It’s important that your customers or potential customers can find you; this is why optimising your Google Business Profile is essential. Did you know there are over 3.5 billion searches per day? Also, have you considered how many times you have said to your friend, let me quickly Google that? Google is a vital search engine in everyone’s daily life, so you want your business to be found.
A Google Business Profile or Google My Business as it was previously known before its recent rebrand in Nov 21, can help your business to be found easily in local Google search results and on Google Maps. The even better news is that it doesn’t cost you a penny to set it up and maintain your profile other than your time.
Your Google Business Profile is a great tool for communicating with your customers too, receive and respond to messages, add notifications, use images to showcase your business, update your opening hours and much more.
Keep reading to find out our top tips for optimising your Google My Business.
Fully complete your Google Business profile for the best results
A big issue that many agencies see is missing information on their customer’s profiles. It’s crucial that you use all the features that are included to get the most out of your Google My Business.
Adding relevant information is going to make it more simple for your customer to find what they need, without them looking elsewhere. Just like your website, your Google listing needs to include your phone and email so they can contact you easily.
Google even states that customers are 2.7 times more likely to believe your business is reputable if you have a complete business profile.
Google also highlights that customers are 70% more likely to visit and 50% more likely to consider purchasing from businesses with a complete business profile. So, it makes sense to make this free business promotion tool a key element of your marketing strategy. Neglect it at your peril!
Here is a checklist on what you should have filled out:
- Business name
- Business address
- Phone number
- Website
- Days and times you are open
- Category and Attributes
- Products and services
- Q+A’s
- Information about the business
Ongoing checklist:
- Posts
- Reviews
- Photos
Include your keywords
Yes, your Google Business Profile can help with your SEO rankings. By adding new content and utilising any chosen keywords within your listing will help you gain those top spots. It will make it easier for Google to see that your activity and quality of information is relevant.
Why not use your Google posts like your social media, post there frequently and include any keywords you want to rank in. Within your about section also include your keywords, as this will show consistency between your website and listing. Try to include your keywords within your product section, but only if you can.
Ensure your image titles are relevant and include your keywords where possible too!
Get Google Reviews
The other two tips we have given are quite simple for you to fill out but the harder part is to gain good-quality Google Reviews. Reviews help people to decide on whether they should go with your brand and if you are providing a good service then it shouldn’t be hard to obtain these.
Asking customers to leave you reviews is the easiest way to build your list up, as you will be improving both your listing and reputation. But you need to make sure that you are always replying to the good and bad reviews; never ignore bad reviews.
For more information on Google Business Profiles check out our blog post or get in touch, we would love to help.