Tips to Help Your Website Be Featured in the Google Local Pack
On Google, the local pack will prominently list three businesses, show the business’s contact information, and include links to Google Maps or the website. Being featured in this pack is important because it is listed above other search results, meaning more people will see it.
Recently, Google has been reducing the number of businesses that show up in the Local Pack on page one of SERPs (search engine results pages). In the past two years, the number has fallen from seven to three.
While this is true, you can take steps to improve the likelihood that your business will be featured. Out of all the tips I have tried in the past to get websites to these coveted positions, the following are the most effective based on my experience.
Claim or Optimize Your Listing on Google My Business
Your presence on Google My Business is a must if you want any chance of being featured in the Local Packs.
Make sure to include the following information:
- Consistent name, address, and phone number (NAP) information
- Correct business information
- Photos of your business
- Proper category listing
- Keywords
- Verify the listing, which usually requires you to receive mail and enter a code or another verification.
Optimize Your Site for Local SEO
The next step is to ensure your website has been optimized for local SEO. This includes ensuring your NAP is consistent across all your web presences and creating local citation sites. You should also acquire locally relevant backlinks but avoid any spammy links. It’s also necessary to add structured data markup.
In the past, the process to optimize your site for local SEO was simple. Today, though, it is more time-consuming and complex. It requires you to know about Search Engine Optimization or hire someone who does to help you with this.
Remember, placement in the local map pack is highly competitive. This means you need to ensure that you get the SEO component right.
Monitor Your Information
Once your business is featured in the Local 3-Pack, it’s important to monitor your business’s presence continually. Remember, you and anyone else can edit the listing information. Edits are usually made as suggestions, but they may go live without providing you a notification.
Location, photos, NAP data, category, name, and virtually anything else can be changed by someone random, which can significantly impact your local rankings.
If you monitor your listing, you can catch these things before they have a chance to jeopardize your site’s presence in the Local 3-Pack.
Keeping Your Site Visible
When it comes to your site’s visibility, it’s important to make sure you are taking steps to appear in Goggle’s Local Pack. The steps above will help you get started, but it is up to you to ensure your efforts are effective. Appearing here will increase your site’s visibility and help you get more customers, which is why it is such a coveted spot to be.