Using Keywords To Rank On Google My Business

So I’ve been studying Sacramento and some of the service businesses over there, and I want to show you what I’m finding. So if I was somebody in Sacramento, California, and I was looking for a plumber, I would type in something like plumber Sacramento or Sacramento CA, and then you get these search results right now. Now this word right here, plumber Sacramento CA or plumber, Sacramento, that’s what’s known as a key word, okay? That’s what you want to rank for to get the most business possible.

Now, there are lots of keywords that you can go for, but in this video I want to focus on your primary keyword, the one that’s going to make you the most money by ranking at the top of the search engines or at the top of the map pack for your specific keyword. So how do we find these keywords? How do we determine what are the best keywords for your specific business? The best thing to do is just start doing some preliminary searches on Google, such as plumber, Sacramento, California. Let’s jump back over to the screen here.

Now, what you’ll see here and when you scroll down is the top three people that are ranking. This is where you want to be. This is where you’re going to get the most bang for your buck, the highest rankings, and the most traffic to your website and to your business. Now, in previous videos, we talked about categories, and you can view the categories selected for your account or other people’s accounts right here. Plumber, plumber, plumber. The category is typically one of the best keywords you can possibly use, and we’re talking about the primary category, not the additional categories.

If you want to see more about categories, go over to my video that is dedicated to just categories, or you can download my cheat sheet and get a full rundown of exactly what you do. I’ll give you more information on how to download this for free in just a minute. So once you’ve seen what the categories are the highest ranking competitors in your area, you also want to go to what’s called the Google Keyword Planner tool. This is a free tool, but you do need to sign up for a free Google Ads account. So if you have a Google Ads account, you’re good to go. If you don’t, go ahead and go to ads.google.com and sign up for a free account, and then we’re going to jump into mine. I’m going to show you exactly where to find this tool.

Okay, so here we are in my Google Ads account, and what I’m going to do is click on tools and settings at the top, this little wrench icon, and then I’m going to go over to Keyword Planner. Now, once inside this Keyword Planner, all you need to worry about is this little section called Discover New Keywords. So I’m going to click on that. Now, here’s where I’m just going to start typing in some keywords to see what Google has to say. So let’s stick with the same keyword we’ve been working with, plumber Sacramento. Get results.

Now, you’re going to see that there’s over 3,600 people on average. These numbers are not exact, but on average Google is saying there’s 3,600 people typing in plumber Sacramento, or some very close variation of that. You’ll also notice that below this, Google gives you a lot of keyword ideas. This can be very helpful if you’re having some trouble figuring out what the exact primary keyword is that you want to use. This can help you out. You can also look at the volume for each one of these ideas to determine what is going to be the most powerful, most search keyword for your business.

For example, let’s look at cheap plumber Sacramento. There’s only 320 people typing that in, but plumber Sacramento, there’s 3,600. I want to get ranked for what most people are searching for, especially if we know that they’re looking to spend money with you when they search something on Google. That’s what you’re looking for. You want the most bang for your buck, the highest profit keywords possible for your business. Another example might be plumbing company Sacramento, plumber Sacramento CA. Now notice if you put the CA behind there, you’re getting 260. Where if you don’t put the CA in there, then you’re getting 3,600. That’s a clue. We want to really focus on plumber Sacramento without the CA. Now, if we do add the CA or if we use variations of this, that’s okay.

Let’s go ahead and look and see how the top ranking companies are using this on their website. So back here at the Google search results, we’re going to see Armstrong Plumbing, Mr. Rooter. We’re going to see Ace. Okay, let’s look at the websites and see what they have in their title tags and some of the headings on their websites. So Armstrong Plumbing, you can look and see what the title tag is, which is something you need to pay attention to when you’re setting up the website or when you’re hiring somebody to design the website for you.

This little tag up here, when you hover over the top of the little tab, it’ll show you exactly what the title tag is and what Google’s going to look at first when they decide what to rank you for. He’s got plumber Sacramento, CA. Okay? That’s the first thing you see when you look at the title tag. Now, let’s go down here, and you can see his heading includes Sacramento, includes plumbing, and you can see some of the words within the paragraphs, plumbing Sacramento. Now, you do not want to be spammy with this. You want to write this for people to read, but you also want to write it so that when Google looks at it, they know exactly what your primary service is, what your primary category is, what your primary key word is that you want to rank for.

Let’s look at another one. Okay, we’re looking at Mr. Rooter. Okay, once again, title tag up here, plumber Sacramento. We’re looking over here at Sacramento plumbing, a variation of the keyword. Sacramento Plumbing once again. Sacramento plumbing service, plumbing of Sacramento. So one of the top ranking websites you can see here is really utilizing the keywords on their website. Now, I’m not going to bore you with any more of these. You can do your own research. But if you go through all the top ranking businesses, you’re going to find very similar things on their websites. They’re going to have keywords strategically placed on the website and in what’s called the title tag.

If you look at the businesses that are ranking low, and you look at their title tags and some of the words on their website, you’re going to find things that say something generic like homepage or just their business name. Throughout the content, you’re going to see very few instances, especially in the headings, of their keywords. They’re ranking very low. Google wants you to set up your website so that it syncs with what you want to actually rank for on this little map section. Okay? So give Google what they want. It’s very simple once you get the hang of it.

Now, if you like what you’ve seen so far, please hit subscribe below. I’d love to share future videos with you as they come out. I’m trying to come out with them either once a week or every two weeks, and I come out with nothing but valuable information when it comes to marketing for your local business. So hit the subscribe below. Hit the like. And if you have a question, put it in the comments below, and I will answer them. I promise.

Here’s a secret for you. Okay, so let’s look back at plumber Sacramento, that keyword that we searched for on Google. That you can see that two out of the three people in the three pack here or in the Google map section have plumbing Sacramento, or a variation of plumbing Sacramento in their business name. So this isn’t just Rooter Hero Plumbing, it’s Rooter Hero Plumbing and Air of Sacramento. Notice how they added of Sacramento on there. You can also see Mr. Rooter do the same thing. It’s not just called Mr. Rooter or Mr. Rooter Plumbing. It’s called Mr. Rooter Plumbing of Sacramento. Google is giving special preferences to people when they put the actual keyword plus the city they want to rank in as the business name.

But be very careful. Do not just go into your Google account and throw of your business name on the end there. First what you want to do is change it on Facebook. You want to change it on Yelp, and then most importantly, change it legally with the Secretary of State. So if you’re in California, you’re going to go to the California Secretary of State, and you’re going to legally change. You may need to get some documents to submit to them. It may be kind of a pain to do this, but make sure you do that before you submit to Google. A lot of times people actually get suspended. We’ve had clients do this and get suspended, or they just disappear from rankings because Google thinks they’re trying to play some games. But if you officially change it legally with Google, with your Secretary of State, you should be okay.

If you do get suspended, you can always appeal to Google, which I have a process for that in another video. And then you can tell Google, “Hey, look, I got all the legal documentation to show. This is my legit business name.” Now, here’s another secret. If you are a new business and you have not firmly established your business name yet, and you’re still trying to come up with ideas, I highly recommend you somehow incorporate the keyword and city name into your official business name upfront. That way, Google cannot contest it.

For example, I have a friend here in Missoula, Montana where I live, and he’s wanting to open up an electrical business here in our city. His business name is the 360 Electrician. So what I’m telling him he needs to do is add of Missoula at the end of that, before he even opens up, before he even gets his office or even gets the logo for his website. Make of Missoula an official part of his business name. Get that keyword in there so you can rank faster, and you can rank higher without playing games, without violating Google’s guidelines, without getting suspended.

Now, that’s it in a nutshell, but there are so many other things you can do to get your business ranked high on Google, and I’ve got a whole cheat sheet that I created just for you that you can download for free. All you need to do is go to bigwestacademy.com/gmbcheatsheet. In this cheat sheet, you’re going to find all the stuff that we do for our clients and everything that you can do for you with easy to understand information, plus little links to videos if you want to go deep on each one of those for a full explanation. Once again, my name is Joe Burnich with bigwestacademy.com, and I will see you in the video.