Google My Business (GMB) is a powerful marketing medium if you aim for your local market. It is a creditable way to get your leads to take notice of your small business more often. For instance, if the marketing team hired by florists, restaurateurs, and small retail outlets, can get their businesses in the top 3 listings in local Google searches, they are bound to get an enormous amount of traffic and visibility. Our local SEO Boston team employs Google My Business optimization services to achieve this with a substantial return on investment, even for small businesses. Here are the steps to start optimizing your profile to gain good SEO results for your business.
Create a My Google Business Account
The first step is to claim your GMB page. Do not use a PO Box as Google strictly prohibits this. It will help if you have a business phone number. You may use your home address as a mailing destination for the postcard, which contains the PIN, Google will send you. The purpose of the postcard is to verify your business as legitimate. The process can be tedious, but this is the most crucial process in establishing the credibility of your business, as well as building up your Google My Business profile. Most importantly, make sure that the information you place in your GMB profile is consistent with the information contained in your website and social media business pages.
Categorize Your Business
The purpose of categorizing is to describe your business and connect to possible customers searching for the services you offer. Google auto-populates the choices. Choose as many as you can categorize more specifically and differentiate your business from others in your area. Moreover, do not forget to fill-up the “description” portion. The short description will help your business gain visibility as this will show up in the local knowledge panel in search or Google Maps results for the business.
Write a Brief Description of Your Business
Make sure you write relevant GMB description. Since you are limited to write 750 characters in the description, you need to make sure these will be the words your possible customers search for to lead them to your business ranking first in the search results.
Make Sure You Populate Your Profile With Relevant and Clear Photos (and Videos)
Adding photos and videos to your GMB profile helps with its GMB optimization. Users tend to engage sites with pictures and videos than sites with just plain text. Remember that most users are using mobile to access your GMB. Always make sure your profile is mobile blog friendly by using images that are relevant to your business. Suggested contents are a panoramic view of your store’s interior or a video to show site visitors the “feel” when they engage with your business.
Complete All Sections
Make sure you do not leave any sections blank with information consistent with all information listed about your business across all platforms. Every section is relevant and valuable to some extent.
Localize
Note that Google will ask you to search for your business when you first create your GMB page. If your business is already listed, make sure you claim it as your own. This action is to make sure your business listing for the same site is not duplicated on Google. Be sure to include your area code when listing your business phone number.
Get Reviews and Engage Them
Encourage your customers to write you a review. Good reviews tend to draw customers in as many people consider a business with very good reviews worthy of a visit. In the case of less than stellar reviews, see these as an opportunity to engage and react. Possible customers will see this as good customer service and will still give your business a good impression.
Add Posts to Share Business Updates
Utilize the Google Post for your business. Adding new photos and highlighting your offer will help your business relevant relative to your local competition.
Key Takeaways
It is vital to practice GMB Optimization nowadays as this will help your business gain parity over more considerable competition locally. GMB also offers a chance to engage with your customers via reviews or posts. GMB is a free and valuable tool. Ignoring GMB Optimization is like leaving money on the table.
