Your local SEO strategy

ContentSEOGoogle My Business
Written By Angela Hoskins
A billiard player shooting a ball. The aim and skill is like what it takes to work on your local SEO if your aim is to win with your website SEO for local listings.

Google My Business and local SEO

OK, my web design business is a new one, my domain name and website very young. Climbing the ranks of search engine result pages is a struggle for any fledgling website. I’m based in a small regional town in NSW, Australia, but there’s competition — there’s a myriad of web designers in my region, plus the savvy operators in cities miles away who appear on page 1 of a local search. What to do?

I listed with Google My Business as soon as my website went live.

Google My Business (GMB) is a free business listing in Google for verified businesses. After your business has been verified, the chance of your business appearing in Google’s Local Pack, at the top of a Google search results page, should increase. Being listed in GMB will contribute to your organic rankings as a local business. I have a young website with a new domain name. I’m trying to gain SEO strength. So my thinking is along the lines of I’ll scratch Google’s back, and get a leg-up the search engine results page ladder for my new business website.

Your business will also be marked on a Google map. You’ll also be able to create promotional posts that work like mini ads, and upload photos to your listing. More about this later.

First step — verification authorisation, your business details

To get started, visit https://www.google.com/mybusiness.

You’ll get to a step to verify that your business is situated where you say it is located. As part of this step, Google will send a postcard by snail mail to your business address with a verification code that you need to enter. Depending on where you are in the world this can take a few weeks. If you're lucky, you may even get an options to gain verification via phone — so Google will call you to verify your business. 

Also enter your business information — address, contact details, business type, opening hours etc.

Second step — verification

Once you receive your postcard with the verification code, enter the code into your My Business listing setup page. So, now you’re on your way.

But still not there. More patience is required: your business won't be listed on Google Maps instantly, but you will get there.

Why it's important to complete all questions about your business

What happens if you don’t enter all the important business information Google asks for?  Someone else could jump in and fill out your business details for you!

Angela Hoskins

Built my first site in 2000 and steadily learned what it takes to make websites work. Dabbled in WordPress back then, still do. Since building my first Squarespace site in 2016, I’ve been impressed with the relatively streamlined approach to website design and development that Squarespace offers compared to WordPress. SEO was a major challenge from the start — I’ve spent a lot of time keeping up with what’s required to get sites working, ranking well on a SERP. I have confidence with what Squarespace offers for SEO.

Having worked for more than 10 years in the web team of an inland, regional university in Australia and dealing with frustrations that come with working for a large corporate enterprise, the idea of setting up my own web design business became my goal.

Set up my business in late 2017. Opted for a sea change, too: I now live on Coochiemudlo Island 45 minutes from Brisbane. Love working from home. Love working for small business clients. Still get casual work with the university.

Challenges? The main one is pricing my work for small businesses. Doing quality work, doing the research to be up to date in the industry, takes time; it’s hard to factor in this time to my pricing while being competitive in the market and affordable for many small businesses.

https://sitecontent.com.au
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