Google My Business (GMB) is one of the most effective ways to improve a business’s local search engine optimization and online visibility. If you’re a local business, claiming your Google My Business profile is one of the first steps you should take to increase your business’s online presence.
As long as your local business meets Google’s guidelines, your Google My Business profile can help give your business free exposure on Google’s search engine. Not only can potential customers quickly see your business name, address, and phone number, but they can also view photos of your business, read online reviews, find a description of your business, complete a transaction (like scheduling an appointment), and information that catches a searcher’s attention—all without them visiting your website. That’s pretty powerful stuff!
Google My Business helps with local rankings
Not only is your GMB profile visible to potential architects mailing list customers when they search on Google, but Google My Business is also one of Google’s top local ranking factors. In fact, according to local ranking factors industry research, the Google My Business signal is the most important ranking factor for the local rankings pack. Google My Business signals saw a significant increase in ranking importance between 2017 and 2018, increasing from 19% to 25%.
Claiming your Google My Business profile is the first step to local optimization, but many people mistakenly think that simply claiming your Google My Business profile is enough. However, optimizing your Google My Business profile and regularly logging into your dashboard to ensure that no unwanted updates have been made to your profile is vital to improving your rankings and ensuring the integrity and accuracy of your business profile.
Google My Business features that make your profile powerful!
Google offers a variety of ways to optimize and enhance your Google My Business profile. You can add photos, videos, business hours, a description of your business, frequently asked questions and answers, communicate with customers through messaging, allow customers to book appointments, respond to online reviews, and more.
One of the most powerful ways to capture a searcher’s attention is to create Google My Business Posts. GMB Posts are almost like mini-ads for your business, products, or services.
Google offers several posts you can create to promote your business:
What's new
Event
Offer
products
Posts also allow you to include a call to action (CTA) so you can better control what the visitor does after viewing your post – creating the best marketing experience. Current CTAs are:
Book
Order online
Buy
Learn more
Subscribe
Get Offer
Call now
Posts use a combination of images, text, and a CTA to creatively showcase your message to potential customers. A post appears on your GMB profile when someone searches for your business name on Google or views your business’s Google My Business profile on Google Maps.
Once you create a Post, you can even share it on your social media channels to get extra exposure.
Despite the name, Google My Business Posts are not actual social media posts. Typically, the first 100 characters of the post are displayed on the screen (the rest are cut off and must be clicked to see), so make sure the most important words are at the beginning of the post. Don’t use hashtags – they’re meaningless here. It’s best if you can create new posts every seven days or so.
Google My Business Posts are a great way to showcase your business in a unique way at the exact moment a searcher is looking for your business online.