Google My Business is a free tool for both businesses and organizations to manage the online presence that they have within Google, this also includes Google Maps and Google Search. In GMB(Google My Business) you add info such as your business name, hours, location, and you can show/respond to reviews. Editing and verifying this information will make it much easier for customers to find your business. Below we will be going over the benefits of Google My Business and how to set it up for your own business.
Benefits of using GMB
Manage Your Information – Google My Business allows you to manage the information that customers see when they are doing research on your business. You are able to verify your information through Google, which helps customers consider it more trustworthy. When people find your business on Maps or Search it is important that you have the correct information available. This will help to draw in more traffic to your business.
Interact With Customers – With GMB you are able to read and respond to the reviews that have been posted about your business. You can also post photos to show off what your business does.
Understand & Expand Presence – An important feature you can use is insights. This will show you how customers arrived on your website and where they are from. You can create & track Smart campaigns, allowing you to enhance the following of your brand.
How To Set Up Google My Business
Setting up a Google My Business account is fairly easy, and doesn’t take that long. If you follow the steps listed below, it will allow you to maximize the benefit you can receive from GMB.
Create A Listing – The first thing that you need to do is to create a Google My Business listing. To start this, you need to first sign into the Google account that you would like associated with the business, and then go to google.com/business.
After that it prompts you to fill in information about your business. You will need to provide your business name, location, website, phone number, and business category.
Verify Your Listing – This is a very important step, that is sometimes overlooked. Verified businesses on Google are more likely to be trusted compared to unverified businesses. There are many ways to become verified, we will cover some of them below.
A common way to become verified, is by phone. If you are eligible you will see the “Verify by Phone” option when you go to verify your business. Google will send you a text to the number that you provided earlier in the process, from here you must enter the code that they sent to you.
Another common way is by email. If you are eligible for this option, you will see “Verify by Email” option when you go to verify your business. Google will use the email that you provided and send you an email. When you open the email up there will be a link to click that will verify your business.
Some businesses will be able to have “instant verification.” This is possible if you have already verified your business by using another tool called Google Search Console.
Optimize Your Listing – Now that you’ve created your listing, it isn’t over yet. It’s time to finish creating your profile so it will be as beneficial as possible to all the people that look at your Google My Business profile.
The first thing you should do is to go to the “info” section, and add as much information as possible. Make sure you have a profile photo, correct hours, your website url, phone number(s), and attributes for your business. An attribute would be a characteristic such as “free wifi”.
Another thing you should do is add photos to your profile. This will help customers get a better idea of what you offer, and it can help to draw them in. For example, if you are a restaurant, add photos of the food, drinks, and the atmosphere. If done right, this will help to draw customers in. On your GMB profile, customers will also be able to add their own photos from experiences in your business.
Another important aspect to add is the location of your business. On top of the physical address you can add the location on Google Maps, and show the street view from Google Maps. This will assist customers by giving them multiple reference points when looking for your business.
You can edit your listing at any time by logging into your profile and heading down to the “info” tab. We suggest periodically checking on your GMB listing to make sure that all of the information is current. Sometimes business will forget to change things, such as Winter back to Summer hours of operation. There is also a Google My Business mobile application. You can download this to a mobile device to edit information on the go, add photos, and to view available insights.
Wrapping Up
Google My Business is a simple and free tool that every business should be utilizing. It won’t take long to set up and fill in with information. Using the tips and tricks we’ve listed above should help your business receive more traffic and hopefully an increase in sales. If you have any questions, or need any help with this process, please let our team know.
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