Are You Taking Advantage of the 3 Different Ways You Can Rank in Google?

As a local business owner, there are actually multiple ways you can show up in the Google search results. Each approach will take a different strategy and approach, but if you’re serious about dominating local search, then you’ll want to rank across all three.

Below we illuminate what each of these three Google results entails and which ones are going to be the most advantageous for your business.   

1. Paid Search Results

The paid search results sit above the Google business results and the organization search results. For the paid results you’ll be paying per click or per eyeball. With paid advertising, it will typically take some testing until you can see a positive ROI on your ads.

Typically, if you don’t have much of a budget it isn’t recommended to start with paid ads. That being said they can be incredibly profitable and allow you to easily scale by reinvesting profits back into ad testing and placement.

2. Google Local Results

Google’s local results are listed in map form below the paid ads. These results show up based on the user’s keyword and local area. Ranking in this map pack is incredibly valuable as people clicking on these results are looking for a business right now.

Depending on your market it can also be easier to rank in the local results when compared to the organic results.

It’s important that you optimize your Google My Business page effectively, and have a review acquisition strategy in place.

3. Organic Search Results

The organic search results sit below everything mentioned above. Typically, these results are populated by local businesses, but sometimes you’ll notice that the results are filled with large authority websites or directories.

Your local area and niche of your business will determine just how difficult it is to rank in these results. We typically don’t recommend trying to compete in the organic results unless you know what you’re doing, especially if large authority sites dominate the rankings.

Where Should I Place My Focus?

The best place to put your focus, unless you have a team of professionals helping you execute your strategy, is in the local results. With the local results, you’ll only be competing with other local business, not large authority sites. Plus, the traffic that you do get from the local results is very valuable and high-converting.

To improve your rankings in the Google map pack you’ll want to first claim and optimize your Google My Business Page.

Then, you’ll want to optimize your page, which includes things like completely filling out all of your business information, optimizing your profile for relevant keywords, choosing the right categories for your business, and getting customer reviews.

You’ll also want to make sure your business website is listed and optimized for your local keywords as well. That way when users visit your site it’ll be in alignment with the business listing.

Hopefully, the post above gives you a better idea of the various ways you can rank your website in Google, and offers the easiest approach you can take. If you want to absolutely dominate Google for your local keywords, then get in touch with our team today.

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