Google is the most popular search engine with a market share of more than 92%. There are 3.5 billion searches every single day and 80% of them occur on Google. Creating a Google Business Profile is crucial to attract new customers and build brand awareness for local businesses.
In this post, you will learn about benefits of optimizing your Google Business Profile and the right way of doing it to maximize your local search results and boost visibility.
Page Contents:
What is Google My Business?
Google My Business is a listing platform provided by Google that enables business owners to create, manage and optimize their Google Business Profile. It is a free feature from Google that lets you manage and grow your business presence online.
Without optimizing your Google Business Profile, customers may find it difficult to search for you in a competitive marketplace. Also, your business information will not appear on Google Maps and Local Pack adversely affecting your SEO results. This it the primary reason of setting up and optimizing your Google Business Profile.
Benefits of optimizing your Google Business Profile
As per several studies, it is reported that 56% of local retailers have not set up their free Google My Business account. If you are one of them, we recommend you to create your account as you are missing out on a huge opportunity for business expansion and development. Some of the major advantages of optimizing your Google Business Profile are:
- Optimized business profiles are more likely to appear on search results. Hence, it helps to increase ranking on SERPs.
- It is a boon for local businesses as it improves visibility and makes it easier for people to find you online.
- You don’t need to set up a website for displaying your business information. By creating your Google Business Profile, you get to add your business details such as phone number, hours of operation, photos, videos, reviews, etc.
- It is especially useful for local brands seeking exposure and growth.
- It helps businesses to interact with their customers and gather insights on customer behaviour.
- Information from your Google Business Profile may show on Google Search, Google Maps and Google Shopping thereby improving your chances of increasing sales and driving traffic.
How to optimize Google My Business Listing?
Set up your account
- Visit google.com/business.
- Click “Manage Now”
- Type your business name and click “Next”.
- Type your office address. If you don’t have a physical store but deliver services, click on the checkbox ‘I deliver goods and services to my customers’ and then click on ‘Hide my address’ checkbox.
- Select your business category. Always opt for a category that best describes your business and brand as a whole.
- Now, enter your business contact number and add the website URL.
Verify your business
You need to verify your Google Business Profile. Google won’t display your business information until it gets verified. Mostly, Google sends us postcard to the mentioned address which contains the code that you need to enter to verify your business.
Sometimes, you get the option of ‘verify by phone’. As you click on the link, you will receive an automated call with the verification code. Just enter the code to complete the verification process. If you are not able to verify, you can contact the support team on Twitter at the id @GoogleMyBiz.
Optimize your Google My Business Profile
- Login to your GMB dashboard and click on your business name.
- Enter your actual business name. It is important to avoid adding additional keywords apart from the name as it violates the Google policies may get your listing penalized.
- Enter a local phone number. Adding contact information signals Google that the business is legitimate and authentic.
- Ensure that the hours of operations are correct.
- Write an enticing description. Avoid stuffing keywords into this section. The purpose of description is to let people know about your business.
- Upload a lot of high-resolution images including interior, exterior and product photos.
- Add videos to make it more appealing. Make sure the video size is smaller than 100MB and duration is upto 30 seconds.
Ask customers to review your business
Adding reviews helps improve visibility in local search results and lets your prospective customers know about your business. One of the quickest ways of establishing customer loyalty is by interacting with them and responding to their queries and concerns. Positive reviews enhance your business reputation. Hence, encourage happy customers to leave feedback for the products and services used.
Answer questions
Make sure to answer all the questions asked about your business. Questions asked in the community tend to receive numerous answers but answers with the most likes will appear as the primary answer. The question with the most likes tend to occupy higher position in your GMB profile.
Google Posts
Posts function as free ads for your business promotion. It helps you connect and engage with your brand and improve business presence on Google. You can publish different kinds of posts such as event posts, product posts, offer posts, etc.
A post contains a thumbnail image and brief description that expands when it gets clicked. Make sure to upload an eye-catching and compelling image of 1200×900 pixels to catch readers’ attention. A post mostly stays live for 7 days after they get published. If there are multiple active posts, they get displayed in a carousel with the most recent post shown first.
Track customers through Google My Business insights
Google My Business insights provide information related to:
- How customers are finding your products and services
- Where customers find you on Google (Google Search or Google Maps)
- Actions customers are taking on your listing (site visit, clicking on direction, browsing products and services, contacting you)
- Geographical location of your incoming traffic
- Number of phone calls and time of calling
If you are not listed in local directories, it becomes challenging for people to discover your business. Google My Business not only helps your prospective clients find you but also impacts your local SEO search results. Moreover, it is free to use. Optimizing your business for local searches should be an important part of every SEO strategy. It must always begin with a goal to provide maximum user experience and add value to their shopping experience.