What is Google My Business?
Google My Business is a listing that showcases a business' opening hours, services offered, reviews, contact details and information relating to the company.
Optimising your Google My Business listing is important for local marketing, as it will allow your business to rank higher on Google Maps. Google My Business also opens up new lines of communication with your customers and potential customers via the phone app and messaging.
To manage your Google listing, you will need to verify that you are the owner of your business on Google. If you do not verify your account, the information shown will be based purely on user-generated content (UGC). Once you have confirmed your account, UGC will still exist, however, as the business owner, you can adjust opening hours, contact details, location and other details. You also need to verify your account to update photos, post updates and respond to reviews - all of which can have a positive effect on your local marketing efforts, Google rankings and click-through to your website.
Within a Google My Business listing, you can update and manage the following:
Info
Make sure all of your business information is correct so that customers can find where you are located, contact you and visit your website with no issues at all. This information will show when your audience is searching on Google Maps or in the Search Results.
Google Posts
Similar to the posts you run on other networks (such as Facebook and Instagram), you can post to your Google listing. Promote what has been happening in your business, reviews, special offers and upcoming events. The posts will show on the Google Search Results page when people search for your business and will also appear on Google Maps when your audience is looking for companies in your area. You should look into what social media schedulers allow for automatic posting to Google My Business.
Google Reviews
Customers can review your business out of five and leave feedback about your business. Within the Google My Business tool, you can respond to these reviews. It is important to try and respond to some of the reviews left of your business as it shows a level of transparency between your business and your customers. If the review is a negative one, apologise for the bad experience and acknowledge any downfalls on your part.
Google Messaging
Keep communications channels open with messaging. Enable messaging through the Google My Business phone app for a convenient way to stay connected. Important - if you turn this feature on, please
Update your information
It's essential to add as much information about your business as possible, if you don't, anyone can 'suggest' related to Google. Therefore it is vital to the success of your local marketing efforts to ensure all of the information listed on your profile is correct.
You should add photos to your business profile regularly. According to Google, profiles with photos receive 42% more requests for directions and 35% more clicks to websites than businesses that don't have pictures on their profile.
The easiest way to keep your business profile updated is to post photos that you are usually uploading to your website and social media accounts to Google My Business too.
Upload your logo and a cover photo, as well as additional photos. You can also add videos to your profile. Find out more about Google's photo and video specs here.
Optimising your Google Page
Some easy things to do to optimise your listing include:
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Fill out your Google My Business Profile
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Post to Google My Business
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Ask for reviews, and respond to them
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Ensure you keep your website updated and share it with relevant directories
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Keep your other social profiles updated
Download the app
You should download the Google My Business app via the iOS or Android stores so that you can easily update information, post updates and respond to reviews on the go.
In summary
Google My Business is especially useful for local marketing optimisation. Searchers on Google or Maps see relevant businesses when searching for a business type in their area. As Google builds the tool, Google My Business will start to play a significant factor in your search engine strategy.
