If you have an online location, you’ll want to reap the benefits of a Google Business Profile (previously known as Google My Business). Whether you are offering a local service, have a retail location or do most of your business virtually your Google Business Profile will be good for search engine optimization (SEO) and to provide an alternate method of connecting with your audience.
Then there’s that added bonus that the platform is all free—and that’s the kind of advertising I like!
You can do quite a few things with a Google Business Profile, such as easily update your information; respond to customer reviews; and post updates, photos, and promotional offers. With all these features (and more) you have an efficient avenue to create stronger relationships with your customers, increase your visibility, and point more customers to your business.
While you can create a profile and then never think about it again, the best business building approach is to properly optimize your listing with regular activity to get that popular Google traffic from consumers who are actively searching for the products and services you have for them.
6 Easy Steps to Setup and Optimize Your Google Business Profile
Fortunately, Google makes their business platform quite intuitive to use. There will be prompts throughout the profile setup that is just a matter of entering in your information that you likely already know and have on your website. However, there are also people that can setup and/or optimize your profile for you.
Whichever way you go it’s still good to be knowledgeable about the platform. Also, be sure that you are the primary owner of your business profile. You can allow access for someone to edit and update your profile by adding them as a manager.
Step 1: Create Your Google Business Profile Listing
If you have not created a listing for your business, you can do so on the Google Business Profile home page. On this page, you must log into your Google account and add basic information about your business, such as name, address, phone number, website, and business category.
Step 2: Add Quality Content
Once you have created your Google Business Profile listing, you should add relevant and good-quality content to increase your business’ visibility. This can include a detailed description of your business, photos of your business, a list of services and products, and any other information that would help visitors know about who you are and what you offer. The content added should be compelling, unique, keyword optimized, and not copied from other websites.
Step 3: Optimize with Keywords
Keywords are an important part of optimizing your Google Business Profile listing for SEO. The keywords should reflect the search terms that your customers are looking for. These keywords should be included in your business and product/service descriptions as well as in the tags of your images and videos. Using well-researched keywords can help your listing to appear in more search results.
Step 4: Respond to Reviews
Customer reviews are another important way to improve the SEO of your Google Business Profile. When customers leave positive reviews on your listing, this improves your ranking in search results. Always respond to reviews, both positive and negative. This shows that the business is responsive to its customers and is committed to customer satisfaction.
Step 5: Take Advantage of Advertising
One way to increase your business’ visibility is to use Google Ads. This platform allows you to advertise your business in Google search results and Maps, Youtube, and across the Google network of partner sites. This type of marketing can be extremely effective in increasing traffic to your website and improving your ranking in organic search results.
Step 6: Monitor and Analyze Your Listing
Finally, you should monitor and analyze your Google Business Profile listing to see how it is performing. There are various metrics you can track such as your listing’s traffic, the number of clicks to your website, and the number of calls or reviews received. This information will help you identify areas where you can improve the optimization of your listing.
Keep it Growing
Maintaining and optimizing your Google Business Profile listing may seem like one more task on your regular business to-dos, but it is one that is worth making a high-priority task. Just by following these 6 steps your listing can stand out in search results and attract more qualified buyers to your website. Putting in the time, or hiring someone else to put in the time, to regularly update and optimize your listing can have bountiful benefits for your business.
If you are looking for additional information or google business profile optimization services consult with a professional to have this aspect of your SEO properly attended to. A Google Business Profile is your second best online location. One mighty notch down from your website.
Learn about technical SEO (website optimization that deals with the technical aspects of your website) in this article with detailed explanations of technical improvements you can make to rank better in search engine results
Written by Steph Morrison
Steph has been building businesses, mostly from home, for over 10 years, motivated by her strong determination that her two youngest boys would be educated at home. Pursuing her calling to help parents enjoy the responsibility of educating their children, she works in the marketing department of The Old Schoolhouse®, and coaches and trains entrepreneurs to start and grow their business from home. Her and her family are perfectly placed in the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada. She loves being a homebody and building up her permaculture property. Learn more about Steph at the About Steph page.
