Google Maps listing is the apple of small businessÂ’ eyes. All the small businesses in the local market try to firstly be enlisted in the local search maps, and then try to optimize their reviews to attain a position in the local listings.
Google has very strict and evident policy for local map listings, which is that it does not let any fake review, any paid review, or any keyword stuffed review achieve a position in the listings. Besides using pay per click management technique to spread the name of your business in local search, you can increase the ranking of your business in local search by considering the following factors.
Volume:
The quantity of reviews your business receives is a crucial signal for the ranking it will achieve in the local maps listing. The quantity of reviews required by a business to achieve a certain position varies from business to business. The thing you can do in this regard is to analyze your competitors and see the position they have achieved against the number of reviews they have, then you can set that much number of reviews as a benchmark.
Velocity:
There is nothing bad with receiving as many reviews as possible, but itÂ’s the bulk of reviews in a short time that raises the red flag for your business. Numerous reviews in a short time, give the impression of paid reviews, therefore be moderate in your approach and avoid bulk posting of reviews.
Sentiment:
The general trend for review writing is to contact a happy customer and have them write a good review about your business. However, only an internet marketing company that knows how Google crawls through reviews will advice on natural distribution of reviews, which contains both negative and positive reviews. Therefore, when building reviews, make them look as natural as possible with a combination of pros and cons.
Keywords:
Like in any other type of content, the density and placement of keywords in a review is also of crucial importance. It is of utmost importance that when you place keywords in the review, it should never give a spammish look, neither should be the review stuffed with keywords. The use of long tail keywords in moderation in several reviews can help increase the ranking in local map listings.
Conclusion:
Summarizing all above, to achieve a higher ranking in local map listings, you must have reviews in a certain quantity, with a moderate frequency, a natural sentiment, and rightly placed keywords.