Optimizing Google My Business

• SEO
•  20 OCT 2023

Google My Business

Google My Business is a way to present your business more comprehensively when someone searches for your particular brand or a product or service of your niche. It lets you provide additional information about your business when it appears in a search. You must have seen an example of it, mostly when you search for a particular shop or a categorized product market. Apart from the URL and description, you can also add photos, videos, business hours, telephone numbers, and links to reservation services. You can also add photos of your store and snippets from Google Maps or Google Street View. It helps the customers to understand your exact location when any customer comes to your shop for the first time.

Google My Business is a very useful tool for digital marketing as it can act as a first impression for many of your customers. It helps you set up a free Business profile on Google and connect with new customers. It helps you optimize your digital presence across the internet. Listing your business on Google My Business is very easy. Once you have verified that it is your business, you are ready to make the most of your profile. This tool is designed specifically for local business owners. The vision of this tool is to spread the word about your business in an easy and efficient way. This tool can be helpful in improving your local visibility by ranking your business in the top search results. You can increase your customer base in minimal time.

Features of Google My Business

If you want to optimize and streamline your business, you should have a Google Business account. Make yourself familiar with the features that come packed with Google My Business. There are various features of Google My Business that can help you in the journey to success, regardless of the industry you are in. Let's take a look at some of the awesome features:

Descriptions and Categories

When you attempt to place your business URL in an online directory, you will find that the list of categories is not up to the mark. With Google My Business, you have a variety of categories to choose from while implementing a tidy description of your business that will act as keywords for users. Adding a description and selecting a category for your official URL is a great SEO strategy to get more organic traffic.

Location

Business owners have a lot of stuff to do and spreading awareness about their business can become a bit of a hassle for them. Google My Business will share the exact location of your business with the customers. This feature can be used to improve your business’s visibility, especially if you are a locally-owned company. This is a great way to get ahead of your competitors.

Review

Reviews tend to make a lasting impression on users, especially when you are attempting to sell products online. With Google My Business, customer reviews will appear automatically when someone searches for your brand or clicks on your URL. It has the power to create good or bad impression of your company. That is why, it is important that your product or services are genuinely good. Under reviews, people type in what they actually feel about your brand. A business that has more positive reviews is more likely to get the attention of new customers. If your Google My Business listing has poor or mediocre reviews, the customers reading the reviews will be inclined toward an alternative source.

Photos

The best feature of Google My Business is the ability to share photos of your products and location. It also allows your customers and clients to upload photos they have taken during their visit. Using Google My Business to share photos and details about your products can leave a very lasting impression on those who are actually interested in your products. It helps them understand your brand more.

Attributes

From the initial stage, Google My Business is continuously evolving with new features and components. New features are continuously added to enhance user accessibility and accuracy. Anyone who uses Google My Business has the ability to create their own attributes according to their business listings or local promotional campaigns. It includes specific information about the place of business such as timings, whether pets are allowed or not, or if you donate some part of your income daily. Every business has its own specific attributes that can be changed with time. Attributes can be used to attract a specific audience if that is your intention.

How To Set Up a Google My Business Account

If you want to create a Google My Business account, just follow these simple steps.

• Type google.com/business on your browser
• Click on “Manage Now”
• Enter your business name and click “Next”
• Enter your address. If you provide some kind of service and do not have a physical store, click on “I deliver goods and services to my customers” and “Hide my address” checkboxes.
• Choose your primary Business category. Make sure to pick the most accurate category that describes your business.
• Add your phone number
• Add your website URL
• That's it. Your Google My Business account is ready to use.

How to Verify Your Business

After the account set up is complete, let's understand the business verification part.

Mostly google does not allow users to select the verification method. They will send you a postcard that contains the unique code for your account. Log in to your Google My Business account and enter the code there to verify your business.

However, sometimes Google gives you the option to verify your business through phone. If you are eligible, you will see the option as “Verify by phone” in your profile. When you click on it, you will be redirected to another page with the option “Verify Now”. Once you click on the verify now button, you will receive an automated call with a verification code. Enter the code and you are all set up.

If you face any issues during setting up your Google My Business account, you can always contact them on Twitter/X. You just need to send a tweet to @GoogleMyBiz and you will get assistance as soon as possible.

Advantages of a Google My Business account

Google My Business is a great way to attract new customers and spread the word about your business in the local market. You can actually give major competition to old and established businesses. It is just the tip of the iceberg of advantages that one can get. Let's dive deeper and take a look at some more advantages of Google My Business.

Visual Maps 

You will have the option to provide Visual maps and coordinates directly from Google Maps after you have integrated your business into Google My Business. This process makes it easy for customers to reach your shop.

Boost SEO

Google My Business optimization is a great way to improve the SEO ranking of your website. Improved SEO means more footfall on your website as well as business location. It will only result in the growth of your business.

Create a Lasting Impression

When a business appears in the top searches of any browser, it is more likely to be clicked. It is easier to leave a good lasting impression on the customers or potential customers. This improves the Click-Through rate on your website, which ultimately helps your website in gaining a reputation.

Valuable Insights

Google My Business tool provides valuable data and insights from online users and customers. When you start using this tool you will understand more about how users are finding your business and whether they are doing so via search engines or via google Maps themselves.

Maintain Higher Ranking

A major benefit of using Google My Business is the ability to keep the ranking of your brand steady and climbing. If you are active on your Google Business account, you can boost your URL positioning effortlessly within Google Search Engine results.

Increase Engagement

When your customer trusts your brand, they will interact more with the website, links, promotions and products. This increases the review and feedback for your product which keeps a continuous loop of interaction with customers.

How to Optimize your Google My Business profile

Now that we have learned so much about Google My Business tool, let's take a look at how you can optimize your digital presence using this tool. Here under are some elements that you won’t want to miss to optimize your business profile:

Use Your Actual Business Name

Do not use a fake name, or any keyword in your name. It is against Google’s terms of service, and you might be penalized for the same.

Provide a Local Phone number

When you provide a phone number, it becomes a key signal and gives out the impression that you are a legitimate business. If you have a call tracking number, provide that number in the primary slot. Put your actual number in the secondary slot.

Hours of Operation

Make sure that you mention the accurate hours of operation. A good practice will be to take a window of half an hour at the beginning and the end of the day. This will give you time to set up your shop and welcome your customers. At the end of day, this window will give you time to pack up your things.

Write a Proper Description

The best practice for writing a proper description of your business is to write only about your business. Use minimum keywords so that your main functions can be expressed in the description.

Upload Photos and Videos

Uploading photos and videos gives the customer an idea of your locality. It helps them find your physical location. You can also show off your exterior designs if any. You can make videos of your products and use them to inform customers too. Just make sure that the videos or photos you upload are of high quality.

Get Reviews from Happy Customers

Getting reviews is a very great way to improve your reputation online. However, people are free to post whatever they feel about your product. Some might even post negative comments. This can be countered by getting happy customers to post reviews about your products. You can ask them nicely and offer something for their generosity. It has the power to improve your ranking.

How Unify Wizards can help

Getting the most out of a marketing campaign could be a hectic task for business owners. Generally, they hire dedicated people who take care of the brand’s online presence. However, there is a high chance that they cannot maintain a proper record of how your campaign is working.

This is where Unify Wizards can help your business grow.

Unify Wizards provides online marketing services to multiple companies. We have expertise in SEO services. We have a team of professionals who are very proficient in maintaining a proper record of your online campaign. We will provide you with real-time insights about your online performance and also guide you on how you can increase your customer base. We can also help you in tapping new markets. We are your online marketers. Your digital world is our responsibility.