How can I implement the best SEO practices for my homepage?

Local search engine optimization is a must-have technique for small businesses which retail their products locally. You can easily attract your potential customer by creating a Google My Business account and inserting all required information such as company physical address, phone number and e-mail there.

Google My Business is a free and widely accessible tool that enables small businesses to appear in local search results for keywords specific to your products or services. Google officially launched this tool to help small enterprises to create websites without spendings. It is a perfect opportunity for local merchants as most of them can’t afford to pay for a website development. Most business owners find it too complicated and too expensive to present their business online. According to the statistical data, at least 60% of small businesses still do not have websites. So, Google My Business is a perfect way to attract users without launching a website. It is a free and user-friendly tool which does not require any technical knowledge. Only if you would like to get a custom domain such as “.com” or “.net,” you will have to pay for Google.

GMB is an essential tool which helps to find out and adjust the way your online business is shown in Maps, the Knowledge Graph, Google+ and organic results. According to the statistical data, GMB is the most prominent driver of local search engine optimization success.

Google My Business tool SEO benefits

You can improve your Google My Business account SEO by adding relevant information about your local business as well as a physical address of your store, opening hours and other NAP details. Moreover, you can manage the feedbacks your customers leave behind. Positive reviews can be the most significant ranking factor for your small business as it helps to take their purchase decision. As GMB dashboard feeds the information about the local companies to Map and Knowledge Box, it is significant to claim your location and fill out all relevant info.

Google My Business tool can raise your business rankings in online search as Google has increased the visibility of local listing results on mobile devices. When you are searching for some query like “nearest shop mall,” Google will show you firstly local results with a geographical location of the nearest shop mals based on your current location. It means that Google gives a considerable traffic opportunity to local businesses.

Without Google My Business account, you have no opportunities to be shown on any local map listings in the SERPs which Google displays for plenty of local queries. This tool takes into consideration a lot of factors to determine rankings for businesses. The most significant factors are the relevance of the given information to the user’s query, a distance of the indicated place to user location and the authority of this place based on the clients' feedback.

Google My Business listing optimization

To make a quality and well-optimized GMB account, you should keep in mind that all information you provide should be in line with your primary domain information. Otherwise, your users may feel frustrated and confused. Irrelevant data can hurt your site rankings and raise bounce rate.

So, to improve your GMB listing following these steps:

• Select a correct business category;
• Claim your listing with the relevant and accurate brand name;
• Indicate all possible data about your business;
• Use keywords in short descriptions where it is possible and looks natural;
• Indicate correct opening times;
• Use only quality photos of your store which maximally correspond to the reality.