Your Google Business Profile is an effective tool for consumers to locate your business and engage with it in new ways – for instance allowing customers to message you.
An optimized and complete Google Business Profile is key for local SEO search rankings, and this guide will walk you through the steps necessary to optimize it.
Why Do You Need to Optimize Your Google Business Profile?
Google is an invaluable resource for business visibility. Optimizing both websites and Ads campaigns with the appropriate targeting is crucial in driving targeted traffic to your company; yet many organizations fail to realize that their Google Business Profile should also be optimized in order to remain visible online.
Google Business Profile is the information that appears when someone searches for your business on both desktop and mobile search engines, between Ads and organic results.
Optimized Global Brand Pages will increase visibility and user experience. Consumers often live in micro-moments, making GBPs easy for them to locate what they’re looking for quickly and easily. Furthermore, optimized GBPs help your site rank higher in search engine results, increasing organic traffic. Plus they give potential customers all of the info they need in order to make an informed decision.
1. Fill Out Every Section of the Google Business Profile
Google My Business is a free tool that enables you to take control of your business listing online. Once set up and verified (which typically happens within hours), it provides access to helpful analytics tools.
As an example, you can determine how many people are searching for services your business provides and the devices they are using when doing so – this information will enable you to develop more targeted marketing campaigns.
Personalize your profile by adding photos and updates about events or special offers, setting up text messaging so searchers can send you messages from their phones directly, and setting up texting (only one person can receive and respond to these texts), an excellent way to generate new leads.
2. Make Sure Your Contact Information is Correct
If there are inaccuracies on your Google Business Profile, contact them immediately as incorrect data could cause potential customers to turn away from doing business with you. Inaccurate information could make or break an customer relationship.
Consumers using Google Business Listings tend to rely on photos uploaded by businesses as proof that their services can be trusted. So it is crucial that quality images be added to your profile in order to show potential clients why your service should be chosen over others.
Consumers can gain more insight into your products and services through the Questions & Answers section of their Google Business Profile. Create a shareable review link, ask customers to leave reviews via email, or print “leave a review” cards for them to use in store – Google will consider this when ranking your Business Profile.
3. Select Your Business Primary and Secondary Categories
Google Business categories allow searchers to locate your listings more easily. Selecting an appropriate primary category is key in order to unlock features like placing online orders or booking appointments.
Selecting appropriate secondary categories is also crucial to distinguishing your business from competitors and reaching customers that fit your target demographics. Up to ten secondary categories may be added.
One approach for selecting appropriate categories for your business is examining which competitors show up when searching for relevant keywords. You should avoid including specific words as categories as this violates Google’s Terms of Service and may cause your listing to be removed from search results.
4. Select Attributes
Google My Business makes it simple and effective for businesses of all kinds to optimize their listings for the services they offer by selecting relevant attributes and creating a description that acts as keywords when users search on Google.
Reviews play an invaluable role in customer purchasing decisions, so it’s crucial that you encourage customers to leave reviews on your Google My Business listing. Reviews increase the chance of being featured in the Local 3-Pack as well as increase visibility within Google Search results.
Implementing these tips shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes and will help your business stand out in search results. By leveraging tools such as Chat GPT, optimizing your Business Profile is made simple; plus Google My Business is just an added bonus for local search marketing success! As local search expands further and wider, make sure your presence online remains visible!
5. Write a Compelling Business Description
Google Business Profile’s business description field can be an invaluable asset, allowing up to 750 characters of text for you to use to describe your products and services, including keywords that pertain specifically to them. Just don’t “overcrowd” it!
As part of your business profile, you can select specific attributes that describe it. These will enable it to show up in searches with local intent, helping Google match your business with relevant searches.
Your business profile should also provide customers with important details, including regular and holiday hours of operation. This helps prevent negative reviews from customers who arrive only to discover that the location was closed when they arrive for a visit.
6. Create Posts Weekly
Google My Business posts can be an effective way to drive more visitors to your website and improve local search engine rankings, while setting you apart from your competition.
Posts can be created for many different occasions, including events, offers, products and Covid-19 updates. Once posted they will remain live for seven days before being archived in a section so they can be accessed later.
What’s New posts are an ideal way to promote promotions, discounts, specials, customer testimonials or anything else that sets your business apart. With just five minutes required for creation of this type of post and its potential traffic-boosting effect on both websites and businesses alike.
7. Add Photos Weekly
Add photos to your Business Profile because customers who see pictures are 42% more likely to request driving directions and 35% more likely to click through from Google Search results to visit your website if there are photos. Furthermore, regularly updating new images shows Google that your listing remains active, helping boost its ranking.
Make sure your images accurately portray your business by including photos of your team, customers, interior/exterior views and any other relevant content. Furthermore, geotag images to show Google that you are present in their service area.
Secure as many reviews as possible in order to increase your local ranking on Google Maps and Search. Reviews play an integral part in customer purchasing decisions, and Google uses review counts and average star ratings in its algorithm as indicators.
8. Answer Any Questions
Customers searching for your products or services likely need information that will help them make a purchase decision, so it’s essential that they receive all the answers they might require through your Business Profile.
The Questions and Answers section allows anyone who visits your Business Profile to submit queries to you and view your responses – an excellent way to build trust and demonstrate how much your business cares about its customers.
Keep in mind that the questions and answers section should not be used for regulated products or services such as alcohol, gambling, tobacco, pharmaceuticals, medical and financial. In addition, using keywords or location modifiers as name fields could cause confusion or even get your listing penalized by Google; to prevent that from happening you should include your actual business name which matches up with both website content and citations.
Google My Business Spam and Scams
Keep in mind that there is some Google my business spam and scams out there. So don’t fall for any scammers contacting you through your GMB.
9. Respond to Reviews
Customers relying on reviews when searching for local businesses rely heavily on them when determining where to spend their money, which Google takes into consideration by prioritizing businesses with high star ratings and positive feedback in search results.
Responding to customer reviews is a great way to show that you care about their experience at your business and build trust and reliability with prospective customers who read them.
Make sure to respond quickly to both good and negative reviews, enable messaging so customers can communicate directly with you, and meet the 24-hour response time requirement of your business.
