Suppose you own a shop or agency and sell products or services. In that case, you definitely want your business to appear at the top of search results when potential customers look for relevant organic keywords. 

Setting up a Google My Business (GMB) profile is a key step to bring your offline business into the online space. Not only does it help build trust with customers, but it also provides transparency for your clients, especially if you’re offering services. 

However, while many businesses manage to rank for their branded keywords, ranking for organic, non-branded keywords is often more challenging. In this article, I’ll share a simple hack to help you rank your Google My Business profile for organic keywords.

What is Google My Business (GMB)?

Google My Business (GMB) is a free tool provided by Google that helps businesses manage their online presence across Google’s platforms, including Google Search and Google Maps. It’s essentially your digital storefront that allows potential customers to find you easily. By verifying your business on GMB, you can provide key information such as your business address, business hours, website, and contact details.

Key Features of Google My Business

• Business Profile: This section acts as your business’s digital card, containing crucial details like your business name, address, contact number, website, and working hours. It ensures that people can quickly find and reach out to you.
• Photos and Videos: GMB allows businesses to upload photos and videos to show their products, services, or business location, creating a more engaging and trustworthy profile.
• Customer Reviews: Reviews left by customers can significantly impact your business’s credibility. Engaging with reviews, both positive and negative, is a great way to show that you value customer feedback.
• Posts: Businesses can publish updates, promotions, events, and news through GMB. These posts are visible to users who find your listing, helping you stay connected and informative.
• Insights: GMB’s analytics, called ‘Insights’, provide valuable data about how users are finding your business, what they do after discovering it, and how your profile performs compared to others.

How Google My Business Works

Whenever someone searches for a business or service, Google pulls relevant information from the web, including GMB profiles. Your business can show up in several places, such as the ‘Local Pack’, Knowledge Panel, and Google Maps. However, to increase your chances of showing up on the first page for organic searches, your GMB profile needs to be optimized and updated consistently.

Importance of Ranking Your GMB Profile for Organic Keywords

Why Ranking for Organic Keywords is Crucial

Ranking for organic keywords—those that users naturally type when searching for products or services—has multiple benefits for businesses.

• Cost-Effective: Unlike paid ads, ranking for organic keywords doesn’t require ongoing payments. Once you optimize your GMB profile and start ranking, it can drive traffic and potential leads for free, making it a long-term, cost-effective strategy.
• Higher Click-Through Rates: Organic listings tend to receive more clicks than paid ads because users trust these results more. Ranking highly for relevant organic keywords increases the chances that people will visit your GMB profile and website.
• Turning Potential Customers into Leads: When your business appears on the first page of search results, it instils confidence in users that your business is reliable. This added credibility can turn searchers into customers and ultimately convert them into valuable leads.
• Long-Term Benefits: Unlike paid campaigns, which stop generating results as soon as you stop paying, organic rankings can maintain visibility for months or even years after you’ve optimized your GMB profile.

Local SEO Advantages

Ranking for local organic keywords is particularly beneficial if your business depends on foot traffic or serves a specific location. When you appear in local searches, such as “best restaurants near me” or “best plumbers in kolkata,” it directly targets people who are likely to need your services. This can result in more local customers walking through your door or contacting your business.

Hack to Rank Your GMB Profile on the First Page for Organic Keywords

Now that we understand why ranking for organic keywords is important, let’s dive into the one crucial hack that can significantly boost your Google My Business (GMB) profile’s visibility on Google.

When visiting an agency, you might have been told that using relevant keywords in your business description is enough to rank your GMB profile. They may even suggest including local keywords in the description as a key strategy. However, while this is helpful, it’s not the core ranking algorithm for GMB profiles.

Let me explain this with an example:

Suppose you own a tea shop and you want to rank for the organic keyword “best tea shop in Kolkata.” Yes, it’s essential to include this keyword in your business description, but this only accounts for about 5% of the work. What most people don’t realize is that Google considers customer reviews as one of the most critical factors in ranking GMB profiles.

Real Hack: Keywords in Customer Reviews

Make sure that when you receive customer reviews, they include the keyword you are targeting or related keywords. For example, reviews could use phrases like “Top Tea Stalls in Kolkata” or “Best Tea & Coffee in Kolkata.” This signals to Google that people associate your business with those keywords, making it more likely that your profile will rank for those terms.

It’s important that these reviews come from genuine profiles and not fake ones. Google has a sophisticated system for detecting fake reviews, and profiles with suspicious or fake activity are often blocked. This shows just how much weight Google places on authentic customer feedback, making it a top ranking factor for GMB profiles.

Focus on Local Reviews First

Also, ensure that most of your reviews in the initial months come from customers within the same city or state. For instance, if your tea shop is in Kolkata, try to gather reviews from people in Kolkata or nearby areas. If you suddenly receive hundreds of reviews from all over India within a short period, it may appear suspicious to Google, especially if your GMB profile is new. This could hurt your ranking rather than help it.

Conclusion

In short, while keywords in your business description are helpful, they are only a small part of the puzzle. The real hack to rank your GMB profile on the first page for organic keywords lies in getting genuine reviews that use the target keywords. Focus on local, authentic reviews to build trust with Google and your potential customers, and you’ll be well on your way to boosting your GMB profile’s visibility.

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