Secrets to Optimizing Your Google My Business Account For Local SEO

You Need These Tricks Up Your Sleeve for Your Google My Business Listing

If you’re new to the digital world and have been working on a new business that you’d want everyone to see online, Google has come up with the right tool to make your brand echo to a thousand search results. The holy grail for most digital marketing specialists in this age of digital and landscape-changing technology is to easily communicate with their potential customers to speed up their sales and attract the most traffic. It’s Google My Business that takes the marketing landscape a step further by optimizing your profile to find your target market and letting your target market find you!

This age of digitalization and fast-paced development on technology is probably the best generation to exist in as all types of information from wherever can be accessed with just a few clicks on your smartphone. As today’s generation also has its way of wanting these information accessed as quickly as possible, without any hassle, it is important that the online world keeps up with this trend.

I mean, thank heavens for Google right? Not only can you search for song lyrics, 1940s literature and conspiracy theories, you can also find any type of business near you with just a search. Google My Business keeps up with our needs as it not only helps businesses provide detailed information about their product or service, it also helps locate the establishments nearby, leave comments and ratings, and most importantly, provide an avenue for business owners and customers to interact and create long lasting consumer relationships.

Remember back then how it was such a bummer if you craved for food at a local restaurant at around 10pm, rushed to the shop and being greeted by “We’re closed” signs and a door tightly shut? Well, they did close at 9pm, but you, and probably a lot of people, didn’t know about it. This is where Google My Business changes the search engine optimization landscape.

READ ALSO: Ultimate Guide to Google My Business

Whoever’s near you, or even those who aren’t but are specifically looking for your local business can lead themselves to you with just a few clicks. Not to mention, Google’s working on a new feature with the use of emojis– imagine just typing in a burger or a cocktail emoji, your google search will directly result to the nearby establishments where you can get a burger and/or a cocktail. Fun, right? Useful? Absolutely.

On the business side of things, Optimizing Your Google My Business Account changes everything for most business owners. How easy could it be to put up a Google My business listing and provide details on your business online? After 20 minutes or so, you could just sit back, relax, and wait for customers to flood your area as they already know about you through your google listing.

How to Use Google My Business To Get More Leads

Convinced to let Google do your marketing strategies for you? Well, here’s how you can jumpstart to an easy venture on digital marketing for your business:

1. Claim and verify

First thing’s first for everyone– find out whether or not you already have a listing on Google My Business. You have to recheck and make sure that there are no duplicated listings for your local business so that your potential customers will know you’re legit. It’s not enough that you do not remember having created one, because audiences and customers around the world and near you have the power to do it for you.

To check, you may simply do a quick Google search of your business to see what profile would appear in the search results. If it’s your business, you need to claim it and verify your ownership of the said business. This time, you would now be able to edit your Google My Business listing.

2. Fill out information

Now, for the most important part, which is not really a secret, but not everyone finds it useful– fill up all the details about your business. Type in information on your local biz that is accurate, relevant, and most especially up to date. Always, always think about your potential customers and how it would be easier for them to find you when they have all the information about you– especially your store hours and specific location!

Categorize your business and describe it along the lines of Google’s guidelines. The secret to leaving your customers satisfied when searching for your local business is to always keep your information on every part of your online marketing consistent. Check directories hosting your website, and other links you have connected to your listing and keep them consistent.

3. Photos (and Videos!)

Not all Google My Business listings have photos. Why, though? As a searcher, your customers would want to know what your place looks like, what the products and services look like and whatever’s there to see in your hub. This entices them more to visit you as soon as possible!

The best thing to do when managing your photos in your Google My Business is to always, ALWAYS upload photos that are of high resolution, because no one likes looking at blurred photos of anything.

Google makes it a point of reminding you about the importance of using photos in your Google My Business listing. Listings with photos have higher rankings, and are, according to statistics, the most clickable. Additionally, it is important to note that as of January 2018, you can now add videos to your listing! If photos can take your business far, video content can take it further up the next level.

4. Reviews

Don’t be the business owner or digital marketer that neglects customers’ reviews, comments and suggestions. The key to having a flourishing business, of course, is to always establish a close relationship with your customers, and always putting their needs and opinion first – because you need them more than they need you.

Optimizing your google my business reviews can be very influential for your potential customers, and interacting with them through your Google My Business listing will give a lasting first impression. Yes, take advantage of those good reviews. Yet, also respond to the negative ones and put out a brand image that is accommodating to all types of customers. Searchers pay attention to reviews all the time, so better up your game in your GMB listing through managing your reviews.

5. Google Posts

The secret is, your Google My Business listing is never enough. Google provides business owners and digital marketers an avenue to keep things more personal when connecting to their viewers and potential customers. A lot of business owners keep this cool feature underused and focus on their social media instead. Why not cover all your grounds and post on social media as well as Google Posts on your Google My Business?

Google Posts works just like social media. You can keep your viewers and searchers updated of all your services, promos, events and whatnot! This is where your content marketing skills would be put to the test, another way to entice your audience. An updated Google Posts page will also result in better rankings on your local search engine optimization, as Google senses how active you are as a listing.

6. Monitor

Another tip on Optimizing Your Google My Business is to continue monitoring your account. As we all know, anyone can suggest an edit to your profile. Yes, a random hater may be able to alter all the details you have put up your Google My Business listing. The secret is to always monitor your GMB listing so that you’d see any changes put up by anyone. Y

ou wouldn’t want to leave your customers confused and your brand image tainted. Keep an eye on suggested changes though, it could be someone with good intentions helping your business do better. Remember, as a business owner, you need to be keen and open-minded about your customers’ needs and wants, and that includes their suggestions.

An even more important thing to know is that users can also answer questions about your business, which is a whole lot more complicated. So keep monitoring your business listing to avoid any complications as  Google likes user-generated content.

7. Booking button feature

This is such an important tool to make use of. The booking button feature on Google My Business can help you and your customers interact efficiently. If your business is the type utilizing appointments and bookings with customers, plus, using an “integrated scheduling software”, your potential customers can book an appointment with your business through your Google My Business listing! Cool, right? And efficient, too.

To take advantage of this very useful feature, you need to have an account with one of Google’s supported scheduling providers to be able to place a booking button automatically to your Google My Business listing. This really helps a lot when managing schedules especially if your local business lacks manpower– leave it to this integrated Google My Business feature to help in making appointments super simple for both you and your potential clients.

8. Messaging

Maybe this one’s a secret too, but you need to know about this quick! Your customers and potential ones can send you text messages! This makes this a lot more easier to contact you when they have queries that need immediate responses, especially when you’re the type that isn’t online every second of the day.

This is also a great way to interact with your customers aside from other features like managing your reviews or posting on Google Posts. It’s important to note that Google is always watching your level of engagement with your customers, so, it’s best to take advantage of this feature as it benefits you in more ways than one.

To have this, go on to your GMB dashboard under “Messaging”, set up the message people will get from you after they hit you up, and type in your mobile number. If you don’t want them messaging you on your personal number, Google has provided an app called Allo where customers can reach you through the same mobile number, but instead, the message will be sent to the Allo app as compared to it appearing on your personal mobile.

9. Questions & Answers

When you’re looking for tips and tricks to boost your popularity as a local business, then, Questions & Answers on Google is the way to go. It’s so simple because people just asks you questions about your Google My Business listing and you can answer them immediately for everyone to see.

Another feature to keep your business closer to its potential customers, Google My Business Questions & Answers feature is the best way to hear directly from viewers and respond to them.

However, it’s important to keep monitoring your Google My Business listing to be able to know if there are new questions needing your answers as Google doesn’t always provide notifications for you to know if there have been new questions that came up.

Optimizing Your Google My Business Means To Keep It Updated

The key secret from all these tips and tricks on optimizing your Google My Business listing is to always, always, monitor your listing. You must always keep in mind that whatever information you place on your listing must be as accurate and up to date as possible to be able to help your customers find you easily.

Slip into the shoes of your potential customers and find out what they would want to know about your business and how to effectively interact with them. It’s important to shed a light on how important it is to provide all information immediately and all at once as it provides a lasting impression for your local business. Nobody wants to visit a business establishment with lacking details, low ratings and bad reviews.

How easy is it to manage a business at this time and age? Google has taken it a step further as small businesses can now level up with big establishments when it comes to marketing their business whether it’s from content marketing, digital marketing, and whatnot.

It doesn’t take much to start optimizing your Google My Business listing, and it’s for free. Imagine, free, fast, and efficient marketing for your business? In this digital fast-paced world of the internet’s advent, one may quickly judge anything they see online.

Make a lasting impression with your brand by keeping in mind all these tips and tricks to optimizing your Google My Business Account for local search engine optimization. The more information you provide, the more legitimate you would look to your audience. What image do you wanna put out there? Make it easier for your potential customers by making a Google My Business account now.