Google My Business Guide for Beginners
Your business could be missing out on potential leads and customers if you don’t have Google My Business. To keep up with the competitive market, knowing about these online tools could give your business a significant boost among your competitors. However, as a business owner, it’s important to also understand what is Google My Business all about to use effectively. If you’re interested in gaining knowledge about Google My Business, this article provides all the details and information you need to learn more as a beginner.
What is Google My Business?
So, what is Google My Business?
Google My Business is a free-to-use tool created by Google to help businesses gain visibility across the search engine. This includes enabling your business to appear on Google Maps, Google Search, and Google Shopping.
If you create Google My Business, your business will be visible to potential customers searching for your particular service or product. It also provides a way to engage with your customers as well as for them to know your business information such as opening hours, contact number, and so on.
Why should I use Google My Business?
There are several benefits for your business when using Google My Business. Here are some of them:
1. Increase your local SEO results
With Google My Business, you can include several keywords that are related to your products or services. This helps your local SEO to improve as your Google My Business profile will appear when customers are searching for relevant keywords within the location. Thus, providing more opportunities for customers to engage with your business.
2. Boost rankings and visibility on Google
For the uninitiated, Google My Business has a feature called ‘local pack’ or ‘map pack’, which appears at the top search results on Google and features up to three businesses. If you create a Google My Business profile and optimize it well, your business could appear in the top three search results too.
3. Enhance business credibility
Having a Google My Business profile portrays businesses to be legit and authentic. This shows that the business has been verified as they have to go through several steps to create a Google My Business profile. Customers will feel confident and consider engaging with the business.
4. Showcase customer reviews
If you wish to gain potential leads consistently, having good reviews is important. With Google My Business, you can display all the reviews your customers have written. Besides, most people tend to engage with products or services with positive reviews as they seem to be more trustworthy and reliable.
How do I set up Google My Business?
Setting up your Google My Business account is simple. Here is a quick guide on how to do so:
1. Create an account
You can create a Google My Business profile by heading over to the official website. However, if you noticed your business already has a Google My Business profile, you could claim the profile instead of creating a new one.
2. Enter your business location
Once you’ve entered your business name and category, you must select ‘Yes’ when asked to add a location. It’s highly recommended for businesses to include their location on their Google My Business profiles.
Enter all your address details in the form. It’s important to ensure your business location is accurate as it will appear on Google Maps. If the location is inaccurate, it’ll be hard for your customers to find you.
3. Verify your profile
Once that’s done, you’ll be required to verify your profile with your phone number.
4. Complete all the details of your Google My Business profile
After verifying your Google My Business profile, follow the steps and fill up the necessary information about your business. This includes the opening hours, business description, and so on. Don’t forget to upload high-quality photos so that customers are able to get a better picture of your business.
How to Claim an Unverified Business Listing
Since Google tends to update business information and auto-generate them on search results, for some businesses, there will already be an existing business listing. It’s best to quickly claim your business listing if you haven’t already yet.
Here’s how to claim an unverified business listing:
1. Enter your business name on Google Maps
Go to Google Maps and search for your business name. If you find your business, then you can claim it. If you can’t find your business, then you need to create a new business listing.
2. Click ‘Claim this business’
Once you’ve found your business listing, search for the ‘Claim this business’ option. If you can’t find the option, it means your business is already verified and claimed or it is already under your account.
3. Look for the ‘Manage now’ option
Then, click ‘Manage now’ after you’ve confirmed that the business listing is yours.
4. Verify and claim your business
To manage the business listing, you need to verify the account. You can verify via your phone number, email, live call or recorded call.
How to Request Access to Listing Managed by Someone Else
For those who can’t find the ‘Claim this business’ option because somebody else has already claimed the business listing, you can reclaim it instead. Here’s how to request access to your business listing:
1. Go to the create page of Google My Business
Enter the main website of Google My Business and search for your business name.
2. Request access
Then, Google will want to verify that the business is yours. You’ll need to confirm if the existing email under the business listing is yours. If it’s not, you should click the ‘request access’ button.
3. Fill up the details on the form
You will be required to fill up some of your details such as name, contact number, level of access and relationship with the business. Once you’ve submitted the form, the other account owner will have up to 3 days to accept or reject your request.
You will be notified if your request is rejected. But if you don’t receive any notification, that means your request has been accepted.
Tips on how to optimize your Google My Business
If you wish to improve your Google My Business profile visibility, here are some tips on how to effectively optimize it:
1. Gather more customer reviews
You should try to encourage your customers – new or old, to write up reviews on your Google My Business listings. This helps to improve your reputation as well as help boost your SEO. Consider engaging with your customers by responding to their reviews as well. It will help to build a closer relationship while showing professionalism.
2. Update your posts regularly
It’s highly recommended to post regular updates on your Google My Business posts. By posting consistently, it’ll help to boost your credibility and keep your customers updated with your business.
3. Analyse your data and insights
There are analytics that you can examine on Google My Business. By taking a close look and examining the data, you could change your marketing strategy accordingly if necessary to improve your business.
Conclusion
We hope you’ve gained a clearer understanding of what is Google My Business all about through this guide. All in all, creating a Google My Business profile will not go to waste as it helps you to expand the reach of your target audience while building credibility at the same time. You can also learn other ways of how to increase your visibility on Google Search besides making use of Google My Business.