According to Google, customers are 2.7 times more likely to consider your business reputable if you have a complete Google My Business (GMB) profile, and 70% more likely to actually visit your location.
Your business’ Google profile is likely going to be the first representation of your business that your customers see, so it’s vital to make the best impression you can with it. You can use your GMB listing to:
- Showcase expanded services.
- Display your address.
- Display phone number and opening hours.
- Show off photos of your products or services.
- Promote special offers.
- Notify customers if you’ve temporarily closed.
- Add GMB posts (which can include text, photos, videos, offers, ecommerce listings, etc).
Your Google profile has strong local SEO potential, and the information you share there will rank above third-party sites that might have out-of-date details.
Get the edge over your competition
If you can help customers see what services you offer at a glance, they’ll have a better idea if you’re the business they’re looking for.
Got something that you think gives you an edge over the competition? This is your chance to show it off. If people can see what you do without clicking through to the site, your conversion rate should go up.
Along with ensuring your business information is always up to date, you also have the option to display special features and attributes, depending on what business category you’ve chosen.
Here’s a quick list of some of the category specific features available:
- Restaurants and bars can upload menus, dish photos, and popular dishes.
- Hotels can display class ratings, sustainability practices, highlights, check-in and out times, and amenities.
- Businesses also have access to different types of buttons based on their category, such as appointment bookings, reservations, and orders.
- If your business is service-oriented you can display a list of your services.
Create valuable posts for prospective customers
When it comes to adding GMB posts including text, photos, videos, offers and ecommerce listings, we’ve put together a few tips we’ve come up with while doing the same for our clients:
- Write actionable headlines. Placing a Call To Action in the headline if your post should grab the attention of searchers. ‘Get a free quote’ or ‘Buy one, get one free’, for example.
- Use great photos. The right image can really help draw the eye, particularly for businesses in categories such as restaurants.
- Keep descriptions short and punchy. There’s no SEO benefit to waxing lyrical for several hundred words, and only the first 80 show up on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
What to avoid:
- Don’t use excessive exclamation marks or write in ALL CAPS. This is a specific recommendation from Google itself, so you can be sure this kind of practice will damage your SEO.
- Don’t include more than one offer or subject matter in one post. You can publish up to 10 posts at a time. The best approach in terms of SEO would be to highlight each offer separately.
- Don’t use commercial slang. Never tell someone to BOGOF when you could tell them to Buy One, Get One Free.
How we can help
Hopefully this blog has provided you with some useful info so you can start showcasing your business better on Google, but if you really want to get the kind of consist leads you can concentrate on converting into sales, we have years of experience doing just that for a variety of different businesses.
Along with our Google maps posting and listing management services, we can:
- Create local reviews building campaigns.
- Increase customer confidence and click through rates by managing your Google business messages.
- Supplement your local SEO strategy by creating Local Service Ads for your business.
- Boost your visibility in local searches with our advanced SEO service.
If there’s anything else you want to talk to us about, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
