Did you know that 97% of people learn more about a local company online than anywhere else?
As a local business owner, you want to ensure that when consumers search for local services, your company appears on their screen.
To do this, it’s critically important that you optimize your Google My Business listing.
Google My Business is one of Google’s free features that help you increase your company’s visibility by showcasing all the relevant information in search engines to your area’s locals.
In this article, we will walk you through all the basics, show you how to optimize your Google Business Profile, and provide you with some super-helpful Google My Business dashboard examples.
Let’s dive in.
- What is Google My Business?
- Why Is GMB Important for Local SEO?
- How to Create a Google My Business Account? 8 Steps
- How to Verify Your Google My Business Listing
- How Does Google Determine Local Ranking?
- 8 Ways to Optimize Your Google My Business Account for SEO
- How to Fix GMB Account Issues
- Most Important Google My Business KPIs
What Is Google My Business?
Google My Business (aka Google Business Profile) is a free business listing feature that lets you upload your business’s photos, location, services/products, and any other relevant information.
By creating a profile, you will increase your business’s visibility and increase the chances of it appearing in Google Search, Google Maps, and other Google services.
However, to create an account, your business needs to have a physical location (e.g. restaurant) and provide services in person.
Google My Business is beneficial to businesses of all sizes. It gives you a competitive advantage in managing your online presence and attracting customers searching for your business on Google search and Maps.
Furthermore, with a Google My Business account, you’ll be able to share photos of your products or services, access and edit your business information (name, location, hours, etc.), and respond to reviews. Over time, this will give your business better visibility and engagement.
Google My Business is free, and there is no need not to take advantage of everything it offers for building your business. The only condition is that your business must have a physical location.
Related: Earn Higher Local Search Rankings With This 15-Point SEO Checklist
Why Is GMB Important for Local SEO?
Here are 4 main reasons your business needs a Google My Business profile:
1)Improve Your Search Ranking and the Visibility of Your Business
By following a proper Google My Business SEO checklist, you can greatly improve your business’s search ranking and overall visibility.
When a prospective customer searches for products and services your business offers using related keywords, first, you’ll see Google ads, then Google’s local 3 pack, and after that, the organic results.
By creating a Google My Business profile, you have a better chance of making the top 3 local results, Google Maps and Local Finder, which will, in turn, give your business more exposure and leads.
Related: SEO for Beginners: How to Improve Your Search Rankings from 103 SEOs
2)Enhances Your Customer Support and Engagement
As we said, with a Google My Business profile, you’ll be able to respond more quickly to comments and questions about your products and services and address negative or positive feedback.
Furthermore, customers are more likely to work with businesses they can easily contact, so your shared information, makes it easier for them to call you to ask a question or make a complaint.
3)Boost Sales and Traffic Volume
With local searches resulting in purchases 28% of the time, it’s a no-brainer that having a Google My Business account can positively impact your website’s traffic.
Naturally, when people search for products or services your business offers, they’re most likely to click on your website to learn more about you. With an effective landing page and CTAs, they’re also more likely to complete a goal.
4)Establishes Your Brand as a Business Authority
As a result of the reviews, your business’ appeal to prospective customers is positively impacted. For example, a 4.7-star review depicts that your business is great at what it does, and as such, people are more likely to buy from you.
Related: 37 Ways High-Ranking Marketers Improve Their Website Domain Authority
How to Create a Google My Business Account?
Creating a Google My Business account might seem a bit scary at first, but it’s surprisingly simple if you follow the right steps.
To get your business on Google, here’s what you need to do:
Step 1: Visit Google My Business and Create Your Account
Start by visiting https://business.google.com/create and creating or signing in to your Google Account. It’s recommended to use an email address with your business domain.
Step 2: Claim Your Business
Before claiming a business, it’s vital to double-check if it already exists with the same name/location. If you have a business profile for an old business already at the same location, suggest an edit to have it closed.
If you are all good here and don’t already have a GMB profile, claim your business by going to Google Maps, typing the name, and clicking on “Claim this Business”.
To open a new profile, simply click “Add your business to Google”.
Step 3: Add Your Business Name
Now it’s time to add all the details. Start by entering the name of your business.
To avoid any confusion, make sure the name matches your business’s signage.
Step 4: Choose a Business Category
Having a category will increase your visibility in search engines since Google will match it to relevant queries. For instance, this can be “Restaurant”, “Tech equipment”, “Bar”, “Coffee Shop”, etc.
Google has more than 4,000 categories, so it shouldn’t be a problem finding your specific one.
Additionally, you should add any category-specific services (if you’re offering them), like a vegetarian menu.
The more information you include, the better your Google My Business SEO will be.
Step 5: Add Your Business Location
Although this is optional, it is highly recommended for SEO.
If you have a website or social media account for your business as well, you must use the same address in all places.
If Google notices any inconsistencies in this regard, they won’t hesitate to penalize you.
And, if you offer delivery services, add that and the areas you deliver to.
Step 6: Write a Google My Business Description
This doesn’t refer to the description that appears under your business’s name on Google (this is something that they provide and you can’t make any changes).
Instead, you should a description in the “From the Business” section. Since this will be your business’s first impression, you must come up with something catchy yet informative.
Step 7: Fill in Your Business Contact Details
Here, you need to add details such as your phone number and website address.
There’s also an option to have a free website created for your business if you don’t have one.
Voila! You have successfully created a Google My Business profile.
How to Verify Your Google My Business Listing
Once you’ve created a profile, the next step is to verify it.
Surprisingly, this doesn’t involve anything tech or internet-related. Google simply sends you a postcard with a verification code to your set address. You should receive it in around five business days.
After verifying your account, you will be able to check out analytics, reviews, and relevant insights.
In case you offer services, but don’t have a physical address, you can contact Google support to ask for a phone or email verification.
How Does Google Determine Local Ranking?
For determining local ranking, Google considers these three factors:
- Relevance – This is how well your business matches the user’s search intent. To increase the chances of your local business appearing in search results, you should feed Google with as much information as possible.
- Distance – As the name suggests, distance refers to how close your business’s location is to the location of the user. If they don’t include a specific location, Google will use historical location data to roughly figure out where they are.
- Prominence – Lastly, Google determines your local ranking by checking out how well-known your business is and whether it has a good reputation. To assess prominence, Google typically considers offline factors. Also, it goes through off-site links and articles related to your business.
While there are a few other values that Google analyzes, these three Google My Business SEO factors carry the most importance.
8 Ways to Optimize Your Google My Business Account for SEO
By now, you probably concluded just how important having a Google My Business profile is for your local business.
But aside from just creating a profile, you’ll need to take steps to optimize your Google My Business SEO to rank higher in local searches and show up in the local pack.
So, how to optimize Google My Business listings to earn higher rankings for local searches or for a chance to appear in the local pack?
We asked our respondents to share the best practices from their Google My Business SEO checklist and here are 8 tips they recommend.
- Verify Your Business
- Fill out Your Profile Completely
- Make Sure Your Profile Information Is (and Stays) Accurate
- Ensure NAP Consistency across the Web
- Pick the Most Relevant Categories
- Include Semi-Professional Pictures
- Get More Reviews
- Take Advantage of Posts on Google
- Verify Your Business
1)Verify Your Business
Before doing anything else, you should first verify your business with Google.
We already explained the process in one of our previous headings, but here is a brief reminder.
Once you wrap up the account creation process, Google will send you a four-digit code that will arrive at the address you provided in the business details.
When you receive the code, simply go to the provided link and enter it. This will let Google know that your local business is legitimate and they will officially publish your new profile.
2)Fill out Your Profile Completely
After you’ve verified your business, it’s time to fill out your profile. While many of the fields are optional, several of our respondents said that it’s important that you provide every relevant detail. It’s preferred to fill out all the information you are being asked for. “Google rewards businesses who take the time to complete their profiles,” says Kenny Lange of Web Canopy Studio. “A complete profile is the baseline upon which all other recommendations (reviews, Google Posts, answering questions, etc.) are built.”
According to our respondents, the most important Google My Business profile details to include are your business’s name, address, phone number, website link, and categories.
But adding other details, such as your service area description, shouldn’t be ignored too. Cheyenne Schueman of Page 1 Solutions stresses why this is an essential part of optimizing your GMB profile: “Google My Business offers a handy feature called ‘services’ that’s easily accessible from the info panel. Filling out your products and services will not only tell potential consumers what you offer, but it will also keep them on your profile longer, making Google see your profile as more important than that of your competitors.”
3)Make Sure Your Profile Information Is (and Stays) Accurate
It’s not enough to just fill out the information on your Google My Business profile. You also need to make sure all of the information is accurate and that it stays accurate.
“The most important thing you can do is make sure all of the information on your listing is accurate,” says Cindy Venerio of Nerds Support. “That might seem obvious, but there are so many businesses out there with incorrect information.”
“Google My Business listings are becoming the virtual storefront for most businesses, so it’s important to keep them up to date,” says Womply’s Dallin Hatch. “If you can, set a daily or weekly reminder to keep your information current.”
“This may sound like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at how many times we’ve found that this basic yet critical online customer touchpoint is outdated or missing: phone number out of service, website down, email bouncing, location listed incorrectly or not at all, out-dated reviews, and more,” Hatch says.
Another way to keep your profile accurate and up-to-date, as Grand Cru Digital’s Casey Bryan recommends, is to add your holiday hours as needed.
This can be extremely important, especially if your business listing says that you work on Sundays, but when potential customers arrive, they see that you’re closed.
Not only do you lose sales this way, but your business’s credibility suffers as well.
4)Ensure NAP Consistency Across the Web
It’s still not enough to just keep your Google My Business listing accurate. You also need to make sure that it’s consistent with all of the major local directories on the web.
The details that are the most important are referred to as NAP – name, address, and phone number.
If Google notices that your address or phone number isn’t the same on your social media page and your Google My Business profile, you’re risking a penalty.
Colibri Digital Marketing’s Andrew McLoughlin emphasizes this, “make sure your NAP on Google My Business is an exact match for the listings on your website, social profiles, and other directory listings.”
“Discrepancies are easily avoidable but can seriously lower the listing’s rankings,” McLoughlin says.
One tip recommended by Vye Marketing’s Travis McGinnis is embedding a Google Map on the contact page of your website. “For businesses with multiple locations, do the same thing for each location page on the website with the NAP information and map embed.”
5)Pick the Most Relevant Categories
One of the most frequently mentioned things in the Google My Business SEO checklist of our respondents was picking the right service categories.
This feature heavily impacts Google’s decision on whether or not they will display your local business in an organic search.
When picking a category, you can choose one primary and nine secondary ones. With 4,000 choices available, there is something for every industry.
“Make sure you have the most relevant, current category selected for your primary category,” says Kyle Sanders of Complete SEO. “We’ve seen instances where clients see a jump in 5-10 positions simply from moving the most relevant category from secondary to primary.”
“Additionally,” Sanders says, “don’t go overboard on secondary categories that are a stretch in terms of relevance.”
Joe Goldstein of Contractor Calls says, “Don’t just guess what your categories should be. Search for a target keyword, expand the local pack, and note the category displayed for each business. Then, repeat with at least five other keywords and keyword variations.”
“When you track that data on a spreadsheet, it can help you find other categories you may have overlooked, or it can make you reconsider your primary category.”
“The categories you choose determine which searches you’re eligible to rank for and there are often trade-offs for each category choice so understand your options and choose carefully,” Goldstein says.
6)Include Semi-Professional Pictures
“One of the most important aspects of Google My Business is having pictures,” says Juliane Sunshine of Tandem Interactive. “As simple as it may be, the picture for a Google My Business listing plays an important role.”
“To improve rankings, make sure to have semi-professional pictures; the higher the quality the better. Have photos taken of the outside, inside… any little aspect can help boost rankings on a Google My Business listing,” Sunshine says.
Growth Hackers’ Jonathan Aufray recommends “uploading high-quality pictures of your office, as well as pictures of your team. People like the human aspect of companies, and showing that there are people behind your company name will help you attract prospects to visit your business.”
And don’t forget to optimize your images. You should treat your images as you would when optimizing any other type of content. In the words of Max Robinson of Green Bee Gardeners Fife, “
7)Get More Reviews
Once your Google My Business profile is entirely set up, you should focus on getting as many reviews as possible.
Reviews not only help you grow your profile ranking on the search engine and Google Maps, but they also influence the click-through rate.
Here are some things you can do:
- Create a review strategy. This can involve anything from reaching out to customers individually and asking them to leave a review to using tools to do the heavy lifting for you.
- Make sure your reviews are legitimate. Keep in mind that search engines want people to rate you naturally and will weed out spammers with ease. And even if the bots miss the fake enthusiasm, people for sure won’t. So do whatever you can to facilitate the process of getting reviews.
- Aim for quality over quantity. “Now that Google has deemed reviews with 200+ characters more valuable, the mission is to not only generate positive reviews but also to have them include descriptive sentences that explain why the place is good,” says Miva’s Luke Wester.
- Respond to your reviews. “Responding to reviews is an opportunity to show customers (current or potential) that you care about their experience with your company,” says Portent’s Amanda Putney. “Reviews are also treasure troves of information service and quality information, which are especially crucial for local businesses.” Also, SmartBug Media’s Sam McCue reminds us that responding to bad reviews is an opportunity to get that review revised and improved: “Once I got a response to a bad review that was perfect. It read: ‘Hi Sam. Though we enjoy reading all of the good reviews our customers leave, it takes reviews like yours to help us become a better business. I thank you for your candid feedback and am committed to making sure your next visit is nothing but superb.’ After reading that, my frustration was gone. I went back to the restaurant and ultimately changed my review,” McCue says.
8)Take Advantage of Posts on Google
Did you know that GMB allows you to create interactive posts that appear in search results?
This includes articles and blog posts that are posted on your website, or specific events like courses and promotions.
By creating a high-quality post, you can increase user engagement and generate much more traffic to your business.
Most Important Google My Business KPIs
Optimizing your Google My Business listing for higher rankings is great, but knowing whether or not the changes you made were effective is even better.
So what KPIs should you track in your GMB SEO dashboard to monitor the performance of your listing and the impact of your optimizations?
According to our respondents, the most important KPIs for Google My Business are:
- Events
- Phone calls
- Website clicks
Other than these 3, our respondents also mentioned views, direction requests, and searches by source.
By following these tips, you can significantly improve your Google My Business SEO and attract more local customers who are searching for the products or services you provide.
