Being a businessman means dealing with cutthroat competition every day. That’s why it’s so important to use Google My Business.
This free Google tool was designed to increase the visibility of your business, making it attract more customers. It does this by providing a pop-up box where visitors can see important details related to your business.
What is Google My Business?
Google My Business creates a detailed pop-up window for your local business on Google. This pop-up window includes crucial information such as the location, type of store, products sold etc. By providing this information, visitors get to know almost everything they need about your local business.
For example, let’s say you’ve opened a brand new doughnut shop in a nearby local neighbourhood. When customers search for doughnut shops in that area, Google will list your business among the search results. This increases your chances of being seen and making your enterprise known to customers.
Google My Business helps customers pick your enterprise by showing them exactly what to expect from each store. Moreover, the pop-up windows help speed up this decision by removing the need to visit each individual website.
Why use Google My Business?
One of the most common problems small business owners face worldwide is poor visibility. There are so many identical businesses out there that it gets difficult for your enterprise to be seen. This is a big problem for small business owners as they lose out on thousands of customers this way.
Most businesses operate with a functional website that acts as a digital store, showcasing all their products. But what good is the website if your business is unknown to the masses? Google My Business was created to tackle this very issue.
Study shows that most local businesses listed in GMB are seen at least 25 times a month. What’s more, the majority of the people who view your GMB page are more likely to call or visit your website. This makes Google My Business a necessary tool for generating traffic.
Google My Business SEO
Other than advertisements, people usually find out about new businesses through google search. It is crucial to optimise your search engine for your business to have any form of online visibility.
As a local enterprise, you’ll want to be at the top of the Google search rankings. One of the measures needed to achieve this is to optimise My Business.
The Google search engine determines which particular entry to list based on three key pieces of information.
- Relevance – Whether or not your business details match that of the search.
- Distance – The distance of your location compared to the search location.
- Prominence – How well known your business is in the online world.
As a business owner, it is your job to provide the right details while setting up your local SEO GMB. You must verify your location with the correct landmark so that it shows up during searches in that particular area.
Similarly, entering the right details about your store also increases visibility. For example, as a doughnut shop, you must mention whether you are a dine-in, drive-through or take-out service.
Google will prioritise your enterprise if your brand is well known amongst the online masses. For example, brands like KFC and MCD are gigantic names in the chain-restaurant industry. So if someone searches for fried chicken or burgers, these two results will probably be the first to pop up.
This is where branding and digital marketing come in handy. Business owners can double their traffic simply by providing the right images or taglines for their local enterprises.
Business listing optimisation is crucial for any enterprise hoping to generate online traffic. Fortunately, you can find plenty of help on the internet when it comes to optimising Google My Businesses.
How to get my business on Google
Google My Business has become a driving factor in local businesses finding success. This minor addition to your online presence can boost your enterprise’s traffic immensely. The best way to do this is by claiming and verifying your local enterprise on the Google My Business engine.
The process is simple and easy to follow for everyone. All you have to do is create an account in Google’s My business site. Then, head to the manage business homepage and create a new business listing.
If you are new to this, don’t worry, you will find ample information on how to get your business on Google.
Google My Business support
While the process of setting up your business on Google is easy, regularly updating and maintaining it can be a chore. What’s more, newcomers who are not internet savvy may find it difficult to use the interface.
Luckily for you, the Google My Business support provides any help regarding setting up and improving your GMB page. In addition, there is a search bar solely dedicated to providing any Google My Business help.
You call the customer hotline at 1-844-491-9665 if you have any queries regarding the process. Note that you may have to go through a waiting period depending on the intensity of calls. Customers have accounted for waiting up to 30 minutes to get a response from Google’s customer support.
Facebook users can send them a direct message on the Google My Business Facebook page. Alternatively, you can fill up an email support form on the Google Business help page. You may have to wait a day for their response, but the multiple answers provided by them are worth it.
Conclusion
The success of GMB is so great that it has become a necessity for business owners worldwide. Statistics show that the best way to attract customers is by maintaining a visible online presence. This can easily be achieved with the help of Google My Business.
The free to use tool has become the most popular online mechanism for small business owners. We foresee that this popularity will only increase in the years to come.
