Bungalo Group | marketing, growth strategies

If you Google “remodeling” in Minneapolis, here’s what you’ll see:

Is your business listed here?

By now you’ve noticed the map – with local business results – that Google often displays at the the top of their search results. You can check the “completeness” of your listing, and you can also post photos and video! A current listing can help drive traffic to your website, I noticed one company on this list has 20 reviews! (That’s the one I would check out first.)

I wondered how Google determines the ranking – who is A and who is J – for local business listings. Here’s what the folks at Google had to say:

All Google search results are based primarily on relevance, and Google Maps listings are no different. Google Maps ranks business listings based on their relevance to the search terms entered, along with geographic distance (where indicated) and other factors. Sometimes our search technology decides that a business that’s farther away from your location is more likely to have what you’re looking for than a business that’s closer.

Google Maps and the Local Business Center are a free service, so there’s no way to request or pay for a better ranking. We also can’t provide additional details about our ranking algorithm. We do our best to keep the details of the algorithm confidential in order to make the ranking system as fair as possible for everyone.

Still — I think it’s fair to say that if your listing is not complete and accurate, your ranking will definitely suffer.

On a 10-point scale, Alvarez [Gartner Research vice president] ranks the importance of having an accurate business listing on Google as a 9.
– “X Marks the Spot” Customer Relationship Management, Aug 2009.

Help Customers find you on Google — it’s free.

To update or claim your local business listing go to Google’s updated Local Business Center. Check out the reporting dashboard to find out — How many times users saw your business listing as a local search result, the top search queries, how many times users showed interest in your listing, etc.

You'll need a Google Account to update or claim your business listing at the Google Local Business Center. You can also create coupons, and display photos and videos, all for free!