By | Categories Blog | Featured | August 20, 2018

What is Google My Business?

**2023 Update** Google My Business is now known as Google Business Profile and LOTS has changed.

Google Business Profile is the new name for Google My Business. It is designed to help small businesses with one location manage their profiles directly on Search or Maps. The dedicated My Business Android and iOS app were replaced in 2022 to use Search or Maps for profile management. This confused many Google My Business users and left lots of business owners with multiple locations with a LOT more work when it comes to updating their listings.

Businesses should take advantage of both tools as they can help improve visibility on Google and reach more customers. With the right strategy, businesses can use these tools to maximize their online presence and reach more potential customers.

According to the statisticians, 56% of small businesses do NOT have a Google Business Profile page claimed and set up. When our Account Based Marketing analysts are pulling lists of prospects for our clients, we usually ignore businesses that don’t have their Google Business Profile completed. It’s a great way to tell who is going to be responsive to your marketing, and who won’t.

This is a tragedy when you understand that Google My Business (or GMB for short) is a free tool that lets you manage how your business appears on Google Search and Google Maps. The FREE listing includes your business name, location, and hours; it allows you to monitor and reply to customer reviews; it enhances your listing with location-based and product photos and gives you some insight into how people see you online and what they are looking at.

How to List My Business on Google

First things first. Set up your Google Business Profile. Very simple. Since you know most people find your business using Google, and Google search is their tool, why would you not have correct and fully fleshed out the information there?

Steps to Creating your Google Business Profile

  1. Log into the Google Account you want to have associated with your business
  2. Go to google.com/business and Start Now to list my business on Google
  3. Enter your business name
  4. Enter your business address and business category
  5. If you go to your customers’ locations, rather than having them come to you, check the box “I deliver goods and services to my customers.” And if you work out of your house or another address you don’t want publicly shown, Check “Hide my address (it’s not a store) Only show region”.
  6. Choose a Category for your business. This can be tough as Google’s category choices are small, and they generally don’t do a good job of nailing what you do. Choose a category that most closely aligns with how people will search for you online.
  7. Add your business phone number and website URL.
  8. Choose a verification option and follow those instructions. This can be the most trying thing as if you choose “postcard” verification, you’ll have to wait a week or more to receive that postcard in the mail. We recommend using telephone verification.

Finishing your GMB Listing

OK, so you’ve gone through the grueling 5-minute setup protocol and have verified your business location with Google. Now, pat yourself on the back as you have completed more work in SEO optimizing your small business online than tens of thousands of other owners out there. Congrats! You also don’t want Google to list your business with their information that may be faulty.

Photos on GMB

Google loves Photos! And better yet, people that search for your business love photos. They like to see photos of your business exterior, interior, your products you sell as well as your people. These photos can be professionally taken, but then pics snapped using your mobile phone are going to be 100% better than leaving those possible leads on the table.

Things to Remember
– We can schedule a photographer to shoot your location/products/team
– We can complete and optimize your GMB for you

You want to make sure that your business hours (hours of operation) are correct and everything looks 100% because anyone on the Interwebs can make and suggest edits to correct your listing. Say they believe your address is incorrect. Or your website URL. Google searchers and ambassadors are invited to correct your listing for you.

An oft’ asked question is: “How many photos should I upload to my Google My Business listing?”

Answer: As many as you can. But at least 3 in each category of Exterior, Interior, Products, Team and Employees at Work. If you are a service industry and don’t make products, upload an image of you working with a customer.
At any point in time, you can edit your business profile by logging into your GMB dashboard, clicking on “Info,” clicking the pencil next to the field you’d like to edit, making your change, and then choosing “Apply.” You’ll also want to make sure that you add the Alt-Tags for the photos within your listing. They can be the same keywords you use for the long tail keywords on your website.

Why Google Business Profile is Important

As a retailer. They will tell you. Say your location is closed on Friday in observance of a non-standard holiday. Do you really want dozens or hundreds of people to show up on that day you are closed only to find a “Gon’ Fishin’” sign in the window? Of course not. Using the mobile app for GMB, you can quickly chuck in that time off so that when someone asks Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant or Google Home “Is XYZ business open right now?” those digital assistants will answer appropriately. So, get the app loaded to your phone. You’ll thank us.

Google Reviews

5-star reviews on Google can be a great way to distinguish your amazing business from all those other kingfishers out there. But. What if someone leaves you a poor review? Do you “let sleeping dogs lie” or do you respond? Our recommendation is to always, always reply with honest, heartfelt and accurate replies. Without a Google My Business account established for your business, your business can receive negative reviews, that are not being replied to.

Things to Remember
– We can repair your reputation and respond professionally to those negative reviews for you.
– We can build an SEO plan to rehabilitate negative PR about your business.

We hope this Google My Business Profiles walk-through was helpful.