With nearly 3.5 billion searches daily and approximately 80% of all searches occurring on Google, businesses of all size should invest in building website visibility and ranking across Google search results. Optimizing a website is essential to rank in the SERPs. When it comes to local SEO, the approach can differ. Businesses that have a physical location or serve in a particular geographic area must incorporate local SEO tactics in their SEO strategy. 

One of the most vital platforms to optimize for local SEO is Google business listing. This powerful listing tool highlights your business, its features, location, contact details, ratings & reviews, etc., to let potential customers engage with it. GMB listing is one of the simplest ways to drive traffic to your website and the best part is that it’s completely free to use. 

In this blog, we will learn about the advantages of optimizing Google My Business listing, creating a Google business account & getting verified, effective optimization strategies and GMB listing insights. Let’s see how GMB listing can scale your online presence, increase traffic on the website and improve conversion rate.

What is Google My Business?

Google My Business is a free tool by Google enabling you to create, manage, optimize and promote your business profile on Google to rank in local search results. GMB listing is most beneficial for businesses operating in a specific geographical location like restaurants, doctors, plumbers, lawyers, etc. Suppose you started a restaurant and want to reach out to local customers, but nobody knows about your new business. In such a situation, you can list your business on the GMB platform to appear in the search results of local customers. These local results will show your business listing whenever someone searches ‘restaurant in X location’ or ‘restaurants near me’ or any other keywords that you are optimizing. 

Importance of optimizing Google My Business listing

Google My Business is not limited to ranking your website higher in local results or making business visible in Google searches. It can increase your revenue and provide valuable insights about your visitors. 

The following points highlight the need to optimize your Google business profile:

  • Build your business’s local SEO – Local results are mainly based on relevance, distance, quality and prominence. Combining all these factors provides local users with the best match for their query. Therefore, considering these four factors and optimizing your local listing according to them improves your website performance in the SEO ranking.
  • Boost user engagement – Optimize your Google business page by filling out all the details and using targeted keywords. This helps you rank higher in Google SEO. High ranking leads to more visibility and user engagement. You can attract more customers through your Google business profile than your website because it easily appears across local search results.
  • It increases conversion rate – You can convert web users into customers to achieve the business’s specific goal. Most visitors scroll the Google’s first page for their required results. The organic click-through rate on the second page of Google decreased exponentially in comparison to the first page. So, it is beneficial to rank higher in search results which means your website is visible to more web users leading to an increase in the conversion rate. Google My Business listing is the best tool that helps you to boost your local ranking and increase conversion rate.
  • Control in your hand – Google My Business is a valuable and easy-to-use tool that gives you full control over your business’s information like what to display, edits in photos & videos, indexing data, user-related content, etc. You can also contact your customers through a GMB listing and get their valuable opinion about your business or vice-versa.

How to create a Google My Business account?

In the previous section, we’ve learned the importance of Google My Business and how we can drive traffic through it to grow our business and increase revenue. Now, let’s go step by step to create a Google My Business account:

Step 1. Create a Google account:

If you do not have a Google account, create a new one that works entirely for your business. You are automatically logged in to Google business profile manager if you already have an account.

Step 2. Go to Google My Business and sign in:

Log in to Google business profile manager; this is automatically done with your Google account. Create a business by providing your business’s name and choosing its category. There are many categories but you have to select the most relevant for your business.

Step 3. Enter your business location:

Provide your business’s physical location or address where customers can visit like store or office. It is good to fill this detail as it shows up on Google map and customers can reach this location.

If businesses do not want to fill in this detail, they can simply select ‘No’. Now, list your service areas to reach relevant customers. GMB will also ask if you serve outside the location provided by you.

Fill in all details and click Next. You can add or change service area details anytime.

Step 4. Provide contact details:

Fill in your contact details like business phone number, website URL, etc., so that customers can gain more information about your services and can contact you if needed. Provide all details by clicking Next and then Finish once you are done.

Step 5. Complete verification process:

After completing all the steps, you get access to your dashboard but its functions and features are limited. Also, your business is not visible on Google yet because verification is pending. (image)

Google will verify your business by sending a postcard mail to the business address provided by you. This verification process takes up to 5 days. Google wants to verify that the business you are claiming belongs to you; this is essential for the visibility and performance of the listing.

Once you receive the postcard with the verification code, it’ll go through the simple steps to complete verification and your business will be officially live.

Step 6. Complete your profile:

Once you get verified, complete your Google business profile 100% by adding more information in it like business hours, multiple locations(if you have), FAQs that customers want to know, add photos, etc. Make sure the details provided are accurate and relevant to your business. Do not let any section be incomplete or assumed in your profile to make local listing effective.

Optimization strategies for Google My Business listing

Infographic - How to completely optimize google my business listing

Google Business listing is a great tool to rank in local search results as it uses a location-based strategy. It does not replace your website by exacting as an alternate solution rather provides a platform to promote your services (mentioned on your website). Information provided in Google business account can appear in search results and Google maps.

Google My Business is a free tool that is helpful for local SEO and available for everyone. Therefore, you have to optimize your business listing strategically to gain a better SEO ranking than your competitors and take the lead on them. In this section, we’ll discuss some optimization strategies that are helpful for your Google business optimization:

  • Include keywords related to your business – Keyword optimization is essential for normal website SEO as well as local SEO. You have to use targeted keywords and search phrases to optimize your Google business page.

Important keywords related to your business should be used in “from the business” section that appears in your GMB profile, often under the reviews section. Each time you upload a local post for your audience or update any description on your Google business page, consider keywords that users often search for.

  • Complete every section of GMB profile – Use all resources offered by GMB that helps you to dominate in local listings. Detailed business offering and accurate information look richer & better serve in search results. A section on the GMB profile dashboard shows the percentage of your profile completion; keep an eye on it and follow the steps to complete your profile by 100%.

Also, make sure that the information or description provided by you is accurate and matches the services provided by your business. Keep updating your Google business page to stay ahead of competitors.

  • Add images & videos of your business – No profile is complete without photos, especially profile and cover photos of your business is the first thing that draws the attention of users. According to Google, companies with photos get 35% more click-through than a business profile without any images. This makes the profile attractive and positively impacts ranking. Also, short videos can be used to showcase your business.

Google is working fast on image recognition technology that displays the image in local search results if it matches with the keyword searched.

A study claims that 62% of customers will write a review for you if asked via e-mail, text, social media, or in person. Therefore, you can ask customers for feedback, ratings & feedback and respond to them. This shows that you value your customers and their feedback. People expect responses to their reviews, especially in the case of a bad review.

Create a FAQ list that customers want to know about your business. Ask and answer questions through direct messaging to gain your customers’ trust. You can also add targeted keywords in replies to customers; this increases your business’s visibility and engagement with potential customers.

  • Regularly add posts to your business profile – Posts let the audience engage with you and make your business active on Google. Update your customers with new announcements, offers, events and products by creating posts regularly. Posts can be created in your Google My Business dashboard. Add local posts that target audiences of your service area and keep it engaging by adding links, call to action, etc., to it.

Your post should be of high quality and the minimum dimension is 400*300 pixels. It should be informative and interactive that directly communicates with the audience. Avoid spelling errors, broken characters, gibberish or useless information.

  • Use respectful language – There should be mutual respect between seller and buyer, but you should be more humble towards your customers from a business perspective. Do not use offensive or bad language for customers even in case of a bad review; this will also affect other customers.

You should provide customers with a good user experience so that they avail of your services again in the future. Linking should also be done carefully; link authoritative sites only. Do not direct your users to irrelevant web pages. Avoid all malpractices to gain ranking and reviews.

Photos & Videos optimization tips

“Picture says a thousand words”, so it is better to use relevant and attractive images in your profile to grab the users’ attention. You can use photos according to business needs to ensure that your profile looks at its best.

  • It is good practice to use the business logo to identify your business and thumbnail purpose.
  • Ensure quality of the image and no excessive use of filters. It should be a real photo with the proper resolution, size, quality and formatting. Use JPG or PNG format and size between 10KB to 5MB. You should follow Google’s photo & video guidelines for business-specific images in your profile. Add a new image every week to gain user engagement.
  • Use short videos on your Google business page up to 30 seconds long to enhance the brand’s profile visibility. Keep the file size up to 75 MB and resolution 720p or higher.
  • You can also use 360 photos on your profile by using Google’s street view app to enhance user experience.
  • Don’t overload your profile with images and videos, it should be used in such a way that looks great and go smooth in your business profile.
  • Photos and videos optimization can help you in improving your local SEO and rank in search results. Therefore, it is suggested to use a logo, cover photo, profile photo, videos and other business images in your profile according to recommended guidelines.

Track your business growth with Google My Business Insights

Analytical data is crucial for any business, whether local or global. It is essential to know how customers interact with your listings. Google has a built-in tool called GMB Insights that tracks the impact of your Google business listing and provides related data about your business. You can find all the information for customer actions on your Insights dashboard like:

  • How customers find your listings – Direct search or by Discovery search. When the customer is familiar with your company and searches directly with your business name or address, this is called direct search. Discovery searches are those when customers search for a specific product, service or category and your listing appears, this is the case when consumers don’t know about your company.
  • Where customers find your business website on Google – via Google search (customers find your local listing by Google search) or Google maps (customers find your listing through maps). Then it shows the total views, which include “search view” and “map view”, on its insights dashboard.
  • Customer action – what users did after viewing your listings. They visit your website or request directions or call you or view photos. Then it has a total number of actions taken by a user on your Google business listing.
  • Phone calls – This shows the number of times customers called you through your business listing. In the total graph, you can find the call data of a day, week, month, quarter, a particular hour of the day to know the time slot when customers engage most with your business.
  • Data related to photos – This section displays the number of photographs associated with your business and how many times they are viewed. You can also compare insights of your photos with similar businesses to know how fast business is growing. There are data available on the total number of owner uploaded photos, total customer uploaded photos and their respective views & performance.

Apart from these, GMB Insights also provide many more data about your business like areas where your customers are living, direction requests, search queries, etc. You can use these data to improve the performance of your company and stay ahead in SEO rankings.

Conclusion

GMB listing is a great tool for SEO ranking. You can use it to scale up your business and increase revenue but for this, you have to proceed with a solid SEO plan and strategy. Keep business operating hours accurate, add products and services regularly, engage with customers to take your company to the next level.

To maximize your business potential, you can also outsource a company that helps you in local SEO, setting up your Google business account, conducting keyword research, etc.

References

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