Having an online business profile becomes a necessity for anyone that wants to promote its business today. Because of its advertising potential, both large and small businesses are making it an essential part of their SEO campaigns. In simple words, it helps people find you when searching for products or services online. And one of the most effective ways to accomplish this is to create one on Google. However, just creating and filling it with data is not the only effort to keep things going. Sometimes you will need to edit your business profile on Google to keep the information up to date. Just like you have to do citation cleanup from time to time. Fortunately, Google is making it easier by providing you with the necessary means to manage your online presence.
How to create and edit your business profile on Google
You can easily create your business profile on Google for free and without much effort. All you need to do is to make a Google My Business (GMB) listing. There, you will be able to fill in important information like your business name, address, and phone number. But, that’s not the end of it. This particular listing can contain plenty of other useful information as well. Like opening and closing hours, website URL, images, reviews, and more. And the best part is that it also integrates Google Search and Google Maps.
Now, keeping it optimized and updated is a more difficult part. If you have time and means, you can do it on your own. If not, then you have an option to use a professional team from AZ Citation Services to help you. GMB is a great tool to optimize your core presence, but there are numerous other places where you can create listings. All of them work together and help you maintain a quality business profile.
When do you need to edit your business profile on Google?
As a part of that maintenance, there are circumstances when you will need to edit your business profile information:
- When you are moving your business to another location
- If you are expanding and have multiple locations
- Your business hours are changing
- When changing your phone number or adding another line
- You need to claim an existing listing
- If some of the information is inaccurate
- and more
Google uses your listings and your website to determine the quality of your business profile and rank you appropriately.
Any wrong information displayed online can potentially harm your business.
Create your GMB listing
To be able to edit your business information you will have to claim your listing first. Even if you already have one, if it’s not claimed, you won’t be able to edit it. For example, someone already added your business to Google. You will have to claim it to answer reviews, add something new, or edit existing information. There are two steps here:
- Claim your Google My Business listing – You can simply search for your business name online, click on “claim listing” and complete the submission. Or you can create a new one.
- Verify your listing – To verify that you own the business, Google can send you a confirmation code (PIN) by post, phone, or email.
How to edit your business profile
Once you have your GMB listing you will obviously have to log into your account. When inside, you also have to find the “Info” section. There you will be able to select the part you wish to change by clicking on it. Or, you can easily delete it by clicking on the “X” sign.
Business name
As the name says, this is the section where you add or edit your business name. Remember, make no mistake here and type it exactly as it is. Because any later change will require you to verify your business again.
Business address
This is the address of the physical location of your business. Depending on the type of business, this is where you want your clients to find you. If you are changing the location, later on, it’s necessary to update the information for obvious reasons. Again, location change will lead you to another verification.
Phone number
This section gives you the possibility to enter up to three numbers. However, only mobile and landline will be taken into consideration. The first number you enter will be your primary business number. While the other two are optional. Any changes should not take much time to show on listings.
Website address
Almost needless to say, but every business should have a website today. With GMB, you can easily enter your website URL address and change it if necessary. You can also add other links that point to reservations, online orders, and similar, depending on the type of business.
Category
This is where you enter a primary category of your business. It has to be the closest one that describes your business. However, you can add up to nine additional categories in case your primary is not accurate enough. A great option if you are expanding your business and need to add other categories.
Working hours
One of the most important secondary information your clients will require is working hours. In the “Info” menu go to “Add hours”. There will be an option to enter your opening and closing hours. Additionally, there is an option to add special working hours for days like holidays and similar events.
Services
This selection provides information about the services or products you offer. Furthermore, you can create categories of items, for example, add a description, and prices for each. Don’t forget to update this section if your prices changes to keep your online audience updated.
Description
Before, business owners didn’t have the possibility to add a business description to the GMB listing. A few years back this changed. Basically, you can enter up to 750 characters to describe your business, where only the first 250 will be visible at first glance. On the other side, Google requires you to follow their guidelines when creating or editing your description.
Posts
Posts are an important part of GMB that can even help you improve your local SEO. They are like description cards of events or sets of information about your business operations. For the best results, don’t forget to add images and CTA buttons.
Answer reviews
Review belongs to the category of items you can’t edit. However, you can still answer them. Take this opportunity to establish a relationship with your customers and gain their trust by showing that your company cares.
To summarize, being able to edit your business profile on Google ensures your audience gets the most accurate information. For this reason, you should keep the initiative to constantly update your business information to retain credibility.
