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Whether you own an online business or run a brick-and-mortar store, you can’t deny the importance of ‘being seen’ by your customers. In the online world, that means you rank high on Google.
Do you want to outrank your competitors on Google? Do you want to attract organic traffic to your site?
Well, Google My Business (GMB) can be your silver bullet. It is observed, an average business receives 59 actions from their GMB listing every single month.
Regardless of the size of your company, Google My Business can provide you with a platform to share important info about your business with your audience in an easy-to-understand format. Eventually, it can help you increase clicks and get more conversions.
In this article, you’ll learn what GMB is and why you need it. Plus, you’ll explore a step-by-step process to set up and optimize your GMB profile within no time.
Google My Business is a free platform that allows businesses to create their profiles, entering important info such as their location, operating hours, official website, and products/services they offer.
All this info appears in a small section at the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Suppose you own a law firm in the USA, and you’ve listed your location on your GMB. Now, if somebody searches the keyword “lawyers in USA” on Google, they’ll see a list of websites that have high SEO scores for this particular keyword.
Plus, they’ll also see a list of local businesses at the top of the SERP. These results are the GMB listings of relevant local businesses. As you can see in the image below, the searcher will also be shown a map of the area with the top listings highlighted.
Google My Business (commonly known as GMB, and formerly known as Google Local and Google Places) allows your company or business information to be shown by Google in a variety of ways.
Here are some of the key benefits of creating a GMB profile for your business:
GMB allows you to add the following information in your listing:
Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating your Google My Business listing.
Sign in to your Google Account that is associated with your business (or create a Google Account if you don’t already have one).
Go to this link https://www.google.com/business/ and select ‘Manage now’ in the top-right corner.
Enter your business name and select ‘Next.’
Select the category that best fits your business as it’ll help customers find you if they’re searching for a business similar to yours. Select ‘Next.’
If you have any physical location that your customers can visit (such as a store or an office), choose ‘Yes’ in this step. This location will appear on Google Maps and Search whenever searchers are looking for your business.
Select ‘Next.’
Enter your business address and select ‘Next.’
If you serve customers outside the business address, you just entered in the previous step, select ‘Yes, I also serve them outside my location.’
Else, select ‘No, I don’t.’
If you selected ‘Yes, I also serve them outside my location’ in the previous step, you now have the option to list your service areas. These areas will appear on your profile and help attract relevant customers.
Select ‘Next’ and continue.
Add your contact details such as business phone number and website. Select ‘Next.’
Select ‘Finish’ to start optimizing your GMB listing.
Select a way to verify your business. If you aren’t ready for verification yet, select ‘Verify Later.’
Alternatively, you can verify your business via mail.
After your business is verified, you can manage and optimize your Google My Business listing.
Once your business is verified, it’s time to give final touches to your profile.
Visit the GMB dashboard and select the listing you want to work on. Choose ‘Info.’ Next, select the section you wish to complete or update.
You can optimize the following elements on your profile:
Add the opening hours of your business and click ‘Apply.’
Add your business phone number, then select ‘Apply.’
Add your official business website, then select ‘Apply.’
Add all the products your business offers, then select ‘Save.’
You can add items in this section, depending on the industry you operate in.
Attributes to your Google My Business listing, increase the chance that your business will show up in more specific searches. For example, when searching for “restaurants near me”, you will also notice some additional categories, such as “Outdoor food for cheap” or “restaurant with live music”. This information is gathered via Google’s attributes feature. Like you can add further as Dinner, Free Delivery, Catering etc. as attributes.
Use this section to talk about your business briefly. Mention your unique selling point (USP), and why customers should buy from you, who do you serve etc.
Effective GMB descriptions may also certainly impact your search rankings over time, depending on how much Google decides these descriptions factor into rankings. You can follow few guidelines to make your description better.
Add the date you first opened (or will open) at the business address entered previously. Select ‘Apply.’
GMB profiles with photos get more clicks to their website and trigger more requests for driving directions in Google Maps.
Wondering what kinds of photos you can add to your business listing?
You can add:
Before uploading photos to your GMB profile, make sure they meet the following requirements:
Your videos will look good on Google if they meet the following standards:
Welcoming customer reviews on your GMB profile and responding to every review is a great way to show that you engage with the people who post on your listing. This will encourage other customers to leave feedback as well.
But, how should you respond to the GMB reviews?
If a review is positive, just thank the customer and let them know how you cherish their business. And if the review is negative, be polite and use everything in your power to make things right.
In this section, we’ve answered some commonly asked questions about GMB reviews.
1. Can I remove negative reviews from my GMB listing?
No, you can’t remove any negative customer reviews. But, Google does allow you to dispute fake reviews. However, there’s no guarantee that Google will remove the disputed review.
2. How do I dispute a fake review on my GMB listing?
Follow these steps:
3. How do I turn off reviews for my GMB listing?
You can’t turn off reviews on your GMB listing. If you dislike the reviews customers leave, your only option is to respond politely and try to resolve the issue at your end.
In case of a fake review, treat it as a genuine complaint while you wait for Google to make a determination after it is flagged for a dispute.
4. Do GMB reviews affect my SEO score?
High-quality, positive customer reviews can enhance your company’s visibility and improve the odds of a potential customer visiting your business.
Google Posts let you interact with customers directly in the Search and on Maps. They help you keep your customers updated by sharing what’s new.
Google Posts are just like micro-blogs that you can create to share content, images, events, offers, and other fun stuff.
And guess what? They can also affect your SEO ranking!
Just keep in mind that Google Posts expire after a week, so make sure you post weekly.
You can find Google Posts in the ‘Posts’ tab if you’re accessing via mobile as well as on GMB Websites. These posts may also appear on Maps, Search, and the Overview tab for listings based on various signals.
You can share following kinds of posts:
It is recently introduced to share more detail and timely updates about your business like opening and closing, safety and hygiene, any gift card to support your business, online visits etc. Make sure post with phone number might be rejected.
These posts contain general information you want to share with the audience.
Planning to host an event? These posts can help promote your event. They work best for venues and restaurants, but universities can also leverage these types of posts.
Before you share an event post, make sure it has:
These posts are ideal if you’re offering any kind of promo deals like discounts.
Product posts help you highlight any particular product your business offers. For instance, a makeup store may highlight a specific line of lipsticks they sell.
Once your GMB listing is verified, you can enable messaging. It allows you to answer customers’ questions quickly. It’s a powerful tool that you can use to attract the younger customer segment to your business, especially.
To enjoy free communication with your customers, download the GMB App, and enable the ‘Messaging’ feature. However, this feature is currently available only for limited merchants in limited countries.
Once enabled, it allows the users to message on your phone.
Not only that, but you can also use the GMB app to:
But you can’t use the GMB app to:
Google offers reporting called ‘Insights’ on the GMB dashboard. You can view your stats weekly, monthly, or quarterly.
Some common Google My Business statistics are:
Undoubtedly, Google My Business can help improve your local SEO. It’s a useful tool for anybody operating an online business. You can enhance your business reputation, offer valuable info to all customers, and improve your local search rankings.
Now that you know how to create and optimize your listing, it’s time to take advantage of all that GMB has to offer. Discover more about local SEO in our post, Your Guide to Local Campaigns in Google Ads.
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