Are you a local business looking for ways to increase your visibility on Google?
We understand your concern about your business’s online presence. Good visibility is important for steady growth and economic success.
According to research, 46% of searches on Google are related to local information. Also, 4 out of every five consumers use different search engines to look up local businesses. And if your business is not showing in the search results, then you are losing potential clients to your competitors. Hence, it is important to have a good SEO strategy.
And that’s where Google My Business comes into play. It helps you increase your business’s visibility across the search engine.
In this article, we will give you an in-depth guide on the topic- Google My Business listing. So keep reading to get a better idea of GMB and to achieve the success you deserve.
Guide on – Google My Business Listing
Fundamentals of GMB listing
If you are new to digital marketing, it’s likely for you to worry about your business. But before you take a big step, you need to know some basics. And Google My Business (GMB) is the right thing to start with.
Before starting with GMB listing, let’s get to know what is Google My Business and what value does it offer.
What is Google My Business?
Google My Business, previously known as Google Local and Google Places, is a free tool that strengthens Google’s business listings. It provides you with an opportunity to promote your business profile and website on Google’s search engine. With the help of GMB, your business profile can show up on different results. You can also manage the information you want to display on each site.
GMB is a platform that every business owner should know about and use to enhance the search results of their businesses.
Features of GMB listing
- GMB is an absolutely free platform.
- GMB doesn’t not replace your business’s existing website. Instead, it complements it by giving it a public identity and presence with the help of a listing on Google.
- The information given through GMB appears on Google Searches and Maps.
- Any third-party platform using Google Maps will also show your GMB listing.
For those who have previously used Google tools like Google+ to promote their businesses, chances are they might already have their business listed on GMB.
Google Places for business and Google+ were some of the best ways to manage your business information and promote it. But now, these two have been upgraded to a common platform, Google My Business.
Setting up your Google My Business page
Setting up your business on Google My Business is the first step to increase your business’s online presence. The best thing is, it’s easy to do. And it doesn’t take much time.
Here are the steps you need to follow to set up your page.
Step 1- Open Google My Business’s Create page
First, open GMB’s “create” page and lookup for your business name. This step ensures whether or not you have already set up a GMB page before.
And if you haven’t, then you can simply click on the pop-up which appears on the screen. You can also use the “add your business to Google” link if the first option doesn’t work for you.
Step 2- Fill out the name of your business:
Here you need to fill out your business name. Make sure to avoid unnecessary keywords within the name as it could get your listing suspended from GMB.
Step 3- Choose the category that best suits your business
Now you need to choose the category that represents your business. In most cases, you will find a list of options to choose from. No need to worry if you think that there are more categories to use; you will be able to add them later on.
Step 4- Decide whether or not to add location
At this step, you will have to choose whether or not you want to have a physical store that people can visit.
If you choose yes then your office’s location will show up on Google Maps whenever people will be looking for it.
Step 5- Fill out the address properly
Be sure to add your full address. Also, add new lines when required to make it easier for your customers to find the location.
Step 6- Check the possible listings
Here you will be asked to confirm whether one of the possibilities listed locations is your business or not. If you don’t find your business, then choose the “None of these” option and proceed with it.
Step 7- Choose whether or not you serve people outside your location
If your services are available for people outside your shop/office location, choose “yes”. If not, then go with “no”.
Step 8- Select the locations that you serve
If you chose “yes” in the previous step, then you’ll have to select the areas that you serve (you can select multiple areas)
Step 9- Attach your contact Details
In this step, you need to fill in your phone number and add the website’s link. You can also choose not to link your website and get a free Google site based on your information.
Step 10- Updates and recommendations
You are almost there! Now all you need to do is choose whether or not you want to get updates and recommendations from Google on your business page.
Step 11- Finish and Manage your business listing
This step is the last step. Here you need to click on “Finish”, and get your own Google My Business page.
Now the only thing left is to verify your listing.
Validating Google My Business Listing
Verifying your Google My Business listing is important. Usually, it is done through postcard by email and takes up to five business days for clearance.
But you might be thinking why is it so important to verify your GMB listing? Isn’t it? By verifying GMB listing, you can prove to Google that you can manage your business and also depicts the business you claim.
For better performance and visibility of the GMB listing, verification is an important process. In fact, if your business is not verified, Google won’t display any content or edits related to your business.
If you deny to verify your GMB listing, then you cannot get access to page analytics or insights, not even business reviews from the viewers.
However, verification doesn’t take much time. At the time of verification, Google will send you a verification code postcard that you can use to verify your business. Once your verification process is done, your business will have an official website, where you can get all the accessibility.
Also Read: 5 Best Free SEO Tools For Small Businesses
Some basic tips for optimizing Google My Business Listing
To get the most out of your business, you need to use all the valuable resources offered by Google My Business listing.
Enter all the resources and Data for your listing
Mostly, businesses that provide accurate and comprehensive details about their business are more likely to appear in search results. If you notice, most of the local search results prefer the ethical results for searches. Don’t take any decision based on any assumptions. Always make sure that whatever you add to your list should convey what your business offers, and about the services.
Add keywords
Google uses different signal methods to serve search results. So, it becomes important to add important keywords and phrases for your GMB listing. To uplift your business, always add these keywords in the business description every time you post content on your website.
Maintain business operating hours
For a better GMB listing, adding business hours is important. Also, it is quite essential to do an update whenever it is required to do. Google gives access to all the business to customize hours for any events or holidays. So, it becomes a necessity to do an update to keep website content factual and users friendly.
Add photos
Most business owners and marketers are still aware of the fact that Photos can help any business to outstand in the market. According to Goggle, a business that adds photos on their listing has achieved more than 40-45% driving recommendations on Google maps and 30% additional clicks directly through the website than other businesses without any photos.
Oversee and acknowledge customers reviews
Responding to customer reviews showcases your business integrity. More is the positive reviews; more it will lead to a positive impact on potential customers. Also, it will enhance your business visibility in search engine results. Also, for better convenience always leave a feedback link for your customers, so that they can directly click on the link and write a review based on your services.
Put an option where customers can directly contact you
The direct customer contact option is fascinated through Google my business App. To obtain this option, you need to tap on the Customers option and move on to the message option and turn it on through the app. Once the customer messaging option is activated, you will get an automated response from the customers.
Through this method, your response time won’t get hampered and the visibility of your business will increase. Always keep the message timing within 24 hrs so that you can maximize your GMB listing. Customers don’t like to wait for answers, and the faster you reply, the more valuable customers you will add to your list.
Use Local post
Through Google My Business, you can circulate different offers, events, services, and products. By posting regular content, you can engage more viewers and maintain a brand presence. Also, through various post businesses, one can share knowledge panel breakout with a response on their businesses. Google offers some pro tips on how to make Local posts with useful information and without spelling errors. Some of the best posts contain visual effects and links. Avoid such links that can lead to malware or viruses. Always use posts based on your goods and services, so that you can attract more and more customers.
Use the special features
New features of GMB highlight black-owned and women-led businesses on their profile. If your business is healthcare-related, then you can find some other attributes as well. These include-
- Informing clients whether or not you provide online healthcare services.
- Providing clients with a direct option to plan and receive online care.
- Editing your gender information.
Use the product catalogue
If you are a seller, then you can use GMB’s Product Editor feature to showcase your products. Most small and medium-sized businesses are allowed to use this feature. However, large businesses need to take the help of Local Inventory Ads to display their products online. You can provide some details about the product, like pricing and pictures. This helps your customers to get a better idea of what they are buying. The product details also allow Google to further understand your business.
How to Monitor google My Business Listing?
Over the past few decades, Google has been reaching heights with the help of analytics data made for my business listings. With Google My Business, you can keep track of the information regarding how your customers move around your website. Below are the function that it offers:
How Potential Customers Find You?
Under this category, you will learn about the concept as How customers find you in both direct or discovery search.
In the direct search, customers search directly with your business address and name. Discovery search means the customer searched for the category or product pr services they were looking for and got acquainted with your listings.
For your listing, to show up in the discovery search make sure your listing describes what your business does, and what services it offers. This thing will help your customer in finding you in the discovery search.
This section holds labels with accurate and, bulk reports on your listing, total searches, total direct searches, and discovery searches.
How many Customers Find Your Listing on Google?
This part deals with the quantity of customer and where did they find your listing. Was it through the Google search or via Google Maps?
It not only tells you about where your customer found you, but you will also get to see the total number of views. There’s also a functionality that let you see the views you got, on each product for the particular time you selected.
As Google says that you can compare the views on your listing to the impressions you are getting.
To find the total number of views you got on the specific product, you have to place your cursor on the particular part of the graph you want to know. The info it will display will include your total number of views, search views, and map views.
Over the past few decades, Google has made tremendous progress with the analytical data available for Google My Business listings.
Now it’s time to call perception, Google provides businesses with a different way of understanding how customers interact with business listings, including:
What customer does When they Find Your Listing?
Under this section, you will see how the customers behave when they are browsing through your listing. The Total Actions section gives you the following measures of the customer movements like:
- When they visit your site.
- Request to go to a particular direction
- When they call you
- Or when they look upon your photos.
Based on the above-mentioned actions, the varieties of labels that are available for reports are:
- The total number of actions
- The actions done on the website will be there
- Different phone call actions
- And report on direct appeal.
The map will recognize your customer locations and manage to find who is requesting direction for the business. One of the best features under the Map section is that it breaks the total direction appeals by city and neighbourhood.
Customer contact via phone call:
Usually, the number of calls gives the total number of calls at a particular time frame, which will be at the top of the section.
The graph will help you to get information about the number of calls. The graph shows you the trends on a particular day.
This fact will help marketers and employers to have an idea of when a customer has more probability to call.
Photos help to recognize the number of visitors on your listing:
Photos view graph help to inspect how frequently business photos are visited.
There is also some measurement in the graph that helps in creating a contrast between your photos and other business photos.
This section includes components like:
- The total number of owner photos.
- Views on owner photos.
- The total number of customer photos.
- Views on customer photos.
Conclusion
Creating a GMB listing is the first step towards the success of your business. It will boost your business’s local search results. And help you get a proper online presence- Ultimately, leading to more clients. So, after starting a business, make sure you have listed it on GMB!
Still in doubt? Then contact SSDM now because we are the expert SEO company in India providing winning marketing solutions to all sizes of businesses. We cover all cities including Amritsar, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Chandigarh, and so on. Contact now!