Google My Business is a fantastic tool that business owners can use to optimize their Google Business Profiles at no extra charge to them. Some benefits include improved rankings and visibility. Google My Business shows the results of local searches, allowing profiles that have been well-optimized to show up higher on the search results, as well as providing the most accurate information that Google has access to.
There are many other ways to optimize your Google My Business profile, too. Below is a list of them.
Create or Claim Your Business Profile
Before you try to optimize anything, you should first claim your Google Business Profile through Google My Business. To do this, click the ‘Manage now’ option on the Google Business Profile overview page and sign into your Google account. You’ll know if you’ve already done this if a management dashboard pops up on the screen. If not, there will be an option to manage your listing. Type the business name in the drop box, and if it shows up, claim it. If not, click the option to make a new profile. Also, make sure to check that the business name used is your business’s real name and not an ‘optimized’ version with only keywords.
Set Your Business Category
The business category helps describe what your business is, not what it does or what it sells. For example, if you’re a painter, choose “painter.” However, there are times when this may not be clear. For example, if you’re running a marketing agency specializing in education. Some viable options include Marketing, Marketing Agency, Education Marketing, etc. All these options work, but Google recommends being as specific as possible, so Education Marketing would likely be the best option here. By being specific, you have a higher chance of appearing in search results.
Choose Your Business Type
Google divides businesses and companies into three categories. Storefront businesses only interact with clients at their business address. To set this up, put your address in the info tab and ignore the service area. Service-area businesses help customers without a physical storefront. For these, set up your service area. Make sure you’re very accurate and choose a couple of towns or cities close to where your business is based. Make sure to clear out your address, too. Finally, there are hybrid businesses. These serve customers from a physical storefront and deliver. To set up, run through the same steps as a service-area business, but don’t clear out the address.
Add Business Hours
Add the times you’re open and when you close. If you close briefly during the day, add that as well. While this sounds obvious, you’d be surprised how many businesses actually forget this little detail.
Also read: Bing vs Google: Search Engine Comparison 2024
Set Holiday Hours
Nothing’s more frustrating than traveling to a store, restaurant, or business, only to find out upon arrival that they are closed for the holiday. That’s one bad review you don’t want on your rap sheet. This issue can be fixed by adding “special hours.” Even if your holiday hours are identical to your normal business hours, take the extra step to confirm them. If not, a warning may show up on your listing.
Add Your Contact Details
In the info tab, add your website and phone number. Only leave this blank if you don’t have a website or don’t want to be contacted via phone. However, some kind of contact information must be added; otherwise, customers won’t be able to communicate with you.
Add Photos
Businesses with photos of their store (exterior or interior), products, logos, or other things get an increase of 42% in driving directions and a 35% increase in website clicks. The more photos there are, the more customers you should attract.
Add Products & Services
Besides your physical business, Google also gives you the option to add product and service photos to show customers what you are selling. Pictures like this can help show up in search results based on name, description, category, and more. You can even copy and paste product descriptions from your website.
Get More Reviews
In today’s world, simply having high reviews isn’t enough. Having good, high-quality, positive reviews from clients and customers can help businesses improve their visibility, both online and in real life. If the reviews have specific keywords, Google is likely to highlight them.
Also read: 8 Tips to Rank Higher on Google Maps in 2024
Answer Questions & Set Up Messages
Enabling messages and answering customer questions will keep people up to date on what your business does and get answers to questions they have directly from you. Be sure to stay on top of questions sent and prevent other customers from answering them for you, as this could lead to contradicting answers.
Post Updates
Status updates are a fantastic way to keep customers informed about deals, offers, and updates to your business. Posting updates frequently could also help increase your search ranking when people are looking up your business. However, don’t just post for the sake of posting. Only post with something meaningful.
Contact Target River Today!
As a certified digital marketing agency, Target River has all of the tools and strategies available to ensure that your business is successful. One of the many services we provide is TargetSEO. From optimizing websites to targeting the correct audience, TargetSEO is guaranteed to increase your online presence and boost your rankings in search engines. Contact us today and we will be happy to get started.
