Leverage the power of Google My Business
IT’S FREE
Yes, that’s right, it’s completely FREE. There are no paid upgrades or premium listings, you just need to create an account, fill in your business details and verify that you are the business owner and you are good to go. Verification is achieved by sending a postcard to the business address with a verification code which you can then enter and verify your listing, this process normally takes around 2 weeks, and if you make any changes to the address you will need to re-verify .
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 who claim to produce miraculous results by attracting leads and sales for a “small” fee. . . However, with GMB, you can easily be listed as the first business in your area on the local map pack 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 your website traffic, calls, and walk-ins, depending on the type of business you run. 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 take phone calls, while other businesses will prefer people to physically visit their store. What GMB does is make sure your contact details are clearly visible to anyone viewing your business, whether as part of the map package or the knowledge graph (more on that later). As part of the maps package, you get your business name, phone number, reviews, location, and a map pin showing your location, plus options to visit your 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 run in the UK. The coolest new feature that’s 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. These 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 also add your services to your profile (although I’m not quite sure where the services actually appear).
An online gallery for everyone
Your GMB listing can act as your online image portfolio, allowing you to add a seemingly unlimited number of photos to your profile, even add your company logo and cover images, you can also tag each photo by location, such as indoor, outdoor, at work, team and identity, and even add videos to your profile. A key feature that many businesses will find useful is the fact that customers can also add photos of their business, which is especially useful for many tourism and event based businesses. This gives you the opportunity to really showcase your business online with product images, interior images, or even images of your team hard at work.
Collect reviews
One thing many potential customers will now look to trust a brand with is reviews, and Google My Business does a great job of giving customers a platform to leave a review about an experience working with a business or a product or service for a business. company. Business owners can also easily respond to reviews, which helps build a relationship with your customers, especially if you value personalized repetition.
Insights and knowledge graph
What Google does really well here is that it gives you valuable information, such as how many people have viewed your business, where they viewed it, and what actions they took. Obviously, it’s not as comprehensive as something like Google Analytics, but it’s interesting to get the details of who’s viewing your business profile. The knowledge graph dashboard also seems to be constantly evolving and usually shows up when you type in a verified company name, uses Schema markup for a lot of their data, and can also display their reviews, social media profiles, a platform for customers to ask questions about your business and also displays your business description from your profile.
I’ve barely scratched the surface here of what GMB is capable of doing for business owners, if you need any advice on how to manage or update your GMB listing, or if you’re looking for a professional to manage this for you, feel free to get Contact Wolfberry Media.