Local SEO promotion on Google Maps: the power of Local Rank Tracker

Search engine developers have not created tools to check the position of a company's listing on maps, location-based services, and directories. And this data cannot be easily seen like website traffic in Google Analytics.

In this article, we will tell you what to pay attention to when promoting a company on maps, what tools help obtain information about the progress of promotion in local search results, the effectiveness of selected keywords, and to find out which queries customers see you for within a specified radius.

SEO promotion, both global and local, are strategic marketing areas that require constant participation. We will focus on the latter since we have been specializing in local SEO since 2017.

It is impossible to fill out listings on maps and other location-based services at once, place keywords on the pages of the site, respond to the existing reviews and thus permanently “reserve” your place in the top of local search results.

Here’s why:

• New competitors in your niche

• Ranking factors, which search engines sometimes change, giving more priority to one or another factor

• User behavior that is difficult to predict

• Changes to old products or new sections in search engines that didn't exist before (for example, catalogs of goods and services in product listings, news about promotions, events).

Search engines have taken local SEO in a separate direction. On the one hand, to help users find the answer to their question faster. On the other hand, to help businesses find an additional channel of communication with customers who are looking for specific information about the company (phone number, address, website), or a place where to purchase a product or service.

The separation of local SEO into an independent direction has simplified the life of users who immediately come to cafes, points of sale of goods or services using maps and location-based services. And the business has an additional promotion channel and the opportunity to increase foot traffic to its locations for presence on maps and location-based services.

Here come such terms as "local query" or "geo-specific query". If a user is looking for a coffee shop on the maps, and you have a coffee shop, then the listing of its location has every chance of being in local search results on the map. And in order for the listing of your particular coffee shop to be at the top of this list, you need to use local SEO tools.

The visibility of your company listings on maps is influenced by various factors: for example, the completeness of the listing (up-to-date information about the work of your location, attractive photos, the presence of keywords that customers use to find you).

Keywords signal to the search engine that your business is most relevant to the query, due to which the user receives a relevant response to their query. This is called Justifications.

Justifications are triggered when the user's query matches a piece of text in the following sections of the listing:

• price lists

• menu

• posts

• reviews

• website

In order for Google to pay attention to your listing, collect keywords using the auxiliary free services like Google Trends. Distribute the "keys" in the sections of your listing from the list above to increase the chances of your locations to be in the top of the local search results.

The hardest factor to consider in local SEO is the location of the user from which they are submitting the request. This creates additional difficulties in tracking the results of local promotion and finding growth points. On Google Maps, positions for the target query can change every few meters. That is why it is necessary to evaluate the search results at different distances from your geolocation.

To do this, we at BrandWizard have developed the Local Rank Tracker. This tool automatically determines the search positions of the company's locations in the local Google results for key queries at different distances from the user.

As part of the local search results, positions for a key query can change every few meters. That is why it is necessary to evaluate these results taking into account the change in the distance from the user's location to your location.

The complexity of determining the user's location and the keywords that he enters into the search box helped us form the main functions of the Local Rank Tracker:

• how the locations of your company are ranked according to the target request within a given radius

• positions of competitor companies, distance to them and rating indicators

With the help of the Local Rank Tracker, you can check positions in search engines: how your locations are displayed in local web results and local results on Google Maps:

• high-volume searches, such as those related to your business category

• branded local queries, such as "sports store nearby"

• special and commercial requests related to your products or services

The service allows you to select and check the keywords for which you attract or want to attract traffic to your locations.

With a given regularity, the tracker will calculate the average position of each company listing and evaluate its dynamics: by how many positions the location display has decreased or increased for the target query.

If it turns out that one location is losing positions, the tracker will promptly report this. You will be able to detect the causes in time and, if necessary, adjust the promotion strategy, or apply the winning strategy to other locations.

Using the Local Position Tracker in conjunction with the selection of keywords to promote your business on the maps, you can get a complete picture of local search results within a given radius: find out the positions of your locations and competitors' locations, find growth points and select winning keyword combinations.

Local search results are influenced by many factors, of which the most unpredictable is determining the location from which the user makes the search request.

Thanks to the Google Trends service, you can get a list of keywords that customers use to find your company and distribute them in the right sections of your listings.

For a search robot, keywords are the "reasons" on the basis of which it decides to show the user your listings and listings of your competitors.

Use the Local Rank Tracker to track the progress of promotion on maps and location-based services, as well as the impact of keywords on the visibility of yours and your competitors' locations from a certain distance from the user.