What Is Google My Business?
Google My Business (also referred to as Google Business Profile) is an absolutely free listing that provides you with the ability to put in your company’s images, place, services/goods, and every other related facts.
Setting up a profile for your business will make it more visible and boost the potential for it to be found through Google Search, Google Maps, and related Google tools.
In order to establish a profile, a physical place of business (i.e. a restaurant) that offers services directly to customers is necessary.
The use of Google My Business is advantageous for companies of all sizes. Having good control of your digital presence can help you to beat the competition and draw in customers who are looking for your company on Google and maps.
Additionally, when you have a Google My Business account, you will have the ability to show images of the items or services you offer, make changes to the details about your company (name, place, hours, etc.), and answer to customer comments. By gradually building up, your business will have increased visibility and participation.
There is absolutely no cost associated with Google My Business, so make sure to make the most of its features for growing your business. The only stipulation is that your business must have a physical site.
We surveyed 53 SEO professionals to determine the significance of various marketing avenues—features like websites, email marketing, content marketing, SEO, and different types of advertisement—to local businesses.
The most important channel was a local business’s website. Second in priority is having a Google My Business listing.
How Google My Business Impacts Local Business Success
Google strives to bring favorable and useful results to the users of its search engine. Google is constantly making changes to its search items and formulas to better the accuracy and pertinence of search engine findings for its customers. This caused the first emergence of Google Local, a business listing directory which was started in 2004, and Google Maps, a user-friendly map which was let out in 2005 enabling searches based on location. As time passed, Google combined Google Local and Google Maps, gradually including advancements, like allowing businesses to update their listing data for precision. In 2014, Google released Google My Business, which is now known as Google Business Profiles, to take the place of its preexisting products. The aim of this is to help businesses create a free Business Profile that would be discoverable through Google Search and Google Maps by both potential and existing customers.
Google has been consistently enhancing Google Business Profiles over time, resulting in the modern-day offering we are familiar with – location-based listings for both local and nationwide brands containing important data such as address, website, telephone number, business hours, categorizations of services provided, customer ratings, and a lot more. Having a Business Profile is critical in boosting your visibility on the web, and this will help your business rank higher on Google when users search for keywords related to your field.
Google Business Profiles are the top factor looked at when Google is doing a local search, and it plays a major role in the positioning for local organic results. To get more people to notice your products and services, you should invest the time to create and enhance your online presence. This investment will increase your standings and make it easier for customers to find you.
Why Is GMB Important for Local SEO?
Here are 5 main reasons your business needs a Google My Business profile:
Improve Your Search Ranking and the Visibility of Your Business
By making sure to go through a right Google My Business SEO to-do list, you can significantly increase your firm’s position in the search results and exposure in general.
When an individual looking to buy something that your company provides looks up terms associated with it on Google, they will initially be shown advertisements provided by the search engine, followed by the 3 local results, and eventually the non-paid listings.
Setting up a Google My Business page can provide your business an improved possibility of appearing in the three highest local search results, such as Google Maps and the local finder, consequently delivering more recognition and customer leads.
Enhances Your Customer Support and Engagement
Like we already said, if you get a Google My Business profile, you’ll have the ability to quickly answer inquiries about your items and services and handle both good and bad opinions.
Additionally, patrons tend to favor companies that they can conveniently connect with, so by disseminating your contact information, it becomes simpler for them to contact you with any queries or complaints.
Boost Sales and Traffic Volume
It is indisputably advantageous to have a Google My Business account since 28% of local searches can be converted into sales. This will surely increase the traffic to your website.
When individuals look up goods or services that your firm supplies, they are likely to select your website to gain more information regarding your company. A well-designed landing page and strategically placed Calls to Action will likely lead to achieving objectives.
It Helps You Reach a Wider Audience
By having an up-to-date Google My Business listing, it’s possible to attract and hold the attention of a more extensive audience, something that would be more of a challenge to do without running any advertisements.
Establishes Your Brand as a Business Authority
The reviews have a positive influence on the attractiveness of your business to potential customers. A 4.7-star review implies that your company excels in its field and therefore, customers are likely to make purchases.
Tips to Optimize Your Google Business Profile
It’s essential to look at enhancing your profile from all angles, but bear in mind that your Business Profile requires continual maintenance and adjustments in the long run.
Make sure your profile has accurate business information that is up to date.
Be sure to keep the same NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) across your website and local directory listings. Make sure to use a number that charges the caller by their area code instead of a cost-free one.
Be sure to finish your directory entry, incorporate pertinent industry terms and attach pictures of your business.
You should include commonly used words related to your products or services in your profile to help increase its visibility. When customers find a profile that is full of pictures and information, they are more likely to interact with it.
Create and sustain a program that produces customer feedback and oversees reputation.
The amount, rating, and different types of sources (which you can use) all affect your local search engine ranking, as well as the involvement of those who have offered opinions. Using automated review requests is a accepted and successful strategy to get more reviews and you must consider how to reply to both favorable and unfavorable ones. Incorporate specific features to help your company stand out from the competition.
Differentiating your business can be achieved through ownership, service offerings, and the latest health and safety standards. Be sure to check your emails from Google whenever there are new updates, changes, or additions to the services they offer.
Create A Custom Short Name
A custom GMB short name permits you to use a shorter, personalized link that lets your customers: go immediately to your GMB page and put in their assessment.
To find out more about the advantages of having a personalized Google My Business short name and the steps involved in making one, click on the link above.
Publish Posts and Offers Regularly
Motivate potential customers to engage with your listing and visit your website by creating exciting, representative posts and offers pertaining to seasons that include pictures and links to your website. You can create a specific link for your Business Profile posts by including a UTM code. This allows you to observe the number of clicks to your website coming from each post.
Add Appointment Links and/or Products to Your Profile
Allow customers to quickly explore your portfolio of services and/or products by introducing either one or both of these options to your catalog. It is possible to incorporate items into your Business Profile on your own, but you will need an outside scheduling system to be able to accept bookings. Once you become registered with an approved timetabling service, you can include a link to your appointments page.
Keep in mind that some of the tasks from your Google Business Profile optimization list require consistent effort, like dealing with customer feedback, getting customer reviews, and updating your page with new posts and offers on a regular basis. It is also essential to keep in mind that Google routinely introduces new developments, and could potentially bring out extra characteristics and upgrades to Google Business Profiles in the days to come. Make the most of these chances to bolster your posting and set yourself apart from other people who are vying for the same position.
The Benefits of Fighting Google Maps Spam
Discussing competition, your nearby rivals probably won’t generally follow the rules, with some attempting to “get around” the calculation that orders local outcomes. Below are a few instances of Google Maps scams and ways to oppose these misrepresentations.
In the optimization guide we previously proposed, we advised including trade-specific keywords to your account, such as in the information regarding your business or the types of services/goods that you offer. Some organizations have utilized keyword stuffing by adding those words to their Professional Profile title (which is not harmonious with their legitimate business name) to heighten their rankings. Google’s regulations require that you should use your company’s true name, which may include irrelevant or unnecessary facts. If not, it could result in Google canceling your registry.
Others have attempted to broaden their service area and improve their local search presence by inserting listings with false business locations across the area, which appears on multiple places on Google Maps even though the company only has one real address. Google mandates that the geographic area used must be your genuine, actual location and only one page can be constructed for a specific business location or else the listing might be frozen. You must resolve a location error before your listing is viewable on Google Maps.
These types of strategies can be extremely harmful to local companies, leaving them bewildered as to why their ratings have unexpectedly decreased or why their opponents are now gaining the upper hand. Unscrupulous practices like this are widespread across multiple fields, doing harm to small-scale organizations which cannot keep up with the loss of clientele or do not know what measures to take in order to address the illegitimate postings.
Pro Tip: Here Is a Go-To Dashboard For Monitoring Local Business Performance
If you manage a small, local enterprise, you more than likely examine day-to-day performance and seek out approaches to improve it. Many owners use Google My Business to do that, and now they can get actionable data in one convenient dashboard showing key business metrics including:
- Views of your business listing. The daily number of times people saw your Google My Business listing.
- Searches that found your listing. The number of times your listing came up in a Google search.
- Sources for searchers finding your listing. Where did those searchers come from? View the number of direct, discovery, and branded searches, and understand how your visitors find you.
- Actions taken on your listing. When they arrived on your listing, what did visitors do? Click on your website link? Click to call? Click for directions? Get a summary of each.
- Calls received. How many calls did you receive from your listing in any month or other time period?
- Total number of actions taken. Overall, how effective was your listing this week or this month? Can you do more to improve activity and response?
You can now take advantage of the know-how of our Google My Business consultants, who have created a pre-assembled Databox template with all the key data for monitoring and researching your organisation listing. It is easy to introduce and begin utilizing, and most importantly, it’s without cost!
It is a breeze to get it going with a few clicks – no programming needed.
To set up the dashboard, follow these 3 simple steps:
Step 1: Get the template
Link your Google my Business account with Databox for Step 2.
Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds.
How to Verify Your Google My Business Listing
Once your profile is made, it’s time to confirm it.
Surprisingly, this doesn’t involve anything tech or internet-related. Google sends you a postcard containing a code to the address you specified. You should receive it in around five business days.
Once you have confirmed your account, you can look at data, assessments, and pertinent knowledge.
If you provide services but do not have a location, you can get in touch with Google support to request either a phone or email confirmation.
