How to Rank Your Painting Business #1 on Google Maps

Published On: November 29, 2021

Categories: Design & Marketing

How to Rank Your Painting Business #1 on Google Maps

An online presence gives a competitive advantage to any business. For service providers like painting contractors, getting listed on Google Maps means a lot. When customers require painting services, their Google searches incline toward nearby businesses.

Such searches with local intent trigger Google’s algorithms to display painting businesses within the user’s proximity. When you rank your painting business on Google Maps, you attract more customers, outdo competitors, and increase the reputation of your business.

Why Ranking Higher on Google Maps is Important

The primary reason is simple: to increase your brand’s visibility.

Google approximates that up to 83% of Americans use Google Maps to navigate to stores and service providers. Most of these people rarely go past the first three listings when picking a business.

The other reason for ranking within the first three spots on Google Maps is that you’ll also rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). Google’s “Local 3-Pack” exposes your painting brand to users nearby.

Add and Claim Your Google Map Listing

If you want to rank your painting business on Google Maps, you have to deploy the right SEO strategy. But before that, your painting business has to get listed.

Creating a Google Maps listing for your business is straightforward:

  • Head over to the official Google Maps page or app and search for your business.
  • If you have a listing, your business should be displayed.
  • If your painting business name isn’t shown, you can add it via the “Add a Missing Place” feature.
  • When you click said feature, a pop-up will appear prompting you to input your business name, category, and location.

When you add a listing, you only submit basic business information. You won’t rank your painting business on Google Maps with such insufficient data.

You need to claim your painting company by providing more information. As a requirement, Google Maps has to link to your Google My Business profile.

Optimize Your GMB profile

For most successful business owners, claiming, and optimizing their GMB profiles is a crucial part of their local SEO strategies.

GMB is the perfect platform for displaying your painting company across various Google platforms.

Your GMB profile carries vital information such as business name, reviews, description, address, phone number, category, website, photos, business hours, locations, and services.

Ensure you fill the required fields with accurate data. If you leave any fields empty, your business competitors might input the wrong information.

Picking the right category is also essential. It won’t rank your painting business on Google Maps but will signal to crawlers that your business is in the painting industry.

Add High-Quality Photos of Your Team and Work

In the absence of a business photo, Google will display a generic map in your listings. Such a display is less appealing to customers and, worse, to search algorithms. Photos are integral to any SEO strategy, and if you fail to upload any, you’ll take longer to rank higher.

Thanks to Google’s advanced photo-recognition technology, photos are now displayed in local SERPs. With high-quality painting photos, your business will appear higher on search results pages.

Photos of your work, team, and products need to be added frequently. These photos display the seriousness of your business and build a connection with customers.

Use Subcategories in Your GMB Listings

Similar to the primary category, secondary categories are important in local search engine optimization. The subcategories need to be related to the main category. You should also include keywords that are mostly searched.

Subcategories enhance your listing. They provide more information about your business to customers and search engine crawlers.

Get 5-star Google Reviews!

Google Maps has a bias for business listings with five-star reviews. Positive Google reviews are likely to rank your painting business on Google Maps. Good reviews also improve your site’s click-through rate. Google considers the following components when checking reviews.

  • How often the reviews are posted
  • Whether a star rating accompanies the review
  • The words and the tone of the review

Whenever you create a listing, Google will automatically enable customers to review your services. You can get more reviews by placing your review links in your email signatures or invoices

You should actively respond to reviews—both positive and negative—and be quick to address any customer dissatisfaction. Bad reviews are inevitable at some stage, but they shouldn’t occur regularly.

Fix Your On-Page SEO

On-page SEO is essential if you intend to rank both on SERPs and Google Maps.

Your website must load in seconds, have an SSL certificate, and respond well in mobile browsers. If any of the mentioned features are absent, it could increase the site’s bounce rate and lead to lower SEO scores.

The landing page linking to the Google Maps listing should be well optimized for such engines. It has to have proper keywords, geotagged images, and an authoritative article.

Google Maps will rank your painting business higher if it quickly establishes its trustworthiness. Algorithms explore the entire web looking for your business name then weigh its authenticity. Your business needs to have a consistent name everywhere, including on social media.

Ensure Your Online Citations are Consistent

The name, address, and phone number (NAP) of your business should be mentioned consistently across various platforms like local business directories, social media, websites, and apps. When set up correctly and consistently, citations can significantly improve your local rankings.

For local SEO, the must-have citations are from GMB, Bing Maps, Facebook, and Yelp. You can further build citations from other blogs, government databases, or news sites.

Build Strong Industry-Specific Citations

Beyond core citations, you can target citations from industry-specific platforms. These are high-value, structured citations that you build or earn from professional or trade associations.

Getting listed in industry-specific listings is considered more important than listings from high domain authority. You can earn vital referral traffic that comes in handy when growing your painting industry.

Only pay for citations if they can generate sales leads to your painting business.

Build High-Quality Backlinks from Relevant Sites

Google’s algorithms also rely on links when ranking business listings on Google Maps. Authority links will help, but local links are vital when ranking higher in local searches.

Approach local businesses with which your painting company has close relationships and offer to write a review or testimonial in exchange for a link to your website. The more links that point to your painting site, the more online reputation you build.

Optimize Your Website

You can boost your Google Maps rankings by optimizing your website for local searches. A good strategy is by incorporating relevant, local keywords in copy pages and web content. Ensure everything from the homepage to the contact page has location-based keywords.

If your Google Map listing links to your site, you’ll need to improve the website’s responsiveness. Broken links, slow load speeds, and bad UI significantly hamper your rankings.

Post Regularly

Another factor that Google Maps checks when ranking is how actively you maintain your listings. Regular posts indicate you’re actively managing your listings, and Google will rank your business higher.

Posts are also a good way of engaging with your painting customers and informing them of your offers.

Be Patient

Google Map listings take time to rank, particularly for new sites. Both on-page and off-page SEO strategies like link building and getting reviews require time. If you hasten any of these processes, it might appear unnatural to Google crawlers and dent your rankings.

For your painting business to get noticed, it has no option other than being the first in Google Map listings.

Get in touch, and let us help you rank higher in Google Maps.

Brandon Pierpont

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