You have to Optimize every data about your business sooner or later. It will help you get more customers with accurate details about you. I am pretty sure you don’t want to be left behind without any customers. Learn Google my business optimization in this article.
Google my business is a free tool that most business people use; if you are not using it, you are losing so much reach. It’s a platform where you can build the portfolio of your business with a location. It’s driving the local audience for you, whether you are a service provider or a physical business.
Before starting optimization you need to have a GBP profile so setting up your GBP profile is the first thing to do.
Go to https://www.google.com/business and start the setup.
Fill in the basic information that it asks you about your business including the Address, Phone no, Website, and more.
Then you require to verify your profile. We have a myth about the verification, GBP will verify only with physical mail. When you fill in your business address they send the verification mail with a code to your physical address. Yes, it is one way to verify it but you can get the code on your phone and email.
Learn more about Google my business setup and its verification process before starting Google my business optimization.
Now I assume you already know about the GBP setup or you created your account and completed the verification process.
Why Google Business Profile Optimization is Important
So setting up your profile is not enough you have to fill in detail of your business. There are many companies out there that have created their profile but never fill in the details about their business so don’t be like them or the efforts that are put into it till now will become worthless.
It is pretty basic after creating your profile you will see the “info” section in the left sidebar. You don’t need to add any extra effort just fill in the details of what it asking you and what you want to show to your customers. You will be asked to fill in business hours, category, review, and more.
Google will only show your profile to relevant people for your business when you fill in accurate details about your business.
The most important information is your map location. If you are a physical business you need to select the location on the map, I don’t think you want your customers to get frustrated to find your address.
Whatever you fill in here appears in Google search and Google Map
Google my business, Google places for business, and Google+ all are the same. They just upgraded from time to time and now it’s Google Business Profile.
Google Business Profile Optimization
Optimization always gives a positive return whether it is SEO optimization or GBP optimization. Here are some basic optimization tips:
1. Is your information is accurate
Like I said before Google will only show the information on Google search and Google map that you updated. It is very important to fill in the written data.
It shows the most relevant results to the searchers that is why you have been as relevant as you can in the information section.
Work in your profile so people can get your business with just one look.
2. Keywords
We all know keywords are the most important part to get in relevant search results. Use key phrases related to your business. Most people get confused about where they can add keywords to a GBP account. You can add them to your business name and business description. You can use them while posting for your customers.
3. Opening hours
Whether you are a physical store or online services provider, updating business hours can make it easier for your customers and for you.
You can it for full-time open or if you want to then you can set it hour basis. Even you can set holiday off also.
4. Add photos
Having pictures on your profile can generate more reach. Those businesses have pictures on their profile they receive 42% more traffic compared to others.
There are many ways you can attract your customers through photos. You can add your interior so they can get an idea about your location. You can share tips with them, it is pretty engaging.
5. Post
Google my business provides many types of posting like event posting, business updates, and offers. You can use this feature to keep your customers engaged with your business.
6. Special Attributes
Google added a new feature recently. It is to highlight the Black-owned and women-led businesses on profile.
You can also highlight other special things about your business. For Example, if you are a restaurant owner and you have wheelchair accessibility in your restaurant you can add this with attributes.
7. Covid 19 Updates
After covid 19 GBP added a new feature in it so you can update about it. Businesses are not running as usual after covid hits. We need precautions, extra care, and many more things. So if your business has some updates about covid so you can add them to your profile.
8. Product Catalog
As a business owner, you want to show your products to as many as people you can. GBP gives you the feature to add your products as a catalog so your visitor can see them. They will even get in the search result when a searcher search for it.
Adding your product’s price and details will make your business more specific to your customers.
9. Monitoring insight
Optimizing your insight data will help you to understand your audience. It tells you how they interact with your profile. Here are some factors from which you will optimize your insight better.
- How do customers search for your business?
- Where do customers view your business on Google?
- Customer actions
- Photo views & Photo quantity
They are not that tough to understand you will find out once your profile generates some insight for you. Yes, it will not show the insight from the first day because your profile needs some activation to gather insight data.
Let’s start with the first point
How do customers search for your business?
There are three ways customers can find out about your business:
Direct
When you get in the search result because they search you by your name or address.
Discovery
When you get in the search result because google is showing the relevant data means they searching for your business category, product, or service.
Branded
You get in the search result because they are searching for other brands that are related to your business.
Where do customers view your business on Google?
After creating Google my business profile your business will show on Google search and Google map. Here you can see the data with a graph of your listing in both places:
- Listing on Search
- Listing on Maps
Customer actions
Here you find out the most common activity on your profile:
Website visit
Here you see how many of your viewers are visiting your website. You can calculate the percentage with the business view and website visit.
Direction request
If your business has a physical location so of course, your audience wants to visit your business. To visit you they request directions. This data will show the number of people who request direction for your business.
Phone call
Phone calls happened for both services and physical business. When your customers want to know some information they call your business with the help of the phone no that you gave in the info section.
Photo views & Photo quantity
You can track your photos here, how many views they have, number of photos you have on your profile. It shows you your data with other businesses like yours so that can compare your performance with others and grow more.
Conclusion
Google my business optimization gives your customers accurate data about your business. When have accurate data that means your business gets seen by the right people, people who are searching for related products or services, It is free to use platform with so many good features.
