How would you like an eye-catching, free business listing that allows consumers to discover much-needed information about your business? If you’re intrigued by this, join the bandwagon because that’s what a Google My Business Profile does.
A Google Business Profile helps local searchers with a lot of things. It allows them to learn more about your services and products, check out reviews from previous customers, and stay updated on the latest goings-on in your company. It also lets them easily locate your store with a few mouse clicks.
This typically leads to improved organic visibility, profits, and visibility. However, most companies don’t even come close to utilizing their Google Business Profile to its complete potential. But, not to worry. This blog will help you understand how you can optimize your Google Business Profile to improve your local rankings. But first, let’s learn some basics about GMBs.
What is a GMB?
Google My Business, formerly Google Business Profile, is a free digital marketing service that helps companies improve their online presence on all of Google’s platforms, including Google Search and Google Maps. Its introduction in 2014 has completely changed the way companies maintain their internet presence.
How? Let’s clarify.
Not long ago, businesses had to work very hard to maintain track of all the information about their company that was available online.
However, things have become a whole lot easier with a Google Business Profile. You can now combine all important information about your company into a single entry with Google Business Profile. This includes your business’s:
- Name
- Phone Number
- Address
- Working Hours
That said, a GMB listing doesn’t only focus on the information mentioned above. Here are a few other major features of a GMB profile:
- GBP Insight
- Adding Updates
- Receive Enquiries
- Question And Answer
- Customer Reviews & Ratings
- Business Description
How to Setup a Google Business Profile
Here are a few steps that will help you create a Google Business Profile:
1. Claim and Verify Your Listing
Start off by opening your browser and visiting the Google Business Profile website. When on the website, search for your business by its name. If your business appears in the search results, claim your listing. To do so, you will have to verify your listing. This typically involves Google calling you or sending you a postcard.
However, if you can’t find your business, you can create a new listing from scratch and go through the same verification process mentioned above.
2. Provide Accurate and Consistent Information
When updating or creating your business listing, ensure consistency in your business information. This includes providing an accurate business name, phone number, address, etc.
3. Add Business Categories
Here, you must choose relevant and specific categories that best describe your company and its products or services. Accurately categorizing your GMB allows Google to show your listing in relevant search results.
4. Complete Your Profile
Don’t forget to fill out sections such as business description, website URL, business hours, etc. An accurate and complete business profile will increase the chances of your listing appearing on Google Search and Google Maps.
If you cannot do this alone, we recommend hiring professional GMB optimization services to create a Google Business Profile for you.
Tips for Optimizing Your Google My Business Listing
Let’s look at some tips that will help you optimize your Google My Business listing and increase your visibility:
Add Images of Your Premises and Products
How would you showcase your business personnel, premises, and products? Well, this is the first tip to optimize your GMB listing. Images are great for improving your ranking and click-through rates. That said, when adding photos to your business listing, you should add different types of images, including:
- Your logo
- Your profile picture
- Your cover photo
- A “preferred photo”
However, take great care and only add high-quality images. This is because these will be displayed at the top of your GMB page. Also, ensure the pictures you take for your GMB page are during business hours. This will show potential customers how your company operates during high-traffic situations. But if you can’t do the above alone, consider hiring expert GMB optimization services. These professionals will ensure that the pictures on your GMB listing are top-notch!
Add a Virtual Tour
Hiring a Google-suggested photographer to take an inside Street View of your company will help you get an advantage over your rivals. The Street View will be included in your Google Search, Maps, and Hotel Searches search results.
This is especially true for restaurants, hotels, and other businesses that rely on their atmosphere and décor to attract clients. According to Google, if your listing includes a virtual tour, visitors are twice as likely to be interested in making a reservation at your hotel.
Request Customer Reviews
There is no shadow of a doubt that reviews and testimonials greatly impact whether consumers will interact with your business. Many detailed, positive customer evaluations on your GMB listing will make potential clients more inclined to do business with you. You can also obtain insightful comments on what’s working and what needs to be improved from these reviews.
However, the best thing here is that responding to these reviews publically will reinforce your brand and show that you value your customers’ feedback. However, if you don’t have time to reply to each and every customer review, you can always hire professional GMB optimization services. These services employ individuals who will respond to your customer reviews (both good and bad) on your behalf.
Turn on Customer Messaging
Smartphone users can text your company directly through your GMB profile’s “Message” option. However, you must first download the Google Business Profile app to configure and manage customer messages.
That said, if you decide to use this option, you must reply within the 24-hour window. You can also employ automated answers to lessen the impression of a wait between a message and a response.
Answer Common Queries
Every business profile includes an open-ended question-and-answer section. Because of this, it may be challenging to maintain control over the caliber of content in this section.
The easiest approach to handle this is to proactively ask the most frequent questions that your company gets asked, respond to them, and upvote them. This is yet another excellent chance to incorporate keywords related to your company.
Create Local Posts
You can now edit your business’s offerings, events, and products on Google and have them appear in your Business Profile. This increases audience engagement (followers can follow your profile to get updates) and gives Google new ranking signals.
Of course, there are limitations to what you can include in local postings on Google. Every post should have up-to-date content, be free of grammatical and typographical mistakes, and avoid referencing or connecting to anything harmful or insulting. You can also hire professional GMB optimization services to take care of this entire process for you!
Increase Your Domain Authority
Your domain authority is strongly associated with the likelihood that your website will rank well in search engine results pages (SERPs). Of course, this isn’t a direct component of your Google Business Profile. However, you would want to increase the number of links pointing back to your website to raise your domain authority.
This takes time, so commit to gradually increasing your domain authority. You can accomplish this by consistently creating insightful blog entries, maintaining the primary sections of your website, and enticing visitors to share your material.
Track Your GMB Profile Performance
To monitor the effectiveness of your Google Business Profile, navigate to your profile and choose Performance. GMB Insights is where you can get detailed information about search terms, unique profile visitors, and requests for directions, calls, clicks, and a ton of other data within a specified time period.
You can pinpoint opportunities for development by using this data to better understand how customers find and engage with your business online.
Wrapping Up
A well-optimized Google My Business listing is an exceptional tool for any local business aiming to thrive in the digital age. It helps potential customers easily find your company and provides important information like your services, location, operating hours, and customer reviews. This can lead to improved visibility, increased engagement, and more profit.
However, if you don’t have the time to manage your GMB listing on your own, consider hiring professional Google My Business optimization services. These experts can ensure that your profile is always up-to-date, engaging, and optimized for maximum visibility.