With more than 5.6 billion searches per day you can be very sure that many of your customers use Google to find taxi services and check credentials by viewing reviews. For example, the keyword “taxi near me” has an average monthly search of more than 600,000 in the US alone. Can you imagine the amount of traffic you would attract if you show up in the first position for that search? New visitors to town represent potential new passengers for your taxi company and these people will be especially likely to search for taxi services online. So, this is where Google My Business comes into play.
As you probably already know, the competition is fierce when it comes to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Everybody competes to be there. In fact, the same keyword “taxi near me” in the UK and Ireland triggers 1,3 million results. It triggers 1,5 million in the US and Canada.
In fact that’s the reason many taxi fleets don’t invest time and resources in this channel. They simply think it’s an impossible mission to stand out there or they don’t trust in the “science” of SEO and the volatility of positioning. If this is you, then you’re half correct. It’s true that the rank is dynamic and changes but it can change in your favour if you follow good practices and revise it periodically.
In this article we’ll look at how Google MyBusiness and SEO Local can help you climb to the top of the rankings.
SEO Local for taxi business
Google’s mission is to match the query of the users with the best and most useful content on the Internet. After many years crawling billions of websites, Google now has way too much information and it’s difficult to match the amount of results with the user demand in an efficient way. That’s the reason Google structures their data by market and by region. Offering local content is one of Google’s best strategies for providing useful responses.
For that reason if you’re a local taxi service, the benefits of local search engine optimisation can be fantastic. People looking for taxi services are looking for immediate and local solutions. That’s your opportunity to appear in the top position. You just need to optimize your business with Google’s favourite tool at the local level: Google MyBusiness. And the best part is, it’s free of charge.
5 Steps to setting up and managing Google My Business for success
Following on from our article on 10 ways to optimize your taxi fleet digital marketing strategy during Covid, we want to give you some specific tips for local SEO on Google My Business.
- Create your Google My Business account
This part of the process is vital as it will define the name of your business, the area where you operate and the services available for the users.
In order to create the profile you need to have a standard Google account (separated from your personal one). It’s better to create one specific for your business.
Once you have that, go to google.com/business and click ‘manage now’. Then enter the basic information to set up your Google My Business profile.
- Your address
- Your business hours
- Your business category
- The services you offer
- Logo and Images
Make sure to fill out all fields., Google does not like incomplete profiles, and either do passengers. Think about it from your own personal experience point of view – when you see a profile with no logo or profile pic, what does that say? Closed/Don;t care/Unprofessional?
2. Connect the Business account to one business profile
After setting up Google MyBusiness you will probably need to connect it to one business profile and claim the business. Remember that we recommended creating an account separated from your personal Google account? That’s the business profile. This is the account that you have to use for going onto the next step.
For claiming your business just go to Google.com/maps and look for it. Then click on “own this business” and start the process to verify it. The authentication process should be very straightforward as you created the MyBusiness profile with the same account you are claiming it.
The reason you need to now claim the account is so you can take control of managing that account – replying to reviews for example. You will be exclusively able to edit the profile once claimed.
3. Respond on time to user reviews
The section Reviews is going to be really important for your taxi company. It’s where your customers leave feedback about you and rate your services (this star mark is visible to all users). Google wants you to respond to customers and reviews and rewards you for doing so. So, make sure you reply to all reviews with a quick turnaround, even the negative ones. This demonstrates consistent customer service to potential customers and boosts your local SEO.
Furthermore, you can respond to questions asked by users and they are added directly to one list. This helps with clarity for all users who see your Google My Business profile.
4. Communicate with posts
Another great tool in MyBusiness is Posts. Google allows you to keep users engaged with different content. Examples of this are Covid19 updates like announcing that your fleet is now completely equipped with screens. You can share special offers, service changes, news, or local events your taxi company will cover.
5. Study customer insights
And last but not least we highly advise you to use one of the major perks of GMB: Customer Insights. Analysing all this data will give you a real understanding of how your users interact with your website. You will learn, among other things, how many phone calls you have per day of the week, what location areas are giving you more customers (interesting for creating routes), how people get to your profile,etc.
So there you go, GMB is an essential platform for improving the digital presence of taxi fleets in local markets. The perks you get from this tool will help you attract more qualified leads and increase the number of potential customers booking with you.