An important part of online marketing for a business that has a physical location is to implement a local SEO strategy. If you get this right, people searching for your services or products within your local area will find you. One of the easiest and most effective ways to boost your local SEO is to claim and then optimise your Google Business Profile listing, which includes your Google Maps listing.
Google Maps listings are displayed on the right-hand side of the search engine results page (SERPs) when someone searches for a business name or a local service. Your Google Business Profile (GBP) listing gives you visibility on Google Maps and in the organic search results. Claiming, verifying and keeping your GBP listing up to date will ensure that the business information Google displays for you is correct. This information includes your business name, postal address, phone number, email address and opening hours.
To claim and verify your GBP listing, go to Google Business Profile and sign in using your Google account or create a Google account if you don’t already have one. In most cases, Google will post a letter containing a pin number to the address you are claiming. Once you enter this pin number into your GBP admin panel, proving you are at that physical address, your listing will be verified, and you will have control over it.
If you have claimed your Google Business Profile listing in the past, it’s still important to check it regularly to ensure everything is correct as anyone can suggest edits to your business information. Ensure that you complete as much of the information as possible. If you leave something blank, someone could suggest an edit to your information that could have a negative effect on your business.
If you do a search for a business, you’ll see how someone can ‘Suggest an edit’.
Why does Google allow other people to suggest an edit to your business information?
Google wants to display the most up to date information about your business if someone is searching for it. To help this, it encourages people to provide information by suggesting an edit. To protect yourself, and help your local SEO ranking, regularly check your Google Business Profile information is correct, up to date and hasn’t been changed. You’ll be able to see a notification of any pending suggested changes when you log in.
Google Photos
Whilst you’re logged into your GBP account, add some relevant photos of your business, team, products etc to enhance the appearance of your Google Business Profile listing. Photos are added via your GBP admin page by going to ‘Photos’. Once there you’ll be able to add a selection of photos. This is a great way of creating a great first impression and encouraging people to get in touch with you.
Google Reviews
Google encourages business owners to ask their customers for reviews and allows anyone with a Google account to leave a review about your business. The reviews appear next to your GBP listing along with an average star rating.
It’s well known that people will check the reviews of a company before getting in touch. Keep on top of your reviews and make this your opportunity to start building trust before a customer has even contacted you.
Google reviews are managed from within your GBP admin panel. Once you have logged in and verified your Google Business Profile listing, you’ll be able to ask your customers to leave reviews and reply to reviews that have already been left. Even if you get a negative review, this is your opportunity to explain and build trust. Check out our blog post How should I respond to a negative review.
Optimising Your Google Business Profile – Summary
We hope this short article has given you an insight into the importance of looking after your Google My Business listing. The key thing is to get it verified, make sure all your info is correct and add some nice photos. Then, don’t forget to check it at least every couple of months just in case something has changed.
Optimising your Google Business Profile each month is included as standard in our SEO packages to help your rank locally. You can read about our SEO services here.