A Google My Business profile is essential for any local business for SEO. It’s free and will enable you to appear in local search results for queries specific to your products or services. Getting your business listed on Google My Business can increase your chances of showing up in Google’s Local searches, Local Finder, Google Maps, and organic rankings in general.
What is Google My Business Listing?
Google My Business is a tool provided by Google to businesses and organizations to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps. It is a free and easy to use tool which allows local businesses to spread the word about themselves on the internet. By registering your business on Google My Business listing you can you can both help customers find you and tell them the story of your business.
Benefits of using Google My Business
#1 Manage your information
Google My Business allows you to manage your Businesses information that Google users will see when they search for your business. It also helps you to build a good reputation in the market when people find your business on Google Maps and Search.
#2 Interact With Customer
Google My Business is a great platform to directly interact with your customer. It permits you to get feedback from the users and businesses can optimize their strategies using those feedbacks.
#3 Understand and expand your presence
Google provides you complete insights on how customers searched for your business, and where those customers are coming from. You can see information about how many people called your business directly from the phone number displayed on local search results in Search and Maps.
How to Create Google Business Listing?
Featuring your business on Google Business Listing is very simple and quite straightforward. The first step is to log in to https://www.google.com/business and click on the Start Now button on the screen.
After that first thing, you have to enter is your Business Name. Enter your business name and press “Next”.
The second step is to enter your complete business address and also click on the checkbox if you deliver your service or product to the customer’s home.
Once you click “Next”, you will be asked to pin your location on Google Map. Then choose the category of your business. For Example, if you have a cake shop choose category as “Bakery and Cake Shop”.
Next Step is to provide your business phone number and enter your website URL if you have.
Once you fill up your complete info Google will ask you to verify your connection to business. Google will provide you information about what you can do to optimize your account.
- Get your business found on Google Search & Maps
- Respond to customer reviews
- Create promotional posts and upload photos
- Track business analytics
If you are following these steps congratulation you have completed your registration in Google Business Listing. Once you are done with listing let’s talk about optimizing your listing for more traffic.
How to Optimize your Google Business Listing?
Many local businesses think that creating a business listing on Google My Business is enough for getting traffic online. What they don’t realize is that there are a variety of other features you can use to optimize your Google My Business listing and several reasons why you should frequently check your business listing to ensure that it’s accuracy stays intact.
Here are few tips to optimize you google business listing.
#1 Complete all the information Google Ask for
There are a variety of questions you can answer to complete your Google My Business profile. When done, your listing will have valuable data that will make it easier for potential customers to find your company. And if you don’t fill that information in, someone else could. Many business owners don’t realize that anyone can suggest a change to your business listing and that includes competitors.
#2 Visit your Google Business Dashboard regularly
It is very important that you log in to your Google My Business dashboard regularly to ensure that no one has attempted to make any unwanted changes to your listing. You’ll see a notification that changes are pending if someone has made suggested changes that need your approval.
Also, it’s important to realize that Google encourages people who are familiar with your business to answer questions, so Google can learn more information about your company.
#3 Create Google My Business Posts
Google Posts are mini-ads that show up in Google search in your Google My Business listing. You can have fun with your Posts by adding an image, a Call to Action (CTA), and even including a link to another page or website. You can create GMB Posts directly from your dashboard.
Here are few Ideas to create engaging Posts:
- If you’re having an event (like a webinar) you can set up an event Post with a date and time and then add a link to the registration page.
- Do you have a sale going on during a specific time? Create a “sale” event Post.
- Add a short description of your blog post and link to the post on your blog.
- The new product you want to feature? Show a picture of this cool gadget and link to where people can make the purchase.
- Want to spread holiday joy? Give potential customers a holiday message Post.
#4 Use Booking Button Feature
Google provides you a great feature to stand out of the crowd. If you have any type of business that relies on customers making appointments and you’re using integrated scheduling software, people can now book an appointment with your business directly from your Google My Business listing. This can make it even easier to get new customers.
#5 Do Q&A
Google My Business listings allow people to ask questions about your business and you can answer those questions.
