Why you need Google My Business

Google My Business (GMB) is a easy-to-use tool allowing businesses to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps. If you verify and edit your business information, you can help your customers find your business and tell them your story.

A GMB listing is ideal for any local business or service area business.  In fact, claiming your listing is probably one of the first things you should consider when setting up your marketing plan. Spending a little time in establishing your online presence can give you a running start in your digital efforts.

Better still, IT’S FREE!! And you get free exposure on Google Search results and Google Maps too.

Your GMB listing allows potential customers to see your business name, phone number, and address. They will also be able to access your business photos, read your online reviews as well as view opening hours and the ability to make an appointment. Everything is easily seen without the need for them having to search for your website directly. To get the most of your Google My Business profile, you will need to log in to your business dashboard regularly and create attention-grabbing posts.

Google offers many ways in which you can post and promote your brand. You can choose to post from the following types:

Updates |Offers | Products | Events 

Adding a clever call-to-action (CTA) gives you even more control over the user journey. Google offers you a variety of CTA options, you can choose from:

Order Online | Sign-up | Learn More |Call Now |Get Offer |Buy |Book

Google has a unique method of keeping content up to date, as they remove your post from view after 7 days. This means that you need to keep on top of your posting schedule, with fresh and compelling content to maximise your search visibility.

A collection of positive reviews and brand mentions goes along way in helping new customers trust your brand. If you haven’t got many reviews as yet, ask your existing customers, better yet, add a ‘ask for review’ button within your order communications and email footers.

A study by ‘Local Services Ads’ mentioned that local businesses receive 32% of clicks in SERP’s without a local ad, With this in mind, people that clicked on the local search did so due to review ratings, the number of reviews and the overall position in the results.

To maximise the chances of your business being discovered, you should aim to reach the first page and then the top positions in local search. As this will naturally increase traffic driven to your website.