My First ever Logo Design wasn’t for a Business

Sometimes local business competitors with fewer reviews rank higher, even when you have a higher rating than them. You’ve put in the hard work and effort to get a 5 star rating, and tons of… …only your competitors with fewer reviews, or lower ratings still sit above you, and you can’t figure out why.

You have a great reputation, everyone loves your business, and you deserve to be in one of those top spots, only Google isn’t giving it to you.

Is Google biased? No.

Are these other businesses in some way pulling some sort of scam? No.

The truth is, you only have a very small part of the information you need to outrank all other local businesses in your area.

As a local business owner it can be really frustrating when no matter how many Google reviews you get, you still rank lower than your competitors.

While getting reviews and a good reputation ARE important pieces of the puzzle to ranking on Google Maps, there is a lot more to it.

By the end of this article, you’ll know everything about how to rank higher on Google Maps.

I’ll also show you how to get your business into the top 3 positions, then to position 1.

What Actually Determines Rankings on Google Maps (It's Not Just Reviews)

If you’re a local business owner with a ton of great reviews and a great reputation, but your competitors are still out ranking you, this article is for you.

I’m going to show you right here exactly how the system works, how to beat your competition, get to those top spots, and dominate local search in every way.

You want that top spot? I’m going to show you right here, how you get it.

But first, I wanted to show you in a little more detail, that this isn’t just a vanity metric. Trying to rank higher on Google Maps isn’t just a whim, or a fantasy. It’s not just something nice to have. Being ranked in the top 3 on Google Maps is a complete game changer for local businesses, and makes them a lot more money.

So, let’s answer these questions:

• How much traffic / clicks go to the top spots on Google Maps?
• Is top 3 on Google Maps worth having for a local business?
• Will it make a difference to your business?
• If so, how much difference will it make in revenue?

How Much Business You're Losing Not Being in the Google Maps Pack 3

• 46% of all Google searches have local intent, meaning users are actively seeking services or products near their current location.
• 76% of people who conduct a local search on their smartphone visit a physical business within 24 hours
• 96% of people find out about businesses near them through online searches.

Google knows this, so to serve local search better they created Google Local, also known as Google Maps.

Businesses in the Google Maps 3-Pack receive 126% more traffic and 93% more actions (calls, website clicks, and requests for directions) compared to business ranked in spots 4-10.

What is the Google Maps 3-Pack?

The Google Local 3-Pack is the box that appears at the top of Google search results showing the top 3 local businesses, their ratings, and a map. It displays above the organic search results whenever someone searches for a local service or business.

{IMAGE OF GOOGLE LOCAL PACK-3}

The most important thing to know about the Google Local map pack, is that it ALWAYS displays ABOVE the Google organic search results, in a local search.

And, as a result of this positioning, 40% to 44% of all local search clicks go to the Google Local 3-Pack.

46% of all Google Searches have Local Intent

People search for local businesses on Google a lot, especially on mobile.

This makes the map pack a critical, high-traffic, high-value area of the search results page.

So, for local business marketing, ranking higher and being found on Google Local in the map pack, is extremely important.

This isn’t just something you casually want, or hope for, it’s where almost all the local business goes.

If you’ve ever wondered why your local business website doesn’t seem to bring in much business, get much traffic

So, if you want to be the first local business seen in your customer’s pocket the moment they pick up their phone, you need to be in the Google Maps Pack 3.

Key Statistics About the Google Local 3-Pack:

• High Engagement: Businesses in the 3-pack generate 93% more action-driven results (calls, clicks, directions) than those ranked lower.
• Traffic Advantage: Appearing in the 3-pack results in 126% more traffic compared to competitors listed further down.

But the Google Maps results aren’t the ONLY important place for your local business to show up.

How Much Google Traffic Goes to the Top 3 Organic Search Results?

Approximately 68.7% to 75.1% of all clicks on Google search results go to the top three organic results.

The first position gets the lion’s share, with studies showing an average click-through rate (CTR) between 27.6% and 39.8%. While the second and third positions receive significantly less, but still dominate over lower-ranked results.

• Top 3 Combined: Roughly 68.7% - 75.1% of clicks.
• #1 Position: 27.6% - 39.8% of clicks.
• #2 Position: 15.8% - 18.7% of clicks.
• #3 Position: 10.2% - 11% of clicks.

First Page Sage

What Being in the Top 3 on Google Maps Does for a Local Business

Searches on Google for Local Businesses in Menifee, Murrieta, and Temecula, are BIG business.

Southwest Riverside County is a very competitive, densely populated, growing area.

The difference between ranking in the Pack 3 on Google or being ranked lower, often mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual revenue. Sometimes more.

Not only that, these local businesses get to spend a lot less on any sort of paid promotion like paid ads, or social media marketing.

Simply put, if your business is sitting in position 6, your local business is just barely missing out on all that income.

And, if you’re not in the top 3 on organic, also, you’re missing out on even more.

The best part about this, is it’s 100% passive, and organic.

The business simply comes to you, when people are looking for you.

Here’s the good news:

If you have a 5 star ranking on Google Maps with more reviews than your competitors, yet you’re ranking lower than your competitors, this is a HUGE opportunity for you.

You only need to fix a couple of things, and you can very easily totally dominate local search results.

What Being in the Top 3 on Google Maps Looks Like for a Local Business Like Yours

Local business search domination, is when your business holds positions in both the top 3 on Google Maps, and in the top 3 on Google organic search results.

To show you I know exactly how to do this, here’s what the search results currently look like if you search for a web designer, graphic designs, or a local SEO company, in Murrieta:

IMAGE Carousel showing Shared Graphics Dominating Local Search.

I told you earlier, that if you’re only focused on reviews, you only have part of the story about how to rank on Google Maps.

So, let’s take a closer look at what you REALLY need in order to dominate local search.

Why Fewer Google Reviews Still Beat You (180+ ranking factors explained)

There are over 180 different factors that go into ranking a local business higher on Google Maps. And, most of them have absolutely nothing to do with how many reviews you have.

So, if you’ve only been focusing on reviews, this is why your business is ranking lower than a competitor with fewer reviews.

The Good News About Ranking Higher on Google Maps

1. Your business doesn’t need to be perfect on all 180+ ranking factors to get to position 1 on Google Maps.
2. Just working on a few things can change your rankings VERY quickly. Even within days.
3. I regularly get local businesses within the top 3 positions on Google Maps within 60-90 days.

I'm going to walk you through the factors that matter most. These are the things your competitors could be doing a little better at, that you're not. The good news is they’re definitely not doing all of them.

Let’s take a look at the most important ranking factors, and what’s causing your business to rank lower than it should.

These are the gaps your business needs to fill in order to rank higher, and get to the top spots.

It’s also what a Local SEO agency does for businesses in this position.

If you want to have me take a detailed look at your business to check it out, I can run a Local SEO audit on your business for you. I’ll show you where any issues are, and how to fix them.

Click here for a Local SEO audit, and I’ll put that together for you.

[PUT A LINK HERE]

1. Proximity of the Searcher Matters on Google Maps

When you search for a local business on Google, they recommend companies that are closer to you. Of course, if you’re searching for a coffee shop you want one in the town you’re in, and preferably closer to you.

So, Google values proximity to the searcher’s physical location (on a smart phone, Google uses your phone’s geographic location to do this).

This means if you’re at your business location, and you search for your type of business using ‘[business type] near me’, you will rank higher than if you search from somewhere else in your town, or from your home, etc.

PRO TIP: if you’re sitting in the office in your own business, do not use ‘near me’ to see where you currently rank. Search instead using your ‘[business type] in [city name]’ (such as ‘HVAC repair in Murrieta’) instead of ‘near me’.

This centers the search on the center of the city you’re in. You’ll notice the rankings change.

Proximity is just ONE of the important factors, and it’s the only one you can’t change. You are where you are, and that’s okay.

You can still rank higher all over your city, and even all over the local area, when you include the other factors.

2. Your Local Business Website is the #1 Reason You Rank Lower on Google Maps

One of the most important things in Google Maps rankings, is how you build your local business website. To rank your local business higher on Google Maps, and organic search, you must build and optimize your local business website correctly.

The good news is, most local businesses don’t understand that their website is one of the absolute most important things in how their business ranks on Google Maps. And, 99% of web designers don’t understand Local SEO, either.

Most web designers simply don't build local business websites correctly, which weakens their position in search.

Your website needs to be built with Local SEO strategy.

Here’s what that looks like.

How a website with Local SEO Strategy is Structured

1. Build your website page structure to show Google (and your potential customers) a complete picture of exactly what you do.
   1. Local service based businesses must have a full and complete service page for each service they provide. Each page must describe your services in detail, customer expectations, and include complete SEO including geographic keywords for your city, etc.
   2. For example… if you’re an electrician; do you offer 24hr emergency callouts? Do you mostly do rewires, not new builds? Do you want small jobs? Or, do you only do large commercial projects?
   3. Local Roofers must have separate pages about different types of roofs they work on.
   4. Local restaurant websites must talk about what type of food they sell. Is it an American restaurant, thai food, indian, chinese, etc.?
   5. Is your restaurant kid-friendly, and family-friendly, or is it more built to attract couples on date nights, and romantic evenings?
2. Your local business website must contain specific geographic information about where your business is located.
   1. For brick and mortar businesses; your whole website needs to say what you do, and where you are.

   Example: if you’re a ‘Yoga Studio in Temecula’, or a ‘Plumber in Murrieta’, or a ‘Roofing Contractor in Menifee’, every page of your website needs to be completely optimized for that geographic location and your profession / service / product.

3. Your website headings must contain geographic keywords.
4. Body text and paragraphs must all contain keywords specifically optimized for Google to understand.
5. One detailed Service Page for each service you provide.

    

   Most local service businesses have just one web page with a list of services, and little-to-no detail about that service, or how they provide it. This doesn’t give Google enough information to know exactly what you do.

6. Local Restaurants must have a complete menu written in text format, with separate images for each dish. DO NOT upload an image of your menu, Google cannot read it.
   1. Many local restaurant website designers are lazy. They’ll just upload a PDF, or a photo of your menu. In any competitive local environment, this is completely unacceptable.
   2. Google doesn’t read text in images, so it doesn’t know what text an image contains. If you upload an image of your restaurant menus, all Google knows is there’s a page called ‘menu’ with an image on the page. It has ZERO context on what meals you serve.
   3. An image of your local restaurant menu will be unreadable on a mobile phone screen. Google promotes local restaurant web design that is mobile ready, with completely responsive design, and text that’s easy to read.
   4. Each dish should have a separate image, and each image must have code in the background, also telling Google what that image is (see number 5).
7. All local website Images must have Alt-tags describing what the image contains. An alt-tag is a line of code, describing what the image contains.

   Without alt-tags, Google doesn’t understand if the image is of fish and chips, or microchips.

8. Service based businesses working in multiple cities MUST have a separate ‘city page’ for every city they operate in.

9. If you’re a local plumber located in Murrieta, you do business in Temecula, Menifee, Wildomar, etc.

   So, you need city pages titled and optimized for ‘plumber in Menifee’, detailing your services, that are built to rank in those cities in the organic search results.

10. . Your local business website must be connected to Google correctly. There are 3 ways you need to connect your website to Google:

    1. Google Business Profile

    1. GBP must be optimized and updated (see below)

    2. Google Search Console

    1. Create and update your sitemaps whenever your website information changes 3.

    Google Analytics

    1. Google Analytics tracks your website traffic, where it comes from, who is searching for you, and where, etc.

    2. Here, you can see where all your website traffic is coming from, whether it’s from paid ads, social media, organic search, direct search.

    Optimizing your website perfectly takes considerable technical knowledge & expertise, and takes the kind of time most business owners don’t have available.

    So, hiring an expert in Local SEO to optimize your website is almost always the best way to go here.

3. How to Optimize Your Google Business Profile to Rank Higher Than Competitors on Google Maps

Most local business owners set up their Google Business Profile very quickly, and then forget about it. They see it as just another local directory listing. Just another free place for their local business to be, like Yelp, Nextdoor, Foursquare, Mapquest, etc.

But, your Google Business Profile is the modern day yellow pages.

Local businesses used to use alpha-numeric tricks to be found first in the yellow pages, by naming their businesses ‘A1 Taxi Cabs’ or ‘AAAA Insurance’.

Google Business profiles can be optimized to rank higher, too.

Google Business Profile Optimization Checklist

1. Keywords in Profile Description
   1. Geographic keywords for location and service area
   2. Product / Service keywords
   3. Any unique keywords specific to your industry / service
2. Regular updates and posts: you can post offers on your Google Business Profile. Do this at least once a month.
3. Good Review Ratings:
   1. A 5 star rating is awesome, but often not realistic. 500 5 star reviews seems a little too hard to believe. You can’t please everyone, so stop trying to make it look like you do.
   2. 500 reviews, and a 4.8 star rating, is perfection: This is more realistic than having 500 5 star reviews.
4. Frequent Google Reviews: Consistency matters a little more than your star rating. It’s better to have 200 reviews over the course of 2 years, than 200 reviews from 2 years ago, and nothing since.
5. Reply to All Good Reviews (this is super important): your business has a pulse, right? You are alive? Responding to all reviews is extremely important. No responses means your business doesn’t care (that’s right, even when you get a great review, you don’t care about it).
6. Reply to ALL Bad Reviews (this is even MORE important): when you replying to bad reviews, shows your future customer how you react when things go wrong. This is an extremely important part of your marketing conversation.
   1. Bad reviews with no response say: I don’t care about this. I didn’t even notice it. This is how we operate.
   2. Bad reviews with defensive responses say: this business gets pretty aggressive, defensive and emotional when things go wrong. They might not do the right thing, or take care of me, they’ll just dismiss my problem / issue. Avoid this place.
   3. Bad reviews with polite, professional responses: These guys are professional and polite at all times, even when things go wrong. They care, and take care of any problems.
7. Images often uploaded to the profile (geographic tags matter here, especially with physical locations)
8. Add links to your Social Media Profiles to your Google Business Profile.

4. Most Local Business Owners Don't Know Local Citations Boost Google Maps Rankings

Google wants to be sure that the information it provides about local businesses, is reliable, up-to-date, and still relevant.

Local businesses often change locations, move to different cities, or close down. Also, simple things can change with a local business, like the business name, or the phone number, etc.

So, Google uses over 150 websites for local business citations as points of reference to be sure that a local business is still operating with the same name, address, and phone number, (AKA your business ‘NAP’).

The more often Google sees the same business name, address and phone number, the more reliable it sees your business information as being. The more reliable the information, the more likely Google is to recommend your business.

Local Business Citations can be very frustrating for local business owners, because often they can be put right, then change back to the old address, because of the way the internet shares information.

You need a professional to manage your business citations, and stay on top of it, monitoring the citations, to keep your rankings high.

If you'd like me to check out your citations and look over your online presence, I can put together a free local SEO audit report for you. [LINK HERE]

The free report will show you everything that needs to be fixed, and how to fix it.

If you then decided to hire me to help, that would be awesome. If not, that’s not a problem at all.

At least you’ll know where all the issues are, if you decided to fix them.

Websites Google Uses for Local Business Citations

These are just a few of the 150+ websites Google uses in the USA to verify your local business name, address, and phone number:

Linkedin Facebook Instagram Nextdoor Yelp Bing Places Apple Maps Alignable MapQuest FourSquare TomTom Waze TripAdvisor

As mentioned, there are over 150+ websites in the USA (and the list is constantly updated), and over 200+ websites Google uses worldwide for local business citations.

[SELL THE COMPLETE LIST, OR HAVE THEM PUBLISHED ON ANOTHER PAGE, WITH LINK HERE]

It’s extremely important to make sure your local business NAP stays accurate.

5. Are Backlinks Why They Rank Higher on Google Maps? (no, here's why)

Many SEO companies will tell you that backlinks are important.

But, if they tell you that about Local SEO, that is a HUGE red flag that this SEO ‘expert’ does not know much about Local SEO at all.

If any agencies, marketing companies, or freelancers tell you that backlinks are important in Local SEO… …you absolutely should NOT HIRE THEM.

There are many different SEO strategies, and Local SEO is a very specific type of SEO that only works for local businesses.

For national, international, and global brands, backlinking is extremely important to build your website authority.

But, having a backlink from Yahoo.com, or Forbes, or major news outlets will not make your local business website rank faster, or higher.

In Local SEO, backlinks simply aren’t necessary.

This isn’t just an opinion… it’s backed by over 25 years of data.

I’ve audited thousands of local business websites where backlinking has been applied as a strategy, and they do not rank at all. Page content, and everything else detailed in this article is much more effective, and ranks much faster.

6. How Local Service Businesses Rank in Other Cities on Google Maps

Google Business profiles typically center the location of your business on your physical location, if you have one.

So, if you’re a local service business, and you have a physical office customers can visit and do business with you, your profile is centered on that address in that city.

Many service based businesses operate as a service area business, where they operate from their homes, do not have customers visiting the house, and do not have an address on their profiles.

But, the important thing about service based businesses, is they usually have a service area they work, which involves different cities around the city they work in.

Your GBP centers on the city you’re in, and you can optimize the Google Maps to rank higher in that city. But, the further out you go, your GBP will rank lower because of proximity to the person searching.

This doesn’t mean you can’t rank your business in other cities.

You just need a different strategy for that.

How City Pages Built to Rank in Other Cities Work for Local Service Businesses

City pages are special pages on the website that specifically talk about your service in that city. So, if you’ve ever seen a website with a Service Area section or link, with multiple pages for different cities, that is a city page.

So, if your business does HVAC Repair in Murrieta, you might have city pages on your website titled like this:

HVAC Repair in Temecula HVAC Repair in Menifee HVAC Repair in Wildomar HVAC Repair in Lake Elsinore

City pages target rankings in the organic search results, below the Google Maps results, and are a powerful tool for bringing you business in other cities around you.

Here’s an example of what ranking in organic search looks like for some of our clients:

[IMAGES HERE]

Local SEO is Extremely Competitive in The Inland Empire

For local businesses here wanting to make sure they get as many leads, calls, sales, and bookings as possible, Local SEO is extremely competitive in the Murrieta, Menifee, and Temecula valley.

Local SEO is a strategy based on research and data. Any business can rank higher than another, as long as they have the strategies in place to beat their competition.

The good news is, it’s a simple process to beat your competitors and get into the Google Maps 3-pack.

And, if you have more reviews and a better rating than they do, you’re already more than halfway there.

It’s just a matter of filling in the blanks, building the right strategy, and executing it.

Saying this, considering even many Local SEO agencies get this wrong… knowing WHAT to do and doing it CORRECTLY, are two different things.

How We Find Out How Your Competition Ranks Higher Than You on Google Maps

In marketing, in order to compete you must do the same as your competition, or better. Competing is not what you need to do here, that will only keep you where you are.

You need to become a leader in your market. So, doing better than your competition, is the only thing that matters.

In local SEO, doing better than your competition is what’s needed to get you to the top 3 positions on Google Maps.

This sounds simple, right?

Honestly, it is.

Here at Shared Graphics, before we touch your website, or do anything for you, we do deep research on all of your top 10 competitors, so we know exactly how to beat them.

We research these important things in depth:

Your Competitors Google Business Profiles

We research your competition’s GBP. Things like their rankings, photos, reviews, ratings, what primary category they are listed in, etc.

Also, we look for evidence of any fake reviews, SPAM activity, keyword stuffing. Anything the business might be doing that’s against Google’s guidelines.

Local Business Website Research

When we look at your competitors local business website, we’re not looking at it like a customer trying to order a pizza, or find a plumber in Temecula.

What we are looking for when researching your competitors websites, are the strategies their web designer or marketing agency used to build it. Also, we are looking for things like city pages, what keywords they’re targeting. Maybe they have a blog, but is it effective?

We use tools that tell us what keywords your competitors websites are using, how much traffic the site gets, etc. Also, we run analytics to see where your competitors website traffic is coming from.

From top to bottom, we audit your competitors websites, to know everything about them.

Once we have all this research, we will have a complete picture of what’s working for your local competitors. And, how to systematically outrank them on Google Maps and Google organic search.

Then, it’s just a matter of building the solution. And, once we’ve built it, and continue to optimize and tweak your website for you, the results are amazing.

Summary of Why Competitors Rank Higher with Fewer Reviews on Google Maps

Competitors with fewer reviews on Google Maps are outranking you because your online presence is not optimized for Google correctly.

You may have more reviews, and a better star rating than a local competitor. But, they might still rank higher than you, if everything else isn’t right.

This can all be fixed with great Local SEO.

To optimize your local business for Google, you need:

1. A well built, fast loading, mobile ready website with Local SEO built in, that includes all important content like services pages, city pages, etc.
2. An optimized, regularly updated Google Business Profile
3. Consistent business reviews on Google
4. Reply to all Google reviews professionally
5. Make sure every local business citation shows your exact name, address, and phone number

Now you know exactly why your competitors with fewer reviews outrank you.

You also learned that while getting more reviews is very important, it won’t fix the problem.

The good news is that it’s fixable.

Great Local SEO is what your business is missing. It’s why you’re not competitive on Google Maps, and the solution to your problem.

You and your staff worked your ass off to get where you are. Your customer reviews are shining examples of what an amazing local business is. But, the rest of your online presence is letting you down.

You deserve to be in the top 3 on Google Maps, and reap the rewards for the hard work it took to get where you are now.

So, let’s get you to the top of Google Maps, and keep you there.

FAQ: Google Maps Rankings for Local Businesses

Here are some examples of businesses I’ve helped recently…

SOCIAL PROOF & TESTIMONIALS

[offer here]FREE LOCAL SEO OFFER

FREE LOCAL SEO AUDIT FORM

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