Building a business presence on Google is a lot more than just verifying your website with the database. With Google My Business features, business owners can easily build a strong presence online while also tracking that presence to ensure growth.
What Is a Google My Business Listing?
Contrary to Paid Search Advertising, your Google My Business listing is not something that is searchable by users. It is information that you give to Google that Google then uses to populate on the Google Search Engine Results Pages, Knowledge Graph and Google Maps.
It is estimated that Google My Business (GMB) information counts for 25% of local search ranking factors that Google uses to determine where you are listed on a Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
Developing a Google My Business listing is free and really quite simple. Once you have a GMB listing, you can update hours, special promotions, post blogs that include call to action buttons, videos, photos and more. You can also set up customer text messaging, manage reviews, post popular Q&As – and it’s all free!
Did you know that Business Profiles that include photos receive 42% more requests for directions on Google Maps and 35% more clicks through to their websites than businesses that don’t? Adding photos and other visual assets can help your business to better engage and interact with users.
Google My Business also offers Insights for your business listing. GMB Insights focus on how customers find your listing on Search and Maps and what they do after they find your business listing. Not only can you see what actions users are taking on your listing (visiting your site, calling you, browsing photos and videos, etc.), but you can see areas where your customers live and if they found you by direct searches versus discovery searches. All of this data can help you optimize and improve your listing.
Don’t Just List It and Forget It
It’s important to check your GMB listing often because other people can suggest changes and could submit wrong information which you may be unaware of. Yes, that’s right, a competitor could make changes on your business listing by simply submitting them to Google on the Knowledge Graph. Make sure that you claim and verify your Google My Business Listing.
How Can You Make Your Listing Stand Out?
With all the information in Google’s database it can be hard to stand out against your competition. Thankfully, there are many ways to optimize your business listing and boost website traffic using Google Paid Search. Learn more about how to optimize and gain exposure on Google in our next blog post.
This may all seem a bit overwhelming, but Barcelona Creative Group can help! Our digital experts will create a plan that fits your needs and build prominence for your brand online.
