Google My Business is one of the key steps of a proper online presence of every business. However, if you don’t optimize it in the best way possible, its efficiency can be reduced to a minimum. Skilled optimization will ensure your business website appears in search results – the best way for potential customers to find you. This free service can skyrocket your brand if you know how to use it. Therefore, it’s time to make a GMB profile, or claim one already existing on Google. It’s time to learn how to use GMB and increase the number of customers and improve your business’ rankings.
Benefits of Google My Business for your company
If you think setting up a GMB profile and optimizing it in detail is too much work, think again. Let’s go through the main benefits of owning a Google My Business profile, so you can understand the importance of optimization:
- brand visibility – when you claim and set up a GMB profile, customers will be able to find your business, so you can improve brand visibility and get more customers;
- improves customer experience – GMB allows your customers to find necessary services or goods with ease. Furthermore, it allows business-owers to communicate with potential customers by using the messaging feature on GMB.
- your business can enjoy positive reviews – Google is the place where customers can easily leave reviews and photos of your business. This is a way to advertise your business, as positive comments will be displayed to anyone looking for your services or goods.
Finally, all of these points lead to one conclusion – Google My Business can help you get more customers, improve traffic and therefore increase sales. For that reason, you shouldn’t underestimate the power of this platform, but learn the best, most useful ways to use it.
Ways to use GMB and increase the number of customers – put it to the best use possible
There are several important steps to making your GMB profile perfect. In this guide, we will share the top tips on putting this platform to the best use.
Set up the profile – keep it accurate and updated
It is essential to set up your GMB profile perfectly. However, be sure to check that there is no profile already generated by Google. This is important to avoid duplicates and confuse customers, and make the profile ineffective. If there’s already a profile of your business on the map, be sure to claim it. If not, start with setting you your new GMB profile. Fortunately, Google has made it easy to sign up, and it will guide you through a rather simple process. However, when setting up a profile, be sure to use correct information for the following sections:
- name of the business
- exact location
- phone number
- category of the business
- services
- working hours
- website
If you keep these pieces of information updated and accurate, you can be sure that more customers will come your way. Incomplete and inaccurate information can confuse them and drive them away from your business.
Keep your information updated
If any information about your business changes, especially address or working hours, make sure you let your customers know. Avoid disappointment and provide them with updated and accurate info about your business.
Add photos
Customers will always better trust the profile that has more complete information on GMB. And one of the key elements of this trust is photos. If you add professional photos of your offices, products, satisfied customers, etc. you can be sure that the number of new customers will rise. People are more likely to buy products or services they can actually see and check out.
Don’t underestimate keywords
Keywords in your GMB profile will ensure it reaches more people. When people look for a certain solution, product, or service, they will type keywords and browse the results. Therefore, to make sure you use GMB and increase the number of customers, add relevant keywords to your business description. This seemingly unimportant step can be very powerful in reaching a much wider audience.
Take advantage of all Google My Business Features
Having a solid foundation is great, but small tweaks to your profile can make a huge difference. That’s why it is essential to explore additional Google My Business features. Furthermore, it is important to check the updates and see if anything new can help you run your profile even more smoothly.
Analyze your customers
To be able to offer what they are looking for, you need to know your customers. Google Analytics can help you with that. You can get insight into the demographic of your customers, and check the way they react to your products, offers, posts, etc. This can help you improve your strategy and advertise more efficiently.
Encourage positive comments
As we mention, positive reviews are the confirmation of your good work. They can ‘persuade’ potential customers to buy from you, as well, so you should try to encourage more of them. As you can’t force or pay customers to write good things about your business, you can encourage reviews by offering discounts or any other way of saying thank you. This will create a positive image of your business online, but also improve the rankings.
More methods make a perfect mix
This guide showed you that there are several ways to use GMB and increase the number of customers. However, opting for one or two will not make your profile as efficient as possible. By mixing all of these methods and tips, you get a complete strategy of making the most out of Google My Business and in that way getting the best results.