Who you gonna call? Not Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business) support, as phone help was retired in 2021.

But don’t fret—there are a plethora of other places (both official and unofficial) to turn to for GBP help.

Whose job is it to solve issues?

A business listing that disappears from Google Maps… fake listings that push your one down in results… a run of negative reviews that you suspect aren’t real—any of these things can result in lost enquiries, bookings, and revenue. 

And while it’s understandable for these things to cause frustration (and even anger), we need to keep in mind that Google Business Profile is currently a free product.

As such, Google support staff are thin on the ground, and Google Product Experts that support GBP via the Google Business Profile Help Community do so for free.

So if you’re experiencing an issue, the first step is to be proactive in finding a solution for yourself. Start with guidance available from the Google support team and the GBP community.

After that, it’s time to turn detective—below we’ll run through a range of alternative GBP support channels, outline what they’re best for solving, and look at how to get the best out of each of them.

And remember! Karma reigns supreme—be straightforward, polite, and help others if you can. And, of course, always say thank you!

Google Business Profile Help Center

As I mentioned already, support from the actual GBP team is limited and has been for a number of years.

In the help center, you can browse information and GBP guidelines, all of which are organized by topic areas:

I’d suggest becoming familiar with these pages and checking back if and when you have an issue. The GBP landscape is far from static and Google will change their documentation as needed.

It’s particularly important to understand if you’re doing something that contravenes Google’s Terms of Service, for example:

• If you’re wondering why your listing got suspended—read ‘Guidelines for representing your business on Google’.
• If you’re wondering why your Google Business Profile products aren’t being approved—look at ‘Understand product approval’.
• If you’re wondering how to remove photos someone else added to your business profile—see ‘Manage photos or videos for your Business Profile’.

You should always check Google’s official guidelines first—please don’t waste others’ time by asking questions you could have answered yourself.

Google Business Profile Community

When you make a search describing your issue, Google will return results for both help center documentation and community forum posts.

Items marked with (1) are help articles, and items marked with (2) are community forum posts. Look out for ‘recommended answers’ as these have often been supplied by Google Product Experts or active and experienced community members.

If you can’t find an answer to your question, then Google suggests adding a new community forum post:

However, before you do this, I recommend first checking out the following potential avenues for solutions.

Also, don’t be tempted to tack your own issues onto an existing post. If you need to post (once you’ve exhausted the resources below) then you should create your own post with your own unique information.

Browse Local SEO Peeps on Twitter

You’re probably already following a bunch of Local SEO people on Twitter—if not then be sure to check out BrightLocal’s list of local SEO experts. If there’s a GBP bug going around, you’ll probably hear about it there.

You could ask a GBP expert for help on Twitter, but honestly, I’d go to the local SEO community first. I don’t envy Joy Hawkins (or indeed anyone else from the helpful local SEO community) for the number of tweets she gets asking for help, so do the nice thing and ask for assistance in the right place!

Check the Local SEO Content Archives

I’ve written in the past about the hubs of excellent content that are being produced around GBP issues. For example:

• How to avoid a GBP suspension when using a co-working space (BrightLocal)
• Why are my Google reviews not publishing? (Sterling Sky)
• How to avoid a GBP suspension by thinking about your customers first (Kickpoint)
• How to manage your Google review takedown requests (BrightLocal)
• GBP suspended? Here’s how to recover (Search Engine Journal)
• GBP—should I set a physical address or service area business? (Steady Demand)

Once you’re familiar with primary sources of great information, you can search within those sites using an advanced search operator:

site:brightlocal.com OR site:sterlingsky.ca “GBP” or “GBP” suspension

This asks Google to give me results from the BrightLocal or Sterling Sky websites for pages containing either “GBP” or “GBP” keywords, plus content related to suspensions.

You can use my custom local SEO search engine to search within my own carefully-curated list of trusted sites, or create your own search operator as needed.

Google Business Profile YouTube Channel

Google Business Support does have a reasonably active channel with some useful videos. I recommend taking a look to see if there’s a solution to your problem, for example:

• Transfering primary ownership of a business
• Requesting removal of customer photos
• Moving reviews across business profiles
• Fixing suspended business profile
• Flagging reviews in your account

Google Business Profile Social Channels

In the olden days, you could tweet or Facebook message GBP support and expect a reply. Sadly social support is now very limited, and you’re unlikely to get a reply from the social teams.

Google Business Profile Forms

Google has a number of task-specific forms that you can complete without having to contact support:

• Business redressal form—for submitting spam reports for Google Maps.
• Request reinstatement—if you’ve experienced a suspension and want to let Google know that you’ve fixed the issues.
• Request access to a listing—if you want to manage a listing that’s already claimed by someone else.
• Report issues with third-party food provider links—for example, if you’d like to remove Deliveroo (or similar) links from your Business Profile.
• Third-party violation report—for example if you’d like to report an agency for violating third-party policies.

Google Business Profile ‘Contact Us’

If you can’t find a solution via any of the sources above, then the next step is to contact the Google Business Profile team to ask for their direct support: https://support.google.com/business/gethelp

Alternatively, you can log into your GBP dashboard and select ‘Support’ from the left-hand side menu.

You’ll be asked to select the business you need help with and to describe the issue. Google will then give you a list of articles and community posts that it thinks might be helpful.

Click ‘Next step’ to continue with the process. Google will present you with one or more contact options, that—for me—currently only includes ‘email’:

You’ll then need to fill in a form with the following details:

• Issue type (select from drop down):

• Your relationship to the business
• Your email address
• Your phone number
• Business name
• Business address
• Maps link for the business
• Business website
• Describe the issue
• Add related case IDs (it might be that you’ve already been in touch with the same issue)

Be sure to keep a copy of your requests, as there’s no way to access this information after you submit the form to Google.

Once you’ve submitted the form, you’ll usually be given a case ID—make a note of this somewhere so that you have a record. You’ll also receive an email from Google to confirm their receipt of your support inquiry.

Read to the bottom of this email… don’t just file it away thinking they’ll get back in touch with you:

That’s right, you’re going to need to actively contact them again! If you’ve already written up your notes into a Google document then you can use this to shape your email reply and (hopefully) get the help you need.

Ask the Google Business Profile Help Community

If you haven’t found a useful answer or potential solution, then now’s the time for you to make your own community forum post. Be aware that if you go to the help community without following the ‘support’ steps above, they will send you there first.

Don’t be tempted to tack your own issues onto an existing post. If you need to post be sure to create your own post with your own unique information.

You’ll need to be logged in for this, and in order to get the best help possible I’d suggest using the following points to compose your post:

• Always make sure that you adhere to the Google Help Communities Content Policy.
• Make the subject line (1) brief and descriptive of your issue.
• (2) Explain your issue in full with clear details—but be concise! Show that you have read and understood Google’s guidelines, if applicable.
• If you need to include screenshots or links then it’s best to include this in a Google doc (named appropriately) that is viewable by anyone with the link. Just write a brief message outlining the issue in field 2 and then include the link to the Google doc.
• Include full details of your business name, your address if relevant, and your CID number (a unique identification number for that business on Google Maps) of the business listing. If your concern is about reviews, then include the account names of the persons leaving the reviews in question.
• For (3) choose the most relevant category for your post:

Run through the final steps (make sure there isn’t already an answer on the forum, specify which platform the problem is occurring on) and then you can go ahead and post.

See this example of a forum post that was quickly and expertly answered by a Gold Product Expert. You’ll be able to see all of the questions you’ve previously asked in your profile’s ‘Post history’ area:

Wrapping Up

There are a lot of options for getting help with your Google Business Profile… some via official Google help channels and some outside of them.

It’s up to you to fully investigate a solution before you contact official support—in this way, you’ll help protect limited resources so that they can deal with bugs and help everyone enjoy a better future experience.

Go forth and prosper!

Our latest course, Essential Google Business Profile Tasks for Agencies, led by expert Claire Carlile Rees, is tailored exclusively for agencies and designed to equip you with the tools and strategies needed for success. This course has everything from seamless client onboarding strategies to practical monitoring techniques!

Throughout the course, you’ll gain access to four useful spreadsheet templates, ensuring you stay organized and ahead of the competition. Plus:

1. Efficient Client Onboarding Processes: Learn the secrets to seamless client onboarding that will impress your clients and set the stage for long-term success. 
2. Effective UTM Tagging Strategies: Unlock the power of UTM tagging. Discover how to generate and implement effective tags that will deepen your understanding of marketing attribution.
3. How to Harness Google Business Profile Services and Products: Dive deep into the world of Google Business Profile and discover how to leverage its Services and Products features to maximize your clients’ visibility. From optimizing profiles to utilizing advanced features, you’ll be equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to dominate local search.
4. How to Monitor Google Business Profiles Like a Pro: Stay ahead of the curve with practical monitoring techniques that ensure you’re always in the know. From tracking performance metrics to identifying areas for improvement, you’ll learn how to keep your finger on the pulse of your clients’ Google Business Profiles.

Here’s Claire with an overview of the course:

Like all BrightLocal Academy courses, you can strengthen your understanding through interactive activities and quizzes, guaranteeing a thorough grasp of the concepts. When completed, put your knowledge to the test with a final exam and show off your new-found skills with a shareable certificate.

Who is this course for?

This course suits anyone working in or on local SEO – whether you’re in-house or on the agency side, working in a multi-location or single location. Pick and choose from the lesson units depending on the types of services that you’re offering and to whom.

How can I join?

Anyone can access this course, whether or not you’re a BrightLocal customer. You can also be among the first to find out when new courses drop by enrolling for free. Here’s how:

If you’re a BrightLocal customer, you can access the academy via your BrightLocal account. Log in, click ‘Learning Resources’ at the top of the screen, and select ‘BrightLocal Academy’ from the dropdown menu.

You must create a free BrightLocal Academy account before enrolling in the ‘Essential Google Business Profile Tasks for Agencies’ course.

If you’re not a BrightLocal customer, you can join BrightLocal Academy for free and follow the steps above to enroll in the course.

Want to know more about BrightLocal Academy? 

Check out the official BrightLocal Academy FAQs here: 

What is BrightLocal Academy, how does it work, and how can I enroll?    

What courses does BrightLocal Academy offer, and how long do they take?    

If you have any questions of your own, feel free to get in touch with us or leave a comment below. We hope you find this fresh new course useful, and we can’t wait to hear how it’s helped you improve your local SEO skills.

This guide offers tailored strategies for professionals who want to perform SEO for real estate companies. It focuses on optimizing listings, enhancing online presence, and driving targeted traffic to your client’s real estate business. 

What even is local SEO anyway?

Local SEO for real estate is aimed at boosting your company’s visibility on search engines like Google, specifically for potential buyers and sellers in your area. 

This strategy increases your company’s search engine rankings, enhancing your online discoverability to local traffic. In the competitive real estate market, where establishing local connections is crucial, effective local SEO tactics are essential for standing out.

While we’ll mainly focus on Google due to its widespread use, the concepts behind local SEO for real estate ensure your services are found by the right local audience, regardless of their starting point in the search process. 

As you can see below, there are more than a few different ways people are using search to find something specific. Local SEO is your opportunity to rank for each and every one of these different variations and get yourself in front of the right people, whether they want a luxury condo in Miami or a two-bedroom house in Scranton.

Gone are the days of relying solely on billboard ads, newspaper ads, and cold calls. 

As a marketing professional, you’re tasked with ensuring property seekers find your client’s offerings before those of your competitors. Tailoring your SEO tactics to the real estate market demands a comprehensive grasp of local consumer behavior and search trends. 

You’ll first want to initiate this process by analyzing local search queries related to real estate in the area where your client is located. These can be queries like the ones shown above or maybe broader, with people just looking for realtors themselves.

The next part of the puzzle is the optimization of an online presence across various platforms, ensuring high visibility. Ultimately, the goal is to position your client’s real estate business as the top choice for local searches in their area. 

More on that below.

Why focus on local SEO for real estate when there are so many other marketing things to do? 

High visibility in local search results directly correlates with increased property inquiries, so much so that the National Association of Realtors reported that a staggering 97% of homeowners used the internet in the search for a new home. 

Having a robust online presence today is simply a necessity. 

It’s about making your real estate business the go-to source in your community, leveraging targeted keywords, and optimizing your online presence to meet the specific needs and interests of the local market. 

In doing so, you’re not just improving your search rankings; you’re building trust and establishing a strong local brand that resonates with potential clients right in your backyard. 

Why do real estate companies need to look at local and not just do traditional SEO?

What’s different for local compared to traditional search is that it’s not just a focus on a website. An e-commerce company likely just wants to rank its website, but a real estate company or an individual real estate agent is likely going to be competing for spots in the local pack.

The Local Pack is the section at the top of a search that Google deems as local. It lists several businesses and places them on a map. It lists these businesses using its Google Business Profile (GBP), and technically you can rank one of these without even having a website.

This means that real estate companies need to focus on optimizing for the local pack and the local organic results.

Real Estate SEO Basics 

The fundamentals of real estate SEO can be complex and overwhelming, but they don’t need to. 

Here’s where I would begin: 

Perform an Audit

While local searches don’t necessarily need a website to rank, there’s a good chance that a professional realtor is going to use a website as the core of their marketing.

Understanding your website’s current performance is crucial before planning any SEO enhancements. An SEO audit reveals high-performing pages and areas needing refinement, offering a clear snapshot of your digital footprint. While audits require effort, they provide a critical baseline to measure future progress and develop an effective strategy for growth.

These tasks aren’t specific to real estate. They’re about making sure your website offers the best experience possible.

Consider the following key aspects during your audit to identify improvement opportunities: 

• Site Structure: Evaluate your XML sitemap, robots.txt files, and any redirect issues.
• Page Elements: Review titles, meta descriptions, headings, alt tags, and URL structures. 
• Content Quality: Assess content organization, keyword usage, link integration, and visual content, and check for duplications or canonical issues. 
• Link Health: Analyze both inbound and outbound links, the quality of internal linking, and identify any broken links. 
• User Experience: Ensure the site is accessible, mobile-friendly, and fast-loading. 

Enhancements in these areas can lead to significant gains in organic traffic. Utilize tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to pinpoint pages requiring attention and identify fixable issues. These platforms also offer valuable resources like PageSpeed Insights.

Advanced Guide to Google Search Console

Learn more

The best part? These tools are free, and you can glean a tremendous amount of data to work with. 

Don’t get too caught up in competing audit software and tools. There’s a time and a place for them, but the tools mentioned above will get you where you need to go.

Conduct In-depth Keyword Research 

Effective keyword research forms the backbone of any successful local SEO campaign in the real estate domain.

Focus on identifying long-tail keywords that potential buyers or renters frequently use in their searches. Analyze search volume and competition levels to prioritize the keywords most likely to bring results.

Sure, ranking for the term ‘realtor’ sounds like a great idea on paper. But there’s a good chance that’ll be incredibly difficult to achieve. You’ll be playing against big sites like realtor.com and a few others. This is where those long-tail keywords can come into play.

Tools like Google Keyword Planner can be a free and a powerful place to start.

In any form of SEO, understanding search intent is key. It typically falls into four categories: 

• Informational: Very common in real estate. Whether someone is looking for advice on getting a mortgage, understanding home inspection processes, or exploring neighborhood guides, they’re seeking information. These terms are more likely to display traditional organic search engine results pages (SERPs) or localized versions of those.
• Navigational: This occurs when a prospective buyer or seller knows which real estate agency or property listing site they want to visit but uses Google to get there quickly. These are likely to be branded in some way. They could be people searching for a specific type of property on a real estate aggregation site or for a property with a realtor they’ve already heard of.
• Transactional: The moment a buyer decides they’re ready to contact an agent, schedule a viewing, or even make an offer online. They’ve moved beyond browsing to taking concrete steps toward a purchase. 
• Commercial Investigation: Potential clients in this stage are almost ready to make a decision but are comparing different properties, agents, or mortgage options. They’re seeking the best fit for their needs before committing. This could be terms like ‘two-bed apartments in [location]’. With a conversion journey as long as house buying, this may not be as immediately transactional as some types of business where people are searching for a specific product.

Catering content to match these intents can significantly boost a real estate website’s effectiveness in attracting and converting potential clients.

By identifying key phrases, such as “real estate in [location]” or “homes for sale in [location],” professionals can tailor their online content to match these specific searches. The use of modifiers and variations on these keywords allows for a broader reach, capturing a wider audience with slightly different search habits.

Some other searches, without a modifier, may still be localized by Google. For instance, an informational search of ‘Do I need a survey to get a mortgage’ performed in Dallas, Texas, provides answers from a number of local real estate sites.

This strategic approach ensures that your client’s listings and content resonate directly with the search intent of buyers and sellers, significantly enhancing visibility and engagement. 

When doing your keyword research, also try tools like Google Trends to get a feel for how the local real estate market is doing. 

Competitive Analysis

Understanding the competition is key to standing out in the real estate market. With a thorough analysis of other real estate websites and their SEO strategies, you can uncover ways to set your client’s listings apart and carve out a unique position in the market. 

Seeing a competitor’s listing at the top for a specific keyword is a signal that they’re doing something effectively. Google’s preference for that realtor’s content over others is a clear indication of what works.

It’s your task to decipher the successful elements of that top-ranking content, replicate those strategies, and then go a step further to outshine the competition. Performing a Google Business Profile Audit can give you a great view of where your competitors are beating you.

Make a Plan and Stick to It 

After conducting thorough keyword research and sizing up the competition, it’s crucial to develop a targeted strategy for your client’s real estate business.

This plan should not only aim to boost your client’s online visibility but also ensure your client’s brand’s unique character and values shine through. 

SEO isn’t just about climbing the rankings or increasing site traffic; it’s also about how your client’s brand is presented online.

Even if your client’s listings don’t top the search results, a compelling, visually appealing online profile can attract potential buyers or sellers to click on your client’s site first. The goal is to make the real estate business the most clickable, regardless of its position in search results. 

The Local Pack: A Prime Real Estate Spot 

The Local Pack’s prominence in localized search results has been game-changing since it was introduced.

The Local Pack refers to the block of business listings that appears above the traditional organic search results on Google when users perform a local search query, such as “real estate agents near me.” These listings are formed of Google Business Profiles, so you must have one to be considered.

This feature displays a map alongside a concise list of businesses, including key information like the business name, ratings, and contact details.

Securing a spot in the Local Pack means: 

• Enhanced Visibility: The Local Pack occupies a prominent position on the search results page, often appearing before any organic site links. This prime placement ensures your business catches the eye of potential clients first. 
• Increased Trust: Listings in the Local Pack come with ratings and reviews, which can help build trust with prospective buyers or sellers before they even visit your website.
• Local Relevance: The Local Pack focuses on businesses within the searcher’s vicinity, making it an invaluable tool for real estate professionals looking to target clients in specific local markets. 

Organic Search Results: The Long Game 

Beneath the Local Pack, traditional organic search results provide results based on Google’s algorithmic determination of relevance to the user’s query. These results are purely based on websites. For real estate SEO, appearing in these organic results is essential for several reasons: 

• Sustained Traffic: While the Local Pack drives immediate visibility, strong organic rankings can deliver consistent traffic over time, as they’re based on the quality and relevance of your content. 
• Authority Building: High rankings in organic search results signal to potential clients that your site is a credible source of information, helping to establish your authority in the real estate market. 
• Comprehensive Coverage: Organic results allow for greater depth of information, enabling real estate professionals to attract clients at various stages of the buyer or seller journey, from initial research to ready-to-transact individuals. 

The most effective local SEO strategy for real estate combines efforts to appear both in the Local Pack and in organic search results. 

This dual approach ensures maximum visibility across different types of search queries and user intents. 

Optimize Your Google Business Profile 

With your real estate SEO strategy in place, it’s time to focus on local SEO activities that promise swift and significant outcomes. Central to this effort is optimizing your client’s Google Business Profile (GBP) , a critical asset for boosting visibility online. The example below shows you what a real estate company’s GBP can look like.

A well-maintained Google Business Profile is essential for real estate professionals, often serving as the first point of contact with potential real estate customers, sometimes even before they visit your client’s website. This profile not only improves your searchability but can also enhance your visibility early on, especially if your client’s website is still gaining traction in search rankings. 

If you haven’t claimed or set up a Google Business Profile for your client’s real estate business yet, prioritize this step immediately. Opt for verification methods that are quick and reliable, such as via phone call or using a business video (I’d recommend avoiding postal verification due to its lengthy process). 

Google Business Profile Tips 

• Update the Business Information: Ensure every detail on the profile is comprehensive and accurate, including the business name, address, phone number, and website link. Consistency across the profile helps Google verify the legitimacy of the business, improving the overall search visibility. Incorporate relevant keywords into the business description to draw in potential clients, but keep the narrative clear and engaging for real people. 
• Select Appropriate Categories: Choose Google Business Profile categories that accurately describe the real estate services you offer, such as “real estate agency” or “property listings,” to improve how potential clients find you during their specific searches. 
• Incorporate High-quality Images: Visual appeal is crucial. Upload professional photographs of available properties, your client’s team, and successful transactions to make the profile stand out. These images not only attract attention but also reassure clients about the quality of your client’s services. 
• Post Regularly: Utilize the GBP posts feature to share the latest updates, property listings, and industry news. Keeping the profile active with fresh posts and images demonstrates to potential clients that the business is dynamic and engaged with the market. 
• Cultivate Reviews: Encouraging satisfied clients to leave positive reviews can significantly boost the profile’s effectiveness. Not only do these reviews provide valuable feedback, but they also improve search rankings, showcasing the business’s reputation and reliability. 

Something you may need to consider in real estate is practitioner listings. Real estate is an industry that Google allows to have individual practitioner listings. This means an individual can set up their own GBP. It’s generally advised for these practitioners to use their home address if they are comfortable doing so. Otherwise, they’ll likely just get filtered out at best, or at worst, they’ll compete with your main business’s listing.

This can be a tricky tactic to get the best out of, so make sure you look into managing practitioner listings properly.

Local Links for Real Estate Local SEO

Links have long been important for Google’s algorithms. When you’re trying to rank locally, it’s worth remembering that links from relevant local sites hold a lot more weight.

These links, from respected community sites, local news outlets, or industry associations, act as strong signals to search engines, affirming your business’s relevance and authority within a specific geographical area. 

An effective tip for acquiring local links is to engage with your community by participating in local events, sponsoring local teams, or collaborating with local bloggers for guest posts. 

These activities not only strengthen your community presence but also increase your chances of earning valuable local backlinks. 

Actionable insights include regularly monitoring local media for opportunities to contribute expert opinions on real estate matters or offering insightful market analysis, which can lead to natural backlink opportunities. 

Google’s Local Service Ads 

Google’s Local Service ads are a pay-per-lead advertising platform that positions your client’s real estate services at the very top of search results, directly in front of potential clients. 

By placing your services at the top of search results, these ads significantly increase your visibility and the likelihood of generating high-quality leads. 

Unlike traditional pay-per-click advertising, you pay for leads, not clicks, making it a cost-effective solution for targeted marketing. 

If You Have Multiple Locations…

If your real estate company operates in more than just one location, there are a few things you’ll need to consider.

My first piece of advice would be to set up a Google Business Profile for each location as an absolute minimum. However, while every circumstance is different, you don’t necessarily need to create a new website for each location, especially if the additional locations are in the surrounding cities.

In this situation, you could simply create local landing pages that detail your knowledge of the area and the listings you have available there, and potentially supply information on your physical location and the team there.

As you can see in the example below, Perna has created a location page for multiple cities and communities. Each of these has a short overview of the area, some key statistics, the live real estate listings, and then more in-depth area information that a buyer may find useful.

If your client has locations in different States or Provinces, creating an additional website for those would be helpful.

There are more on location pages later in this guide.

What You Need to Know About Local Citations 

Local citations play a crucial role in enhancing the online presence of a real estate business, acting as a signal of credibility to search engines. Ensure each listing of the business across directories is consistent, with accurate NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) information to boost local search rankings. 

Regularly auditing and updating your citations can prevent discrepancies that might harm your SEO efforts. Encourage reviews on these citation sites to increase engagement and provide social proof of your client’s business’s reliability. 

Building citations not only increases visibility but also reinforces authority in the real estate market, making it easier for potential clients to find and trust your client’s services.

Not every platform will be relevant to your client, so be discerning when necessary. The link below provides an extensive list of directories for real estate agents.

Top Citation Sites for Real Estate Agents

Learn More

Generating and Managing Reviews 

Encouraging clients to leave positive reviews is vital for bolstering your real estate client’s online reputation. Each glowing review is a testament to the quality and reliability of your client’s services. 

Actively respond to all positive or negative reviews to show engagement and commitment to client satisfaction. This is a huge part of review management. 

Develop a streamlined process for requesting reviews from clients post-transaction. Make sure you ask everyone, regardless of how smooth the buying process went. It will quickly become obvious to review platforms if you only ask people who have a good experience, and this kind of “review gating” is strictly against many review platform guidelines.

Leverage social media and email campaigns as platforms to remind clients about leaving feedback. Monitor review platforms regularly to address any concerns promptly.

The key to this process is consistency. Once you find a process for curating and managing reviews, stick to it.

Positive online reviews can dramatically improve your client’s SEO standings, making this a crucial part of your strategy.

Creating Compelling and Valuable Content 

Creating content that resonates with both buyers and sellers requires a deep understanding of their needs, preferences, and the challenges they face in the real estate market. Focus on developing blog posts, infographics, and videos that offer practical advice, market insights, and property highlights to engage your client’s audience effectively.

But don’t worry if some of those formats are out of your reach. If all you can produce, for now, is a bunch of well-researched and authoritative blogs, that’s ok. Video, for instance, could come later. Creating content of real quantity will be much more beneficial than doing it at scale poorly.

Tailor your content strategy to address common questions from buyers and sellers, such as tips for first-time homebuyers or how to stage a home for sale, providing real value. Leverage local market data to create reports or analysis pieces that position you as the go-to expert in your client’s area. 

Craft your content with a human-centric approach, incorporating several hundred words with integrated targeted keywords, ensuring readability and relevance. High-quality content remains the pinnacle of what search engines value most in ranking websites.

Don’t Forget About E-E-A-T (Expertise, Experience, Authority, Trustworthiness) 

For real estate professionals, showcasing a deep knowledge of the market, years of successful transactions, and authoritative insights on property trends is important.

Demonstrating expertise through detailed neighborhood guides, experience via success stories, authority through market analysis, and trustworthiness with transparent client testimonials can significantly enhance a website’s E-E-A-T. 

This, in turn, not only aligns with Google’s guidelines for high-quality content but also builds confidence among potential buyers and sellers, making it a pivotal strategy in the competitive landscape of real estate SEO. 

Learn from What’s Working 

Analyzing the content strategies of successful competing real estate professionals can provide invaluable insights into what resonates with your target audience. 

By observing which topics, formats, and SEO tactics are yielding results for them, you can identify gaps in your strategy and areas for enhancement. Learning from competitors’ successes allows you to refine your approach, adopting proven methods to improve engagement and visibility. 

Ultimately, this analysis is a shortcut to discovering effective practices in real estate marketing, enabling you to adapt and innovate based on solid, real-world data. 

Content Clusters and Pillar Pages 

The strategy I employ is using content clusters and pillar pages. 

A pillar page serves as the foundation, covering a broad topic related to real estate, such as “Home Buying Guide” or “Selling Your Property.” It provides a comprehensive overview of the subject, offering value to readers while leaving room for more in-depth exploration. 

Content clusters, on the other hand, consist of specific, related articles or pages that delve into subtopics of the main theme outlined in the pillar page. 

For example, within a “Home Buying Guide” pillar page, content clusters could include articles on “Financing Your Home Purchase,” “Understanding Home Inspections,” or “Navigating Closing Costs.” 

These subtopics link back to the pillar page and vice versa, creating a tightly interlinked structure. This setup helps search engines understand the relationship between the pillar page and its clusters, boosting the authority of the site on the topic and improving its search rankings. 

For a more thorough exploration of the method, please refer to this forum post/video about creating content clusters and pillar pages from Real Estate Webmasters’ CEO, Morgan Carey. The video might be just under an hour, but it’s worth every second of your time.

Refreshing Content

Refreshing content is an important tactic in SEO. It’s easy to fall into the trap of making new content for the sake of it. If you’ve already got plenty of content, though, it’s often worth taking some time to review it and see whether it’s as helpful as it can be.

This ensures your client’s website stays relevant to current market trends and search engine algorithms, ultimately attracting more potential buyers and sellers. 

Plus, oftentimes, refreshing is a faster process than starting a blog from scratch.

Content Refresh Checklist

• Audit Existing Content: Begin by reviewing your site’s existing real estate content, identifying outdated pieces lacking engagement or no longer reflecting current market conditions. You can then decide whether it’s worth updating or even removing old pieces. Perhaps you made a guide four years ago that goes deep into what living in a specific area is like. Well, in that time, multiple businesses opened or closed, the school won some awards, and maybe the crime rate changed.
• Keyword Research: Perform updated keyword research to capture the latest trends in real estate searches, focusing on what potential clients are currently looking for in your client’s area.
• Competitor Analysis: Examine content from competing real estate websites to identify gaps in your content strategy and opportunities for improvement. Using the example of the area guide again, you can look at what your competitors have done and spot any areas you missed. Maybe they had a run-down of the best places to get coffee, you could add that into yours, too. 
• Update Market Data: Ensure all statistics, listings, market trends, and property prices are up-to-date and reflect the current real estate market.
• Enhance User Experience: Make your content more engaging and user-friendly by considering layout and readability and incorporating new, high-quality images or virtual tours of properties. 
• SEO Optimization: Update SEO elements like meta titles, descriptions, and headings with current keywords, and ensure your content structure is optimized for search engines. 
• Refresh Internal Links: Add links to newer content or important pages on your client’s site to keep users engaged and distribute page authority throughout it. Also, check to see whether you’re linking to the piece you’re updating from other pages on your site.
• Promote Updated Content: Share your refreshed content through social media, email newsletters, and other channels to drive traffic and signal to search engines that your client’s site is active. 
• Monitor Performance: Use analytics tools to track how the refreshed content performs, adjusting your strategy based on user engagement, traffic, and conversion rates. 

Following this process not only improves your client’s website’s SEO performance but also ensures your real estate content remains a valuable resource for clients navigating the housing market.

Crafting Unique and Helpful Location Pages for Each Property 

Creating distinct location pages for each area where you have listings is a strategic move to capture local search traffic. These pages should include specific details about the neighborhood, schools, and nearby amenities to boost SEO and user engagement. 

You’re essentially painting a picture for potential homeowners about the area they want to move to. Don’t embellish, but highlight all of the reasons why someone should move to the page you’re writing about. You’re also showing Google that you really understand the area and the needs of prospective buyers there.

When I’m writing these pages, I typically focus on splitting my headings into: 

• Describing the area in great detail. 
• The specific types of homes typically for sale in the area and the demographics typically found in the local community. 
• A collection of entertainment and amenities that the area offers. Just remember, the more local restaurants and shops you include in this list, although helpful, require more upkeep long-term to ensure you’re not linking to closed businesses. 
• A list of common FAQs that potential homeowners would ask. However, please note that Google has downgraded the importance of FAQs and How-Tos, along with their respective schema recently. 

Tailor each page’s meta titles and descriptions to include local search terms. This targeted approach makes your client’s listings more discoverable to those searching for properties in specific locations.

Don’t Sleep on Technical SEO

Focusing on these technical aspects will help your client’s real estate website rank higher, attract more local traffic, and convert more leads. Other than local business schema, these changes are more general SEO best practices rather than something specific to local. 

A few tasks for you to consider are:

• Mobile Responsiveness: Ensure your client’s site looks great and functions seamlessly on mobile devices, as more searches are performed on mobile than on desktop.
• Page Speed Optimization: Speed is key. Use tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights to identify and fix slow-loading elements to keep both users and search engines happy.
• Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate: Implement HTTPS to secure your client’s site. It’s important not only for user trust but also for Google’s ranking. Google likes safe sites.
• Clean URL Structure: Use readable, keyword-rich URLs. Keep them short and sweet, and avoid unnecessary parameters or numbers.
• Schema Markup for Local SEO: Implement local business schema to enhance visibility in local searches. This includes adding structured data for your client’s address, phone number, business hours, and more.
• Optimize Title Tags and Meta Descriptions: Include relevant keywords and make them compelling to boost click-through rates from search engine results pages.
• Image Optimization: Compress images to speed up load times and use descriptive file names and alt tags to improve accessibility and relevance. 
• Internal Linking Structure: Create a logical internal linking strategy to help search engines and users navigate your client’s site. Use relevant anchor text for these links.
• Duplicate Content: Avoid duplicate content issues by using canonical tags when necessary and ensuring each page offers unique value.
• XML Sitemaps and Robots.txt: Submit an up-to-date XML sitemap to search engines to help them crawl and index your client’s site efficiently. Use robots.txt to control what parts of your client’s site search engines can access.
• 404 Error Management: Monitor and fix any broken links or pages to improve user experience and maintain site authority.

11 SEO “Tactics” to Avoid 

Some of what you will read below used to be common practice but not in today’s marketplace. Be mindful to avoid these additional malpractices, which can harm your client’s website’s ranking and credibility. 

• Cloaking: Showing different content to search engines than to users, a deceptive practice that can lead to severe penalties.
• Using Doorway Pages: Creating low-quality pages designed solely to rank well in search results and funnel users to a different page. In real estate, these may well be your location pages. Make sure those add real value and aren’t just full of overly optimized headers with no real information.
• Sneaky Redirects: This deceptive practice redirects visitors to a different URL than the one they initially clicked on.
• Hidden Text: Including text on a page that’s the same color as the background, positioned off-screen, behind an image, or deliberately concealed in any manner to incorporate more keywords should be avoided. 
• Article Spinning: Rewriting existing content with slight variations to create “new” content, often resulting in low-quality or nonsensical text. 
• Overusing Anchor Text: Aggressively using exact-match anchor text for internal or inbound links can appear manipulative to search engines.
• Scraping Content: Copying content from other websites without adding value can result in duplicate content issues and may lead to legal challenges.
• Keyword Stuffing: This involves overusing your target keyword or keywords to the point of redundancy.
• Link Buying: Rather than naturally earning backlinks, this tactic involves purchasing them, which is frowned upon.
• Automatically Generated Content: Using software to generate content without human review often leads to poor quality and irrelevant, sometimes inaccurate content.
• Excessive Reciprocal Links: Exchanging links with other sites purely for the sake of cross-linking, without genuine relevance or value to users. 

Focusing on creating high-quality, relevant content and following ethical SEO practices is the best strategy for long-term success in search engine rankings. 

Let’s Wrap This Up 

Fundamentally, real estate SEO doesn’t follow a one-size-fits-all approach. It involves experimenting with various tactics to discover what elevates your listings and enhances your online presence. Every real estate business is unique, with diverse goals and benchmarks for measuring SEO success. 

Communication is key—aim to set realistic expectations and then strive to exceed them. Real estate professionals may not be SEO experts, and it’s your role to demonstrate the tangible benefits of your SEO strategies. Through clear examples and results, you can illuminate the value SEO brings to their business.

It’s not just a one-time tactic; it’s a long-term investment in the online future of a dental practice, and that’s how we, as marketers, need to explain it to dentists.

Dental SEO  is about laying down roots that will support growth for years to come, ensuring that when people search for dental services in their local area, they find your client’s practice first.

For me, SEO has one primary goal. It’s about ensuring your client’s practice is visible and appealing to those looking for dental services. Most importantly, it is not only about getting as much traffic as possible but also getting the right kind of traffic to bring in the right kinds of patients. 

What is dental SEO?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, involves enhancing a website’s content and the business’s overall online footprint to ensure it gets top billing from search engines like Google when someone searches for a specific query or service.

For dental practices, this means optimizing your online presence to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) whenever someone looks up dental-related services.

For dentists, it’s not even just traditional SEO you need to focus on. Local SEO and its slightly different tactics must be a significant consideration for dental marketers.

Imagine someone in your city searching for “Dentists near me” or “dental implants near me.” The sites in the map pack or top search results have the most effective SEO and will likely attract the most patients online.

Search engines aim to deliver users the most accurate and relevant answers that match the intent of what is being searched. They shy away from showing incorrect, outdated, or unclear information. Your goal as a dental marketer is to prove to these search engines that your client is the premier source of information and deserves to be on the first page of results.

This does not happen overnight; it is earned by consistently providing value to users. Don’t try to game the system; be careful of SEO scams. Do your research, put in the effort, and create authority for your clients that Google and other search engines simply can’t ignore. This means focusing not only on traditional SEO efforts but also on how your client looks and how they will be perceived by potential patients online.

Why is local SEO important for dental practices?

Remember the last time you clicked on page 3 or 4 of Google to find an answer? Me neither… and that’s all you need to know. If you need more help convincing a dentist, here’s some data proving why local SEO for dentists is essential:

• Google Accounts for 91.54% of the global search engine market – Source
• There are 5.9 million Google searches per minute.
• 21% of the USA uses the internet to find a local business daily. – Source
• On mobile, the average click-through rate is 22.4% for position 1, 13% for position 2, and 10% for position 3. Position 10 gets you just 2.3% of clicks.
• A study in 2023 showed that just 0.63% of people click on the second page.

This data, along with how we know the internet is used daily, makes it very clear that making sure your client ranks in the top 5 results of Google will be the difference between getting organic traffic and not.

And, with local searches, the local pack defaults to showing just three sites in the local pack at the top of the search results.

Six Local SEO Tasks for Dental Marketers

Over the past four years, I have been fortunate enough to implement SEO for over 100 dental practices throughout the United States. At Pain-Free Dental Marketing, we have developed a state-of-the-art process that has been proven to show results through trial and error.

An important lesson I have learned is that you need to look at the different areas of dental SEO as building blocks. You can’t start with this, if you have not laid the foundation for that. Make sense? Why would you focus on getting more traffic if the page looks terrible? Why would you ask for reviews if your Google Business Profile looks empty or start building citations if you don’t have a website yet? First, lay the foundation, then build your home.

Here’s how to approach dental SEO strategically:

Do Your Research, Understand Your Competition, and Create a Plan

You can’t implement local SEO for dentists without a roadmap or understanding of what you want to achieve. This is crucial because it will help you as a marketer to measure success and allow you to communicate it to your clients.

If strategy and success are not defined, you not only lack the ability to express what you will be doing for the dental practice, but it will also be challenging to determine if you were successful. Here are some initial steps to help you understand what you need to do:

Do Your Keyword Research

The foundation of a successful SEO strategy is built on understanding what potential patients are searching for. This step is all about identifying the right terms and phrases that resonate with the needs and queries of your target audience. Think of it as choosing the right tools before performing a dental procedure.

How to Do Local Keyword Research

Learn More

Keyword research is also not just about finding the keywords with the most volume but finding collections of keywords that can work together. This includes using long-tail keywords that can aid in your efforts to reach more traffic and link back to your core pages to increase their authority.

You can find long-tail keywords in the FAQ and People Also Asked sections; you can also use the auto-complete feature to see what Google suggests.

Understand Your Competition

Knowing who you’re up against can provide invaluable insights. By analyzing your competitors’ online strategies, you can identify opportunities to differentiate your client’s practice and find your unique space in the dental market.

How to Do Local Competitor Analysis

Learn More

When you see a competitor ranking first for a keyword, it means they did something right. Google is literally telling you; “This is what I like!”. It’s your job as a dental marketer to figure out what Google likes about the page, how to recreate it, and make it better!

Create a Plan

With solid keyword research and a clear understanding of your competition and how you would like to out-compete them, it’s time to craft a plan.

This strategy should aim to improve your client’s online visibility and resonate with your practice’s unique voice, values, and how they are seen online. SEO is as much about what you look like online as it is about ranking high and getting traffic. After all, in the vast world of online marketing, a personalized touch can make all the difference.

Even if you are ranked third, if you look better, you could still get the click before those displayed above you.

Google Business Profile Optimization

Now that you have a plan, it’s time to start with local SEO efforts that will have the biggest impact as quickly as possible. That’s where a Google Business Profile (GBP) can make all the difference.

A Google Business Profile should be at the core of your dental SEO strategy because it’s one of the first things potential patients will see, often even before the website. It also has its own ranking potential and can help give some visibility to a dental practice if, at first, you struggle to rank the website.

If you have not yet claimed or created a Google Business Profile for the dental practice, immediately stop what you are doing and do that right now! Avoid doing verification via the post as it can take a long time. Do verification via the office number or the business video.

How to Verify Your Google Business Profile

Get Verified

Now you’re verified, it’s time to start optimizing.

Step 1: Optimize Your Business Information

Fill out every section of your profile with detailed and accurate information. This includes your practice’s name, address, phone number, and website.

Consistency is key, as it helps Google understand and trust your business, improving your visibility. In the business description, use the keywords you found that have enough volume and will draw in patients, but make sure your description still makes sense for a human to read.

Add services, when the business was founded, any special features, products, social media links, literally add as much helpful information as possible.

Step 2: Select the Right Categories

GBP categories help potential patients find your services when they’re searching for specific dental needs, like “cosmetic dentistry” or “pediatric dentist.” Be as specific as possible to stand out in the right searches.

Step 3: Use High-Quality Photos

Visuals make a big difference. Upload high-quality photos of the practice, the team, and before-and-after shots of patients (with their consent).

Photos can help your listing stand out and give potential patients a glimpse of the welcoming environment you offer. They can help put a worried customer at ease.

Updated, high-quality photos are so important. It does not help if your client ranks number one, but the pictures look outdated or unprofessional. Nobody will click on it, which means all your efforts will be wasted.

This ties back to what I said about making the brand visually appealing to potential patients.

Step 4: Post Regular Updates

Use the posts feature to share updates, offers, and news about your practice. Regular posts keep your profile active and engaging, showing potential patients your practice is bustling and up-to-date.

You also need to make sure that you’re posting new images regularly.

Step 5: Reviews, Reviews, Reviews!

Reviews are the rocket of dental marketing and a cornerstone of your GBP’s effectiveness. Encourage satisfied patients to leave positive feedback with keywords and respond professionally to all reviews.

This not only shows potential patients that you value feedback but also can improve your search rankings.

Build a 5-star Reputation

Collect, monitor, and respond to reviews with ease

Get Started with Reputation Manager _{14-day Free Trial}

Google Search Console and Understanding Your Dental Website

Many marketers think you need a plethora of different software to track the success of your SEO for dentists. The truth is that Google Search Console (GSC) is an excellent starting point and one of the best tools in your digital toolbox.

GSC is a free service offered by Google that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site’s presence in Google Search results.

An Introduction to Google Search Console

Learn More

For a dental marketer, understanding and utilizing Google Search Console is akin to having a high-powered dental X-ray machine that sees not just the surface but deep into the health of your website’s visibility online. Here’s what you need to do:

• Verify and Monitor Your Site’s Performance: Track your site’s performance in Google Search results. Analyze queries that bring users to your site, view your site’s click-through rates (CTRs), and check your rankings for specific keywords.
• Inspect URLs for Indexing Issues: Use the URL Inspection tool to check if Google can crawl your site’s pages, understand any indexing issues, and request re-indexing of new or updated content. If pages are not indexing, you can figure out why.
• Identify and Fix Mobile Usability Issues: Ensure your website is mobile-friendly by identifying pages with usability problems on mobile devices. This is crucial for maintaining and improving your site’s ranking in search results.
• Improve Website Content Based on Data: Utilize search analytics to refine your website content. Focus on creating content around keywords and queries that are proven to drive traffic to your site.

An Advanced Guide to Google Search Console for Local Businesses

Learn More

On-Page and Technical SEO for Dental Websites

Now that you have the essentials in place, it’s time to start looking at your website. You might be thinking I’m crazy for only getting to the website now, but remember, we needed a plan first. Then, as a dentist is a local business, we had to make sure the Google Business Profile was optimized for the local pack, and then we used Google search console to understand how Google interacts with your website.

Now, we get to work on the website itself.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO refers to optimizing individual web pages to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. It involves both the content and the HTML source code of a page.

For dental marketing, on-page SEO is crucial because it helps search engines understand the content of your website and its relevance to search queries, especially those related to the dental services your client values.

How to Improve On-page SEO for Local

Learn More

While many SEO specialists bucket all kinds of categories into on-page SEO, I have only seen a few factors that truly impact how your website performs:

1. High-Quality Content

You have probably heard this a thousand times before, but it’s true. If we ask ourselves what the most basic function of Google and other search engines is, it’s to provide users with the information they seek.

You must ensure that your dental website provides valuable information on all your client’s services. I often see dental websites with no service pages or location pages, which makes me go crazy. To target a dental service, it needs its own page!

An essential element of Google’s E-E-A-T is showcasing your authority and expertise. Dental practices will have in-house experts; their dentists! You should be using them to help you create genuinely authoritative content, whether it’s Q&As or guides.

2. Keyword Optimization

If you followed my steps correctly, you should understand what keywords people are searching for, how people find your client’s website, and what services the dentist would like to rank better for.

Now you know the keywords you would like to rank for; you can start weaving them into your website’s content. Use variations of keywords, write multiple pages that speak about the service in different ways, and create internal links to help the user find the info they need. It’s as simple as that.

How to Craft Unique and Helpful Location Pages

Learn More

Too often, dental marketers get so focused on how many times you use a keyword and where instead of just writing a really good piece of content.

Of course, apply basic SEO best practices to ensure keywords are represented in your headings as needed, but it is more important to have good content with keywords sprinkled in vs. lots of keywords with some basic content. Concentrate on Topics, not individual keywords.

Instead, create what I like to call a “pillar page” and see that page as the one you would like to rank highest for.

You can then build supporting pages with variations of the same keyword or long-tail keywords that you link out to, making the pillar page more valuable. That’s basically why Wikipedia is so successful. Write a great page on a dental service, then link to other more in-depth pages on your website for those who want to learn more about specific aspects of the topic.

For example, I have a veneers page; I briefly mention the benefits in a paragraph. I will then add: “If you want to understand all of the benefits of veneers, you can do so here.”, with a link to a page that sits in the veneers subfolder, going into more details on that specific subject. Google will understand this and recognize that your pillar page provides value because it provides users the opportunity to explore the topic more.

3. Optimizing Meta Tags and Descriptions

Ensure that each page has a unique title tag and meta description that accurately describes the content of the page. These elements not only help search engines understand the topic of each page but also serve as a first impression for users in search result pages.

Use your title to stand out. Don’t just go for the same title as the page. This is your chance to grab your potential customer’s attention in the SERPs. Use a featured image that will grab a patient’s attention.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO means ensuring that your dental practice’s website is not only visible but also easily accessible to both search engines and potential patients.

Without the necessary technical SEO, you could add new pages to your website, and nobody will ever see them. Or you could write the perfect piece of content, but the page takes too long to load, so nobody sticks around to see it. These are just two examples, but you catch my drift.

Here are the top technical SEO tactics I recommend to dental marketers:

1. Website Health & Performance

We all hate a slow website, as does Google because it impacts the user experience. You must ensure a website has fast load times, mobile-friendliness, and secure connections via HTTPS. As marketers, we know these factors influence user experience and search engine rankings.

Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights can be invaluable for diagnosing and improving website performance. I did some research on what has the biggest impact on website speed, and it actually has nothing to do with the website itself.

Hosting is one of the most important factors that influence the speed of your website. If the website you are working on is hosted on unreliable or unresponsive servers, it will directly impact how Google interacts with your website and, therefore, your SEO efforts. Search Engine Journal has gone into more detail on that here.

Other things can affect your page load time, like the size of your images or even plugins. Consider doing an audit of all of this and actioning anything you can, like old plugins or lazy loading.

2. Structured Data for Enhanced Visibility

Structured data is a powerful tool for improving a dental practice’s appearance in search results.

By implementing schema markup for local businesses, we can help search engines understand and display important information about dental practices, such as services offered, hours of operation, and patient reviews. This can enhance visibility in local search results, making your clients more findable and appealing to potential patients. We make use of SchemaPro, but there are all sorts of different ways for you to implement your local schema.

Local SEO Schema: Types and Templates for Easy Structured Data Markup

Learn More

3. Submit Sitemap to Google

An XML sitemap is like a map for your website. It tells Google about your important pages and where they are. This is helpful, especially if your website has many pages or is not connected very well.

A sitemap and strategic internal linking are sure ways for Google to crawl your website effectively. Google has guidelines on how to create and submit a sitemap.

4. Optimize Your Site Architecture

A website has many pages. It’s important to arrange these pages so search engines can easily discover and go through them. This is where the organization of your site, also known as your website’s information architecture, plays a role.

This will also help with how potential patients navigate the dental website. You need to pave the way to ensure the site structure makes sense and flows in a productive way.

The three things I know most patients care about are who’s the dentist, what this will cost me, the insurance questions, and finally, how I can contact this office. This is just an example, but you should apply this framework to your service pages and how you implement internal links.

Content Silos for Local SEO

Learn More

5. Target Keywords in Your URL 

This might seem insignificant, but I believe every bit counts when it comes to dental SEO. Anything I can do to beat my competitors is a step closer to a new patient. Ensure you use keywords in your URL, and don’t make them too long. Google does not like generic URLs. You should also not include numbers unless it is absolutely necessary.

Build Citations to Increase Online Authority

When it comes to citations, I always like to use the following example:

If today I told you my name is Ian, here is my address and number, call me anytime. Then, the next time I see you, l tell you my name is Michael, with a different number.

The third time I see you, I tell you my name is John. And so on.

Eventually, you will think I am either crazy or simply untrustworthy. Why should Google trust your client if their business information is incorrect across multiple platforms and directories?

By consistently listing a dental practice’s name, address, phone number (NAP), and website across various online directories and platforms, these citations help increase the practice’s visibility on search engines like Google.

This is crucial for attracting local patients searching for dental services in their area. Furthermore, citations contribute to the credibility and legitimacy of a dental practice in the digital realm, reassuring both Google and potential patients of the practice’s established presence.

Google uses citations as a vote of confidence that you are who you say you are and that the business you are marketing exists. Building citations has always been a crucial part of my dental marketing strategy and something I recommend to all marketers focussing on local SEO for dentists.

Brightlocal has been my favorite tool for doing this, making it easy for me to manage over 100 dental practices simultaneously. 

Get Citations Done Fast... and Own Your Listings Forever

No recurring fees. Complete Control. Super-low cost.

Get Started with Citation Builder _{Start Your Free Account}

Multilocation Practices Vs. Single Location Dentists

Whether your client has one or multiple dental practices will make a difference in how you implement dental SEO. It is not so much a change in what you need to do but how you will implement it to be effective locally.

Multiple Locations, One Website

Before we start, I want to share this: One of the most challenging questions I have gotten over the years was, “I would like to draw in patients from a town 30 minutes away. How can we do that with SEO?”.

My response always starts the same. We can begin to target another town with new pages, but Google search results will always show the user a business located in that town/city over a different practice that is 30 minutes away.

If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Why would Google make me drive 30 minutes to a business when I have multiple other businesses that can provide me with the same services within 10 minutes of my location?

How to Rank Outside Your Area

The Truth

I say this because you need to understand this principle to implement SEO for a practice with multiple locations. Local SEO is all about, you guessed it, local. You need to prove to Google that your business is an option for that community and the best option available.

To do this, each location will need its own website or, at the very least, a dedicated page on your site to target the branch and the town/city it is in. You can’t have a website that simply mentions the different locations in these areas. This will not be enough to compete with another practice with an entire website targeting that local area. 

So, if you have a single website for multiple locations, make sure you have separate pages that provide a detailed look at each practice with additional service pages that link to the services you provide in that town.

You also need to target local dental service keywords on those pages and share reviews from that location, etc. I know Google ranks location-specific pages better because the only URL that I would get to rank successfully was the page dedicated to that town. No other page on the website would appear in that town because Google did not associate the rest of the website with the town/city we were targeting.

Here’s an example of how to do this.

You’ll also want to make sure that each individual location has its own Google Business Profile and that you’re managing them all as their own entity. Putting all your time into one branch’s GBP won’t help all your other GBPs, for instance. Similarly, you’ll need to build citations for each location, not just your first one, and actively manage your listings.

The Smarter Way to Manage Listings

Discover a cutting-edge solution for effective listings management

Get Started with Listings Management _{Start Your Free Account}

Best Case Scenario

In a perfect world, you will need to build a website for each location the dentist has and implement the strategies I have discussed in this article. In my opinion, this gives you the best chance of competing locally and ranking better in Google search results for multiple locations. 

Differences in SEO for Dentists vs. Other Industries

Now, you will notice that backlinking was not part of my core strategy for dental SEO. In local SEO for dentists, getting links from other websites (backlinks) isn’t as crucial as we used to think, especially in areas where there aren’t many dental practices competing with each other.

In these scenarios, focusing on backlinks might not be the best use of your time. Even Google said back in 2022 that backlinks are less important than they were before.

How to Do Effective Local Link Building

Learn More

I have found this especially true in areas where there is less competition or other dental practices are not implementing a dental SEO strategy. If the practice you’re doing marketing for is in a smaller city or town where there’s not much competition, you can rank well in search results without worrying too much about getting backlinks.

Instead, ensure the Google Business Profile is spot-on and regularly updated, use the right local keywords, update your website regularly with relevant content, build out citations, and encourage happy patients to leave as many reviews as possible.

Final Thoughts & Advice

It’s important to know that this article is not the ultimate solution to dental SEO but rather a look into the most important factors that have made a real difference for the dentists I have worked with over the past few years. When it comes to local SEO for dentists, there is no set formula. It’s about trying different strategies and seeing what works best for you. Different dental offices have different needs and will measure the success of your SEO efforts in different ways.

Make sure you over-communicate, under-promise, and over-deliver. Dentists are dentists, not marketers, so do not expect them to understand the value you bring as a dental marketer. You need to show them!

Spotted first by Saad Alikhan and then Khushal Bherwani on Twitter, the feature presents ‘offers’ and ‘events’ Google Business Profile (GBP) Posts sourced from four local businesses. This feature is only visible for local searches on mobile devices. It has not yet been spotted on Google Maps. 

Google > Mobile

I saw "Nearby events and deals" section in SERPs (featuring local listings), this might be new.

Sending to: @rustybrick SIR. pic.twitter.com/WcdMrkttZs

— Saad AK (@SaadAlikhan1994) January 1, 2024

What does ‘Nearby events and deals’ look like? 

Clicking on one of the tiles directs you to a full-screen view of the GBP offer post, alongside a tile for the business’s GBP, which, when clicked, takes you to the business’s GBP. The four-pack does not seem to have a ‘show more’ option. 

This result tends to show up further down the SERP, below the local pack, organic results, ‘People also ask’, and ‘People also search for’. However, its location isn’t always consistent from SERP to SERP.

Each of the four tiles shows the Google Posts’ original image and title alongside the business’s name and Google review score.

How does ‘Nearby events and deals’ work?

To test what does and doesn’t show with this feature, our team took to Google to discover what appeared when searching for local businesses across a variety of both large and small cities. We also wanted to test which industries were likely to show this, and what this could mean for local businesses. 

We only managed to trigger this new feature when searching for businesses in the food and restaurant vertical. All of our results were based around North American (US and Canada) cities; UK cities did not trigger this feature.

Queries in larger cities such as Chicago and New York City were far more likely to return this feature, as was the Canadian province of Ontario. In smaller cities, such as Durham, NC (population 332,680) and Pomona, CA (population 146,017), the presence of the feature varied, indicating that business volume may have an impact on Google’s decision to show this panel. Only one search conducted for Pomona returned the panel. 

This is further supported by the fact that the feature consistently shows in a pack of four, indicating that a greater volume of businesses with active Posts is needed. 

That being said, multiple searches returned Posts of seemingly unrelated businesses. For instance, a search for ‘boba ontario’ returned a ‘nearby events and deals’ section fully populated by two coffee shops, a chain bakery, and a brewery.

This seems to be more common with some searches, with ‘boba new york city’ also returning a group of seemingly unrelated results.

There were also many repeats across SERPS, such as two of the four results being the same for both the queries ‘bottomless brunch new york city’ and ‘buffet new york city’.

It’s worth noting that non-food and restaurant queries conducted across a variety of verticals yielded no results of this type at all. The non-food and restaurant queries we tried were the following: ‘nail salon’, ‘divorce lawyer’, ‘gyms’ ‘yoga’, ‘bouldering’, ‘bike shop’ ‘dentures’ ‘toy shop’, ‘fish market’, ‘bachelorette parties’, ‘bed and breakfast’, ‘jewelry store’, ‘bridal gowns’, ‘healthcare’, and ‘organic market’, all tested using both Durham, NC and Chicago, IL.

Let’s look at the queries that did yield this type of result:

Why should I care?

For anyone managing business profiles for food businesses and restaurants, you’ll already know the importance of using Google Business Profile Posts to boost conversion. Now, it would also seem that to get the chance to be displayed in the new SERPs feature, you need to be actively posting and optimizing your GBP Posts. 

The images used on Posts are important to get right, especially as they’re now more visible with this new feature. Make sure your images are high quality, eye-catching, and with text that is easy to read. The ‘Nearby events and deals’ feature crops images into a square, so keep the text within a safe space in the center of your image so important information won’t be cut off in the margins. 

What does this mean going forward?

It’s possible that this selection could grow more and more accurate as the feature ages—especially if businesses take this opportunity to dive into the world of Google Posts. With this knowledge, this is a good time to make the most out of your GBP Posts—especially ‘events’ and ‘deals’ posts—to ensure that you’re maximizing the possibility of eyes on your profile. 

The Power of Google Business Profile

First, it’s important to emphasize why GBP matters. It’s often the first point of contact for potential customers, providing essential information about a local business, including location, hours, reviews, and photos. A well-optimized GBP can significantly impact local search visibility and customer trust.

The Importance of Google Business Profile

Learn More

A study found it’s the top factor for ranking in the local pack on Google. Our research in 2020 also showed that 82% of local marketing experts agree that tweaking a GBP is a super effective way to improve your local search rankings. 

So, how can BrightLocal help you supercharge your or your client’s GBP? Let’s dive into the strategies and tools available:

1. Auditing for Optimization

As well as being aware of what a critical tool Google Business Profile is, you’re probably also aware that Google doesn’t give away any competitor insights. 

For example, let’s imagine that you’ve just started work on local SEO for a dental practice in New York. You want to know why a specific competitor ranks above them in local search and what they need to do to outrank them. You head over to Google and search, but this is all you see:

Without an intelligent tool, figuring out how to beat the competition and get into the top local results is challenging. That’s why we made our Google Business Profile Audit tool and Local Search Grid. They do all the checking and analysis you need.

Once you’ve set up a Google Business Profile Audit report, you can ensure the accuracy of your listing and understand your performance. 

Ensuring Accuracy and Health of Your Listing

Once set up, the ‘Summary’ page of a Google Business Profile Audit serves as your primary dashboard for evaluating the overall health and accuracy of your GBP listing.

Here, you can identify and eliminate any duplicate GBP listings associated with your business, scrutinize the consistency of Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) information, and identify and address essential local ranking factors. 

Embarking on these steps within the GBP Audit report not only ensures the accuracy of your listing but also lays the foundation for a robust and trustworthy online representation of your business.

Understand Your GBP Performance

You can thoroughly understand your GBP performance by incorporating Insights into the GBP Audit’s report. 

Unlike Google Business Profile Insights, which only offers six months of data, GBP Audit extends its horizon to 18 months, providing a comprehensive and extended view of your listing’s performance.

You can:

• Analyze the discovery points on Google through search or Google Maps to strategically optimize your online presence.

• Extract valuable data on customer actions, unraveling users’ common behaviors on your GBP, from visiting your website to requesting directions or making calls.

• Delve into phone call trends, pinpointing peak days and times and aiding in meticulous staff availability planning.

By utilizing the Google Business Profile Audit tool, you ensure the accuracy of your listing and gain in-depth insights into your GBP’s performance, enabling informed decisions for optimization and growth.

4 Ways GBP Audit Can Help You Optimize Your Listing and Outrank the Competition

Learn More

Competitor Insights 

Local Search Grid provides essential data from Google Local Finder, offering insights into your competitors’ performance. 

For example, once you’ve set up a Local Search Grid report , you can see what primary and secondary categories your competitors are using. This allows you to ensure that you select categories that align with high-performing keywords and match those used by successful competitors.

2. Taking Action

Customer reviews and GBP posts are crucial elements that significantly contribute to the credibility and utility of your GBP. Two BrightLocal tools can help you with these. 

Manage Your Reviews

Reputation Manager enables you to monitor reviews, gather feedback, and address negative comments promptly. Helping you to cultivate a positive online reputation and attract more customers.

Once you’ve created a Reputation Manager report, you’ll be able to keep tabs on all reviews from essential review sites, allowing you to observe the growth of reviews over time.

If you also link your business’s Google Business Profile and Facebook accounts to the report, BrightLocal will automatically check for new reviews daily and notify you of any arrivals. With your report connected to your GBP and Facebook, you can conveniently respond to reviews directly from this report, streamlining the process and helping you stay on top of your reputation more efficiently.

Managing your reviews is just the start. If you need help getting them in the first place, a tool like BrightLocal’s Get Reviews is key. It will help you grow your reviews and increase your star ratings.

Schedule Google Posts

GBP Post Scheduler makes managing your GBP much easier and simpler. It offers effortless scheduling, multi-location distribution, and AI content generation. 

Effortless Scheduling

You can set the perfect time for each post and decide when it should expire, ensuring a steady flow of content for potential customers. You can also monitor everything from one dashboard to keep an eye on what’s live, what’s scheduled, and what’s expired.

Multi-location Distribution

When dealing with a multi-location brand, there might be times when you want to share the latest national promotions with all locations at once. Instead of doing it individually, you can publish a post to multiple locations simultaneously, saving you hours of effort. It’s a quick and easy way to ensure consistent content across your entire network of locations.

Craft Posts with AI-Powered Content Generation

Input a brief description of the message you want to convey, and within seconds, our AI writing assistant will provide you with creative content ideas to work with and enhance.

Our Help Center has more information on how our GBP AI works.

3. Active Sync

Active Sync helps you care for your GBP and other vital listings like Facebook, Apple Maps, and Bing, ensuring they’re accurate and up-to-date. 

Once you’ve connected your GBP to your BrightLocal account, you can set up additional categories, opening hours, the business description, and additional data, such as Google Business Profile Attributes, from your BrightLocal account and push them out to those listings. 

Once you’ve set Active Sync up, it will send you alerts when external changes are published to a listing. For example, if Google publishes a suggested edit, you’ll be notified rather than having to log in.

You can accept or reject the changes suggested within the BrightLocal platform, which allows you to shield the listings from external edits and ensure their accuracy.

Your Google Business Profile is a powerful tool for local business success, and when combined with the comprehensive suite of BrightLocal tools, it becomes an unstoppable force. By conducting regular audits, managing your reputation, and optimizing your online presence, you can stand out in local searches, attract more customers, and drive business growth.

As we wrote about recently, at the start of the month, Joy Hawkins of Sterling Sky caused a slight thunderclap in the local search world. She announced a new local ranking factor: opening hours.

You can read the thread of events in the piece linked above. But with such heated discussion on the matter, and only several small-scale tests conducted so far, we wanted to carry out a study with a greater breadth of business types, covering various US states and timezones.

So, we took 50 business locations across 10 primary business categories and used BrightLocal’s Local Search Grid to analyze their local rankings outside of their listed opening hours and during opening hours.

Local Search Grid Study Results

The charts below show the average local ranking for each primary category outside of business hours against their open hours. This average looks at all keywords tracked in the Local Search Grid reports.

Across the board, it’s clear to see that Local Search Grid reports run during each business’s opening hours reflect higher local rankings, on average.

The primary category ‘Fast food restaurant’ appears to show the biggest fluctuation, with local rankings improving by 2.4 positions on average during opening hours.

However, if we compare these results with some of the previous tests conducted in recent weeks, the fluctuations we see are much less severe.

While previous tests have shown dramatic fluctuations between reports for individual business locations and specific keywords, taking the average across a list of 10 keywords reflects a more steady variation.

We can look in more detail at some of the business categories and show their results day by day. 

Open vs Closed

Coffee Shop

With the exception of Coffee Shop #3, each coffee shop business in the chart above reflects a fairly steady result across three days and shows higher local rankings during open hours.

Although we did not use any navigational keywords for the coffee shop report (i.e. ‘coffee shop near me’), it does make sense that a coffee shop listing would be prioritized higher in local rankings if it is open when the user is searching. This doesn’t necessarily mean it is the most helpful result. As we’ll discuss later on, there are plenty of reasons a user might be searching for something like a coffee shop other than to visit it in the immediate future.

Dentist

We have included the above chart for Dentist here, as you will note that Dentist #1 and Dentist #2 offer slightly differing opening hours and are closed entirely for some days of the study.

For example, Dentist #1 was closed on Fridays and Dentist #2 closed on Wednesdays. We continued to run manual Local Search Grid reports in the timeframe they would normally be open (10am CST for Dentist #1 and 9am EST for Dentist #2) to note what happened to local rankings.  

We can see here that their local rankings during the day—when other nearby dental practices are likely open and operating—drop much lower than their typical local rankings outside of normal practice hours.

Businesses set to ‘Open 24 hours’

Some locations selected for the study are listed on Google Business Profile (GBP) as ‘open 24 hours’. So, it’s interesting to compare their local rankings to similar businesses listed with standard business opening hours.

HVAC Contractor

For HVAC Contractor #3, despite being listed as ‘open 24 hours’, we ran the reports at two different times of day (8am and 10am PST) to determine any fluctuations in local rankings. As you can see above, this remained steady across the three days at 3.5, except for one result showing an average of 3.6.

However, Contractor #4 also shows a good level of consistency in its local rankings across the three-day study. It also maintains an average local ranking of around 2, so it does not appear that setting opening hours to ‘open 24 hours’ necessarily gives an advantage for better rankings.

Real Estate Agent

For real estate agents, it does not look like setting opening hours to ‘open 24 hours’ helps maintain consistency in local rankings. Both Real Estate Agent #1 Real Estate Agent #3 show fluctuations across the three days.

It’s not clear why this might be from just these results, but I do wonder if Google has somehow weighed up the legitimacy of these business opening hours. It makes sense for service area businesses to work outside of standard hours and on an emergency basis, but real estate agents? It feels a little bit like a ploy to be more visible on GBP (see also: Lawyer in Appendix).

What if there are no opening hours listed on the Google Business Profile?

Movie Theater

It’s interesting to note that some business types appear not to show any opening hours on their GBPs as a sort of ‘industry standard’. We found that this was the case with the category ‘Movie theater’, which makes sense given the changing nature of movie releases and schedules, as well as one-off screenings such as late-night premiers. But would local rankings be penalized as a result?

These results are particularly compelling as they show that movie theaters do not appear to be affected at all by using opening hours as a local ranking signal.

It could be the case that each business has opted to show as ‘Open with no main hours’ as per the GBP editing screenshot below, and that they are technically shown as ‘always open’.

However, a quick Google search for three of the five movie theaters’s names plus ‘opening hours’ does return an immediate snippet-type result by Google. So, it’s not entirely clear if Google is pulling this from other business listing sites like Yelp. Either way, it does not appear that any of the movie theaters are impacted by the existence of opening hours.

Electrician

As with the movie theaters, Electrician #1 has no opening hours listed on its GBP and is not ‘open 24 hours’. We ran two LSG reports a day, at times when most electricians would typically be closed (6am HST), and when they would typically be listed as open (8am HST).

In this instance, as we saw with the dentists that were closed on typical days you might expect to be able to visit, it appears the local rankings suffered more for Electrician #1 at a time when searching for an electrician is deemed more common.

Electrician #4 appears to follow the same pattern as discussed with HVAC Contractors listed as ‘open 24 hours’ and shows consistent local rankings throughout the study. 

What do these results mean?

As of December 15 2023, Google Search Liason confirmed that Google has long used “openness” in its local ranking systems, but that it has recently become a stronger signal. However, given such polarized reactions within the local search community, this may change if Google decides to ‘dial back’ the signal strength.

The team tells me we’ve long used “openness” as part of our local ranking systems, and it recently became a stronger signal for non-navigational queries. This might change in various ways, as we continue to evaluate the usefulness of it, however.

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) December 15, 2023

And there are plenty of reasons why they should dial it back. Although for navigational queries or searches that demonstrate the intent of wanting/needing something ‘right now’, it makes sense to prioritize businesses that are open and available to you in that moment, there are a whole host of other reasons why people may be researching different businesses outside of typical open hours.

I, for one, am an avid food researcher when I travel. I could be looking for brunch, lunch, street food, or dinner establishments in another European country at any given point in the day, weeks before I’m due to visit.

For professional services such as law and real estate, or healthcare like dentistry, a prospective customer will likely be doing their research in several stages before deciding to book an appointment or instruct a professional.

Agreed. Those are good points that I and a few others are discussing with the team. It’s why I said this might change in various ways.

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) December 18, 2023

As we stated in our previous write-up, it’s important not to make any drastic changes to your business’s GBP as a result of what we’re seeing currently. At the very core, your business information should be accurate so that it meets your customers’ needs and provides them with the most helpful and useful information. 

How to Manage Your Business Opening Hours on Google Business Profile

A refresher on managing your business's opening hours in GBP.

Read the guide

As we found in the Local Business Discovery and Trust Report 2023, 62% of consumers would avoid using a business if they found it had incorrect business information listed. The report also delves into how things like incorrect opening hours can affect their trust in a business, therefore potentially damaging a business’s reputation, and even highlights the industries in which information like opening hours are deemed as most important to consumers.

So, for the sake of a couple of ranking positions that may or may not fluctuate throughout the day, and may also change if Google does re-evaluate the signal strength, please ask yourself: is it really worth it to mess with your opening hours?!

Summary

For full study data, including the local rankings for each business category across the three days of the study, you can find the remaining charts in the appendix below.

Publications and individuals are welcome to use the study findings, charts, and data, provided BrightLocal is credited and linked to via this page’s URL.

If you have any questions about this study, or what the results mean, please do not hesitate to contact us via X (formerly Twitter), The Local Pack, or by emailing us at research@brightlocal.com.

Appendix

Keywords

Day Spa

Department Store

Fast Food Restaurant

Lawyer

Well, the time is upon us, and I imagine there’s a significant number of people that haven’t acted. Many people may even be wondering “what’s the big deal?”—but there are a lot of things to consider that may be attached to your Gmail account beyond emails.

And for brands, it could mean bad news for your Google Reviews.

So, consider this a good time to do a bit of account housekeeping! Check all of your logins and either update the email address if you’re not using Gmail, or log in to your Google account to ensure it’s active.

What does this mean for my business reviews?

Users who leave business reviews on Google must have an active account, so it could be the case that brands will see a drop in the total number of reviews their profile has if they are removed.

However, it hasn’t been confirmed if Google will remove the reviews or simply highlight the review poster as inactive/anonymous. According to Reputation America, reviews from deleted accounts do remain visible on business profiles but are no longer linked to personal information.

We asked Ben Fisher, Co-founder of Steady Demand and Google Business Profile Diamond Product Expert, about his experience with deleted Google accounts:

“In short, if the account is deleted and the GBP is live, the GBP will probably keep the reviews. The user name could change to ‘A Google User’, I have seen that before.”

– Ben Fisher, Steady Demand

It makes sense, given the importance of various review factors for building trust with businesses—and Google will want to maintain this integrity. As we know from the Local Consumer Review Survey, consumers are interested in more than just the top-level star rating for a business, looking at the experiences customers are describing.

What does this mean for Google Business Profiles?

To claim and manage your Google Business Profile (GBP) listing, you’ll need a Google account. If you’ve had various people associated with your GBP over the years, it’s a good idea to review the owners associated with the Profile and ensure the users with account access are up to date.

You can do this by heading to your GBP dashboard, clicking the three dots next to the profile strength indicator, and selecting ‘Business Profile settings’.

Although it has not been confirmed what would happen to a GBP if its sole user was deleted, we can assume the profile would revert to an unclaimed business listing.

A GBP will still remain visible if it is not managed, so it doesn’t seem likely that Google would remove it, but you may need to go through the claiming and verification process again.

Ben’s thoughts pretty much echo this:

“I would think that if that account is the only account associated with a GBP, then the chances of a soft suspension are highly likely.”

– Ben Fisher, Steady Demand

A soft suspension on a Google Business Profile generally means that the listing becomes unverified and you lose control of it. So, if this is the case, you’ll need to act fast to re-verify your GBP and ensure you’re in control of your business information.

How to Verify a Google Business Profile

Use this guide as a refresher if you need to verify your GBP.

Read more

What’s exempt and how do I know if my Google account is inactive?

Well, if you’re an Android or Google device user, there’s a good chance you won’t have to worry. If your system is logged into Google and connected to apps like Calendar, Chrome, Photos and Play Store, your use of any of these will count as activity. Likewise, if your YouTube account has videos posted to it, this is also safe.

According to Forbes, exemptions also include Google accounts that are connected to educational establishments and those that are business accounts.

What should I do?

If your personal Google account has been inactive for two years or more, but you have personal files, photos, and memories stored there that you don’t want to lose, you’ll want to consider logging in before it’s too late.

It’s not clear whether the mass deletion has commenced, but Google initiatives tend to take several weeks to fully roll out.

For GBP owners and managers, the chances of your GBP being associated with an inactive Google account seem quite unlikely, but take the time to review who has access to the account and update the details if necessary.

How to Access Google Business Profile Support and Get Help

Where to go for help and support for your Google Business Profile.

Read more

And as for reviews, there isn’t much you can do to prevent these changes. For now, we’ll just have to wait for the effects of the great Google account purge.

Remember, it’s always good to keep your eyes on forums like X (formerly Twitter), the Local Pack, and Local Search Forum to see if any big changes or updates have been spotted, and how people are responding to them.

And, right around the same time that we saw RankFlux’s average score jump to a 4.38 out of 10, Joy Hawkins announced that she and her team at Sterling Sky had discovered a new local ranking factor: the opening hours stated on a business profile.

This announcement has led to lots of discussion throughout the community, with local SEOs sharing their take on the matter, speculating Google’s intentions, and running tests to verify the claim.

With no current consensus on the matter, what’s the best course of action? Leave those opening hours alone for now, and keep an eye on what’s going on. So… what exactly is going on?

What happened?

The announcement came during Sterling Sky’s Local Search Seminar with Joy Hawkins, Darren Shaw, and Luc Durand. Joy shared an image of two drastically different local search grids, noting that the two reports were run only two hours apart—one at 7am, before the business opened, and one at 9am, right after opening. 

The initial tests determining this were done on three businesses—seemingly in the categories lawyer, psychiatrist, and phone repair—and were all seen on desktop. 

3 so far. Trust me, it is.

— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) December 4, 2023

Sterling Sky has since run tests on “at least a dozen” businesses across multiple verticals, according to the webinar that announced the finding.

Hawkins also noted a difference between ranking patterns for more competitive keywords and less competitive ones: competitive keywords seem to encourage more variation in ranking.

You'll notice more ranking variation for closed/open businesses on competitive keywords. Here is an example of a really competitive keyword ("car accident lawyer") with quite a bit of variation, vs a less competitive keyword ("slip and fall lawyer") where there is no change. pic.twitter.com/dV04KEx2xl

— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) December 8, 2023

The Community Responds

It’s generally agreed upon that such a change to the algorithm could have big implications for both businesses and searchers. Alongside this, the announcement itself was met with apprehension and confusion, with many questioning Google’s intent. 

“I think it is more than likely a bug vs a feature that was not thought out. In some ways it kind of makes sense: if a business is not open, should you show them on the map pack?

“Based on what Joy is seeing, if a business is marked closed they will not display as ranking in a local rank tracker. This was not true before. But there are some great arguments as to why this is a bad experience, such as users searching for a business and are planning for a future visit or service.“

– Ben Fisher, Steady Demand

@dannysullivan really want to know if this is intentional or a bug. It makes sense for some industries, but not for others.

— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) December 7, 2023

Additional questions have arisen regarding the significance of the long-standing ‘Hours’ dropdown, a Google feature that allowed searchers to filter their local pack results by hours. 

It’s been posited that in the case of an intentional change by Google, perhaps data from this dropdown led Google to believe that searchers would appreciate hours being taken into the algorithm’s consideration.

After all, there are conceivable benefits to hours as a ranking factor, according to some. Usually, these revolve around minimizing the possibility of searchers showing up to a closed business.

Yes, definitely.

— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) December 8, 2023

However, alongside many others, Darren Shaw of Whitespark notes the potential issues of such a ranking factor, citing a variety of situations that would lead a searcher to look for a business that might not be open at that very moment. 

Andrew's tweet is a perfect example of why this Google update is terrible for the quality of the local search results.

Google is now only showing businesses that are open right now?

So many reasons why this sucks:
– It's my lunch break and I'm researching X to do after work.
-… https://t.co/cPfyYZDDSW

— Darren Shaw (@DarrenShaw_) December 7, 2023

In fact, his initial tests showed no indication to verify the effect of opening hours.

However, following further investigation, Shaw later went on to say that opening hours having an effect on ranking was “definitely a thing.” He also notes that opening hours aren’t a “binary ranking factor”—meaning that changing your ranking hours one way or the other won’t ensure that you rank… or that you don’t.

Yan Gilbert of Local Falcon also corroborated Sterling Sky’s data. 

Operating hours are now factored into the Google Maps rankings #localseo pic.twitter.com/Koxbnc3MV7

— Yan Gilbert (@YanGilbertSEO) December 7, 2023

Others posted their own examples of the change.

Somewhere in the world, it is 5:00 p.m. … in this case almost 9 but you can always check if the business hours are a ranking factor. This is maps results, just refreshing the page, nothing else. @mblumenthal @JoyanneHawkins @ColanNielsen @rustybrick @Kevin__Pauls pic.twitter.com/TCcwvZB9IK

— Stan Kolev (@stankolev) December 10, 2023

However, despite these endorsements across the community, many are still uncertain as to the longevity of these ranking fluctuations. 

Just to add a note here, if it’s a “bug” we’ve been seeing this since January of this year, and I noted what was happening back in April. This appeared way too consistent to be a bug in my opinion, particularly in the restaurant space. It appears that this is occurring in more…

— Matt Brooks (@m4ttbr00ks) December 8, 2023

What Google Has to Say

Ultimately, most seem to be looking towards Google for answers, with many echoing the sentiment that it could be a bug. 

And, while Google’s Search Liaison has answered briefly, Google has yet to elaborate on the matter.

I'll pass it on. I doubt it has to do with the core update. It seems more likely a local ranking change, if it is one.

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) December 8, 2023

So… what next?

What does this mean for BrightLocal?

So far, we haven’t seen enough to say whether this is definitely a ranking factor long-term.

Before we confirm anything, make recommendations or change processes, we want to do due diligence to offer our customers the best service and insights possible.

That’s why we’re currently using Local Search Grid to run a wide-ranging and comprehensive study using data from 50 businesses across 10 verticals to truly understand whether a business’s opening hours impacts its ability to rank in the Local Pack.

We’re aiming to be analyzing the results of this study early next week, and intend to publish them shortly after. We hope that this study will allow the local SEO community to better understand the impact that opening hours have.

In addition to this, we are looking into what this means for our rankings tools as a priority and will be sure to let you know if any platform or report updates are required.

What should I do?

Until we know more, whether that be from the rash of studies that are cropping up or from Google itself, we would say to sit tight, don’t panic, and don’t make any huge changes to your opening hours in response. 

It does seem that changing your opening hours to 24/7 has an impact on ranking. However, there are risks associated with this, whether it be the big kind (a profile suspension) or a smaller kind (a scathing review), so we would advise against making any changes at this moment. The last thing you want is an onslaught of one-star reviews. 

In fact, according to BrightLocal’s 2023 Local Business & Trust Report, 62% of consumers would avoid using a business if they found incorrect information online. In some verticals, correct opening hours were especially significant, with consumers viewing correct opening hours as the most important factor for retail businesses (53%), food and drink businesses (51%), and entertainment businesses (47%).

“I encourage businesses not to jump the gun here; think about it and measure their calls. Do you really ever get a call at midnight?

“After this study was released I got a ton of calls from storefront clients, all asking ‘should I switch to 24 hours?’ My response is simple: if you will take a client at your door at 2AM, sure! If not, why risk being reported?

“Sure, 24 hours is least likely to lead to a suspension, but it can lead to a nasty review you will not be able to get removed, or if something else is fishy with your profile, you can be suspended.”

– Ben Fisher, Steady Demand

If you’re looking to investigate more closely, you can always run your own Local Search Grid reports during your business’s opening hours and compare them to the results of when it’s closed. Otherwise, just keep your eyes peeled for more information on this as we have it.

And, in the very wise words of our very own Claire Carlile:

Claire Carlile weighs in on opening hours

Local SEO Expert at BrightLocal

Waaaa, the sky is falling down! Quick, quick—set your hours to open 24/7! No, seriously, don’t do that.

It makes sense that Google would take opening hours into account when deciding how to rank results—especially when someone is very specific in their search query (for example ‘coffee shop near me open now’) or is looking for a service where immediacy is a factor (for example ’emergency plumber near me”).

I feel pretty sure that Google will turn down the dial on opening hours as a generic (in the sense that open businesses are better ranked and closed businesses are not ranked so well) ranking factor soon. 

The ‘activities’ module has been spotted on a range of business profiles including hotels.

Google Business Profiles now shows the Add "Acitivies" option for Hotel Category businesses. #GBPupdate #LocalSEO #SEO #googlebusinessprofiles@googlemybiz@rustybrick pic.twitter.com/qEBK9Byhnv

— Sohan Jain (@sohanjain) November 3, 2023

Though, personally, I have not yet seen this rolled out to hotels or accommodation categories.

If you have these buttons, lucky you! By adding your tickets or your activities, you’ll be able to secure a presence in any of the free ‘Things to do’ units that Google might be adding to your local knowledge panel. We’ll talk you through what this means below.

What is Google’s ‘Things to do’?

Google’s ‘Things to do’ program is part of Google Travel. It aims to make it easier for searchers to find and book tours, activities, and tickets based around Points of Interest (POIs).

A ‘Point of Interest’ is a place that someone might find interesting. For example, if you are on holiday you’ll find restaurants and places to stay of interest. If you’re looking to relocate to a new geographic area you’ll find schools, libraries, and hospitals of interest. 

Google Maps (as well as other platforms like travel apps, event apps, food and drink apps) uses POIs to help searchers find places that they are interested in. Your business on Google Maps (and indeed any of those other platforms) is a POI.

Since ‘Things to do’ is part of Google Travel, the POIs will consist of the types of business locations that have relevance—attractions, experience providers, restaurants, and hotels. If you’re involved with the Google Business Profile listing of any businesses like this, Google’s ‘Things to do’ program could very likely be making an appearance in your SERPs of interest.

There are both ‘free’ and ‘paid ad’ elements to ‘Things to do’.  This is how Google describes it:

“With Things to do, partners can surface their inventory via free listings and through a dynamic ad format. We encourage attractions, tour operators, and activity providers to work directly with their restech provider to take part.”

‘Things to do’ products are displayed in various formats across several surfaces. To simplify requirements they can generally be split into four different modules, 

• the Ads module, 
• booking module, 
• experiences module and 
• the operator booking module

It’s the ‘booking module’ (‘tickets’ in the NMX) and the ‘operator booking module’ (‘activities’ in the NMX) that we’ll focus on in this post. Both are free and can be populated by the business using the NMX.

‘Things to do’ and Third-party Listings

If you’ve been involved in digital marketing for hospitality businesses like restaurants and hotels you’ll be aware that OTAs (online travel agencies) and third-party platforms (such as DoorDash) can make paid or organic appearances in our business’s local knowledge panels:

Below: Ads in a hotel’s local knowledge panel

Below: Third-party providers making an appearance in Alinea’s local knowledge panel

It’s worth noting that there isn’t much we can do about the ads—if you have a third-party partnership and Google chooses to show third-party provider ads then beyond no longer working with third parties you don’t have much of a choice (check out the work of Tim Capper for more details on how hotels pull the short straw when it comes to free and flexible functionality).

Google My Business for Hotels: How to Set Up and Optimize Google Hotel Listings

Read More

At the time of writing, there is something that a business can do when Google includes an OTA or a third party in one of the ‘not paid for’ units. 

Businesses need to proactively monitor what is appearing in their local knowledge panel and make sure that they make the most of all opportunities to add their own content. In many cases, adding their own content will push those third-party listings further down and reduce the number of eyeballs and clicks that those third-parties can earn. The same can be said when they add their tickets or activities. Moreover, Google will add an ‘official site’ badge to the activities or tickets that you add:

Ticketing/Admissions: The ‘Booking Module’

The local knowledge panel for many attraction-type businesses will include a ‘ticketing’ section.

On a desktop it can look like this:

Click on the tickets link to see all of the ticketing options:

Note that if you have added your own activities, you’ll appear right at the top of the list, above the third-party listings that can populate this section.

Be aware that this module in Google search allows potential customers to quickly and easily compare entry ticket prices between the official ticket provider (you, as a business) and the OTAs. So, if you’re offering discounted rates to OTAs this won’t look appealing to potential customers, who are likely to click on a third-party listing if it appears to offer a cheaper rate.

This is what Google tells us about how these results are displayed:

“Tickets are ranked based on several factors, but mainly by price. Official tickets are given preference in the ranking. Ticket suppliers don’t pay Google to appear in these search results and can’t pay to influence their ranking.

Prices are based on standard adult entry and may vary depending on the specific ticket types, dates or eligibility for other discounts. Displayed currencies may differ from the currencies used to purchase tickets.”

All attraction businesses are eligible for ‘tickets’. If you are an attraction and you don’t have the option to add tickets you should contact Google Business Profile help. You’ll need to make sure that you’re following Google’s ‘Things to do’ general policies and price policies.

How do I add my own tickets?

Click on ‘tickets’ in the NMX. 

From here you can add your ticket options in these fields:

All of the data here must match what is on your product landing page—so make sure that the ticket name and the price are correct.

At this point only the ‘Adult’ visitor type is supported:

You’ll need to add a link to the relevant product landing page. Make sure that you add UTM tagging so that you can use Google Analytics to track visitors to your website from your ticketing links and any conversions that they go on to make.

Activities and Bookings: The ‘Operator Booking’ Module

The ‘Things to do’ operator booking module provides a way for tour operators to display their products on their own Google Business Profile entry. Alongside the tour operator products, tours provided by this operator via different OTAs are also displayed.

If you have activities showing in your local knowledge panel they’ll look like this:

Note that if you have added your own ticketing you’ll appear right at the top of the list, above the third-party listings that can populate this section. You’ll need to monitor your local knowledge panel to see which third-party listings are being pulled in. Click on ‘view more’ to see any additional options:

If you see the ‘activities’ button in your NMX or in your local knowledge panel, you can go ahead and add your own activities:

Just click on the ‘activities’ label and you’ll see this:

Click ‘get started’ to go to the first of 2 screens:

Complete all of the fields according to your product. Remember to UTM tag up your Booking URL link so that you can monitor visits and conversions in GA.

On the second screen:

You can upload a photo according to these guidelines (see full image guidelines here):

• Format: JPG or PNG. No animation.
• Recommended dimension: 2048 x 1366 px (or 1024 x 683 px)
• Minimum dimension: 300 x 300 px
• Maximum file size: 16MB
• Recommended ratio: 1:1 or 4:3
• Quality: Make the attraction or activity the focus of the photo. Use images that are sharp, well-lit, and true to life.

And, at this stage, you’ll also add the activity duration and language.

An Essential for Hotels and Attractions

Adding these ‘Things to do’ is a quick way to show both Google and potential visitors the options they’ll have. Not only that, but it gives you a chance to own the whole booking journey for your customer, helping skip those pesky third-party resellers and allowing you to drive more website visitors from your GBP.

For POI businesses in the relevant categories, it’s now a ‘not to be overlooked’ part of the Google Business Profile optimization.