was an outdoor activity that didn’t involve much travel. We found a local link-building opportunity for one of our client’s current blog posts, but it needed better, fresher content.

We hopped on a quick 15-minute call to ask them questions to get the content we were missing. The information we gathered from the call was enough to update the post and not only secure the local link but continue to rank in the featured snippet spot for our target query. It took 15 minutes of the client’s time and then just 30 minutes for us to update the post with fresh content!

4. Not having a site others would want to link to.

A slow site, a site with poor quality content, a site with poor user experience, or a site riddled with technical problems isn’t going to be a site that others want to link to!

If your client’s website isn’t optimized or accessible, stop where you are and prioritize fixing any technical issues before you pursue a link-building strategy. If they refuse to put in the money and effort to have a website that is link-worthy, even though you’ve explained the benefits of doing so, don’t reward bad people with good work!

This is your friendly reminder that you don’t have to work with everybody.

Based on the obstacles you face, come up with one to two link-building opportunities that fit within your client’s means. This step is to help you get the ball rolling and show your client the opportunities rather than just telling them they exist—this helps build trust!

We recommend the following resources from Greg Gifford for finding local link-building opportunities:

• How to Master Local Link-building course on BrightLocal
• Local U Advanced talk from August 2021

Greg has a bunch of different webinars, podcast episodes, and blogs about local link-building opportunities. If you don’t yet have the skill or resources to find these opportunities yourself, we recommend reading Moz’s Beginner’s Guide to Link-building.

This step takes the guesswork out of the strategy so you’re not leaving your client to figure out what you need. We’ve included some helpful questions below to get you started.

This isn’t an all-encompassing list as it will depend on your local link-building goals and client’s business type, but the goal for this step is to show that you’re as prepared as possible to build a link-building strategy within, or as close to, your client’s means.

1. How much effort will this take?

It’s easy to quantify building citations or adding a few local listings, but it’s not so easy to quantify building a local relationship that can involve multiple emails or lengthy phone calls.

Instead of focusing on how long it will take to build each link, we recommend focusing more on effort. We use points at Full Stacks that take into account both time and effort for each task. It’s made us more accurate in tracking time and billing and leaves us less stressed since the mental strain that can come from sometimes a quick task is accounted for.

For example, if your local link-building strategy includes a lot of opportunities where you need to write new content or build more local relationships, ask yourself, “how difficult will it be to get the content for this post or to build a relationship with local influencers?” rather than “how long will it take me to write new content or build a relationship with local influencers?”

Since relationship building isn’t something you can quantify with time, we recommend building a point system to measure the amount of effort it takes for different types of tasks. For example, let’s look at a scale from 1-4 points (with 4 being the highest amount of effort), here are some examples of tasks that might fall within this scale:

• 1 point: Sending a quick email update (simple task, easy to quantify how long it might take).
• 2 points: Having a call with your client to gather information about a new blog post or resource (takes more effort, as you would have had to prepare a set list of questions, the conversation may run long, etc).
• 3 points: Researching new local link-building opportunities (this takes a lot of creativity and brainstorming for ideas as well as the physical time spent looking for opportunities).
• 4 points: Building a relationship with a local influencer (this includes the time it takes to find local influencers, writing up emails, completing phone calls, etc).

To make it easier to categorize effort, think of high-effort tasks as something you can break down into multiple lower-effort tasks. Therefore, based on the link-building opportunities that fit within your client’s means, consider the effort it will take to truly build those links.

2. How can you tell if your local link-building strategy is making a difference?

If you’ve listened to any of Dana DiTomaso’s talks in the past, data is everything! You’ll need to be sure you have everything you need to track the performance of local link-building for your client.

This could include current traffic and future traffic goals, a custom Google Data Studio report, or historic rankings, but most importantly, you’ll need access to clean, accurate data.

If you can’t accurately track traffic and goals you won’t be able to prove the benefits of link-building to your client.

3. What resources can you utilize and what resources will you need?

This includes all the resources you might need to build links to and the budget and effort you’ll need to acquire or create new resources (if necessary). Be clear about what deliverables you’ll need to get started.

4. How will you complete the outreach?

To avoid filling up your client’s main business inbox and to improve your chances of being responded to during outreach, you’ll want to confirm what outreach email/alias you’ll be using. For example, an email with your client’s business name (your-name@businessname.com).

Hot tip: Ask your client for a list of any close partnerships or business contacts you can reach out to for link-building.

At this step you should know (or have at least thought about):

• What your client’s goals are
• What benefit will get them excited to build links
• What obstacles you might face
• How to overcome these obstacles
• What information you need to get started

Your next step is to present this information to the client for them to sign off on a local link-building strategy!

The way you present this information will depend on how your client prefers to digest their information. This could be over a zoom call, through an email with a document attached of the entire process, or even a PowerPoint presentation.

Some clients prefer to hop on a Zoom call, while others prefer to read and digest the information before meeting with questions. For example, we have a client that will send us videos of them and their screen (using Loom) when asking questions. Since they prefer visually sharing what they’re talking about, we know they would prefer a Zoom call to go over something like this.

If your client rarely jumps on a call and prefers to just get to the point, then a simple email incorporating what you’ve found should suffice—we have a lot of clients like this!

No matter how you present this information, the presentation method itself should be able to cover the following:

1. Why should they care about local link building?

Remind them of their overall goals. What is important to them and how will link building help them reach their goals? The answers to these questions are gathered from steps one and two of this process: the benefits of link building that align with their business goals.

2. What obstacles do you or your client face and how can you overcome them?

Provide your client with the different types of links (organized by priority if possible) that fall within their means. This is where you’ll address the obstacles you noted and some examples of opportunities that address these obstacles from steps three and four.

3. What will you need from your client to be successful?

Provide your client with a list of everything you’ll need to get started based on the opportunities that best fall within their means—this is the list you created in step five!

4. How will your client know if link building is moving the needle?

Finally, the most important part of you presenting an opportunity is to set expectations!

You need to communicate that local link-building isn’t a race to build the most links.

Instead, local link-building is about developing local relationships and building higher-quality links that are more likely to drive real traffic and leads.

You’ll have to agree on what KPIs you’ll use to measure performance (found during step one: goals) and how you will report on the benefits (found during step five: gathering everything you’ll need to be successful).

How can I motivate my client to continue to link-build?

When you finally begin the local link-building process, you need to make sure your client feels motivated to continue!

To ensure your client stays motivated, leave the guesswork out of link-building. Use our easily trackable link-building spreadsheet so that each link-building opportunity is accounted for and can be found in one place. This makes it easy to keep track of what’s been built and what you’re currently working on (because some links can take a while to build!)

Hot tip: Not all clients will be okay with you sending outreach emails on their behalf. To make link-building easier, write outreach emails for your client to send. If your client is the one that should make the first contact, you can either write the email for them to simply copy and paste, or write a clear outline that they can modify where necessary depending on their relationship with the person you want to build a link from.

Copy the link-building spreadsheet and remember, local link-building takes time. Focus on quality links that will drive valuable traffic for your client and measure your performance!

A Google Business Profile suspension means your GBP won’t appear in maps or in organic search results. If your listing is suspended, you’ll be notified when you log into your GBP dashboard.

There are two different types of Google Business Profile suspensions:

1. Hard suspension: A hard suspension is when your profile no longer shows up in Google’s search results.
2. Soft suspension: A soft suspension is when your profile still shows up in Google’s search results, but appears to no longer be verified.

Why Do GBP suspensions happen?

A GBP suspension can happen for a variety of reasons, for example, keyword stuffing your business name, using a fake address, and any other spammy tactic that goes against Google’s guidelines.

Small businesses, and even some local SEOs, take part in spammy tactics to try to “trick” the system or find workaround solutions to rank better. It’s SEO, the whole reason is to rank, right? Not necessarily. During Whitespark’s Local Search Summit, Darren Shaw said it the best: “It’s not all about ranking, but about attracting the right people and customers that are willing to convert.”

Credit where credit is due: Allie Margeson’s presentation sparked this idea—you should definitely follow Allie on Twitter, if you’re not already!

Everything we do as local SEOs has gotten extremely complicated. What’s a ranking factor in GBP? What’s not? Should I hide my address? Which category will help me rank better? Though these are valid questions, the vanity goals of businesses hungry for higher rankings overshadow the concept of actually helping real customers.

It’s easy to get caught up trying to find the best way to do something, but this can lead to relying on dangerous advice and spammy SEO practices. It’s time we take a step back to think about customers FIRST.

The best way to fill out your business profile to avoid suspension is to start by knowing exactly what your customers want and how to provide them with all the information they need. Below is a list of questions from the viewpoint of a customer asking about your business. If you can answer all of these questions and include these answers within your business information, then you’re well on your way to avoiding a suspension.

Stop worrying about what tactics help you rank higher or what the hottest new GBP fad is and think only about your customers for the next few minutes. Remember, it’s about attracting customers that will convert and drive real business, not just ranking number one on Google!

1. What is your business called?

What is your legal business name as represented in the real world? That’s the name you need to share with everyone on your business profile. This should remain consistent on your website, local directories, and everywhere else you appear online to avoid confusion. Remember, you’re thinking about your customers first.

You may have heard that including service keywords or the location in your business name helps you rank better in Google Maps, but you shouldn’t worry about that since it really doesn’t help your customers. More than once, we’ve had a business listing removed entirely from Google because it included the city in its business name when it shouldn’t have been there. Too harsh? Maybe, but we’re not the only ones fighting spam on Google and you should be careful not to fall prey to these spammy tactics.

When someone reports your business to Google for spammy tactics (e.g. keyword stuffing in the business name) it tells Google to take a closer look at listings that go against guidelines, thus increasing your chances of being suspended.

Using your real-world business name will not only help people find your business but also build trust with potential customers because you won’t be confusing them or coming off spammy like these guys…

Not only does this look bad, but it can also cause your business profile to be suspended, which will hurt your business. So, think of your customers first and provide them with accurate information—not only for their benefit but for your own.

2. What can your business do for me?

You should be able to describe what you do to someone outside of your business in a way they easily understand. If you can’t explain what it is you do, then you can’t expect anyone else to understand either. It’s best practice to keep this explanation simple. There’s no benefit to using fancy words or complicated industry jargon; this will just confuse your customers.

Don’t forget to include benefits! Why are you unique? Why are you better than your competitors? These are important questions you should be able to answer when describing what your business does.

For example, Yelo’d Ice Cream isn’t just another ice cream shop, they are an ice cream shop “where you can experience Filipino and Asian inspired flavours in [their] soft serve ice creams and baked goods from cookies to cakes.” This is a great example of a business that is able to clearly describe what they do while incorporating what makes them unique — and tasty!

Once you’ve properly described what it is you do, make sure your customers can find it. You can include this information in your description and in your primary category in GBP’s dashboard.

However, the biggest pain point in local SEO seems to be picking a primary business category in GBP.

There are many articles out there about how to choose the best primary category for your business and it can get pretty complicated—but it shouldn’t be! Choosing the right primary category will help you rank better in Google Maps for your target keywords, but remember, you shouldn’t manipulate what it is you do to rank better in a space you don’t belong in. More often than not, an incorrect primary category is the reason for poor rankings or discoverability issues in Google Maps.

For example, if you’re an HVAC business that also provides some plumbing services, your main primary category shouldn’t be Plumber, it should be HVAC Contractor. The decision of what to choose should be as easy as answering, “What do I do? What is my primary service and how exactly do I help my customers?”

Rank your services from most important to least. The most important service may be the one you want to focus most of your time on, or what makes you the most money—this will look different to everyone! Whatever that is, that should be your primary category. This way, your listing will appear to potential customers searching for services directly related to that primary category.

3. Where can I find you?

Do you have a brick-and-mortar location, do you only serve customers at their location (e.g. their home), or both? Filling out an address on GBP has gotten vastly more complicated over time. More often than not, we see businesses with fake addresses spamming Google Maps results for service area businesses.

It’s your job as a business to be honest about your address. Just because you rank better by including an address on your business profile, doesn’t mean that you’re truly helping your customers.

For example, what if you’re a pest control company in Edmonton that is strictly a service area business (meaning you provide services where your customers are located) and a potential customer is searching for your services while waiting at the doctor’s office? They just found bedbugs last night and are eagerly investigating companies while out running their other necessary errands. They see you’re located just 10 minutes away from their doctor’s office, so they think, “Perfect, I’ll just stop by and speak to someone in person on my way home.”

They pull up to your home address and see no sign on the door. Best case scenario, they call, as they’re confused and you two work it out over the phone. Worst case scenario, they become frustrated and decide to leave a bad review on your GBP because you misled them and wasted time out of their day trying to locate your business.

Be honest! Providing an address in GBP when you don’t have one could hurt your reputation with your customers more than it’s going to help your rankings. By simply answering this question truthfully, you’ll know exactly how and when to share this information with your customers.

4. When can I contact you?

When are you open? When is someone available to answer the phone? When do you start making house calls? Providing accurate hours of operation is incredibly important for building trust with your customers. Have you ever called your local vehicle service center during their opening hours as shown on their GBP listing just to find out they are closed? It may seem like this isn’t a big deal, but over time this creates more and more frustration!

Filling out accurate hours of operation on your business profile is the easy part, but keeping these hours up-to-date can prove to be more difficult. If you’re having trouble remembering to update your hours, try setting a monthly reminder. Keep that listing accurate!

What if my business only has to close down for a couple of hours? This is where you need to make use of the Special Hours feature.

Do not update your regular hours of operation for a temporary closure! This just makes it easier to forget to update them when they’re back to normal in a day or two. If you forget to change your hours back, you might have already missed out on traffic or potential leads by accidentally making your customers think you’re closed when you’re not.

Setting the right hours will always depend on what type of business you run. Google has even laid out specifics for these things, like practitioners, restaurants, and seasonal businesses, but it all boils down to understanding when you’re available to your customers and providing them with that information.

5. How do I contact you?

Can customers email you, phone you, fill out a contact form, or text you? Make it easy for customers to get in touch with you. For the purpose of GBP, customers can get in contact with you through a phone number or chat via GBP messaging.

What’s your phone number?

Include the number of your business, but more specifically, the one your customers will contact you through. Believe it or not, we’ve come across business profiles where the number wasn’t pointing to the correct department. Remember, if your customers can’t contact you, they can’t convert.

Tracking calls from GBP has become a popular and successful SEO tactic to find out just how many people are contacting you through GBP compared to your website. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with using a tracking number in place of your real number as long as you include your real number as the additional number in GBP.

Can I message you?

The GBP messaging feature allows potential customers to contact you directly from your business profile by clicking a “Chat” button at any time, rather than a phone number. Since customers can message you any time, it’s important to make sure that you’re able to not only respond within 24 hours, but with helpful and accurate information—as mentioned in Google’s messaging guidelines. Google has the right to suspend listings that don’t follow these guidelines!

To know if you should include messaging or not, ask yourself if you’ll be able to manage these messages and respond in time. If you believe you can manage messages, it’s best practice to set your automated response message to state when you’ll be available to reply to messages.

However, if you don’t feel like you’ll be able to respond to both phone calls and messages through GBP, let alone all the other ways people can get in contact with you, then you don’t have to turn on messaging—it isn’t necessary to have all forms of contact turned on to rank. You should only supply your preferred contact points, otherwise someone might message you and you might ignore it for weeks.

To learn more about the GBP messaging feature, visit Google’s help page.

6. What services or products do you provide?

Depending on the category of your business, you can include a list of services on your business profile through a service menu or through product posts. The service menu used to be only visible on mobile (shown below), however, it can now be viewed by users on desktop and is even considered a ranking factor.

When filling out this list of services or creating product posts, you should only include services (or menu items if you’re a restaurant) you actually offer. Including products or services that you don’t offer or that are unrelated to your business is against Google’s guidelines and will definitely frustrate your customers.

Google’s guidelines for menus clearly state that “[t]he menu should be representative of the items and services that are available for customers at the business.” Including services you don’t actually offer isn’t going to cause you a suspension per se, but it could result in angry customers and negative reviews. Since reviews are a ranking factor in GBP, adding services that you don’t offer that result in negative reviews will actually hurt your rankings, not improve it like you may have thought initially.

For product posts, Google states that businesses shouldn’t make posts that mislead, misinterpret, or include false statements about your identity or qualifications. Including false or misleading information on your business profile is against Google’s guidelines and could result in suspension.

So, before you try to include services or products you don’t offer just to rank better: don’t. Think about how your customers would feel if they visited your location or clicked through to your website to find out you don’t actually have what they need.

Remember, you’re not here to serve Google, you’re here to serve your customers.

However, there’s an exception! If you’re a tobacco or a liquor store, you aren’t allowed to share any content about what you sell on your business profile—but not to worry! It should be clear by your category what you sell. Make sure to link to your website and include contact information for customers to reach out to you or ask any questions about your products.

Tip: If you can’t list your products on your business profile because of your category, instead include a Q&A. For example, if you’re a liquor or tobacco store you can include a Q&A of “Looking for a specific product?” and write an answer including something like “Contact us at X (phone number or email) with the product you’re looking for and we’ll check stock and let you know if it’s available.”

7. Do you come highly recommended?

Do you have reviews? If so, how many? Are your reviews mostly positive or do your customers seem frustrated? Reviews help you understand where you shine and where you may fall short, and they help customers make purchasing decisions. Since the number of reviews and the quality of those reviews are a ranking factor, spammy review tactics like buying reviews have become more and more popular.

It’s not always clear what the best way for businesses to ask for reviews is. This leads to potentially spammy and fraudulent review tactics. For example, simply outright buying positive reviews, offering a discount or promotion for someone to leave a review, or even asking only the people you know who are satisfied for a review. It’s important to remember that reviews need to “accurately represent the location in question,” meaning they need to be truthful to your business and the service that you provide.

However, there’s been a lot of discussion about how hard it is to remove fraudulent reviews on Google—so why not just buy positive reviews because it’s not like Google will remove them, right? Wrong! It’s against Google’s guidelines to buy reviews and if you get caught you’ll only hurt your reputation.

Remember, this is all about your customers! Make sure everyone reading your reviews is reading about an authentic experience, and the only way to be truly authentic is to ask every single customer for a review and not offer any form of incentive. The more authentic and truthful your reviews are, the more likely potential customers will trust you!

Too perfect isn’t always a good thing, GatherUp covered a study between PowerReviews and Northwestern University that showed customers were more likely to complete a purchase from businesses with a 4.2 to 4.5 star rating. So, ask for reviews responsibly to ensure no one reports you to Google for spammy review practices!

Now that you’ve answered all of these questions for your customers, you should be able to avoid a suspension by not only correctly filling out your business information in GBP, but managing that information appropriately going forward. Remember it’s all about thinking about your customers first and making them happy by providing the information they need in an accurate, easy to understand manner.

We’ll leave this post off with a wise tweet from Ross Simmonds:

So, next time you check in on your business profile (or set up a new one) take a step back and stop worrying about all the ranking factors, tips, and tricks. Instead, think about who you do what you do for: your customers.