Google My Business has been around since 2014, but unfortunately, some businesses have not yet discovered the possibilities that the platform has to offer. Let us try and dispel the myths about Google My Business and show you why you should consider using it for your business.
First and foremost, what is Google My Business?
In simple terms it’s a free, professional platform that Google provides for businesses, offering a free online presence. It allows you to be seen by more potential customers searching relevant terms through google maps which shows up high on natural search results.
Why It’s Good To Have Google My Business
As we mentioned at the start of this article, the visibility and the online presence that your business gets with Google My Business is of high value. However, Google requires your business information’s to create a successful profile. The name of the business, location and business category are the most common pieces of information to provide here. But you can add whatever you want. An email, a phone number and even photos of your business. Once Google sets up and approves the profile, customers can interact and post reviews of your business.
Engaging With The Customers Is The Key
Long gone are the days in which the customer filled out forms in which they shared their pleasant or unpleasant experiences. Google has taken the grunt work out and made things easier for people to review and offer their experience with your brand. Therefore, aside from using it to increase your business’s visibility and online presence, you can also use it to engage with your customers.
You can receive positive or negative feedback and respond to reviews. It allows you to engage with your customers and get their honest opinion. Your business will benefit from this feedback, and of course, any constructive criticism is welcomed. You can invite to review through the platform with a short code which takes customers direct to your review page – driving your reviews and star rating is a key element in getting a good presence and optimising your profile
You should always be updating the information of your Google My Business profile, to keep your customers up to date with your brand. There’s an option to add new photos, videos, links to your official website, the open hours’ info and so on. This is an important element of optimising your presence, the more you share and content you post, the more google will push you to the top of the pile.
Gaining Insight Is Also Important
Gain insight into your customers and general audience by tracking the analytics dashboard of Google My Business. Their search preferences, and what your audience is using to find your business is of high value, it helps you find more customers and optimise for certain searches and key words to become discoverable online. You can view how many visits you are getting to your website via the GMB platform as well as calls and emails, so provides full transparency on what value it’s providing.
Keywords are NOT Just For SEO Blogs
While you are creating your Google My Business profile, you should think about adding relevant keywords to your business description. Those keywords will prove to be extremely helpful when your future customers are trying to find your business.
For instance, if your business is a Cardiff based chiropractor then you should also include similar keywords that could help the customers find your business. You might consider phrases like back pain or chronic pain as well as Cardiff chiropractor and include full address in set up. Google will recognise the location of the customer and your business will show as up as a local business in related ‘near me’ searches – especially if you’ve got lots if images, information and reviews on your profile.
It is imperative that you publish honest, accurate and informative information about your business. There’s no room for lying, misleading and deceiving your potential customers here. You need to earn their trust even before you make them customers.
Start Your Google My Business Now!
It’s a perfect start for your business, it’s free and can provide traffic, leads and sales, it’s highly important to increase your online presence and Google My Business is a good place to start with that.
But if you’re not so dextrous with Google My Business or anything else that has to do with Google, then don’t despair. Luckily for you and your bidding business, there are digital marketing agencies that can help you with that.
My Digital Ego is filled with talented, professionals that can assist your business and you can relax and watch it grow. At my Digital Ego we specialised in helping businesses get more leads and sales with low cost solutions, support and expertise – we even offer a free trial. So you if want help in getting more visitors to your website and more customers we can help – leave your details on our contact page and we’ll be in touch to help you grow business.
