Harness the power of Google My Business

IT’S FREE

Yes, it is true, it is completely FREE. There are no paid updates or premium listings, you just need to create an account, fill in your business details, and verify that you are the business owner and ready to go. Verification is accomplished by sending a postcard to the business address with a verification code that you can then enter and verify your listing, this process normally takes about 2 weeks, and if you make any changes to the address, you will need to verify again.

Increase your visibility

Considering the cost GMB is probably the best of all the listings and directories, in the UK we have companies like Yell and Google Map Pack ListingThomson Local claiming to produce miraculous results by attracting leads and sales for a ‘small’ fee . . However, with GMB, you can easily show yourself as the first business for your area in the local map package with a well-optimized profile, including images, opening hours, etc. This, in turn, means that more customers will see your business online and should then increase traffic, calls, and walk-ins of your website, depending on the type of business you have. What Yell and Thomson Local won’t do is give you that level of visibility for free.

Make it easy for customers to get in touch

Depending on your type of business, you will value certain business interactions differently. I prefer to receive phone calls, while other companies prefer that people physically visit their store. What GMB does is make sure your contact details are clearly visible to anyone who sees your business as part of the map pack or knowledge graph (more on that later). As part of the map package, you get your business name, phone number, reviews, location, and a map marker showing your location, plus options to visit their website or get directions to your business.

It is constantly evolving and growing

I’m not entirely sure how recent the new features are, but I’ve just started seeing them on the profiles I manage in the UK. The coolest new feature available on some profiles is the ability now to create blog posts, including a featured image, up to 300 words, and a button to link to your site, offer, or whatever you want. They can also be used to create specific offers or events. Another recent feature has been the ability to add a description for your business, plus you can add your services to your profile as well (although I’m not quite sure where the services are actually displayed).

An online gallery for everyone

Your GMB listing can act as your online image portfolio, allowing you to add a seemingly unlimited amount of photos to your profile, including adding your company logo and cover images, you can also tag each photo by location. , like inside, outside, at work, team and identity, and even add videos to your profile. A key feature that many businesses will find helpful is the fact that customers can also add photos of their business, which is especially helpful for many tourism and event businesses. This gives you the opportunity to really showcase your business online with product images, interior images, or even images of your hard-working team.

Collect reviews

One thing that many potential clients will now look to in order to have confidence in a brand is reviews, and Google My Business does an excellent job of giving clients a platform to leave a review about a work experience with a company or a product or service. for a company. Business owners can also easily respond to reviews, which helps build rapport with your customers, especially if you value repetition.

Knowledge and Knowledge Chart

What Google does really well here is that it gives you valuable information, like how many people have seen your business, where they saw it, and what actions they took. Obviously, it is not as comprehensive as something like Google Analytics, but it is interesting to know the details of who is viewing your business profile. The knowledge graph dashboard also seems to be constantly evolving and is usually displayed when you type the name of a verified company, use schema markup for a lot of your data, and can also display your reviews, social media profiles, a platform for customers to ask questions about your business and also displays your business description from your profile.

I have barely scratched the surface of what GMB is capable of for business owners, if you need any advice on how to manage or update your GMB listing, or if you are looking for a professional to manage this for you, feel free to get on. contact Wolfberry Media.