Day 16: Google My Business
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Google My Business can be very useful for finding more customers and getting your business out there. Below is a breakdown of Google My Business best practices and how to make the most of your business listing.
Keep your Google My Business profile up to date
When you run a business that provides services that are important to you and your clients, it’s key to make sure your profile is up to date. This allows you to avoid missing out on potential business opportunities.
Your Google My Business is also important for your local SEO (search engine optimisation) strategy. Beyond building positive customer reviews to help your business appear higher in local search results by staying up to date you can also take advantage of the recent updates from Google.
Optimising your Google My Business profile
A great first step in optimising your profile is filling out your business description. Your business description is one of the few places in your GMB profile where you get to explain what makes your business unique. You get 750 characters to tell people why they should step through your door or buy from you over the other alternatives in the local area (if there are any).
The more competition you face, the more important your description could prove to be. Make sure you’re honest and try to focus on the characteristics of your business that appeal to your target customers.
You can find out what not to include in your business description on this Google My Business Help page.
Google My Business optimisation has changed quite a bit in the last year. Reviews are more important now than they’ve ever been. Specifically, the words used within your customer reviews can now affect how high up your listing ranks for certain search terms.
For example, if you run a business that specialises in carpentry, it’d be really beneficial to get positive reviews that use words like; carpentry, woodworking & joinery.
Make your NAP & business info 100% accurate
Accurate business information, especially your name, address and phone number (NAP), is one of the strongest signals in local search. So make sure your details are 100% accurate on your Google My Business page and that they match the business information you have listed on your website and third-party sites (directories, review sites, etc).
There are four pieces of basic business information that you need to specify right away:
- Your business name
- Your business category
- Your business address
- Your service area
You will have chosen a business category when you created or claimed your business in GMB but you can now add further categories to help Google show your listing to relevant searches with greater accuracy.
Show the best of your business with quality photos
Google My Business allows you to upload images of your business and this is one of the most underutilised tools in GMB. These images, quite literally, shape the mental image users build about your business and you want to make sure these photos create the right impression.
Get yourself a professional photographer and upload high-quality images of the following:
- Your business logo (this shows when you post a photo or reply to reviews, questions, etc)
- Your GMB cover photo
- Your exterior building
- The interior of your business
- Products/services
You can also upload videos to Google My Business so think hard about the kind of message you want to put across, such as your company’s history or a compilation of video reviews from a selection of happy customers
Post to your GMB Profile
Google My Business Posts (shortened to Google Posts) are social feed-like updates, mostly created and controlled by the business, that generally contain an image/video, text and link. They can be used to promote offers, advise customers about Covid-19 updates, highlight products and events, and much more.
Google always seems to be changing this feature so it is a good idea to make use of it and to see how you can keep within Google’s rules check out their advice here: https://support.google.com/business/answer/7662907?hl=en-GB&ref_topic=7343035
Remember to tag us into your post @idomarketinguk and use the hashtag #idmcalendar2022
