With such a bewildering array of marketing options — digital and otherwise — we like to focus blog posts on actionable intel. Whether it’s a staff-written how-to or a link to somebody else’s smart idea, it’s news you can use in upping your marketing communications game.
February 18, 2021
A Google My Business listing is a powerful online tool to help customers find you. Make sure your listing includes this key information.
Google reigns supreme when it comes to search engines and has even become a commonplace verb in everyday language: “Have you ‘googled’ it?”
So it makes sense that business owners take advantage of the Google My Business (GMB) listing tool the most powerful search engine available provides. Google aims to make it user friendly, but it can be a bit overwhelming to figure out if you haven’t been down this road before.
While Google My Business has a host of information options—from basic business information to website hosting ability—there are four main fields you want to be sure you don’t skip in your own business listing.
These four fields carry the most weight to your listing’s relevance and Local SEO optimization.
Clearly, this is the first and most important part of your Google My Business profile: your business name! Obviously, we know you’re not going to skip this section, but what needs to be pointed out is that most business names aren’t organically optimized for keyword search.
Local, family-owned businesses oftentimes have the family name as the business name or a one-word name that doesn’t intuitively relay what that business does. While Google doesn’t look favorably on businesses intentionally stuffing this section with relevant keywords, a good suggestion would be to include the type of business in your GMB profile.
For instance, if “Harvey’s” is a family-owned jewelry store, we might suggest “Harvey’s Jewelry” as your GMB name. That way if a user is searching for a local jewelry store, Google may be more likely to rank “Harvey’s Jewelry” a bit higher since its name is similar to the search. To reiterate the point about stuffing terms into the name; don’t get carried away. That will only hurt your chances of showing up.
This is the best way to help searchers and potential customers know what kind of business you are inside of your Google My Business listing. This may seem obvious, but business categories carry a lot of weight when it comes to moving your business up the search results page.
There are over 4,000 categories to choose from, but you are limited to choosing 10 for your profile. It’s worth noting that these categories are frequently changing and updating as well, so it is valuable to check your profile’s options periodically to ensure your categories are the most relevant ones possible.
Customer and client reviews go a long way to help your listing’s relevance and ranking. Having a couple dozen online reviews not only helps Google know that you’re a reputable business, but businesses with more reviews are more attractive to searching customers as well, and Google may reward the ones who have more.
Chances are that someone will choose the business with the best and/or most online reviews among other search results. Reviews are a great way to differentiate yourself from the online competition and to find favor with Google’s algorithm at the same time.
Google My Business profiles that include a website are more likely to be chosen among search results. For the same reason as reviews, a website link proves to the consumer that your business is not only relevant and up-to-date, but that its information is conveniently accessible. A lot of searching happens after business hours, so be sure to have a way for customers to connect with you or find out more about your business even when you’re not open.
If you’re not sure how to get started, we can help. We know the ins and outs of putting together the best Google My Business profile for any business. Not only that, we can help you put together the individual pieces necessary to optimize your profile, from a custom website to online reviews!
Don’t waste your time aimlessly clicking around the rabbit hole of Google My Business—contact us today and let us help you get set up for online success.