Google My Business For Beginners – If you’ve never heard of Google My Business (GMB), it’s an easy-to-use, free tool for businesses to manage their online presence through Google Search and Maps. This includes listing your business name, location, hours of operation, tracking and responding to customer reviews, adding photos, and more.
Since most individuals rely on the Internet for information, it is essential that you have a Google Business Profile.
Google My Business For Beginners
Think of your Google Business Profile as your online business card. It’s a one-stop shop for your customers to get all the information they need about your business.
Google My Business Beginner Guide
How often do you go to Google and check information about a company before you decide to go there? We think it’s safe to assume, a lot. In fact, 1 in 3 people search Google on their smartphone before visiting a store. Even more than 97% of consumers check the presence of a company online before deciding to visit them. Without the presence of GMB, it is a missed opportunity for exposure.
It also allows you to quickly give your potential customers all the information about your company. Your business listing displays your phone number, address (if applicable), website, store hours, products or services, reviews, and a company statement. Instead of consumers having to go to your website to find the information they need, they can find everything right from their browser.
Not only a local business can benefit from GMB, but also a purely online business or service area! While online businesses may not be able to take advantage of all the features, it’s still a great way to get in front of your customers. Plus, a Google business listing helps with local SEO, allowing more people to find you!
Here is an example of a GMB business listing of a shop front cafe in Waterloo called Princess Cafe.
What Is Google My Business? The Beginner’s Guide To Gmb
Now that you understand why you should have a Google My Business account, it’s time to set it up:
For this example we will use the name Bees Coffee. There may be a chance that your business listing already exists if you haven’t created it. That’s because a business profile is simply a location on Google Maps that any person or computer can add.
If you don’t see your business profile appear, Google will ask you to create a profile when you add a new business to their database. Your business name is already filled in, so you want to add a business category. If you already have a business profile, you will most likely be asked to enter contact information.
You will be asked if you want to add a business location. For local businesses, click yes and enter your address to appear on Google Maps. For online or service area businesses, click no and enter service areas. You can enter any service area you want (ie state, province/state, city)
Ways To Get More Google My Business Reviews
If you have an address, an additional question is asked; Do you serve customers outside of your area?
It will then ask you to enter the contact details you want to display to your customers. You can skip this step if you want, but it is recommended that you complete it. If you don’t have a physical address, you’ll need to enter either a phone number or a website.
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You will then be asked if you would like to be informed and receive updates. This is at your discretion.
What Is Google My Business, And How To Use It?
You will now need to verify your account. GMB sends a postcard with a verification code to the address you put near the beginning if you’re an independent store. Or it will ask you to enter your mailing address if no physical location is listed. Your Google My Business listing will not appear until it is verified.
Add messages (optional). This allows anyone who finds you on Google to message your business
In the example given, I selected my business category as ‘cafes’, so GMB asked me specific questions related to my category. As shown in the image below, Google wants to know if we offer curbside collection. The questions listed here vary depending on your previous business information.
If you have it ready to go, that’s great! If you still need time to think about it, you can skip this step and add it later.
The Ultimate Guide To Google My Business
Similar to the previous step, if you have photos ready, that’s great, if not, you can skip it and add photos later. You’ll want to add your logo, cover photo, and some general business images. The size of the cover photo is 1080×680 pixels, with a size range of 10 kb to 5 mb, JPG or PNG.
Now that you’ve set up your Google My Business account, it’s time to make sure you’re making the most of it! Here are some tips you can use to optimize your account. In order to gain recognition and more exposure on Google, most businesses create a business profile (which we locally call a “Google Business Listing”). But what many business owners don’t know is that creating a business profile can’t help manage its data. For this you need to create a free Google My Business account along with your business profile. It also makes your business profile editable and manageable and makes your profile SEO efficient with lead generation tools.
A Google My Business account completes your business profile so you can claim ownership and get administrative rights to it. What else? You can access additional free features to increase your business presence on Google.
Google My Business is a comprehensive, easy-to-use, free marketing tool used by businesses and organizations to maintain their online visibility across Google, including Google Maps and Search.
How To Optimize Your Google My Business Listing
With a GMB account, you can control and edit your business information, helping your relevant targets find your business and telling them about your company.
As mentioned earlier, your business profile is the official term for the Google business listing that appears in local search results and maps on Google.
Now that we’re talking about why you should use a GMB account, here are some good reasons to convince you:
You can effectively manage the details of your business that will appear in search results whenever your credible target Googles your business through local search or Google Maps.
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For example, you can display details of your important product/service offerings so that anyone looking for them can find them through your business.
Your company address, opening hours, website, etc. are some of the main details you can manage with your GMB account.
You can upload images related to your services/business image. This increases customer requests for your office address on Google Maps by around 42%. In addition, you are more likely to get 35% more clicks on your websites than other websites that do not do the same. The best part is that you can easily interact with your customers by responding to their reviews posted on your website.
First, try to find out how they are searching for your or other businesses on Google and where this search traffic is coming from. Additionally, you can find out how many users have called your business directly from the contact number displayed on local SERPs in Search and Google Maps.
Step By Step Google My Business Guide For Small Business Owners
Look, having a business profile on Google is like someone randomly adding a location to Google Maps—which is either an auto-generated list or something anyone can do. Be careful, Google only needs your business name, its location and category. Once Google verifies that your information is authentic, it will open a business profile for the specified location.
Once created, your profile is then available for your customers to post their reviews, questions, add photos and answer questions. Your business profile may include other related information that Google collects from around the web.
What this means is that you can create your business profile in the evening without a GMB account. But the only downside is that whether you create the profile or Google does it for you, in either case you don’t have access to manage the information that Google displays or reviews that it collects for your profile.
That’s why a Google My Business account is important, so you can manage, customize and add value to your Google Business Profile, all for free!
A Beginner’s Guide To Google My Business
So far we have learned that Google My Business and Business Profile are two different things. While a business profile is all about adding your basic business details like name, address, etc., a GMB account enhances the profile by increasing its online presence and effectiveness.
Here are four basic ways to use your GMB account productively and therefore upgrade your profile to a better Google listing marketing tool:
Let’s go in order. To engage more customers with your business profile and get them to interact with you, publish posts asking for consumer feedback on a particular service/product.
