Making The Most Out Of Google My Business - FTx 360 Digital Marketing Agency

Does your company have a Google My Business page? Google My Business, or GMB for short, offers businesses a wonderful opportunity to rank on Google’s search results. When you create a GMB listing, your business and its location will appear on Google Maps, which means that anyone who is using Google to find a company like yours will see your business’ page. And the best part about GMB is that it’s completely free!

Setting up a GMB listing for your company is fast and easy, and once your listing is live, Google’s geographically specific algorithms will start recommending your business in location-based search results. Even if Google makes regular changes to its algorithmic rules, those changes won’t affect or exclude your listing when users search for businesses like yours in a specific city, town, or region.

One of the greatest benefits about GMB is that the content of your business’ page will grow. While your primary business information will remain the same for the most part, such as the address, phone number, hours of operation, and a link to your website, your page will expand as customers leave Google reviews for your business.

What this means is that in order to truly optimize your GMB listing, you will have to manage it by soliciting customer reviews and responding to them whether the review is positive or negative. You will also have to post business updates, adjust the listed hours of operation when necessary, and keep up with other maintenance as needed.

In this blog, we’ll walk you through the basics of establishing a GMB listing, as well as offer the best tips to help you get the most out of your presence on Google.

Set up your Google my Business Page

When you begin this process, following the steps below, don’t be alarmed if you discover your business is already listed on GMB. Oftentimes, this is the case and the business owner only needs to claim the preexisting listing.

Open your Google business account if you have one, or visit https://business.google.com/

Google will ask you the name of your business once you are logged in. Simply search for your business. If it appears, you can claim it by verifying your business (go to Step 3). If not, then click on the top of the list where it says “create a business with this name”. Be sure your business name is spelled correctly and appears exactly as it should.

To claim a preexisting business, click on “add location” on the “manage locations” page, type in the name of your business, click on your business when it appears, then you can confirm, correct, or choose the business type so that it’s accurate.

Choose the categories that are relevant to your business, plug in the hours of operation, and any other information you would like to appear on your listing.

Once you’ve entered all of the information, click “review trackers” to approve the listing.

Now you can verify your business on Google, and there are two options, either verify by snail mail or by email.

To verify by snail mail: click “verify now”, at the postcard request screen, check that the mailing address is correct, and the verification form will reach you, press “I don’t have a code” and complete the request. The postcard you will receive will contain the verification code.

To verify by email: click “verify now”, choose the email option, when you receive an email in your inbox, it will include a code, which you can then enter into the GMB dashboard.

Add a Description & Posts to your GMB Listing

Once you’ve completed the verification process, you’ll be able to beef up your listing with even more attractive information, starting with your business’ description and including photos and videos of your location, products, services, happy customers, and anything else you’d like to show visually.

Business Description Steps

Since this description appears when Google users search for businesses like yours, make every word count. You only have 750 characters to make a strong impression.

Sign into your GMB account.

On the Home Page, click the “add description” option; or you can click on your “info tab” and look for the description section.

Simply type in your business description and click “apply”.

Posting Photos & Videos Steps

You never get a second chance to make a first impression, but with the ability to add photos and videos to your GMB listing, the first impression you make can be a positive, lasting one.

Sign into your GMB account.

In the menu, select the “photos” section.

From this section, you can upload any photo or video you want, just make sure it meets the size and format criteria. Click on the blue “+” button to start adding your media.

Collect Valuable Reviews

In addition to regularly uploading photos and videos as a way to optimize your GMB listing, it’s important to collect customer reviews so that your GMB page is always growing, staying fresh, and ranking high on Google’s search results. And when you have a new review, be sure to reply. It lets other Google users know that you’re involved in the customer service and customer satisfaction areas of your business.

To see your Google reviews, click on the “reviews” tab on the GMB Home Page.

You’ll be redirected to the Google Reviews Dashboard, where you can view all of your reviews.

Filter your list of reviews by “haven’t replied” so that you can focus on responding to new reviews.

Simply type in your reply, and be sure that the response is genuine. Google users can easily recognize “form letter responses”, which can be off-putting.

GMB provides the following benefits to companies that create, maintain, and manage their business listings:

Free advertising

Improves SEO

Elevates Google ranking

Promotes online visibility for your brand

Ensures online consistency

Allows photo posts

Presents “star average” based on reviews

Google My Business is at the forefront of the future of online marketing. Managing a GMB page can help you gain valuable insights about your customers and your competition. GMB is a powerful tool to have in your digital marketing toolkit, but remember, you’ll only get out of it what you put into it.

Want a digital marketing and SEO strategist to handle your GMB listing? FTx 360 offers a full suite of marketing solutions at affordable prices. Whether you’re interested in our consulting services or hiring us to manage all of your marketing needs, our team of experts can help your business grow. Contact us to learn more about our content marketing, social media marketing, and SEO marketing services.