1. Clicks on driving directions may be a Google ranking factor
2. A real-life experiment indicates this may be true
3. Embed the Google Business Profile, not an address from Google Maps
4. If page speed is negatively impacted, use an image and link to the Google Business Profile instead
Why Should You Add a Google Business Profile Listing to a Website?
It has long been theorized that embedding a Google Business Profile on websites may help with local SEO, but why is that?
Google’s Patents Mention Driving Directions as a Ranking Factor
Bill Slawski wrote about this back in 2013 while reviewing a Google assigned patent entitled “Directions-based ranking of places returned by local search queries“.
Here are some quotes from Bill’s article:
“The patent, which got granted to Google this week, describes how the search engine may look at “popularity” signals, such as how often people look up driving directions for businesses with locations that they can visit in person.”
If you’d like to explore this more check out “Driving Directions a Local Search Ranking Factor?” and “Hyper-Local, Directions-Based Ranking of Places“.
Real-Life Tests Indicate Driving Directions May Be a Ranking Factor
Recent evidence from an SEO named Holly Starks suggests that this may be true after all.
What did she do? “She put 100 cell phones in her car, turned on driving directions to a business, and that business jumped to #1 in rankings.”
How to Link or Add a GBP Listing to a Site
- Go to Google Maps
- Look up the business by name
- Click on the “Share” Button
- Click on “Embed a Map”
- Click on “Copy HTML”
Don’t Confuse a Google Business Profile with a Google Maps Address
Important Note: There is a difference between embedding a Google Business Profile vs embedding a Google Maps address.
Phil Rozek makes a very important point, and over the years while doing local SEO audits this mistake has come up time and time again.
“Embedding on your website the Google map that’s featured on your Places page. Don’t embed a map of a generic address. You want Google to know people are looking up directions to you.”
What’s the difference? If you go to Google Maps, and search for the business address, and then follow the directions above, you are doing it wrong. You must go to Google Maps and search the business name so that we can pull up the Google Business Profile.
This may be confusing to beginners because Google Maps has listings for counties, states, cities, addresses, and local businesses. Businesses can only control listings for local businesses, of course. But it’s easy to get this wrong if you’ve never done it before.
Example: 3044 Scherer Dr, St. Petersburg, FL 33716 vs PreciseCal
On Google maps you can search the address, scroll down to “At this place” to see what businesses are located at this address. Once you click on the business name, it will take you to the Google Business Profile.
See the difference?
You can also see this from Googling the address on Google.com.
What if the Google Business Profile Embed Is Causing Page Speed Issues?
Once again, Phil Rozek saves the day by giving this advice:
“If the iframe is high up on the page or the slowest-loading element by far, then maybe ditch the embedded map by using an image and linking the image to the Maps URL. Otherwise, I’d keep it, because it’s usually good UX and because you want to encourage driving-direction lookups.”
He recommends taking a screenshot of the GBP embed, adding that to the page, and then linking the image to the Google Business Profile URL. Bonus points if you also link to the Driving Directions link. This will help make it easier for users and it will increase clicks to Driving Directions, not just clicks to the GBP listing itself.
