How to Rank Your Google Business Profile in London

Accurately Include Business Details

It is important that every section of your Google Business Profile is completed. When your listing is complete and accurate, Google is able to match your listing to the right searches. This step involves:

• Adding business name – use your business name exactly, do not add keywords
• Address – must be consistent and match your website and any online citations
• Phone number – use a local number rather than a toll free number, showing your location 
• Website – link to your home page or the relevant location page
• Operating hours – set regular hours, also include any holiday or special hours
• Opening date – set your opening date

Choosing Categories

Categories are very important and Google uses your primary category to decide where your business appears in search results. You should always include a primary and secondary category, for example:

• Primary category – your core business description
• Secondary category – add up to nine additional categories to describe other services

We always recommend visiting your competitors Google Business Profiles to determine what categories they have used.

Create a Business Description

This section gives you seven hundred and fifty characters to tell Google and your audience what your business does. This helps Google understand the context of your business. For your business description we recommend:

• Start with your main service and location
• Include any specialities and what makes your business difference
• Incorporate relevant keywords naturally, be very careful not to overstuff them
• Add a compelling call to action 
• Do not use promotional language
• Do not include any URLs or HTMLs

Publish High Quality Images

Businesses that publish high quality images on their Google Business Profile receive forty two percent more requests for directions and close to forty percent more clicks. When it comes to images, you will want to:

• Add one cover photograph
• Include your logo with a white or transparent background
• Add three images of the exterior of your business premises
• Include three images of your interior
• Add three images of your team working
• Add up to five images of your products or services

Review Management

Reviews are very important ranking factors, where the quality and quantity do matter. An effective review management strategy includes:

• Creating review follow-up requests from customers
• Create short review links to make it easy for customers to leave a review 
• Respond to every review, good and bad
• Never buy reviews and Google is able to detect them and can suspend or penalise your profile

Regularly Publish Posts to Your Google Business Profile in London

Your Google Posts will appear under your business profile and in Maps, yet they are the most underused feature. Posts can include updates, offers, and events. One to two posts weekly can help to improve your ranking in London.

Tracking

You can view your Google Business Profile performance under Performance in the dashboard where you identify how your customers find and interact with your profile.

We recommend tracking the following metrics:

• Search queries triggering your profile
• Profile views
• Customer actions
• Photo views

Conclusion

Your Google Business Profile is an effective opportunity for your business to appear in search results in London. With an optimised and completed profile, your business can gain a competitive edge. Genie Crawl has extensive experience optimising Google Business Profiles to help businesses rank in London. Contact us today to find out more.