How I Think About Apple Maps for Local SEO

tmblast

Apple Maps makes for a nice addition to my #localseoservices for my clients. Every client varies with how much more incremental value they can get from Apple Maps, but I like to say that, on average, you can expect somewhere between 5-10% of your phone calls and leads from Apple Maps each month for #LocalSEO.   Timestamps: 0:08: Local Falcon SoLV Trend Report for Apple Maps 0:52 Apple Maps Heat Map Change 1:08 Use Local Falcon to Look at Competitor's SoLV 2:04 Local Falcon uses DuckDuckGo as the SoLV Benchmark 2:46 Think of an Actual Apple Map Search as the Goal 3:45 Apple Maps Filters are Important 4:49 I Look at the SERP on Apple Maps / DDG to Get an Idea of Reviews 5:32 Compile the Apple Maps Data on a Monthly Basis to Track the Results 6:30 Changes I Make for My Local SEO Clients 7:23 How Much Does Apple Maps Matter for Local SEO? 9:07 In Conclusion  You can use my affiliate link here to run a free scan of your business on Apple Maps to see how you rank https://localfalcon.com?fpr=greg81  Want to learn more about my monthly SEO service?  https://tmblast.com/services/nyc-local-seo/  #AppleMapsSEO #AppleMapsLocalSEO #AppleBusinessConnect #LocalSEO #LocalSEOTips

Transcript

00:00Hey everyone, what's going on? Greg here again from Team Blast. I want to talk about Apple

00:03Maps and how I think about it for my local SEO clients. So I'm using Local Falcon to

00:09track the category search. So the keyword here is nail technician. The reason why I

00:13track category search is that Apple Business Connect does not provide the keywords that

00:17trigger an account. All they will say is brand search and then category search. So the category

00:23here is nail technician. It also could be like nail salon. So if you're like an HVAC

00:27company, a plumber, if you're a dentist, basically the category search is what I would

00:31track. I wouldn't worry too much about like specific keywords, just track the category

00:36because that's generally how Apple categorizes that via their how many searches trigger your

00:41account. So anyway, for my client though, we went from a 0% share of local voice back on

00:46September 4th to now at 33.88% on September 9th, which is great. This is how the map is

00:53changing for them. So basically top left is all red. We're not on page one. Bottom right,

00:59now there's 33% of the time that we are on page one for Apple Map searches that trigger

01:05the map pack, which is great. Now what I always do is just like for Google, I look at the competitor

01:11report. So the competitor report is actually really important because where I live in New York,

01:16I'm not in the city. So I'm not able to do a live view of what will show up when you do a search

01:21for nail technician. I have to rely on local Falcon to show me all the cash versions of all the

01:26companies that are running at the same time, who are open, who are all competing for the same area

01:31because then I have to look at each profile. So generally what I do is I look at all the dots

01:35that we're competing directly against, and I'm going to look at their listing. So usually off the

01:41top of my head, I will look at things like, is there any keyword stuffing going on in the titles?

01:45Do they have any call to actions? Do they have Yelp reviews, TripAdvisor reviews? A lot of things

01:54that can come from a competitor analysis I really want to look at and say, okay, what can we do to

01:58potentially get some of this share back? So we get more impressions, website clicks, phone calls,

02:03everything else. Now to explain this a little bit is that with local Falcon, this isn't exactly

02:09Apple Maps specific ranking. This is actually DuckDuckGo. So the reason why that's the case is

02:15that Apple doesn't exactly provide this type of data to local Falcon. So they have to use the next

02:22best source, which is so DuckDuckGo uses Apple Maps via their map pack. So if you search for a nail

02:26technician near me on DuckDuckGo, they're going to display three organic map pack listings. That's the

02:31share of local voice. It's all from Apple Maps. But we all know that that's going to be a very,

02:36very, very small share of the market share. It's actually even less than Bing. So that kind of gives

02:42you an idea of, okay, well, this is what's really the value. So the value actually is Apple Maps search

02:49specific. So I took a screenshot this morning of just the keyword nail technicians. And this is what

02:55shows up for me. Now, obviously, there's more than three map pack listings. Now, my thought process

03:01is that if we're ranking better via share of local voice on DuckDuckGo, that should translate over

03:06into Apple Maps search specific. What I've been seeing with my clients that as we've been improving

03:10our share of local voice for our core category terms, that does result in more impressions each

03:15month, which then comes into more website clicks, more direction requests, more photo clicks, more

03:21phone calls, more services. It all really kind of lines up. But you have to kind of have a little bit

03:28of, I would say like guesswork, because you won't exactly know for sure how you're displayed within

03:35an Apple Maps search. But if you're ranking better via the shared local voice, then it should translate

03:39into Apple Maps or specific searches. Now, what I also look at, though, for my for my clients is these

03:45filters. Filters is very much a ranking factor. I see this all the time, even for myself, I'm not really

03:51an Apple Maps user. But I have used this in the past where I've actually played around with the filters

03:56before I've contacted a company and the accepts Apple Pay is a ranking factor. What I know so a lot

04:01with my clients is that I'll ask them to say, hey, do you guys accept Apple Pay? And they'll say,

04:06oh, yeah, we do. But we don't have that checked off on the account. So if you don't have it checked

04:11off, you're not going to actually be shown for that. So if someone clicks on accepts Apple Pay,

04:15and you don't check that off, you won't be seen. So filters is a very small, but very specific

04:20ranking factor. And also, it could be a higher quality as well, because somebody who is going to,

04:25let's say, call a locksmith who wants to pay with Apple Pay. And if you don't even show up,

04:29you're not going to be in the mix. So you really want to go through your settings, make sure

04:32accepts Apple Pay, maybe has Wi Fi, maybe has ADA compliance walk ins, maybe they have, you know,

04:40a lot of different filters that you can play around with just to make sure that you are given the best

04:44possible result for somebody looking for exactly what you would you provide. Now, I also look at

04:50the SERP itself. So Apple does not use Google reviews, they use Yelp, and they use TripAdvisor,

04:58which is actually really important. So if you are, let's say a restaurant or a dentist or an HVAC

05:03company or anything, a moving company, it doesn't matter what it is, look at Local Falcon and then

05:10compare it with an actual search within DuckDuckGo, and then see what listings are actually being

05:14displayed. Usually, if the reviews are kind of being displayed, you say, oh, wow,

05:18we're not even on TripAdvisor, or maybe we're not on Yelp, that might be an opportunity to get on to

05:23get more reviews. Reviews are a ranking factor on Apple. So it's just another way to kind of get more

05:28impressions for your account and potentially even more leads. Now, I talked about this before,

05:34compiling the data. So Apple does not display the keywords that trigger your account. So you have to

05:40kind of play around with this a little bit. What I look at as a soft KPI is name or brand,

05:45and then category search. So then I'll go through each month and I'll pull the exact data for each

05:51one and say, okay, are we growing each month? Are we growing in the... Or are we starting to grow

05:56over time for category search? Name or brand, we can't really change too much. That's generally from

06:02the marketing efforts of the company. Or also if they do like social media promotions, that might

06:09actually increase brand search. But the category search is really important for me to track.

06:13Because again, if we can improve our share of local voice, then that should translate into

06:16more category searches. But then of course, place card matters too. You can see way back in September

06:21versus where we are in October. Now we have growth that is taking place. That is good. That is exactly

06:27what we want to see. Again, it comes from better rankings, et cetera. So changes I make. So I'm going

06:32to just show TM Blast over here. Things that I look at. So I will play around with the description.

06:38I will add photos. Photos, I think are a bigger ranking factor on Apple than they are on Google.

06:43I just feel like Apple is more visual. So I'm always trying to ask for photos from my clients,

06:47say if there's any photos from your team working, please provide that. So I can upload that on a

06:52weekly basis. Your hours matter. So go through, make sure you have your holiday hours confirmed.

06:59If you are open or not, that is a ranking factor. You can also play around with your categories. You can

07:03play around with your showcases. And again, the filters is a big ranking factor too. So I mentioned

07:08that. Again, if you're like a locksmith or HVAC and you accept Apple Pay, be sure to check that off.

07:14And if you don't accept Apple Pay now, there might be an opportunity for you to say, hey, what if we

07:17accepted Apple Pay? Would that result in potentially more leads for my business? So something just to

07:22consider. Anyway, how much does Apple matter? So I get this question all the time. Greg, you're going

07:28over all this stuff. What's the value? Well, it comes down to pulling the data from Google,

07:34from Bing, and from Apple to kind of get that measurement. Most of the time, my clients see

07:39about anywhere between 5% to 10% out of Google, Bing, and Apple, the leads that come through their

07:46business. So with Apple, leads are things like phone call clicks, or they could be people clicking

07:54on their booking or services button. Some of my clients actually see a higher percentage than 10%.

07:59But I usually like to say, hey, it's between 5% and 10%. And I think this is still important to think

08:04about because we're all going after Google, and Google is getting more and more competitive to keep

08:09ranking. So if you're able to say, okay, if I'm getting, let's say, 30 phone calls a month from Apple,

08:16and I'm stagnant when it comes to my views, if I'm able to make some changes to my account, maybe I run

08:21some local Falcon scans, see what I can do to improve the share of local voice. I go from 30

08:24phone calls, so basically one phone call a day, to let's say 45 phone calls now per month. So

08:29that's one and a half phone calls per day. What does that additional 15 phone calls result? And

08:34that might be for every five phone calls you get, you actually get one paying customer. So you get

08:38an idea now, as you're breaking down the math, you just got three more customers that month from

08:42simply improving your rank a little bit on Apple Maps. And that's more leads for your business

08:48without really changing too much. Plus also, this isn't a pay to play platform. So it's not like

08:54Google ads or Bing ads, where you're now you're paying an additional fee for more exposure. This

08:58is more about, you know, getting an idea of how you rank for Apple Maps and say, what if we can

09:02just increase this just by a little bit? Would this be worth? What would this be worth for my

09:06business? So anyway, I'll scroll up to the very top over here, because I think really all that matters

09:11is this type of view, the left and the right. So before the map was all red on the right, again,

09:18more green dots, that's gonna result in more impressions, more website clicks, phone calls,

09:21and leads for my client. Anyway, thanks for watching this video and stay tuned for the next one.

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