If you are unaware, Google My Business is a service provided by Google that allows you to show off your location among various other information about your business or service that you offer.
In this Guide, we will go over what Google My Business is, how to optimally set it up and what making one actually does for you.
What is a Google My Business?
Here is an example of what the Responsive Web Design Google My Business listing looks like.
If you search any particular place like a restaurant or use the search term "near me" after looking for a location, you will more than likely see something similar to the above example on the side of the rest of the search results when trying to find places on Google. This is the work of Google My Business.
When a company or person makes a Google My Business account, if they set it up correctly, it can come up above other businesses without needing to try and be the best ever website to have a chance at showing up on the first page of Google. You don't even actually need a website to have a Google My Business, although we would strongly recommend that you do when providing some for of service to an audience.
The information Google My Business displays covers a wide range of questions anyone could have, even more than the information you can see on our example. Someone seeing your service for the first time will be very thankful that a lot of extremely useful information is right there without the need for further searching.
Why Should I Make One?
A very simple question to answer, not only can you be seen on the first page of Google quicker than through just only having a website, but if your Google My Business was helpful to someone, they may even go to your website through your Google My Business listing. Again, even if you don't have a website, if a customer doesn't need to ring you to find out easily accessible information that is right there for them, not only does it save time but puts your business in better standings from the get go with potential customers.
A Google My Business listing does wonders for your overall SEO and discoverability as a whole. Having the reliable information right there at the ready for people to look at is an phenomenal resource for the average person. It brings immediate trust and makes it so easy for someone to just get up and got to your place of business or your website immediately.
How to Set Up a Google My Business
Firstly you will need to make or already have a Google account that you would like to use to make a Google My Business.
After you have the account ready and set up you can begin the process with Google My Business itself. Just search on Google and click the first result.
From there you can begin to setup your account by inputting everything to accurately reflect your actual business. It is advised to do so rather than attempt to keyword stuff your listing as this will prompt a swift take down of your profile by Google.
After you have input all the initial information Google wants from you, you will come to a screen like this:
All of your important information you previously entered will be put into the correct places. But this is just the start, your account will still have multiple optional fields that you can enter information in. We suggest you put in as much information as humanly possible to do with your business. This is useful because then you have the most chance of answering someone's question without them needing to scour the internet to find out. It also helps SEO if your business qualifies for certain particular field, such as being a Woman led business or having disabled access to your car parking facilities or your premises etc.
Just like with the first lot of information however, if you input any false information, Google will find out and penalise you for doing so. Your information that you input must always reflect the correct real world information of your business.
Once you have input every other aspect of your business correctly, it's on the the very important matter of having your account verified. Google will request an address for them to mail a code to you via the post. If this is your second or more business linked with the same account you may not need a code. Google may recognise you as valid right away and your new business will be listed within a couple of days.
Once your Google my Business is in order and verified, you will begin to show up on Google searches when people search for you specifically and eventually when they search for things similar to your business or products or services that your offer. Whether you show up for people or not depends on many factors that we will go over now.
So My Account Is Set Up, But What Now?
Your listing is now out there, anyone can see it when they search for it. However, it may be overshadowed by less recent listings or more popular listings, so the next step is just as important as filling in all your information correctly.
If you have a website, it will be very beneficial to link it to your Google My Business. Not only can you view many statistics about who is on your website and how long they spent there, but you can also get more leads from one to the other. Have a link from your Google My Business to your website to get people going on there and potentially buying products and have a link to your Google My Business from your website, to make sure people review your service and give you more credibility with newer cliental.
In regards to reviews, they are one of if not the single most important aspect of your Google My Business. If you have all the correct information but your reviews tell people you have 2 out of 5 stars, no one will even read it. Making sure every single customer interaction with your business is a good one is imperative to staying on top of the search results.
Make sure you ask previous customers for reviews and get as many good ones as possible, the more reviews and the higher your stars are, the better. Once you gain more and more reviews, you may start to notice you are coming up for more search results. This will of course take time, Especially if you are a new business altogether.
Your Google My Business will flourish given the right amount of care and attention, and so will your business prospects along with it. Make sure you take care of your customers and they will in turn take care of you.
Are you wishing you had someone with experience with Google My Business to help you more long term than just this blog? Responsive Web Design has lots of experience with Google My Business and can help you help yourself
Call us on - 01782 497244