Google Maps Marketing Strategy: The Essential Guide

Google Maps is much more than a navigator nowadays. From company websites to dedicated shopping apps, the rise of Google Maps is inescapable in modern marketing. For businesses, Google Maps marketing is an effective technique that promises big wins for relatively little effort.

Read on to discover more about it, and how you can put it to good use.

What is Google Maps Marketing?

Google Maps marketing is the practice of using the Google Maps service to reach potential customers that are searching for products and services related to your business.

As the mobile era has moved into full swing, people are ever-more dependent on Google Maps. They use it to find shops, restaurants, tourist landmarks, and much more. It makes sense that businesses get involved. Marketing with Google Maps is particularly useful for small businesses that want to drive sales in their local area.

Google is the world’s biggest search engine, and Google Ads is the leading advertising platform in the world. So, it’s little surprise that the tech giant is looking for ways to expand its reach – and in doing so, help advertisers grow their reach too!

Why You Should Use Google Maps Marketing

Google Maps marketing is, first and foremost, about getting your business to appear on Google Maps for relevant searches. By doing this, you’ll be able to increase brand awareness through search visibility. The ultimate goal is to leverage this increased exposure to rank high in local business listings in relevant search engine results pages (SERPs).

Essentially, it’s tied to search engine optimization (SEO). However, the map element helps your business stand out and attract more attention.

Studies from 2018 found that over 50% of searches are performed on mobile devices. As such, we understand that people are constantly on the go. Therefore, their search queries demand dynamic solutions.

Developing a strong online presence through Google is an excellent way of showcasing your business to encourage people to visit. You can provide everything they need to make that decision, including promotions, pricing, hours of operation, and most importantly, the location.

How Does Google Maps Marketing Work

Before we show you how to get the most out of Google Maps marketing, let’s first consider how Google determines local rankings.

At a basic level, Google prioritizes local search results based on several factors, namely:

• Relevance
• Distance
• Prominence

Google takes these factors into account when considering each search query, and will serve up the most relevant results to the user. To take things a step further, you must think about Google My Business.

Google My Business is a listing tool that enables companies to manage their online presence across multiple Google products, such as Maps and Search. By using this tool, you can display your business information, interact with your customers, and increase brand awareness with potential new customers.

When you use Google Maps marketing, you inherently focus on Google My Business optimization. Therefore, we can define the key factors that Google Maps considers in a little more detail:

• Optimization of your Google My Business listing to display for relevant keyword searches.
• Proximity to users as implied by the physical address of your business. This is a significant ranking factor in Google Maps results.
• Prominence of your business as denoted by the SEO ranking of your business in Google Search Console.
• Reviews from previous customers. The comments and star ratings are added social proof which can either attract or deter new prospects.

The Practical Use of Google My Business

Imagine you have a restaurant in town. You’d like to get more customers, so you turn to the internet. By creating a Google My Business account, you can increase the online visibility of your restaurant in Google Maps. As a result, potential customers will see your business appear when they search for restaurants in the area.

This works well for many restaurants, especially if you offer a home delivery service, as it can earn a double-win – more visitors and more delivery orders!

Taking the time for Google My Business optimization is a good idea for all businesses. You can fill out the description and configure the categories to target a very relevant audience for your products and services.

How to Optimize for Google Maps Marketing

As mentioned, Google Maps marketing is intrinsically linked to Google My Business optimization. The changes you make to your settings in your Google My Business account is effectively what optimizes your business for Google Maps.

Follow these steps to increase brand exposure on Google Maps:

Add a Legitimate Official Address

When it comes to Google Maps marketing, this is easily the most crucial component. If your address is incorrect, it only takes one or two negative online reviews from frustrated users can have a negative impact on your business.

Here are some tips to get it right:

• Set the Google drop pin on the location of your office in Google Maps.
• Use the precise address for the physical location of your premises in Google My Business.
• Google doesn’t accept mailboxes or PO boxes in remote locations.
• Never use anything like a URL or keyword in your address.
• Clarify the type of service you provide. For example, do you serve customers in-store, or do you only take phone orders?
• Add your business website, phone, business hours, and the domain of your services.

Optimize GMB Introduction

In Google My Business, the introduction helps Google understand your business, so it can determine whether it relates to specific search queries. Do the following to optimize your GMB introduction:

• Avoid keyword-stuffing.
• Explain why you started the business.
• Highlight the advantages you have over competitors.
• Provide answers to important questions that prospects may have about your business, products, and services.
• Use the language, tone, and voice that your target audience uses.

Select the Right Category

There are lots of categories to choose from in Google My Business. Make sure you select the category that most accurately describes your business. Being more specific will pay off in the long run, as you will attract more relevant visitors that are more likely to become customers.

Get Verified in GMB Listing

After you have completed your Google My Business optimization, you should verify the listing. If you don’t do this, it’s difficult to rank high in Google Maps.

Google offers several different options for business verification:

• Postcard verification method
• Phone verification method
• Email verification method
• Instant verification
• Bulk verification

Most local businesses use the postcard method. However, you can see whether your business qualifies for any other verification method.

Ask for Reviews

Social proof is a big deal nowadays. People care what other customers think, and they use reviews as a guiding tool when making purchasing decisions.

As you gather more reviews, it increases your visibility in Google Maps search results. With good customer feedback and a strong presence on Google Maps, your business stands to gain a lot of attention.

You should actively encourage customers to write online reviews – especially happy customers! The more positive feedback you can gather, the better, as this will help nurture trust with new prospects. In time, this positive social proof can be an effective driving force to increase conversions.

Of course, some negative reviews are bound to happen sooner or later. Rather than deleting these or ignoring them, take the opportunity to make a warm, positive response for everyone to see. You can learn from the negative feedback, and also demonstrate some genuine customer care and will to improve. For any prospects reading your response to negative feedback, it’s vital that you handle it professionally.

Build High-Quality Links

As you may expect, optimizing for a higher organic rank in Google Maps marketing comes down to good SEO practices. You can improve your site’s authority by building backlinks from high-quality websites. This link-building strategy will help your business rank higher in SERPs.

For local businesses, you can get started with local SEO by reaching out to other companies in the area and asking for a link swap. This is a cost-effective way of building connections with other businesses, as you help promote each other online. Of course, you should probably avoid promoting any business selling similar products or services!

Google Maps is the Next Big Thing

It’s impossible to ignore the role of Google Maps today. It is one of the most popular sites on the planet, used by people everywhere. More to the point, it is used by consumers in every industry, which presents excellent opportunities for savvy marketers.

Google Maps Marketing is an affordable, highly effective strategy that all businesses can use to target their local audience. It doesn’t take a lot of effort for Google My Business optimization, and the rewards are almost instant.

By taking the steps in this article, you can start implementing Google Maps marketing today to give your business an added edge in the mobile-first era.