For better or worse, you and your website are no longer the first interaction that potential customers have with you.
Before most customers visit your website or pick up the phone to call you, they’re vetting you and your competitors on Google Maps. Imagery, reviews, hours, addresses, products, questions and answers, services, and more—whether you realize it or not, it’s all on Google Maps, and people are looking at it.
Or, they’re at least looking at the companies that rank on Google Maps.
My goal in this post is to show you why you need to rank on Google Maps to survive as a tour operator, how to improve your rankings, and once you do rank well, I’ll show you how to maintain those rankings.
Jump to a section:
- Why you need to rank on Google Maps
- How to rank on Google Maps
- How to maintain a high ranking on Google Maps
Why Your Tour & Activity Company Needs to Rank on Google Maps
1) Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) can’t be listed in Google Maps
One advantage that local tour and activity operators have over online travel agencies (like TripAdvisor and Expedia) is your address. With a real address comes the power of being found on Google Maps—something OTA’s can only dream of.
For example, if I Google “things to do near me,” the #1 organic result is a card from Google Maps with the top three things it thinks I would like to do near me—this is also known as the “Local Three-Pack”.
You’ll notice that the very next result, as is often the case, is from TripAdvisor. But that follows three local organizations in the three-pack.
Here are two other examples where search terms from customers with clear buying intent result in map results, and no OTAs:
The point here is that your address = organic ranking power that OTAs don’t have.
2) Map Listings Are More Helpful Than Organic Listings
Map listings on Google are more visually compelling and helpful than organic listings.
Not only can you give people a quick glimpse of where you’re located, but you can also begin to show them what you offer through imagery, why you’re better than others with your reviews, and you can share relevant updates with them through Google Posts (or Updates).
Here’s the difference:
As you can see, the info provided on the left answers questions, provides visuals, and lets you take the next step that’s right for you. Said concisely, the map listing gives people a chance to pre-qualify themselves for the activity before they visit your website or give you a call.
| Local Listing Result | Standard Organic Result | |
|---|---|---|
| Can you see where the business is located? | Yes | No |
| Can you look through pictures of the experience? | Yes | No |
| Can you read customer reviews? | Yes | No |
| Can you call the business and read their hours? | Yes | No |
| Can you preview their products or ask a question? | Yes | No |
When people’s first impression is from your Google Maps listing instead of your organic search result, they’re more likely to convert once they visit your website.
This brings us to our third reason…
3) When Searching for a Business, Users Prefer Map Results Over
“Blue Links”
We’ve found that users tend to prefer engaging with Google Business Profiles and then clicking into a website from there rather than from the traditional “blue link”. For many locations, the organic click-through rate for branded searches from a company’s business profile can be 2, 3, or even 4x higher vs clicks to the company’s standard “Blue Link” search results.
Here’s one example of many:
How Your Tour & Activity Company Can Rank #1 on Google Maps
Google uses hundreds of signals to determine local rankings in Google Maps, but they can be grouped into three major categories.
- The relevance of your map listing to a search
- The proximity of your location to the person searching
- The authority of your map listing and digital presence across the internet
1) Optimizing for Relevance in Google Maps
Google’s goal is to show the most relevant search results based on what people search for—and it’s looking through hundreds of data points as it does this. We’re not going to walk through those hundreds of data points, instead, we’re going to show you the most important thing you can do: Optimize the heck out of your Google Business Profile (GBP) listing—which is what shows up on Google Maps.
Here’s what you need to do (or double-check, to make sure you’ve done it properly):
Business Name
What to do: Use your actual business name as your business name in GBP.
Probably the most common question we get is “Should I keyword stuff my business name?” The short answer to this question is no. If you’re a zipline tour company located in Pigeon Forge, TN and the name of your company is “Adventure Park Ziplines” that should be the name of your company on GBP too.
Google says: “Including unnecessary information in your business name is not permitted, and could result in your listing being suspended. Refer to the specific examples below to determine what you can and can’t include in your business name.”
Ultimately, it’s up to you, but best practice is to simply use the name of your company exactly how it appears on your permanent, physical signage.
Pro Tip: Google may ask for store-front photos and official documentation to verify your business name. So, unless you’re keyword-stuffing your signage and official documents…
If you have multiple locations, sometimes it can be helpful to include the region/place of the specific location like Six Flags New England:
Address
What to do: Use a verifiable address as your business address.
The address you use will need to be able to receive mail. So if you’re using an address that technically doesn’t exist (like something with a fake suite number, for example), you should verify the address to make sure it will validate on GBP. You can do that here.
If you don’t have an address (maybe you operate a tour company from home), you may need to set up a service area business. More on that, and your address set up below.
Hours
What to do: Set up your business hours to represent when you can actually help customers.
It’s important that you add your regular, customer-facing business hours for a regular work week. There’s a chance that Google will call you to check your listing, and they’ll only call during the business hours you listed. Listing your business as open 24/7, especially when you have a storefront location, can be flagged by Google and get you suspended. So, don’t say you’re open 24/7 unless you’re really answering the phones at 4 am.
If you close up shop for a few hours each day, for example during lunch, you’ll want to add that to your hours in GBP. You can do so by clicking the “Add hours” link next to the day, or series of days when you close periodically. For example, if you’re closed from 1 till 3 pm on Mondays, you can add that to GBP:
Finally, you’ll want to add “special hours” to your listing. Google will recommend days for you to adjust (typically holidays), but you can add your own special hours too.
Pro Tip: By keeping your hours up-to-date, you can avoid receiving negative reviews from customers who came to your business to find you were closed.
Phone Number
What to do: Use a local business phone number. Ideally, this would be the same number you use everywhere else on the internet.
We recommend using a local number to all of our clients. One study found that 86% of consumers prefer local businesses to national ones, and 79% of consumers said that they perceived local companies as more reliable than national or international companies.
If you use a call tracking platform like Call Tracking Metrics or CallRail and you want to track calls from GBP, you can add a tracking number as the primary number. We recommend that you still add your primary local business phone number as a secondary number though.
Adding your primary local number as a secondary number will keep that number associated with your GBP which will help with consistency likely since that number is tied to many other places on the web.
Website URL
What to do: This one is pretty straightforward—just link to your homepage.
It can be extremely helpful to track the traffic that comes from your GBP profile in Google Analytics. One example of the value of doing this is you’ll be able to see how much revenue came in from your GBP profile vs your standard organic links.
To track this traffic, you just need to add the following UTM parameter to your URL: ?utm_source=GMBlisting&utm_medium=organic&utm_content=listing
So, for example, for the website www.mytourcompany.com, you would simply use the URLwww.mytourcompany.com/?utm_source=GBPlisting&utm_medium=organic as your primary website link in GBP.
You can also attach the UTM tags to your GBP posts, activities, tickets, and products.
GBP Posts UTM tag: ?utm_source=GBP&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=post
GBP Activities UTM tag: ?utm_source=GBPlisting&utm_medium=organic&utm_content=activity
GBP Tickets UTM tag: ?utm_source=GBPlisting&utm_medium=organic&utm_content=tickets
GBP Products UTM tag:
?utm_source=GBPlisting&utm_medium=organic&utm_content=products
Pro Tip: Make an annotation in Google Analytics when you set up your UTM parameter in your GBP.
Primary and Secondary Categories
What to do: Add relevant categories to your GBP.
Google’s recommendations for adding categories are:
- Use as few categories as possible to describe your overall core business from the provided list.
- Choose categories that are as specific as possible, but representative of your main business.
There are literally hundreds of options when choosing your categories, so it may take a few minutes to find the best one for your business—but it’s worth the effort.
Pro Tip: GBP allows you to add up to 10 secondary categories but that doesn’t mean you should. Too many categories may result in diluted search results. Don’t go overboard, be accurate and comprehensive.
Pro Tip: The categories that you choose are the categories that you build your business’ “services” under—so make sure you have a service for each category you select. (Your services are the tours and activities that you offer. These may also be built out under the activities or tickets section of your GBP).
Attributes
What to do: Turn on any attributes accurate to your business.
Based on the category of your business, you will have different attribute options. Be sure to turn on any that you have available.
Examples: free wifi, handicap accessible, military discounts, etc.
Business Description
What to do: Write a compelling description for people—not for search engines.
Good business descriptions are written primarily with your customers in mind, and secondarily with Google in mind. They should read naturally and should serve as your business’s elevator pitch. They should answer the question: why should someone do your experience? Your description should have a strong hook, communicate your brand, and convince them why your experience is worth their time and money.
Once you’ve honed in a good description, it is also helpful to Include a few relevant keywords if your description doesn’t already.
Activities, Tickets, Services & Products
What to do: Add any relevant activities, tickets, services, or products that you offer.
Services and products are available for all businesses, but only some of these categories will be available to your business. More recently, Google has added sections for activities and tickets. If you have multiple businesses, you might see that one of your profiles has a ticket section, but not an activities section, this is because Google generates what categories are available based on your business category.
For example, if you are listed as a tour operator, you will enter your experiences as activities, but if you are listed as an amusement park, you will enter them as tickets.
So, when is the correct time to use the activities, tickets, products, and services sections of your GBP? Here’s what you need to know:
| Activities | Tickets | Services | Products |
|---|---|---|---|
| If your business offers tours or experiences like city tours, boat tours, rafting trips, etc. you will most likely be categorized as a tour operator or raft trip outfitter, and your experiences will be listed as activities. | If your business requires a purchase to get into a specified area like an observation deck or amusement park, you are technically selling tickets. You do not need to sell physical tickets to utilize this section. | Service Categories: We mainly use services as a way to describe general offerings a company might have, such as group meeting organizing, wedding planning, etc. | Physical Products: This section of your GBP is meant for any physical products that when sold, transfer ownership. For most tour and activity businesses, this section is not applicable. Example: Items from a gift shop could be added if they are a part of your business. |
Activities and tickets show up under “Booking Options” mid-way down your Google Business Profile. Your booking links can also show up here.
We recommend filling out all of the available details for your activities, tickets, and products. The fields for the different kinds of listings can vary but include the name of the experience, price, description, and sometimes a booking URL, photo, duration, and language. When you list services underneath your business categories, you do have the option to fill out extra fields, but this section is often used to highlight broader offerings like group meetings, or planning services.
Pro Tip: Make sure to add the UTM tags to the end of your booking URLs so you can track each link.
GBP Activities UTM tag:
?utm_source=GBPlisting&utm_medium=organic&utm_content=activites
GBP Tickets UTM tag:
?utm_source=GBPlisting&utm_medium=organic&utm_content=tickets
GBP Products UTM tag:
?utm_source=GBPlisting&utm_medium=organic&utm_content=products
Bookings
Another newer feature is booking links. In this section, you can share links to your online booking tools. This lets customers book with you directly through custom links to your online booking pages.
Google Things To Do Ads (TTD ads) can show up on your Google Business Profile, but they are not a feature of your GBP. They also appear in a carousel at the top of the page. If these ads are present for your keywords, they can steal clicks if you aren’t utilizing them. Learn more about Google Things To Do and if it’s right for you.
Photos
What to do: Make sure your cover photo is seasonally appropriate and an image that’s representative of your activity.
The most important photo is your cover image. This is the image that most often shows up in search results. If you live somewhere where your activities or tours look different throughout the year, it’s a good idea to update your cover photo seasonally (or at least for the summer and winter—you don’t want a summer image showing when you’re trying to sell snowy winter tours).
You’ll also want to upload your logo and any other photos you have that show off your experiences, as well as interior and exterior shots so that users can easily recognize your business. Consider providing an extra layer of depth with 360 shots and video.
Website
Make sure your website supports your key products and different modifiers or tours you offer like “private” or “party”.
Google Posts
Write posts on popular search queries and post them on the day of the week that customers are engaging with your listing the most. Posts are a great way to provide customers with your experiences, current events, offers, or general business updates.
Your Google Business Profile will only display the first two sentences of your post, so make sure to grab readers’ attention and put important information first. You want to pull in readers so that they click on the post or go right to the button that you have selected. At the end of each post, write a call to action that will entice readers to click the button that leads to your site.
If possible, always add a high-quality photo to assist your post. Images improve the likelihood that readers see your post, pause, and read the content.
Posts are especially important because they can show up in local 3-pack listings or in a “related to your search” panel.
Pro Tip: Make sure to add the UTM tag to the end of your button link so you can track it.
GBP Posts UTM tag:
?utm_source=GBP&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=post
Different kinds of posts you can write:
- Post about your experiences and what makes you unique. The goal is always to get readers to click the button and convert, so convince them that they should book your experience.
- Post an update. This is a great spot to give people an update if you’re temporarily closed, when you’re re-opening, and give them a link to your website for the most up-to-date information.
- Post about season passes or gift cards. Especially during holidays, the shoulder season, and if you are temporarily closed, this is a great time to promote gift cards and season passes to encourage revenue in the off-season.
- Post about offers, discounts, etc. Few things draw people in more than a great deal, so raise awareness when you are offering discounts or deals.
For all of the ideas above, consider posting on social media as well, and possibly emailing your customers.
Social Links
What to do: Add your social links to your profile.
Recently, Google has added the ability to put your social accounts on your Google Business Profile. You can add links to your Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, Linkedin, Pinterest, and TikTok. Your profiles will show up directly beneath your GBP posts.
Pro Tip: Don’t make a lot of changes in one sitting. That can look suspicious to Google and trigger suspension. Make one change and then come back a few hours later to make your next change, and so on.
2) Optimizing for Proximity on Google Maps
What do we mean by proximity? It’s how far your business is from the person searching on Google.
Your actual distance from whoever’s searching on their phones is a significant ranking factor on Google Maps. Obviously, you can’t change where your business is located but you can use the right tools to make your business visible when it should be.
Use the same address, everywhere.
One of the most important things when it comes to listing your address on Google Maps, is that you use the exact same address on Google as you use everywhere else. Inconsistencies in your address around the internet can hurt your local rankings.
Make sure your address is verifiable with Google.
As we mentioned above, the address you use will need to be able to receive mail. So if you’re using an address that technically doesn’t exist (like something with a fake suite number, for example), you should verify the address to make sure it will validate on GBP. You can do that here.
If you have multiple locations, you can save some time with Google’s “bulk location management” tool.
For businesses that manage more than 10 locations use bulk location management. To do this, upload a spreadsheet of all locations’ information and request bulk verification. Once verified, you will be able to maintain location information individually or in bulk.
Pro Tip: Maintain up-to-date business information on a shared document as a reference point for those who manage the listing.
Embed a map on your website.
Embedding a map on your website is just another level of credibility that tells Google your business is where you say it is.
Pro Tip: Link directly to your “get directions” page of Google Maps from your website.
This will send users to the right place right away when they’re trying to drive to your business.
3) Optimizing for Authority on Google Maps
What do we mean by “Authority”? It’s how well-known your business is from Google’s point of view.
In some ways, your “authority” on Google is just a big popularity contest. The company with the most mentions, the most links, and the most reviews around the internet wins. And just like a referral letter from your mom wouldn’t have quite the impact that a referral letter from the Governor would have, not all mentions, links, and reviews are created equal. The more “popular” the source, the better.
Your main goal: Get your product in front of people who are looking for that product. To do this, you have to know where your customers are looking for you around the web—and then you need to be in those places.
Secondary goal: Take extra measures to help Google understand/recognize your authority.
Here are a few practical ways to increase your authority across the web:
Be in all the places that your competition is, and more.
You want to be listed on the web in all the places your competitors are, and (ideally) more.
Be in all the places that your customers are looking for you.
Finding the places where your customers are looking for you is pretty simple: just pretend that you’re a customer.
For example, maybe you’re a walking tour company in Charleston, SC. Just hop on Google and start searching for things that potential customers would look for. One key thing to consider here is something we call “Commercial intent”. The most important keywords to rank for are keywords that have commercial, or buying, intent.
For example:
| Keywords with commercial intent | Non-commercial intent keywords |
|---|---|
| Walking tour in Charleston, Tours near Charleston, Best walking tours Charleston | Top sites to see in Charleston, Vacation ideas in Charleston, A day in Charleston |
You should prioritize the keywords that have a combination of high search volume and commercial intent. And then, take a look and see if you’re being mentioned in the pages that rank for these queries.
Increase review count, rating, and velocity.
Again, try to think like your customer. If you were looking for a walking tour in Charleston, would you click on the company that has 475 5-star reviews or the company that has three 5-star reviews? Because people regularly choose the company with more reviews, Google prioritizes showing their listings higher than the companies with fewer reviews.
This might not seem fair for companies just getting started, but like I said before, Google’s job isn’t to play favorites, it’s to show the result most likely to help the person searching. So you need to generate reviews.
After a customer has visited your business, send a follow-up email asking them to post a review. If they had a good time you might be surprised by how many leave you a review. Many booking engines such as Xola, Peek, and FareHarbor let you automatically send a post-trip review email.
What to do to Continue to Dominate Local Search Rankings
Your GBP listing is optimized, you’ve built up your mentions around the internet, and you’re seeing a steady flow of good reviews coming in—nice job! Now you need to maintain your rankings.
Consistently drive a high volume of quality reviews across multiple platforms.
Consistently driving reviews across all the platforms out there can be overwhelming. Here is a typical prioritization flow for tour and activity companies we work with:
| Review Platform | % of New Reviews | Why This Platform Is Important |
|---|---|---|
| 50-70% | A good flow of high-quality reviews on Google will improve your local rankings. | |
| TripAdvisor | 20-30% | Review volume and quality are two of the factors that TripAdvisor uses to prioritize which experiences it shows on it’s “top things to do” pages. |
| Yelp | 10-20% | Review volume and quality are two of the factors that TripAdvisor uses to prioritize which experiences it shows on its “top things to do” pages. |
| 10-20% | Recommendations on Facebook continue to be an important source of customer feedback for most tour, activity, and attraction businesses. |
Depending on your local market other platforms like Airbnb Experiences, GetYourGuide, Klook, etc may need to be in the mix.
Responding to reviews. There is some debate about whether responding to reviews impacts your rankings, and the debate goes on. What we recommend is to be genuine. If someone leaves you a great review, thank them. If someone leaves a bad review, respond because you care about that person’s experience with your brand.
Want to learn how to form strong responses to negative reviews? Check out our Tourism Marketing Quick Tip on How to Respond to Negative Reviews or get a more comprehensive understanding with our blog post with examples.
What we do know is that people read reviews and this is an opportunity to build trust. So if you’re responding to reviews, potential customers will notice.
Pro Tip: Use a platform like WhiteSpark or BrightLocal to keep track of all the reviews and be notified when you receive a bad review.
Post on GBP and engage with your customers through Q&A and messages.
Why posting on GBP is important
- The practical answer to this question is that it gives you a chance to communicate with your customers.
- It communicates to Google that your business is alive and well. Posting on GBP shows Google that you’re a real business and open/accepting new business—which matters for your ability to rank well.
- You can list offers you’re running, upcoming events, updates to your business, and feature products and experiences to spread awareness and get clicks.
Why engaging in the Q&A is important
When your business shows up in a search query, users can post a question and the business owner or other users can respond. This gets people interacting with your profile. Which, in turn, makes your business look more credible and or valuable to Google.
Depending on how active your GBP’s Q&A is, it’s a good idea to hop in daily, weekly, monthly, or whatever makes sense to…
- Answer unanswered questions or, in some cases, correct an incorrect answer because anyone with a Gmail account can respond to a question, and answers aren’t always accurate.
- Ask new questions. As a business owner, you can ask and answer your own questions. You can ask frequently asked questions that can help your customers and ask questions that include your keywords (because it can only help!).
Talk to, and have an ongoing relationship with the pre-website visit behavior of your customers.
If you don’t stay in tune with where your customers are and how they’re finding you and your competition, it won’t take long for you to fall behind.
Send customers follow-up surveys. Talk to your customers. Ask them what they liked and didn’t like about their experience finding you. Keep an eye on new players in the market.
We’re Really Passionate About Helping Tour and Activity Companies Rank on Google Maps
The hardest part about writing this article was figuring out what not to include. There are literally hundreds of things you can do to rank on Google Maps. What we listed above is a great start, and will likely give you a head start.
If you want to take your Google Maps rankings to the next level, let us know. We’d love to help.
