Your GMB (Google My Business) profile has so many ways to optimise the listing. This means that it can be difficult to know which GMB fields to focus on optimising.
Below are the GMB fields which impact (and don’t impact) your local SEO:
GMB Field Impact: Business Name
Your business name impacts your ranking on search engines. Although it may seem like it shouldn’t, if your business name is keyword rich, you already have an advantage there. However, don’t fret and change your business name if it doesn’t.It may not be allowed on Google, but on Bing, you are allowed to add descriptors in your business name, so it’s a good idea to add keyword-rich descriptors there.
No Impact: Q&A
So, although the Q&A section of GMB fields isn’t impacted by keywords, it is still a good idea to answer questions found in the Q&A section. This is because if your potential customers find this section, it may help them decide on using your product/service.
GMB Field Impact: Categories
The categories section in your GMB fields influences ranking more than you would think! Make sure that you use all 10 categories (with a choice of 4,000 categories).New categories are added to GMB all the time, which means that updating them frequently is best to do in order to be at the forefront of local SEO ranking.
No Impact: Services GMB Field
Although it may seem like the services field is perfect for optimising your SEO, however, it actually has no bearing. This is because the services field isn’t very visible and it’s not visible on the desktop at all either.
GMB Field Impact: Website
Linking back to your website’s homepage is one of the best ways to increase your CTR (click-thru-rate). However, you can also link to your location page (if your business has a physical location) which means that you should test out which of these will be the most optimal for your business.
No Impact: Products
This section on GMB is available on most listings. Although it is useful for your potential customers finding your listing, it has no impact on local SEO ranking. This means that the products field on GMB has an impact on conversions for certain industries, but just not on SEO. It is worth updating this area though!
