5 Ways To Optimize Your Google My Business Profile for Local Customers
Google My Business is a platform that many businesses undervalue. It’s not as flashy as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, but can absolutely bring immense value to businesses that are trying to stand out in a local market.
Continue reading below to see 5 simple ways you can customize your Google My Business listing in order to attract more local customers
Claim Your Listing
First things first, if your Google My Business Listing already exists, you’re going to want to claim it. If you search your business name on Google, your listing should pop up in the right-hand column of your search results. On that listing, you’ll see a clickable link with “Own This Business?” as the text. See below for an example.
Hopefully, once you get to this step, your profile has not already been claimed. If it has by mistake or by someone else, you’ll need to go through some extra steps in order to dispute the prior claim. If you’re having trouble claiming your profile, our setup team has plenty of experience and we include a full GMB cleanup in our core package, so reach out to us for help.
If your page is not claimed and you want to verify it yourself, you’ll just need to connect a valid email address and go to google.com/business to go through the full verification process. That process may include a postcard sent to you via snail mail that has a unique PIN number you can use to confirm your business’ physical location. This process can take 2–4 weeks, so it’s the most important step in moving forward in optimizing your Google My Business listing!
Consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) Info
Another simple, yet overlooked piece of any social media profile is the NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) information. All of your information should be consistent across all of your social media platforms, including Google My Business.
Google’s local search will prioritize businesses that have their information filled out completely and accurately. The more information that you can give your customers about what you do and when you’re available, the more Google will favor your business in local searches.
Set Correct Categories
Categories help your potential customers narrow down their own search results and guide them to your business when that category is relevant. By filling out your categories correctly, you’re giving your business a better chance at showing up at the top of relevant search results.
One thing to mention is that Google has pre-populated categories, so you’re not able to customize categories completely. Google also gives you a “Primary Category” and “Additional Categories” option if you think your business fits well into multiple categories.
Here are a few of the choices you can select from in the automotive industry:
As you can see, it’s important to select the most accurate category, because a user searching for auto upholstery service is more likely to click on a business categorized as an Auto upholsterer!
Add More Photos Than Your Competition
Like all the other social media platforms, photos tend to get a lot more attention than just plain text. Photos are a great way to stop your audience from scrolling past your business listing, plus they give a little more insight into the personality behind your business.
By adding photos to your Google My Business Listing, you’re distinguishing yourself from your competition.
Here’s what our Google Insights look like.
As you can see, we get almost 3000% more views on our Google My Business profile compared to competitors in our area, just because we have uploaded photos! It’s that easy!
Make sure the photos you upload are high-quality, professional, and convey your business’ and employees’ personalities accurately. If you don’t have any professional photos, we have an extensive network of local photographers all across the US that are always ready to help you out with a photoshoot.
Respond To Your Reviews
If you’re still not convinced of the importance of Google My Business reviews, consider these statistics:
- 97% of consumers who read business reviews also read the business’ response to those reviews
- 40% of consumers expect a review response within 24 hours or fewer
- Businesses that respond to reviews are perceived as 1.7x more trustworthy than businesses that don’t
But other social media channels have reviews too, right? So why is Google My Business such a key platform? Because Google My Business has 92% of the market share in search engine market share.
Responding to reviews increases your chances that friends and family members of the original reviewer will recommend your business. Not to mention all of the strangers who see your response will be much more likely to build a positive sentiment around your business in their minds.
Google always wants to give searchers the most relevant, detailed information. A few of the signals that Google monitors when deciding which businesses to show to a searcher are review quantity, recency and diversity. That means you want to have as many reviews as possible from as many people as possible.
When you take time out of your day to respond to reviews, you make it more likely that your business is going to show up in the first three results of local searches, improving your exposure to customers and hopefully convincing them to make a purchase decision with you. If you’re struggling to find time to respond to reviews or you just want someone else to take care of them, our Core Package includes review management, so reach out to us if you need help!
We hope you found this information helpful! If you’re looking for more resources on how social media can help your business, subscribe to our YouTube Channel or follow us on Facebook!
Optimize Social Media provides social media & reputation solutions that evolve with our clients. As social media experts we manage Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yelp, YouTube and Instagram accounts for our clients daily. We help the modern business owner implement a specialized social media strategy so they can make more money in real life. Enjoy our blog.
5 Ways To Optimize Your Google My Business Profile To Reach More Local Customers was originally published in Social Media For Business Owners on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.