Google My Business Profile Ranking is important for most small and medium-sized businesses. It’s important to optimize their locations on Google Business Profile (GBP) formerly known as Google My Business (GMB profile). When you create a Google Business Profile it can improve rankings for local business searches and get more leads on Google Maps.

But even so, with so many local business items to edit and Google’s rapid rate of change, determining which local ranking factors to focus on in 2023 may be difficult. But still, you should properly register business and get you on the business listing map as a verified business. You easily achieve this by partnering with a seasoned digital marketing company.

In this post, we look at the items in GBP for your Google Business Account that have an impact on your rankings. These Google Local Listing items will help you show up for more searches and those that have no impact on rankings yet are indeed useful.

Without further ado, let’s get to the top Google My Business Profile Ranking factors.

Google My Business Profile Ranking: Top Local Ranking Factors

Being first in a rank Google Business Profile tracker or for a single search at a specific location or time is only one aspect of local business rankings.

Since Google Local Listing ranking varies depending on location, time of day, previous search history, and other factors, we use a broader definition of rankings.

We consider the ranking factors that influence how high you rank in the results, as well as how frequently you appear in the Google Maps results, local finder results, and local packs.

Name of Your Business

One of the most important factors in determining local rankings for your Google Local Listing profile is the name of your company. Including keywords in your company name while you create a Google Business Profile can even affect your local keyword rankings. Keyword stuffing, on the flip side, is against Google’s guidelines and may result in the suspension of your company profile.

Verification

Sign into your Google Business Profile dashboard first. If you don’t already have a GMB profile listing, go to google.com/business and apply online. Just enter your company details and connect your Google Business Account. It is also completely free to apply to get you as a verified business!

Categories

Primary Category

In terms of rankings, the primary category carries more weight than secondary categories when you create a Google Business Profile. This segment is one of the most important aspects of your profile that you can directly control. So, if you want to rank well for relevant local business searches, you must use the best primary category possible.

Secondary Categories

Secondary categories, while not as influential as primary categories, can still have a significant and immediate impact on Google Local Listing rankings. Monitoring competitors’ categories and including additional relevant secondary categories will help you show up for more searches. So, monitoring competitors’ categories and adding additional relevant secondary categories is an effective business listing strategy for 2023.

The Landing Page

Your landing pages, like Google My Business Profile Ranking categories and your company name, have an impact on your local rankings. Google considers both the content of the landing page and the link authority of the URL you select.

Your homepage is frequently the best option for your company profile, even if it lacks the best content for your primary products/services.

Business Address

Google ranks your GMB profile/business according to the Google Maps location you use to verify the listing, and you will rank best near that location and worse as you move away. It is additionally far more challenging to be ranked for keywords mentioning a specific city if the address is not considered part of the city.

The address can also influence Google My Business Profile Rankings in another way. If two or more businesses are located at the same or nearby addresses, one of them may be filtered out of the local business search results entirely.

Since updating your Google Business Profile address is difficult, consider it only if you are moving your company or opening a new location.

Photos

According to Google, using images in your business/company profile will help you enhance your local business listing rating.

Regardless of the influence on ranking factors in 2023, good photos are still one of the most important improvements for generating engagement, sales, or leads. Images are increasingly appearing in local searches. High-quality images for your verified business are essential for building client confidence, and replacing generic photos with ones of your team or completed projects will assist in boosting conversions.

Customer Reviews

While you create a Google Business Profile, you will acquire reviews that will influence customer decisions to choose you over other businesses.

Having more reviews increases trust and credibility in Google Local Listing while outperforming the competition.

Higher Google Business Profile star ratings and responding to reviews increases trust, demonstrating that you care about feedback, and demonstrating that you strive to resolve issues, all of which can increase conversion rates!

The following local search ranking factors can assist you in comprehending and optimizing reviews: 

• Latest reviews
• Length of reviews
• Local guide reviews
• Images in reviews

Social Media Citations

Take the effort to create a business profile on Twitter, Google, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest, and then incorporate it in your Google My Business Profile Ranking Schema.

Social media marketing makes sure customers can reach you and not your competition and helps you communicate with them across all platforms. This is beneficial for your company profile to kick off to a good start.

Operation Hours

Hours of operation have a minor impact on Google My Business Profile Rankings; being open for more hours will help your business listing appear more frequently. When a business closes, its ranking drops. If a user selects the open now or open 24 hours options, a business will be completely removed from the results.

Identity Factors

Interestingly, identity attributes play only a minor role in local business rankings, but they can help you appear for more searches. There are many identity attributes for e.g., wheelchair access, free-WiFi, LGBTQ+ friendly, tennis, etc. Although they will not help you rank higher for general searches. It will, however, aid in searches that are directly related to your Google Local Listing attribute.

Rounding-Off

It can be difficult to efficiently use all of these local search Google My Business Profile Ranking factors while also keeping up with GBP’s rapid changes. Although with the right expertise from a credible digital marketing company, you can effortlessly navigate through all these with their comprehensive strategies.