Google My Business is a crucial SEO tool for local businesses. It allows you to manage your online presence, optimize your listing, and connect with customers. There is no need for the potential customer to click through to your website if they are looking for the phone number, address, or opening hours that you offer.

But did you know that Google My Business is also an important part of search engine optimization?

It’s one of the most crucial elements to determine whether your business shows up in local searches. In addition, your business can appear in local search results for queries specific to your products or services and even broad queries with large search volumes.

If you’re wondering why Google My Business is so important for SEO, then read on.

What Is Google My Business

Google My Business is a free Google feature that allows a business to get listed in a Google search. When a person initiates an organic search, it puts your business on Google Map and local search results. In addition, you can display other relevant information like opening or closing timings and other relevant details of the business. Google My Business is vital for local search optimization. Recently, Google included a feature that allows you to post links to articles or upcoming events right from your Google My Business dashboard.

When you input “diving bars near me” on Google, the business with a Google My Business page becomes visible. Those businesses that don’t have Google My Business profile can lose the opportunity to get customers; hence, these businesses don’t have the competitive advantage that those businesses that show up on the Google search engine rank page.

Why Google My Business Is a Vital Aspect for Your SEO Strategy

While Google My Business may be simple, it’s effective in putting your business in a local search listing. The whole world is on the Internet, and people prefer to hunt everything online. Here’s how GMB can improve your SEO.

You Can Find Out More About Your Customers with the Help of Google My Business

Google My Business gives you access to a wealth of information about your clients, including their business category, phone number, website address, reviews, photos, hours of operation, payment methods, and most especially your business location. This data helps improve your customer service by allowing you to provide better recommendations based on what they’ve told you before. In addition, this feature makes it easier for people who are searching for your services to find them.

More knowledge about your customers will help you appeal to them. For example, if you navigate to the Google My Business Insights section on your Google My Business page, you’ll be able to see how visible your brand is and who your target customers are.

GMB gives business owners access to all kinds of information about customers, including how often people view a particular product, what pages they look at first, and which ones they return to over multiple visits. This data can help you determine whether certain items need to be replaced, added, or modified on your website.

It’s an effective gauge to see how your business is doing so you know what’s working. You can modify and improve your marketing strategy by learning more about the kinds of customers you’re attracting.

It Sets Your Brand as an Authority

Having a solid online strategy is vital to any successful online marketing campaign. However, just owning a website or Facebook page alone does little to drive qualified leads to your door. You probably already know that building authority takes time. But did you realize that once you start getting real traction, things happen quickly?

When a customer queries about a product using a particular set of keywords, Google presents the customer with three related keywords and then Google ads, with the Google local 3-pack and organic results, subsequently. With local searches resulting in purchases 76% of the time, it’s a no-brainer a Google My Business account can impact traffic websites, one way or another.

A well-maintained Google My Business profile shows potential clients that your business has been around long enough to establish itself as a reputable source of quality goods and services. This builds trust among your target market and increases conversion rates.

You Can Build Trust with Customers

People love to feel safe while doing transactions online. In addition, they want assurance that they will be able to reach you at any time. As a result, there is always a contact person available 24/7 via email or telephone through your Google My Business Dashboard. Customers appreciate knowing that somebody cares about their experience- and having a dedicated point-of-contact means that you can respond quickly to questions or concerns.

Customer reviews are also important because search intent plays a huge role in people’s choices. People look at positive reviews before making a purchase. With the Google My Business listing, customers will have the option to rate your business on a scale of 1 to 5 and leave positive or negative reviews for other people to see. You get honest evaluations about what you’re doing right and what you could be doing better. You’ll also get a star rating system for your business on the GMB directory. All of this information is displayed prominently on both mobile devices and desktop computers.

Improves Your Website’s Rank

No matter the size of your business, having a strong online presence with a complete set of data available is crucial to success. This is why businesses turn to Google My Business to manage their entire digital identity. Everything must be accurate and consistent across multiple platforms, from basic info like contact details to detailed product listings.

In addition to being visible on Google Maps, Google Search, YouTube, Gmail, Chrome, Android devices, iOS apps, etc., your GMB listing will also be seen by millions of consumers who visit participating locations via Google Places. As long as you’ve created a great optimized GMB account, you can rest assured knowing that your brand is always represented accurately and directly improves traffic to your website.

Increases Your Engagement and Customer Support

With Google My Business, you can create an interactive experience where visitors can find answers to common questions. You can comment and respond much quicker about what you offer. You can also address negative or positive feedback with the help of a Google My Business profile. This results in customers being more likely to shop with businesses they can easily contact. You made inquiries and reporting feedback easier.

Creating this type of environment encourages users to stay longer within your store and interact more frequently. Since most shoppers begin researching local businesses when looking for something new, having a clear way to answer their questions helps improve conversions.

Better Businesses Local Search Visibility

There are more and more geographically specific search queries. As consumers become increasingly comfortable making purchases via smartphone, tablet, laptop, or other devices, they expect every retailer to provide easy-to-find contact info that’s easily accessed through their mobile gadget. In addition, many people prefer mobile devices to desktop computers for shopping, with over half of the mobile phone users purchasing products through their mobile gadgets.

Most of these people search for places or products available within their reach. Your business is positioned at the right opportunity. How can local searches benefit your business, and what are you missing out on?

When people find your business in the search results, they will click on it to get more information, such as contact details and directions. The more popular your company’s brand name becomes, the larger its presence on Google Maps. When people hear your company name, they may remember exactly where it was located before, but now they know that you have an online presence, they may want to check it out again!

Google My Business SEO Tips

Local search optimization refers to optimizing websites so that users conducting mobile device searches within a particular area are directed to your website first. LSO allows potential buyers to quickly locate the exact physical location of your store without having to type long addresses into their phones. If you haven’t optimized your site yet, now is the perfect opportunity to start.

Having a Google My Business page is only part of the process. You need to optimize your page regularly to keep the customers updated.

  1. Use Keywords – Make sure that you use relevant keywords when writing business descriptions. This includes both text and images. You should include these words within headings, subheadings, paragraphs, and captions. Don’t just add keywords wherever possible – consider how each word relates to the rest of the article. This makes your articles are written well enough to bring visitors back again and again.
  2. Optimize Images & Videos – When uploading photos and videos to your account, try to keep them under 500KB. Depending on file size, there may be some exceptions, but generally speaking, anything larger than 100MB will slow downloading times.
  3. Add Your Phone Number – When setting up your Google My Business listing, add your phone number. First, ensure that you’ve got enough time to test calls before making changes. Then, once you’re happy with the response rate, remove the old number.
  4. Optimize Your Website URL – Many small businesses still haven’t added their website URLs into their Google My Business listings. While many are reluctant to share personal data, a web presence is essential to be found by searchers. Use keywords throughout the site content and meta tags to ensure that your restaurant shows up first when you type “restaurant” into Google.
  5. Include Photos & Videos – Adding images and video clips to your Google My Business profile gives potential clients another opportunity to learn more about your business. They may even want to visit your store. Use a variety of images on your website that is optimized for search engines.
  6. Create Reviews – People love reading reviews, especially positive ones. Encourage them to leave feedback via Google My Business. There’s no harm in asking friends and family to review your business too.
  7. Update Regularly – Keep checking back regularly to make sure everything looks good. Check your search engine rankings, check your competitors, check your reviews. You’d never know who is looking at your page right now.
  8. Promote on Social Media – If you have social media pages, promote them through Google My Business. Share updates, links to blog posts, or news stories related to your industry. In addition, ask followers to post comments or questions on your behalf. Remember, though, if there’s something negative out there, it can come across on Facebook, Twitter, etc., so only do this after careful consideration.
  9. Link to Other Pages – Finally, link to other pages from your Google My Business profile. These could be pages like About Us, Contact Us, Terms Of Service, or Privacy Policy. By linking to these pages, you’ll help improve your search rankings and increase traffic.
  10. Get Feedback from Customers – Ask people what they think about your page. Do they find it useful? Are there things that need improving? What would they change? How often do they return to see new updates? Take note of their answers and act accordingly.
  11. Don’t Forget The Basics – We’ve covered some basics already, but just because those aren’t included doesn’t mean you shouldn’t follow them either. First, always keep an eye on how well you’re performing against your competition. This means keeping tabs on your monthly performance reports and comparing your numbers to similar companies.
  12. Give Yourself Time – Even though you set goals and deadlines for yourself, always allow plenty of time to complete tasks. Otherwise, you risk getting overwhelmed and losing motivation.
  13. Know Your Audience And Their Needs – Understand your audience before attempting to market your services. Find out what types of businesses they run, what problems they face, and what makes them tick. Then, tailor your content around these needs.

Managing Your Google My Business Listing during COVID-19

As the world continues to navigate this unprecedented time, we wanted to share some tips on how you can best manage and grow your business’s presence online. In addition, we know that many of our customers are looking for ways to stay connected while maintaining distance from one another. As such, we have put together these helpful resources to help you get started:

  1. It’s important to let customers know how this affects your business.
  2. Keep your GMB business profile updated.
  3. Let people know if there’s a change in business hours or shipping times.
  4. If you want to notify potential customers of updates, use a Google Post.
  5. It is possible to mark your business temporarily closed.
  6. Update your business profile in Google and on Google Map using your Google My Business.
  7. You can check the Google documentation on handling COVID-19 updates.

In Summary

As long as you continue to provide excellent service, minimize bad reviews, your customer base will remain loyal. However, consider offering discounts or freebies until further notice if you feel you may lose any existing clientele due to social distancing measures. This could allow prospective customers to get a better picture of your company. Do you think we missed out on something?

Contact us today if you need help with your company’s search presence.