A Google Business Profile, also known as a Google My Business listing, is an essential tool for any business owner looking to increase their online visibility and attract more customers. With over 5 billion searches made on Google every day, your business profile can make a huge impact when it comes to attracting potential customers.
In this guide, we’ll go over tips and tricks for optimizing your Google Business Profile to help you stand out from your competitors, increase your online presence and ultimately, drive more customers to your business.
Step 1: Claim and Verify Your Business Profile
The first step in optimizing your Google Business Profile is to claim and verify it. If you haven’t already, you need to create a Google account and then add your business to Google My Business. Once you’ve done that, you’ll need to verify your business.
Google has a few different methods for verifying your business, including phone verification, email verification, and by mail (the latter process takes the longest, up to two weeks). They’ve also recently introduced video verification. Once you’ve completed the verification process, you can start optimizing your profile.
Step 2: Provide Accurate & Complete Business Information
The next step in optimizing your Google Business Profile is to ensure that all of your business information is accurate and complete. This includes your business name, address, phone number, website URL, hours of operation, and any additional information that might be relevant to your customers, such as special offerings or promotions.
Make sure to provide accurate information. Your business name should only include the name of your business, not any additional keywords or phrases. Additional phrases could look spammy to Google and may limit your profile. Your address should reflect your physical location, and your phone number should be a number where customers can reach you.
Below is an example of how your profile / map listing should look:
Step 3: Add High-Quality Photos
Adding high-quality photos to your Google Business Profile is one of the best things you can do to make your profile stand out. Photos give potential customers a glimpse of your business and help establish a personal connection.
Make sure to upload high-quality photos that showcase your business, such as photos of your products, storefront, or team. You can also upload photos of your business’s interior, decorations, or some highlights of the everyday experiences that take place there.
Step 4: Ask for Reviews
Gaining customer reviews is a great way to improve your business’s reputation and attract new customers. Encourage your customers to leave reviews on your Google Business Profile by adding a message on your website, social media pages or email signature, using an incentive system or making a good review fun or engaging.
Make sure to respond to all reviews, whether they are positive or negative. Replying to reviews shows customers that you value their feedback, and can go a long way in building a strong reputation.
Step 5: Optimize Your Business Description
Your business description is a great way to showcase what your business is all about. It’s essential to optimize your business description by including relevant keywords that describe your business, services, or products.
Your business description should be original and give people a clear idea of what separates your business from your competitors. It is best to make your description short and readable and to call to your customer’s attention. You can also include links to your website, social media profiles, other platforms, or promotions.
Step 6: Add Relevant Attributes
Google My Business allows you to add many attributes to your profile based on the specifications of your business, such as “accepts credit cards” or “outdoor seating available.” This information helps potential customers get a better understanding of what your business offers and whether it meets their needs.
Make sure to add as many relevant attributes as possible to your business profile. Try to make your list not too general, but not too specific either, so that you don’t miss out on potential customers.
Step 7: Use Google Posts
Google Posts is a great way to promote your business and influence potential customers. You can use this to add limited-time offers, promote new products or services, or make announcements about events or promotions.
Make sure to create high-quality content for your Google Post, including eye-catching images and compelling language. You can also use this feature to add a call-to-action, such as “Book now” or “Sign up today,” and redirect people to your website or landing page.
Step 8: Monitor Your Insights
Google My Business offers an analytics tool that allows you to track how customers interact with your business profile. Take the time to track your business insights to monitor what is working and what needs improvement. Some of these include the number of views, clicks, phone calls and directions requests.
Use these insights to further optimize your profile based on customer behavior. You can also optimize your profile based on the information you receive from your customers.
Continued Optimizations
Optimizing your Google Business Profile is crucial to your business’s online success. With these tips, you can stand out from your competitors, increase your online presence, and drive more customers. But this is just the beginning of what you should be doing for your local SEO. You’ll also want to establish profiles on citation sources like Yelp, the Chamber of Commerce, Bing Local, etc. As soon as Google can tell you are a real business and have put in the work to optimize other directory sites, you’ll start to see more traffic to your Google Business Profile. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact your favorite local SEO company.
