Google My Business is a free tool provided by Google, and as a local business owner, you want to make sure that your business shows up on customers’ screens when they search for nearby services. It’s vital that you enhance your Google My Business listing in order to do this.
Google My Business, one of Google’s free products, assists you in promoting your business to locals in your area by including all the necessary information in search results.
This article will go over all the fundamentals, demonstrate how to improve your Google Business Profile, and give you some really useful tips on how to do local SEO on Google My Business.
Let’s start now.
What is Google My Business?
You can upload your business’s photographs, address, products or services, and any other essential data using Google My Business (also known as Google Business Profile), a free tool for business listings. You may boost the likelihood that your business will show up in Google Search, Google Maps, and other Google services by creating a profile.
Your business must, however, have a physical location (like a restaurant) and render services there in order to open an account. All sizes of businesses can benefit from Google My Business. Managing your internet presence and attracting clients who look for your business on Google Search and Maps gives you a competitive advantage.
You may access and change your business information (name, location, hours, etc.) and reply to reviews with a Google My Business account. You can also share pictures of your goods or services. This will improve your business’s exposure and engagement over time.
Given that Google My Business is completely free, there is no excuse not to utilize all of its business-building features. The sole prerequisite is that your business must have a physical address.
According to the survey carried out, a Google My Business listing is more significant for local businesses than social media, content marketing, email marketing, profiles on some other directory websites like Bing, and other types of advertising combined.
Why is GMB important for local SEO?
The following are the top 5 reasons why your company requires a Google My Business profile:
1. Boost your business’s visibility and search ranking
By strictly following the Google My Business SEO checklist, you may improve your business’s overall exposure and search ranking. Google ads, Google’s local 3-pack, and organic results all show up first when a potential customer types in phrases related to the products and services your business offers.
You have a better chance of appearing in the top 3 local results on Google Maps and local finder by setting up a Google My Business profile, which will increase your business’s exposure and lead generation.
2. Improves customer engagement and support
As we previously mentioned, having a Google My Business profile will allow you to handle both positive and negative criticism and respond to queries and comments about your goods and services more promptly.
Additionally, clients are more likely to do business with individuals they can easily reach, so having access to your shared information makes it simpler for them to call you with a query or a complaint.
3. Increase traffic and sales
It goes without saying that having a Google My Business account can increase traffic to your website since 28% of local searches result in purchases.
Naturally, consumers are more likely to visit your website to discover more about you when they search for the goods or services your company provides. They’re also more likely to accomplish a goal if the landing page and CTAs are effective.
As a pro tip, here is a go-to dashboard for tracking local business performance:
If you own a small, local business, you’re probably always keeping an eye on performance and searching for ways to make it better. Many business owners use Google My Business to do that, and they can now access actionable data in one handy dashboard that displays important business KPIs like:
- Visits to your business listing: The number of people who viewed your Google My Business listing each day
- Lookups that led to your listing: How many times has a Google search turned up your listing?
- The sources from which users found your listing: Who were those people searching for? Discover how your visitors find you by looking at the volume of direct, discovery, and branded searches.
- Steps taken in response to your listing: What did visitors do after finding your listing? Do you want to go to your website? To dial, or click? Click here for a map. Obtain an overview of each.
- Received calls: How many calls did your listing generate for you within any given month or other time frame?
- The overall number of actions: How successful was your listing overall this week or this month? Can you increase your activity and response?
4. It makes it easier to reach a larger audience
You’ll be able to attract and engage a larger audience with a current Google My Business profile, which is something that would be challenging to do without running advertisements.
5. Builds your brand’s reputation as a commercial authority
The reviews have a favorable effect on how appealing your business is to potential clients. A 4.8-star rating, for instance, shows that your company excels at what it does, increasing the likelihood that customers will choose you.
How do I create a Google My Business account?
Even though setting up a Google My Business account initially seems intimidating, it’s surprisingly easy to do if you take the appropriate steps.
Here’s what you have to do to have your business listed on Google:
Step 1: Create a profile on Google My Business.
Start by creating or logging into your Google Account at https://business.google.com/create. Utilizing an email account with your business’s domain is advised.
Step 2: Claim Your Business.
It’s crucial to confirm whether a business already exists with the same name or address before claiming it. If you already have a business profile for an established establishment at the same address, suggest an edit to close it.
Claim your business by visiting Google Maps, entering the name, and selecting “Claim this Business” if you are all good here and don’t already have a GMB profile.
Simply click “Add your business to Google” to create a new profile.
Step 3: Add your business name.
It’s time to provide all the specifics now:
- Enter the name of your business first.
- Make sure the name matches the signage for your firm to prevent any misunderstandings.
Step 4: Choose a business category.
Having a category will improve your search engine visibility since Google will match it to pertinent inquiries. This might be “restaurant,” “technology,” “bar,” “coffee shop,” etc. Finding your particular category on Google shouldn’t be difficult given that it has more than 4,000 of them.
You should also list any category-specific services you provide, such as a vegetarian menu if you do.
The more information you provide, the better your Google My Business SEO will be.
Step 5: Add your business location.
Although not required, this is highly advised for SEO. If your business also has a website or a social media account, it’s crucial that you use that address everywhere. Google won’t think twice about penalizing you if they find any irregularities in this area.
Add the places you deliver to as well as your delivery services, if you provide them.
Step 6: Write a Google My Business description.
This is not referring to the description that shows under the name of your business on Google (you cannot alter this description).
Instead, you ought to include a description under “From the business.” Since this will be the public’s initial impression of your business, you must create an engaging yet educational message.
Step 7: Fill in your business’s contact information.
You must include information like your phone number and website address here.
If your business doesn’t already have a website, you can get one made for free.
That’s it! An effective Google My Business profile has been produced.
How to Verify Your Google Account My Business Listing
Verifying your profile comes after you’ve validated it.
Surprisingly, this has nothing to do with technology or the internet. Google merely mails a postcard containing a verification number to the address you provide. It ought to reach you in around five business days.
You will be able to look at analytics, reviews, and necessary information after having your account verified. If you provide services but don’t have a physical address, you can ask Google Support for a phone or email verification by getting in touch with them.
How does Google determine local ranking?
For determining local ranking, Google takes these three factors into consideration:
- Relevance: This refers to how well the user’s search intent fits your business. You should provide Google with as much information as you can to improve the likelihood that your local business will show up in search results.
- Distance: As the name implies, distance describes the proximity of your business’s location to the user’s location. Google will utilize past location data to generally estimate their location if they don’t specify a precise location.
- Prominence: Lastly, Google looks at how prominent your business is and whether it has a strong reputation before determining your local ranking. Google often considers offline variables when determining prominence. Additionally, it browses external links and business-related publications. Although Google also looks at a few other metrics, these three Google My Business SEO elements are the most crucial.
6 Tips on How to do local SEO on Google My Business (GMB)
You’ve in no doubt already realized how crucial it is for your local business to have a Google My Business listing.
But in order to rank higher in local searches and appear in the local pack, you’ll need to do more than just create a profile. You’ll need to take steps to enhance your Google My Business SEO.
So, how can Google My Business listings be optimized to achieve better placement in local search results or a chance to be included in the local pack?
Here are six suggestions in response to the question on how to do local SEO on Google My Business:
1. Validate your business
You should first validate your business with Google before taking any further action.
Here is a quick recap of the procedure, since we have already described it in one of our earlier headings.
Google will email you a four-digit number after you complete the account setup procedure, and it will be delivered to the address you specified in the business data.
Simply go to the provided link and enter the code after receiving it. As a result, Google will formally publish your new profile and recognize your local company as real.
2. Completely fill up your Google My Business Profile
It’s time to complete your profile after you’ve validated your business. Even though several of the sections are optional, several of our respondents emphasized how crucial it is that you include all essential information. It is preferable to provide all the information requested. According to Kenny Lange of Web Canopy Studio, “Google rewards businesses who take the time to complete their profiles.” The foundation for all additional suggestions (reviews, Google posts, answering queries, etc.) is a thorough profile.
According to the survey, the names, addresses, phone numbers, website links, and categories of your business are the most crucial information to include in your Google My Business profile.
However, it’s also important to provide other information, such as a description of your service region. Cheyenne Schueman of Page 1 Solutions explains why enhancing your GMB profile must include this: “Services, a useful tool offered by Google My Business, is simply accessed from the details panel. In addition to letting potential customers know what you have to offer, filling out your items and services will keep them on your profile longer, which will give your profile more weight than that of your rivals in Google’s eyes.
3. Ensure the accuracy of the information on your profile
Simply filling out the fields on your Google My Business profile is not sufficient. Additionally, you must ensure that the data is valid and continues to be accurate.
According to Cindy Venerio of Nerds Support, “The most critical thing you can do is make sure all of the information on your ad is true.” “That might seem obvious, but there are so many businesses with false information out there.”
According to Dallin Hatch of Womply, “Google My Business listings are becoming the virtual storefront for most firms, therefore it’s crucial to keep them updated.” Set a daily or weekly reminder, if you can, to keep your information up-to-date.
You’d be surprised how frequently we’ve discovered that this fundamental—yet critical—online customer touchpoint is outdated or missing: a broken phone line, a down website, a bounced email, a location displayed incorrectly or not at all, outdated reviews, and more, says Hatch.
Add your holiday hours as necessary, as Grand Cru Digital’s Casey Bryan suggests, to maintain your profile current and correct.
This can be crucial, particularly if your business listing indicates that you’re open on Sundays, but when potential clients arrive, they discover that you’re actually closed.
This not only results in a loss of sales but also damages the reputation of your business.
4. Decide which categories are most relevant
Choosing the appropriate service categories was one of the most important Google My Business SEO checklist items we discovered. This function has a significant impact on Google’s choice of whether to show your local business in an organic search or not.
You have the option of selecting one primary category and nine secondary ones. There are 4,000 options, so there is something for every sector.
Kyle Sanders of Complete SEO advises choosing the most pertinent, up-to-date category for your core category. “We’ve seen situations where clients see a jump of 5–10 positions just by moving the most pertinent category from secondary to primary,” Kyle says.
Sanders advises against using too many secondary categories that stretch the bounds of relevancy.
Don’t just make assumptions about what your categories should be, advises Contractor Calls’ Joe Goldstein. Expand the local pack, enter a target term, and take note of the category that is displayed for each firm. Repeat the process with a minimum of five additional keywords and keyword variations.
“Tracking that data on a spreadsheet can help you identify other categories you may have missed or force you to re-evaluate your main category,” the author says.
The categories you select affect the searches for which you are qualified to rank, and there are frequently trade-offs with each category decision, so weigh your selections carefully, says Goldstein.
5. Get additional reviews
You should concentrate on collecting as many reviews as you can once your Google My Business profile is fully configured. Reviews influence the click-through rate in addition to improving your profile rating on Google Maps and the search engine.
You can take the following actions:
- Develop a plan for reviewing: This could entail anything from contacting each customer separately and asking them to give a review to using automation to do the labor-intensive tasks.
- Check to see if your reviews are reliable: Remember that search engines will easily sort out spammers and prefer that users rate you in a natural way. The fake enthusiasm won’t be missed by people, even if the bots are. Therefore, make every effort to make the review process easier.
- Put quality before quantity: According to Luke Wester of Miva, “the objective is to not only generate favorable reviews but to have them include descriptive phrases that describe why the place is wonderful.” Google has now deemed reviews with 200+ characters more valuable.
- React to customer reviews: According to Amanda Putney of Portent, “replying to reviews is an opportunity to demonstrate to clients (current or potential) that you care about their experience with your firm.” Reviews are a goldmine of service and quality information, which is vital for local businesses in particular. Sam McCue of SmartBug Media also reminds us that reacting to negative reviews is a chance to improve them: “Once I acquired an answer to a negative review, it was flawless.” It said, “Hello Sam.” Even though we enjoy reading the positive comments left by our customers, it is reviews like yours that will enable us to improve as a company. I appreciate your open feedback and promise to do everything possible to make your next visit outstanding. My annoyance subsided after reading that. “After returning to the restaurant, I altered my review,” McCue claims.
6. Make the most of Google posts
You can make interactive posts that show up in search results; did you know that about GMB?
This includes anything you publish on your website, such as articles and blog entries, as well as particular activities like classes and promotions. You can boost user engagement and drive a lot more traffic to your company by writing a high-quality post.
The following are some suggestions from various participants for the authors of such posts:
- Post at least 10 articles: Steve Yanor of Sky Alphabet social media advises creating 10 GMB posts (or more). “These 10 postings expire after 14 days, but if you don’t want to compose new ones, you can just repost them.” Each post should contain the keywords you want to rank for in Google searches and be roughly 1,000 words long.
- Regularly add new content: According to Irena Zobniow of Insightland, “Google prefers information that is current, new, and relevant to the season.” “Therefore, post an update frequently, include new images, describe recent business changes, etc.”
How to fix GMB Account Issues
It can feel discouraging to be having problems with your Google My Business profile, and that is totally understandable. After all, you don’t want to risk having all of your hard work vanish overnight.
Here are some of the most typical GMB account problems and solutions:
- Suspension
- Managing user and Google edits
Suspension
Google won’t think twice about suspending your local business if they have reason to believe that it violates their policies.
This may be brought on by:
- posting prohibited content,
- using an inaccurate business name, and
- having many entries for the same establishment
Attempt to determine the root of the problem before attempting to reinstate your suspended account. Examine the official Google My Business regulations to find the possible cause.
Be thorough in your search because Google won’t tell you why. Once the problem has been located, you can try to fix it by updating your profile as needed. You can request that Google evaluate your account once you have removed the false information and objectionable content.
You must enter your email address, business name, and mailing address on the reinstatement form. You’ll also need to provide a good justification for why your account should be reinstated.
Reactivating your account can take a long time, so take extra care to avoid breaking any restrictions in the first place.
Managing user and Google edits
You will frequently get a notification if Google changes your profile information (or implements a change you proposed). You can access the following box by clicking “suggest an edit” when viewing a Google My Business listing:
You can suggest an edit for the following by selecting “Change name or other details”:
- Name,
- category, and
- place of business
- Contact information
- Website;
- Visuals;
- Address
This screen will appear if you select “close or remove”:
Fortunately, just because someone claims that your GMB listing is closed, Google won’t immediately delete it. Instead, you will be informed if they discover any inconsistencies in the profile’s information.
Google frequently draws attention to the elements it believes should be altered. For instance, if a certain hue is used to highlight your category, it indicates that they believe you should update it.
You have the option of making these adjustments or sticking with your initial information. Make sure everything in your profile is accurate and up-to-date, as this is the best strategy to prevent Google edits.
Google My Business KPIs That Are Critical
It’s great to do local SEO for your Google My Business listing for improved rankings, but it’s even better to know whether your adjustments were successful.
What KPIs should you check in your GMB SEO dashboard to keep track of how well your listing is performing and how your adjustments are having an impact?
The most crucial KPIs for Google My Business, according to survey respondents, are:
- Events
- Phone calls
- Website clicks
Other than these 3, reports also brought up opinions, requests for directions, and source searches.
Consider creating your own custom reporting dashboard with a powerful SEO dashboard program like Databox if you need a way to track your important Google My Business metrics alongside information from the other marketing channels you’re focused on, such as your website, email newsletter, and social media profiles.
Conclusion
It is essential that you create and optimize your digital presence given the volume of online local business searches. There is simply too much information to track down and analyze, even though knowing how to improve Google My Business profile isn’t very difficult.
