What is Google My Business & why should I use it?

Table of contents

1. Google My Business Account (GMB)

2. GMB How to use it?

3. Why You Need A GMB

4. How to optimise your Google My Business for the best results

5. Quality Over Quantity

6. Engagment Is Key

7. Conclusion

Reading Time: 12 minutes

With Google My Business, your potential customers will be able to access important information about your business without having to go onto your website via the knowledge panel. The knowledge panel comes up on the right-hand side after a Google search is performed and can contain the business name, a short description about your company, address, phone number, website url, opening hours, photos as well as client reviews.

Advantages

This information presents several advantages; by directly providing the information about your business you can ensure that your contact, location, and availability information are always up to date to ensure accessibility for your customers. Also, GMB provides a platform for you to advertise your business by using enticing photographs of your products or location, describing what your business is about and can direct clients to your website or contact details. Additionally, and most importantly, it allows you to interact with existing and potential customers either through the reviews function or the Q&A feature. Customers are even able to communicate you directly online with the GMB direct messaging tool. In today’s market customers expect responses quickly or they may consider giving their business elsewhere. The GMB messaging tool can help you bring your customer service to the next level and create positive impressions with potential clients. Your responsiveness will be displayed on the knowledge panel, and this is a great way to convey to potential customers your excellent customer service and professionalism, even before they have interacted with your business. Google My Business is the best and easiest way to provide potential clients with relevant and up to date information.

The Benefits of having a GMB

Having a GMB for your business also means that you will have access to insights, statistics, and information about your business not available through other platforms.

Having this knowledge makes it much easier to evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing and online presence, leading to better informed and strategic decisions.

A GMB offers insights such as the number of views your profile receives, the demographic of your audience including the age groups, gender and country of origin, overall engagement with your business profile as well as more specifically, the amount of website clicks, directions requested, and communications made through the details provided.

A very important insight GMB offers is the search queries that customers are using to find your company, this is essential information for your search engine optimisation (SEO) and marketing.

Optimizing For Your Customers.

Knowing what search terms your potential customers are using to locate your business and businesses similar to yours, you can alter your profile to better match the language your customers are using and help them find you quicker. To do this we need to look at how Google evaluates and ranks each listing to present in a search.

There are three key factors that Google uses to determine rankings for businesses that you must be aware of, relevance, proximity and prominence.

To achieve relevance in Googles eyes you need to fit the criteria of the intended search of the customer. To do this you need to be crystal clear about what your business does so that a client, and Google, can see that you will meet their needs. Its important to keep your business focus distinct so that Google knows what to expect from you and is therefore able to better promote you in search results. Try to avoid being vague wherever possible. It’s also important to keep in mind that the more information you provide, the better. Also keep in mind that fully complete profiles are more attractive and give more data to Google to better evaluate your listing.

It can decide that your business profile is more relevant to a clients search terms, even though your company may not be the physically closest to them, it will rank higher in local results. By using GMB, you can improve your whole marketing approach and your SEO techniques.

The Importance of Location

Proximity can be achieved by accurately setting your location and promoting local-oriented content to help Google understand which area you are in and therefore suggest your company in other localised searches.

Creating posts such as event, sales or seasonal messages with your location information in your GMB can hint to Google where you are and give it the ability to promote you in localised searches.

This information, if utilised properly can aid you to update your available services or products, create something new or fill a gap in your services, or improve your customer service. The accessibility of GMB is a big benefit, information is available immediately after a search is executed. This means that customers have access to information about your business without having to actively search for it. The Q&A feature available on the knowledge panel can be a powerful tool to enhance a customer’s positive experience with your business.

Having frequently asked questions about your business readily available can go a long way to making a good first impression, as it means a potential customer doesn’t have to go looking for the information they wanted. This means that they are also able to make their minds up about your company quicker and not be swayed by your competitors. References on other well-regarded sites are also a good way to increase your prominence. Creating quality links back to your site on reputable directories or review sites, especially local ones, can benefit you a lot in the long run.

Conclusion

Most importantly, to get the most out of your GMB you must keep your profile active and updated. Posts on GMB only last up to 7 days, so plan ahead to have content and important dates covered. The Google My Business App is a handy tool to have in your arsenal as it gives you the ability to keep your GMB profile up to date in the palm of your hand. Having easy access to your GMB profile will make it easier to respond to customers reviews, read and respond to direct messages, update your Q&A or opening hours and ensure that your profile looks the way you want it to. Having the app handy also means that you can turn on notifications and respond to customer queries that much faster, which in turn will reflect more positively on your GMB profile.

Everything you do to optimise your business profile on GMB matters and your 5 minutes can be the difference between a customer gained or lost. Remember, your Google My Business profile shouldn’t just be created then left. Just like a plant it needs continuous care and looking after. To ensure your business listing is gaining the biggest audience it can, your GMB must contain all the current and important information Google and your potential customers need to decide that your business is worth their time. With Google being one of the largest search engines, putting the effort into your GMB will certainly pay off in due time.

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