How can I add keywords to Google My Business without spamming?

Adding keywords and optimising Google My Business is always a tip-toe delicate area as you will hear about a lot of businesses losing there business listing “for no reason”. On the odd occasion that may be true. But in most cases, they have read a tip or trick and applied it thinking it sounded ok and then realising it broke one of Google policies.

The next minute there listing is suspended and they are perplexed. But from my experience, many business owners do not understand the right wat to add keywords. If I was to summarise the correct way its this…

“Use keywords naturally and to appeal to the Human above the Google Bot”
Zanet Design

So today I want you to look at your Google My Business listing, be honest and make sure it reads naturally. One of the best and surest ways to check your keywords is to read it out loud or ask someone else to do this, it’s surprising how spammy it can sounds if you have not had a human in mind when adding keywords.

At this point, if you are asking the obvious question, what are keywords, and why does my business need them or how can I use them for growing my ranking and appeal to more clients? Then this article and video are for you.

This article and video will take a look at the following :

Video: How To Add Keywords To Google My Business

What are keywords?

You hear everyone talking about them, but no one ever seems to define them, so what are keywords?

They can be (though rarely are) single words. More often they are complex phrases. For example, my chosen keyword on this page is “How To Add Keywords To Google My Business“, so that is a phrase or question consisting of 7 words, often known as a long-tail keyword. A short-tail keyword is 2 or 3 words.

But a more defined way of explaining the meaning is to remember these aren’t any old word combination. Keywords are words that are used to find your business, real words and phrases real people use.

How you can find keywords for your business

One of the easiest ways to find keywords is to let Google guide you to the actual genuine words humans have typed into Google. It can be any simpler. Try this now.

Time needed: 1 minute.

How Google helps you find keywords for Google My Business

Open the Google search engine in Google .com
Now start typing a word related to your business and the top words appear
The example is for the word digital
Then use one of these that are relevant as an article heading and subject for you next GMB post

So Google itself is one of the best tools around for revealing real search terms. Other tools include Semrush which is an excellent tool with a free 14-day trial. It designed to make finding lucrative keywords fast by analysing your competitor’s websites.

Also, I love answerthepublic.com If you haven’t seen this slightly unusual approach to finding keywords for your sector, you are going to really enjoy visiting this search engine, and it’s free.

Another really useful tool is your very own Google search console. Search Console tools and reports help you measure your site’s Search traffic and performance, fix issues and make your site shine in Google Search results. It shows a lot of data about the very keywords that you already rank for.

How Google views keywords in Google My Business?

Before explaining what you need to know about where and how to appeal to your clients through various forms within GMB, we first need to understand what types of keywords are important for your business. This means we need to grab an understanding of the 3 things google uses to rank your listing.

According to https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091. So in simple terms, Google My Business is ranking your business based on these 3 variables relevance, distance, and prominence.

Next time you write an article, think about the words customers (humans) would type to find your business, and make sure that your listing actually includes those keywords within it.

So for example and I use this in my video above. If I had a cab service in Delhi, I need to understand Who and Why my business is needed. This is why I love answerthepublic.com
It shows me that humans are searching for a cab service in Delhi, but specifically using these keywords:

cab service in Delhi for sightseeing
which cab service is best in Delhi
which is the cheapest cab service in Delhi

Why are keywords important to your clients and Google?

It’s important to Google because its important to your clients. That’s the basic reasoning as to why Google chose those 3 values. For Google to remain relevant to humans, it has to adopt human values in its algorithm.

Now with the lesson, I’ve just learned from Google, what control do I have to break this down into the 3 types of keywords “relevance, distance, and prominence.”? I can certainly control them to some degree with keywords.

Relevance. I can have some control over as you will see below.

Relevant products services / Taxi service / cab service / minibus / airport / Car service / Private Hire / Limousine service, autos, Chauffeur Driven
Words that would commonly be used with your product or service: best, cheap, affordable, near me, local, transport, find me, where is the nearest, reliable, 5 star, competitive rate, etc

Distance is a bit tricky, as it’s mainly based on geographical location and office address rather than keywords alone.

Areas covered, include towns cities district’s, Delhi, New Delhi, Kashmere gate, West Delhi (geotag images)

Prominence. This takes time and work and few businesses can be bothered with this. so you have to think long term to see this kick in.

Prominence is more reviews and positive ratings over time. It includes authoritative links from articles, directories and perceived branding strength.

If I can appeal to Google, I’m going to not only grow in Google’s ranking but appeal to humans too.

Where do I put keywords into Google My Business

The video above will take you through each one of these and explains it better than screenshots. Ultimately there are four areas you can add your handpicked keywords too…

But for FAQs you may find Google taking them on and off as experimental.

Where do I put keywords into Google My Business

However when Google does show them they look like this on your Google My Business listing.

Add a strong description:
Use the focused keywords wisely and add them in the information.
FAQs – question and answer with keywords
Create Posts: You can create posts on Google business page for 300 words. You can try to be creative and use the keywords in your post. Try to add an article every day. / events etc
Testimonials: You can ask your service users to write a testimonial for your services. Most of the keywords are covered when talking about services for example (could ask if they could mention …)must be natural

Conclusion: Do’s and don’ts

Don’t keyword stuff (lots and lots meaningless).
Never add keywords that aren’t relevant.
Don’t include keywords in the business listing title unless its a genuine business title.

Do include your most relevant keywords to the beginning of the description.
Regularly write a post with keywords.
Do continue to update testimonials.
Regularly add new reviews and other citations with keywords.
Do update regularly as GMB posts expiring every 7 days.

The article is aimed at people who have no idea what keywords are, or how they can use keywords to improve their presence in Google but specifically there Google My Business listing.

If you have ever asked what are keywords, and why does my business need them then you are in good company. So make sure you didn’t miss our top trick with Google search and give it a try after you check out the video that takes you through every step needed to get the right keywords for your business. Before you know it you will be improving your ranking and appealing to more clients.

What Next?

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