Google My Business may be the easiest way for you to gain customers and sales leads for your business. And the best part—it’s free. Zip. Zilch. Nada. But you may be asking if you really need one. Well consider these two things:
- 93% of online experiences start by search, and if they are searching, even by your business name, a Google My Business listing will be seen before your actual website.
- Google probably has already created a Google My Business listing for your company already. So, don’t you want to control the message and provide Google with accurate information about your business?
Get More Leads and Sales
- 72% of consumers who first performed a local search visited a retailer within a five-mile radius
- Customers are 70% more likely to visit businesses with a Google My Business listing
Research shows that nearly half of all searches have local intent. That is, the person is looking for a particular product or service near them. For example, you may search for “bakery near me” or “Digital marketing agency in Dover, NH.”
While the algorithm is a closely held secret, we do know that relevance, distance and prominence are three factors Google takes into consideration for local SEO relevance. Google My Business helps with all three components.
Google also provides a map of three local results for your search, what they call Local 3-Pack. And the best part? These local results appear above organic search results, which increases conversion or click-through to your site.
How to Make the Most Out of Your Google My Business Listing and Increase Leads and Sales
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Claim Your Business Page
Sounds logical enough, but if Google has already created a listing for it, you need to claim it so you can control the messaging. Claiming your listing is easy enough though.
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Fill Out Your Information as Completely as Possibly
Usually Google needs to crawl a site to completely understand a business. And even then, there are an infinite set of variables that can mis-inform Google, from coding to keywords. Google My Business listing is your chance to directly tell Google how to index your business and all its relevant attributes. Instead of hoping Google finds you, you are just telling Google all the relevant information it needs.
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Images
Google My Business allows you to upload images relating to your listing. Take advantage of that by providing searchers with relevant pictures of your business or other images that will help inform potential customers.
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Reviews
Google My Business allows consumers to easily leave reviews of your business. Besides helping attract other customers from the review itself, a review on the Google platform improves search rankings and overall SEO efforts. Online customer reviews are a strong signal to search engines about the trustworthiness and authority of your site.Moreover, use reviews to engage with people. Responding to reviews—good and bad—helps build trust with your brand. And trust is needed before a consumer will purchase.
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Posts
With Google My Business’ posting feature, you can announce special sales, holiday shopping hours, events at your business, and more. Plus, each post has the ability to add a call to action. So, not only are you creating a listing people will find relevant, but you are giving them clear direction on what you want them to do via a call to action button.This call to action ability makes where you can communicate announcements, events, and promotions to your audience. Keeping customers up to date on your business keeps you top of mind. In addition, each of these post types has a call to action, making engagement easier and more likely. If applicable to a particular search, content from your posts may even display in your result.
Optimizing your Google My Business page for maximum results should be at the top of your digital marketing list. It provides all the value you are looking for from a Google search result, and, again, the most important feature of a Google My Business listing? It’s FREE. Of course, if you need help optimizing (or even setting up) your Google My Business account, feel free to reach out. We’d love to help you.
