A Guide to Google My Business–Combining Search, Maps and Google+
With over 1.2 billion unique users per month, Google is an amazing marketing opportunity for small business. In fact, it is so ubiquitously used, not taking advantage of the many Google Small Business products can give consumers the impression that your business is out of touch. However, with so many product offerings, getting set up on Google used to be a pain. Fortunately, the newly launched Google My Business (GMB) resolves many of these old issues, simply by streamlining its many features into one, easy to use platform. This makes it easy for you to set yourself up on Search, Maps and Google Plus, and just as easy for customers to find you via any one of these venues.
To get yourself set up and optimized on Google My Business, follow this step by step guide. Or, follow this introduction below.
Setup
Setting up Google My Business starts with asking yourself the following questions:
1. Is my business already on Google+? If not, you’ll sign up through the new Google My Business page. Good news: doing so will get you set up on Maps as well.
2. Have I verified my page? Once you have, you’ll find yourself blessed with the magical power to add photos, videos, coupons and regular specials to your page.
3. Have I chosen the right category for my business? It’s important to get it right for search engine optimization. Your hairdressing business, for example, will be a lot easier for the bots and customers to find if it’s not categorized as a bakery. You’ll be prompted to enter this as you’re getting setup with your new page.
4. Have I added all of my locations? Doing so will again make finding and getting in touch with you easier. The new GMB also makes it easier to edit and manage all of these locations from a centralized dashboard.
5. Do I know how to deal with duplicate and incorrect listings? You don’t want to do all of this hard SEO, content and social media work only to have someone else profit from your efforts or to send a potential customer to a closed location. You also don’t want old, irrelevant listings to outrank your new ones in searches. So track down old or inaccurate listings pronto, and get them fixed.
Page Management and Optimization
Once your page is established, making an effort at management and optimization will ensure you’re getting the most out of it. Again, ask yourself the following questions:
1. Have you figured out the new dashboard? This dashboard is one of the single greatest features of GMB, as it is effectively what combines all of these great Google features into one. This makes it much easier to edit, share, and analyze your listings and posts on Maps and Google+. So take some time to tour and learn all about its new features — it’s worth it.
2. Do you know what to put on your page? Google is great at making you look good, just as long as you give the platform juicy content and photos. In addition, make sure to include SEO keyword descriptors in both your listings and posts, and to set the mood with a striking, high resolution cover photo.
3. Are you making the most of insights? Insights help you see how well your G+ posts are performing — how many people are viewing them, who’s clicking on them and so forth. With this data in hand, you can better determine what type of content your audience is interested in, and how you can better drive traffic to and from your site.
4. Do you know about the Google Local carousel? The Google Carousel is that line of photos and reviews you see at that top of any local search you do — and you definitely want your business to be on it, as it attracts about 48% of clicks for any given search. To take advantage of this, just choose a good photo from your page to serve as the head photo and keep your page updated so Google knows to list you.
Engagement and Reviews
Once you’ve mastered your end of things, it’s important to make a concerted effort to curate a constant dialogue.
1. Have I identified and connected with local influencers? Social media at its best is a powerful form of networking, expertise building, and branding. Connecting with local influencers will help your brand quickly spread among your community, as they do a fair amount of the word-of-mouth marketing for you.
2. Am I getting a steady flow of reviews? There’s no doubt about it: customers today make the vast majority of their purchasing decisions based on reviews. Through them, customers get a glimpse into how you work and whether or not you fit with their mentality. Encourage your customer to leave review with a post-purchase email request or reminder, newsletters and offers.
3. Do I know how to respond to reviews? All reviews, good or bad (but especially bad) deserve a quick response, whether that’s just to do thank you or to provide your customer with an explanation or a remedy. Don’t leave them lingering; doing so looks unprofessional, and it also can ruin your reputation for new customers.
Citations
After all of that hard work, you definitely want to analyze how all of your efforts are doing. Taking a look at your citations — mentions of your business name and address on other pages — is important for this analysis, as they are a key component of ranking algorithms.
For ranking purposes, it’s important that your citations all point to the same place — hopefully, your Google+ page. As such, it’s crucial to make sure your business information and pages are properly listed across the web. You can do this manually, but it does take a fair amount of time and expertise, so you may want to pay a service to do so.
The Takeaway
Google My Business is a fantastic and much needed tool. Finally, local businesses can take advantage of Google’s many powerful products without feeling overwhelmed or confused. Check out the handy guide below to further help get set up and optimized.
Click image to open interactive version (via Simply Business).
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