CASE STUDIES › GOOGLE MY BUSINESS SEO

Client details, keyword, and location have been redacted for confidentiality. Results are real and verifiable.

Home Services USA —
— #1 on Google Maps Building

Most SEOs optimise the GBP listing and stop there. Saket goes further — deploying PBN-powered CID links, custom permalink embeds with latitude/ longitude precision, brand mentions, and map embeds to push a home services business to the #1 position on Google Maps. This is the Google My Business strategy most agencies don’t know exists.

THE CHALLENGE

WHY STANDARD GBP OPTIMISATION WASN’T ENOUGH

The client had a well-optimised Google Business Profile — correct categories, complete NAP information, photos, regular posts, and a solid review count. But they were sitting at positions 3–5 in the local pack, unable to break past competitors who had more reviews and longer trading histories. Standard GBP optimisation had been maxed out. The only lever left was one most local SEOs don’t know about: building links directly to the GBP listing itself.

Google My Business rankings are determined by the same fundamental signals as organic rankings — authority, relevance, and trust. Most GBP campaigns address relevance (categories, keywords in the description) and trust (reviews). Almost none address authority — because almost no one builds links specifcally to a GBP listing’s CID URL or custom permalink. That gap is exactly where this campaign found its edge.

T H E S T R AT E G Y

THE 4-SIGNAL GBP LINK BUILDING STACK

Google My Business ranking is infuenced by three core factors: Relevance, Distance, and Prominence. Standard GBP optimisation addresses relevance and distance. This campaign attacked Prominence — the factor that most directly corresponds to authority signals from across the web. Four distinct signal types were deployed using the PBN network to build prominence at a level no organic GBP campaign could achieve.

WHAT THIS PROVES

KEY TAKEAWAYS — GBP LINK BUILDING

Most local SEO campaigns max out at GBP optimisation and review building — then wonder why they can’t break past position 3. The answer is always the same: they’re not building authority to the listing itself. CID links, custom permalink embeds, brand mentions, and map embeds via PBN — stack these four signals and Google’s Prominence score moves. Prominence is the only local ranking factor that responds to link  building. That’s exactly what this campaign exploited.

— SAKET WAHI · GBP LINK BUILDING · HOME SERVICES USA

01

GBP Link Building Is the Unlocked Level Most Agencies

Optimising the GBP listing — categories, description, photos, posts, Q&A — addresses Relevance. Review building addresses Trust. But Prominence — the third core factor — requires external authority signals. Building links specifically to the CID URL and custom permalink is the only way to inject link authority directly into a GBP ranking signal. Almost no local SEO agency does this. That’s the gap this campaign exploited.

02

The CID URL Is the Most Direct Path to GBP Authority

Entity identifier for a specific GBP listing. PBN links pointing to this URL pass authority directly into Google’s entity graph for that business — not just the website. This is not a hack or a workaround. It is the most direct, legitimate path to increasing a GBP listing’s prominence score through external signals.

03

Latitude/Longitude Permalink Precision Strengthens  Local Relevance

A custom permalink with exact lat/long coordinates, geo parameters, and CID is a fundamentally different signal to a standard Google Maps link. It tells Google precisely where this business operates at a coordinate level — stacking a geo-authority confirmation with every embed. At scale across a PBN network, these coordinates reinforce the business’s local relevance signal beyond anything standard map embeds can achieve.

04

Map Embeds Deliver Three Signals per Placement

Each Google Maps iFrame embed deployed via a PBN site simultaneously delivers: a geo-authority signal (the location is confrmed by an external site), an interaction signal (the map was loaded and displayed), and a domain diversity signal (the listing is featured across multiple independent sites). Three ranking signals from one technical action — making map embeds one of the most efcient GBP authority plays available.

05

Brand Mentions Build Entity Prominence Without  Hyperlinks

Google’s NLP can associate unlinked brand mentions with the corresponding GBP entity — building co-occurrence signals that contribute to the business’s overall prominence score without requiring a hyperlink. At scale across a PBN network, these mentions compound into a signifcant entity-awareness signal that tells Google this business is widely referenced and discussed, elevating its perceived prominence in the local market.

06

The PBN Network Is the Infrastructure That Makes It All Possible

Every signal in this campaign — CID links, permalink embeds, brand mentions, map embeds — was deployed via the PBN network. The same zero-footprint, high-authority infrastructure used for organic rankings works equally well for GBP authority building. This is what most local SEO providers simply don’t have access to — and why the result, #1 on Google Maps above competitors with more reviews, more history, and larger brands, is achievable only with the right network behind it.