Search Engine Optimization For your store to rank high on Google

Search Engine Optimization

For your store to rank high on Google

86% of local store customers do Google search before a visit

While each local business has their own set of unique characteristics and marketing strategies, Google Business Profile is essential to every local business marketing. According to the Google Consumer Insights Report, mobile users searching for a store with “near me”keywords increased more than 200% over the past years, and 86% of customers locate a local business through Google. Location-based search is on the rise, and the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is becoming an important tool for businesses to connect with customers.

As of June 2023, Google is occupying 89% market share of the search engine industry in the U.S., and the share goes up to 92% globally. While Bing and Yahoo! cater internet search services to users, they fall far behind Google in market share. You can utilize Google’s dominant influence in the internet search to make your store easier to find on the net.

Source: safari digital

The reasons why SEO is important to local business

It’s free but highly effective in exposing your business to potential clients. Most beauty supply retail stores do not run an official website. Google can connect your business to local customers effectively, and your business local ranking on Google can directly translate to your sales revenue.

Over 7 out of 10 people visit a business within 5 miles after a localized search. According to a survey conducted by HubSpot, 72% of consumers who conducted a local search visited a store within 5 miles radius. Accordingly, if you improve your SEO for local search, you will boost your likelihood of attracting potential customers who search services or products online.

Tips for local search optimization

Local search results are based on relevancy, distance, and prominence, and if one searches “beauty supply”, your business appears first if you rank highest among the stores in the area. How to improve your local search rank?

Source: Cube creative

A complete Google Business Profile improves conversion rate seven times

To optimize your Google Business Profile, make sure your business information is complete and updated. The information includes business name, address, phone number, website, business hour, reviews, answers, photos, and other relevant details. If you have a complete business profile, 2.7-times more customers consider your business trustworthy and they are 70% more likely to actually visit your store or website. A renowned SEO expert Joy Hawkins emphasized that Google Business Profile is one of the top categories to consider in improving your search ranking on Google.

Adding core keywords

While setting a basic category makes a substantial contribution to search result, adding appropriate keywords to Google Business Profile can improve your relevancy. Especially, if you search “Beauty Supply” on Google, you will see the result including other retail businesses such as ULTA, Sephora, SALLY BEAUTY, CosmoProf that are not specific to textured hair. So, you can include unique and distinctive products or services as keywords to improve your search performance. You can utilize Google Analytics Dashboard to find out what keywords lead customers to your store, and you should target those keywords in devising marketing strategies. Local businesses can especially include a city or town name for SEO. For example, if you run a beauty supply business in Duluth, Georgia, you can add Duluth beauty supply, Duluth wigs, and so on.

How to insert keywords to My Google Business

Go to Google Business Profile > Info > Add Business Description, and try to include keywords in your business description. You may try to insert the most relevant keywords in the beginning of your sentence or paragraph.
Answer customer questions in the FAQs using the keywords.
You can post messages about your store update, event, promotion, new products, and new locations on Google Business Profile > Posts > Create posts. It can be up to 300 words and will expire in 7 days, so you should create posts regularly.
You can ask your customer to write a review including certain keywords. Most keywords can be mentioned in discussion of products sold at your business.

Adding product/service information to Google Business Profile

Most beauty supplies’ Business Profile do not include product information. If you have new items or products that are not available in other stores, you can list them in the section. While you can manually enter products into Google Business Profile, you can use Google’s Pointy in connection with your POS to add products to Google Business Profile automatically. In addition, if you offer salon services within your store, you can add details of the service offerings. Service features have an impact on the search ranking. (You can add products to Product and services to Service in Google Business Profile.)

Source: SALLY BEAUTY Google profile

You can connect Pointy to your POS to conveniently upload your products to your business profile. Source: search engine land

How to manage reviews

According to a 2023 survey of local consumers by BrightLocal, 98% of consumers read reviews of local businesses before making a visit.

Interesting statistics about Google Review

Businesses with more than 200 reviews are twice more profitable than others.

On average, local businesses have 39 Google reviews

Regardless of being a positive or negative review, 20% of customers expect timely response from the business.

83% of consumers prefer recent reviews for trustworthiness.

84% of consumers look for negative reviews.

Source: Brightlocal

Source: Findstack, Brightlocal, safaridigital

Utilizing FAQs in Google Business Profile

According to a few case studies, companies actively engaged in the Q&A section in Google My Business listing often increase customer participation and conversion by up to 30%. A quick response to a question leads to higher customer satisfaction. If you take care of general inquiries through search results and set up FAQs in the Google Business Profile, you can save time for your employees from answering repetitive phone call inquiries and emails.

Adding attributes and accessibility

Google can automatically suggest appropriate attributes for your business. While it is most suitable for restaurants and hotels, beauty supplies can add a few attributes to attract customers. LGBTQ+ friendly, women-owned, veteran-owned, and so on are just a few of potential candidates to be included in your Google Business Profile. For example, if a user searches for women-owned businesses near me, businesses with the women-owned attribute will rank higher on the result. As such, you can rank higher on search results relevant to the attributes. You can add accessibility if you have wheelchair access to the store or to your restroom. (This information can be added to the Info section in Google Business Profile.)

Source: blog.google
Source: professorm.org

Upload 11 or more photos of your business

An average local business in Google Business Profile uploads 11 photos, and if your retail business has less than 11, you should consider adding a few more. Google Business Profile with product or service photos can look twice more prominent. When you upload photos, include photos of the exterior and interior of your store, product photos, and photos of your employees.