Every time you search the internet for a specific product or service, Google displays results relevant to your location. If you own a business, these localized results can be crucial for obtaining new customers. Every business owner should be aware that Google My Business is important for your local business in many ways. Generally speaking, it offers a quick way to show basic information about your business. Like the address, working hours, and phone number. But it’s also an efficient way to obtain valuable ratings from your existing customers.
The importance of Google My Business for your local business
If you want your business to be visible in local searches, GMB is a proven way to go. Carefully optimized GMB listings can significantly increase the chance to reach the right customers. For the best results, it’s necessary to provide accurate and consistent information. Only then, it will help you increase the traffic and allow people to find you online and offline as well.
However, it’s not always easy to maintain and keep your GMB listing up to date. It requires a lot of time and effort to make it to top results on search engine pages. Fortunately, it’s not hard to find proper professional assistance such as AZ Citation Servies to handle your GMB so you can focus on business operations more.
For a better understanding of how it can benefit you, let’s explain some of the most important aspects of GMB:
- GMB helps by increasing your visibility
- It also increases the traffic and sales
- GMB is information sharing central point
- Allows customers to write reviews
- Google My Business also help you communicate with customers
- You can analyze to get valuable insights
What is Google My Business?
Simply put, GMB (Google My Business) is an online listing that shows crucial information about your business. It’s one of the best marketing tools which business owners can use to manage and show their business in search results and Google maps. It will display their business name, address, phone number, and other contact and operation information. To start, you need to make your GMB profile or verify and claim an existing one. Next, you will enter all the available information about your business which you want your potential customers to find.
1. GMB helps by increasing your visibility
Considering we are talking about the Google product, it’s in close connection with their search engine. When someone searches for a product, Google will first show five top choices based on their local estimates. At the moment, it’s called local 5-pack results, but the number has changed over the years. After that, Google displays the regular organic search results. If you want your business to show among these top results, it’s imperative to make a GMB profile. Appearing in this group increases your business visibility, which in return increases the number of potential clients. Also, a fully optimized GMB profile helps you rank higher in organic search results. That again brings you closer to the wider audience.
2. It also increases the traffic and sales
The more people see your business in top results, the more of them will decide to check it. Remember the last time you were looking for a specific service or product, you always check the top results for the fastest and the most relevant information. This is how Google My Business increases your traffic. Which will, depending on the type of your business, eventually lead to more sales.
Some people will probably go directly to contact information and check your business location. And many of them will visit your website along the way. If you have a website, and you should, it’s necessary to optimize it as well. The loading speed and ease-of-use become important here because slow loading can reject some of the potential customers.
3. GMB is information sharing central point
With GMB you can easily share more than just basic info about your business. Of course, name, address, and phone number (NAP) are mandatory to even list your business. However, there are many other pieces of information you can share. It includes working hours, updates, news, events, various posts, pictures, advice, and many more. One of the most important parts is showing the location of your business on Google maps. With it comes the directions and the shortest routes to take if they need to visit you. Additionally, there is plenty of room to drive visitors to your website through links with Call To Action buttons like “visit”, “read more”, “call”, and similar.
4. Allows customers to write reviews
If you operate a good business, GMB is an excellent way to show it. Reviews are one of the best ways to show all interested sides that you are valid and reliable. Most people, when looking for service, read other people’s reviews to see if you are trustworthy. As a result, this type of feedback can significantly increase the influx of future customers. In addition, reviews also serve as a ranking factor Google uses when evaluating your position in search results. The more good reviews you have the better the chance people will see it.
5. Google My Business also help you communicate with customers
Among other benefits, GMB allows you to chat with potential and existing customers. Usually, this is a valuable option if you need to answer additional questions people ask. But, it’s also a great way to sort out any issues that occur. The best part is that it shows others you have high-quality customer service and don’t hesitate to take care of your customers.
6. You can analyze to get valuable insights
GMB dashboard can be a great tool to get insight into your local search results and your audience behavior. For example, you can see what actions your visitors are taking on your listings. To better track clicks on your GMB, it’s easy to utilize UTM parameters for your links. Additionally, you can track how often your profile show for specific terms.
As you can see, there are numerous reasons why Google My Business is important for your local business. It’s an efficient and cheap way to improve rankings and expose your business to potential customers. And also an excellent way to stand above the competition and increase your chance of success in the local market environment.
