Getting your google business listing rightHave you Googled your business lately? Were you happy with the results displayed to you? If not, would you prefer to see a display that instantly gives potential customers your location with directions, hours of operation, contact details and a link to your website all in one place?

Thanks to Google My Business, now you can. A free marketing tool that connects both mobile and desktop customers to businesses, find out more on what makes GMB so beneficial to business, and how to get your business listing right.

Advantages Of Having Your Business Listed

A study by Microsoft suggested humans have an average attention span of just 8 seconds, so if they can’t find what they want straight away, chances are they won’t keep searching. Google My Business (GMB) makes it easy for customers to find the information they want to know about your business, regardless of whether you have a website or not. Here are some of the main benefits a business listing offers to you:

• It serves as a one-stop business directory for potential customers, improving search visibility and displaying all your important information in one easy to navigate interface.
• All of the information displayed is clickable, enabling users to find directions or visit your website with ease. Mobile users are able to click your phone number to instantly call your business.
• GMB enables customers to read reviews left by previous consumers and add their own.
• GMB offers insights into the number of users looking for and finding your listing.
• Customers coming through your listing are likely interested in your services and as a result, you may see increased conversion rates through GMB enquiries.

GMB mobile and desktop listing

6 Steps To Creating The Perfect Google My Business Listing

1. Creation of your Google Business account is the start of your journey to a perfect listing.

2. Claiming your business, allows you to add and update your business information. Once you have entered your businesses address, you will be asked to claim and verify your business via a phone call or postcard – If a listing for your business is currently owned by somebody else such as a former employee, you will need to request admin rights from them, it is also important to remove any duplicate listings of your business that may be present.

3. From the main dashboard, you should see an information bar at the top. From here you enter important basic information about your business (note that none of the information you enter will appear online until you verify your listing). This information is what is displayed to users so make sure it’s correct and up to date!

google my business dashboard

4. Picking correct and relevant business categories is crucial to your GMB listing. Google makes suggestions to users based on information you provide therefore entering your business into irrelevant categories negates chances of your listing being showed to users relevant to your services and may result in enquiries unrelated to your services.

5. Uploading photos give users further insight into your business, the photos are uploaded easily and photos you feature on your listing are broken into 6 categories:

• Identity photos: these are your profile photos, cover photos and logos
• Interior photos: these are pictures of the inside of your business or shop and should capture the atmosphere of your business
• Exterior photos: these exterior photos should help customers recognise your business
• Photos at work: these photos should be representative of the services you offer
• Team photos: these photos should show your management team and employees
• Additional photos: for any that don’t fall into the above categories

A good set of photos can be the make or break for customers when it comes to businesses where aesthetics are important, such as restaurants and bars. Investing in a Google Virtual Tour lets your customers step inside your premises before they visit, and a study by Google suggested listings with a virtual tour are twice as likely to generate interest.

6. Encourage reviews, many customers will read the reviews before deciding to use a business. Be sure to encourage your existing customers to leave you an honest review – take the time to reply to all your reviews and show a willingness to try and resolve negative feedback.

Making The Most Of Your Listing

Once your GMB listing is up and running, you’ll be able to view your ‘insights’ tab which gives you an idea of how well it is performing including the percentage of customers who find your listing through direct search or by searching for a category, product or service – so remember to get those categories right.

Google my business insights tab

The insight tab will also give you figures into how many users have taken action on your GMB listing throughout a set period of time, these actions include:
• Visiting your website
• Requesting directions to your business
• Calling you
• Viewing the photos on your listing
Using this information can help you determine how successful your business listing is, or can be an indication that you need to update the information.

Get Your Business Listing Right

Getting your business listing right is important and the latest Google update ‘Possum’ has highlighted the importance of an accurate GMB listing to avoid it being filtered as spam. If you need help with your Google My Business listing or want to find out more about how it can benefit your local business give us a call on 01285 50 55 50.