Google My business is a free tool provided by Google to manage your online business visibility and your product and service information. It gives your business a public identity in the local searches.
Whenever we plant to go out for a hangout, shopping or business meetings, though we might have the address still we will turn to Google to check the place for once.
In our search, we find the list of places with their details and location pinned on Google Map. Now the question is these results that appear where do they come from? It comes Google My business.
How you can List your business on Google:
To create your business profile you have to just reach on Google My Business Page. Once you have entered the page click on the start now and it will redirect you to another page where you have to register your business by providing your Business information like Business Name, Address, country, phone number, category and business URL. Once you have submitted the data, then a verification process will take place which can be done either via call or mail sent to the address you provided. Once your business get verified you are good to start. We can also go mobile with GMB; we have to download the app from play store or app store. Here you can access your account and update the information for your services like you can post the photographs make changes to the timing and contact info from anywhere.
Now that you have associated your business on Google let’s see some of the best measures and benefits that GMB (Google My Business) can provide to your business:
You have to keep your business appearing in the local searches by updating the information on the GMB to let your searcher know where you are, what you do when they can visit you.
You can manage and respond to the reviews and comments made by your visitors, this will tell your potential searchers how much you care about your customer’s experience. You can also see the insight of what kind of visitors are coming to business, how many of them are contacting you on the phone number displayed on local search results and maps.
You can add Photos of your products and services. Excellent quality and appealing pictures will show your target audience that your business offers what they are searching for. We should know that photos receives 42% more requests for driving directions on Google Maps and 35% more clicks on to the websites compared to business that don’t.
Now that we have listed the business and we have also updated our account with the details that will attract the potential customers but now come the question for ranking our business on the local searches and Google decides on the three factors:
Relevance: If you are business is not offering what the searcher is looking for you won’t be on the list. Try to put as much as info about your product and services considering your target audience.
Distance: If your business doesn’t fall under the area the user is looking for then it won’t list, But in case you fall within the radius of the search then Google will provide priority to only to that business which would be more relevant as per the search.
Reputation: Your business reviews and ratings on Google play a crucial role in ranking your business. The more positive and vibrant reviews your visitors and customers provide the higher priority your business receives, as people believe more when it comes from someone else’s mouth. Google gathers information from various sources like directories linking to your business, related articles, and your social profiles to rank your business and to display the searchers more about your business profile. That’s why local Search Optimization requires SEO best practicesto make your business more trustworthy and prominent among others.
As we are moving towards future, where laptops and desktops are no more the media of finding the information, instead tablets and mobile phones have made their place in the hands of the users. GMB can help the business to increase and maintain its online presence. By coupled with Local SEO measures it will increase the chances of ranking the business on rank #1 on Google search result page (SERP).