How to Rank Higher on Google Maps: The 3 Factors That Matter Most (Plus a Bonus Tip)

This is one of our clients, The H2O Base, a water treatment company in Pipersville. This search is done directly in Pipersville, and their top keyword is “water treatment near me.” They rank for other keywords too, but the map looks very similar for all of them: they’re dominating it.

Their share of local voice is 96 out of 100, which is excellent. It means they show up in the top three at 96 percent of the points on the map. Around their office, they’re dominating. We’ve been working with this company, and we’ve improved their rankings dramatically.

But as the map gets further from their office, things change. Pipersville still gets the boost from their physical location. New Hope, Lahaska, Holicong and Doylestown are areas they really want to get into, and Doylestown is a populated area we want to rank in. They’re weaker there because of the physical location.

One of the things we’ve talked to them about, and a conversation we have with our clients, is opening another location. It could be a cheap office space, but it does have to be staffed. Say they really wanted to target Warrington: a location there would get them the Warrington and Doylestown overlap. Or to reach New Hope, they might open one around Buckmanville, Upper Makefield or Newtown Grant. The primary location only covers a certain radius.

A new business location gets its own Google Business Profile. I’ll go over how to open multiple Google Business Profiles in another video, but basically, you create the new one under the same business account, and there are some other steps. We create location pages on the website, and each location gets a separate phone number. If you mix the phone numbers, Google might merge the profiles.

Physical location matters the most. Search “roofer near me” from Philadelphia, and the results are roofers based in Philadelphia. You can be the best roofer in New York City, but you’re never going to show up here. And for local service businesses, the map pack is where a lot of these searches are won: it’s the top organic result.

Google is going to keep pushing AI Overviews. One of the reasons local service businesses are so popular from an SEO perspective, and honestly the reason we love working with them, is that they’re not going to be taken over by AI. If you’re a local service business, you have a moat for a while, and getting into the map pack is the most important thing.

The second most important ranking factor for showing up in Google Maps is your primary category. Again, it’s not rocket science. Search “roofer near me,” and all of the top results use Roofing contractor as their primary category.

Say you’re a roofing company that specializes in solar, but you also want roofing jobs. If you’re not using Roofing contractor, you have no shot of ranking for “roofer near me.” If solar panel installation is the keyword you’re really going after, then yes, you can change it. Just understand that if you’re targeting “roofer near me” without Roofing contractor as your primary category, there’s not a chance. You’d have to scroll a long way to reach the first result that isn’t a roofing contractor.

You’ll see the same thing with personal injury attorneys, a really competitive industry. Look at all the offices on the map. These offices are opened by personal injury attorneys specifically to rank in those locations. I guarantee it. Some of them may really be based there, but they’re opening new offices in these locations to rank in the map pack.

Google allows up to nine secondary categories. If you’re a personal injury attorney who specializes in a few areas, find the best keyword for the second service you want to target, see if it has a different category, and make that a secondary category. Then, in your services, write keyword-rich descriptions to account for it.

The third ranking factor is your reviews. Carmen, my wife and co-founder, did a video on this, and there’s a lot that goes into reviews.

Yes, you do need volume. Personal injury attorneys in Philadelphia show 249, 508, 454 and 946 reviews, which is extremely high. It’s not always like that. Search “HVAC near me,” and the top results have just 8, 15 and 15 reviews. A lot of it is determined by your competition. If you’re a personal injury attorney with only eight reviews, there’s zero chance you’ll show up.

You want a high review count, a high rating and a consistent pace, so get in the habit. We have an exact process all of our clients go through, including a QR code on a lanyard their team brings to every job for customers to scan.

Technically, the name on your profile has to be your business name or a DBA, a fictitious name. It doesn’t always match. But if Google flags your profile and asks for proof, it will make sure the name matches your business name or DBA.

“Personal injury attorney” is such a competitive keyword that the top results put it in their names, like “Philadelphia Personal Injury Attorney” and “Philadelphia Personal Injury Lawyers.” That’s a keyword-rich name, and people are searching for exactly that. These firms are purposely creating DBAs or business names with the keywords in them.

The reason it’s a bonus tip is that some people put keywords in their profile name, get flagged by Google, and have to remove or change it. It’s a process, and I wouldn’t recommend doing it unless you go through the proper steps. But in a highly competitive market, or if you want to rank higher, it’s like exact-match domains. If you own personalinjuryattorneynyc.com, your business is named that, and it’s your Google profile name, you’re going to rank really highly because of it. That’s why those domains are in such high demand, and why people use this strategy. A lot of it is keeping up with the competition.

One thing that won’t work is putting “near me” in your name. Google stopped that. But search “HVAC near me” in Philadelphia, and the top result is named HVAC Philadelphia. That’s probably why they’re showing up first. I doubt their business is actually called HVAC Philadelphia, but if it is, brilliant. If they don’t get flagged, they can keep it up for a while and still rank for this.

Those are my three ranking factors plus a bonus tip. If you have any other questions about maximizing your Google profile, reach out. We’d love to help.