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5 Ways to Boost Your Google My Business Presence in 2022

5 Ways to Boost Your Google My Business Presence in 2022

Google My Business has changed in the past few years due to the introduction of Google Maps and searches on mobile devices. These changes have caused an incredible development of the platform, with new features added regularly. How will you be able to boost your Google My Business presence in 2022? In this article, we’ll look at five ways to make it easier for search engines to find your business.

What is Google My Business? (and Why Do You Need it)

Google My Business provides a single place to access all the information needed about your business, like contact information, locations, reviews, and photos. Google My Business helps you manage your local business online and is the cornerstone of your digital marketing strategy. After all, it’s the one place where your customers can find you, and it’s free!

Google My Business makes it easy for people to find your business, whether they are looking for a product or a service to help them. For example, when someone searches for “customer service,” Google will show them businesses in their area that offer customer service. Another example is, if someone visits your website and sees you offer free shipping on orders over $45, Google will tell them about it.

It is a beneficial tool that the search engine optimization (SEO community) often refers to Google my business (GMB) as a “sales page” because it allows you to accomplish your business goals. However, if your listing is obsolete or nonexistent, it might negatively affect your business.

3 Reasons to Boost Your Google My Business Profile

Here are three main reasons you need to boost your Google My Business profile: 

  1. It helps you build a presence in the search results and attract new customers.
  2. It helps you build trust with your customers. This can help them purchase from you, which is what you want.
  3. If you have a physical store or business,ou can see where people are coming from when they search for your store, which means you will know where to focus local marketing efforts to them specifically.

 

Google My Business and Your Local Ranking

Your Google Business Profile is one of the most underutilized channels for building brand awareness, engagement, and sales. It is one of the best strategies for influencing local SEO and search rankings, giving you chances to interact with valuable local clients. And if your local business complies with Google’s guidelines, your Google My Business profile can help you and your business meet goals.

That said, here are three factors used by Google to determine local search ranking:

  1. Relevance: How effectively your Google My Business listing matches a search query. 
  2. Distance: The proximity or the travel time between your location and the search or searcher.
  3. Popularity: How well-known is your business? (based on factors like links, number of reviews, review score, and SEO)

 

Google utilizes a combination of these factors to give search results that are the best accurate matches to user-submitted search queries. Therefore, even if a business is far from the searcher’s location, it could still rank better in the search results if it has a bigger chance of offering relevant products and services.

Why do you need to boost your Google My Business Profile?

You’re losing out on significant traffic opportunities if you don’t use your Google My Business profile or if it’s not properly optimized. The following are the main reasons why boosting your Google My Business profile is extremely important:

  • Promotes trust in your brand among potential buyers.
  • Gives valuable information about your company, it promotes sales.
  • Offers consumers more information about what they want before they make a purchasing which raises customer engagement.

 

How to Boost your Google My Business Presence

You might be surprised to learn that 70% of customers will visit a store because of the information they find online. But unfortunately, there are still many business owners who believe that claiming your Google My Business profile is enough and forget about it. What these businesses don’t know is that there is a variety of ways that you can do to boost your Google My Business profile and achieve better organic engagement. 

So, here are five ways to boost your Google My Business Presence:

1. Enter accurate information and keep vital information up-to-date.

If your Google Business Profile is accurate, customers are 2.7 times more likely to trust your  business. For that reason, your information should be visible on the local search results page, and take extra care to keep it up to date through your Google My Business dashboard. This action is to ensure that you fully benefit from Google My Business.

Bonus tip: Put the correct contact details in the description section, such as phone numbers and email addresses. It is easier for potential clients to contact you immediately by phone or email when you provide your contact information in the description section rather than having them spend hours scouring Google for the correct listing. You should also double-check your Business name, Address, Website (linking to your homepage), Hours of operation, and Business categories.

2. Use keywords in your profile.

Your profile should contain keywords that your potential customers are searching. If you don’t know where to start, try using Google Trends. Social monitoring tools are a great help in discovering the search terms people use to find your business.

As you write your business description, naturally incorporate the keywords. Avoid packing your content with keywords; doing so can potentially lower your search engine ranking. Pro tip: Write your content first, then go back and add relevant keywords where they make sense.

Your tone should be friendly but informative when writing your business descriptions. Provide searchers with the information they need; who you are, what you sell, where you sell it, and why they should purchase from you.

The usage of keywords in your business description supports the claims you make about what you offer to Google and your customers.

3. Encourage customer reviews and questions.

Google My Business reviews and questions are a way for local businesses to get the word out about themselves.

When someone leaves a Google My Business review, it is their way to tell your prospective customer that this business is worth checking out.  Positive word-of-mouth comments from your clients can help you gain more attention than anything else. When you answer questions on Google My Business, you can show that you’re knowledgeable and friendly – and that you love your community. 

Always respond professionally with your brand voice on both positive and negative reviews.

Bonus tip: The ideal moment to request a review is after you provide an excellent service for your customer. Always keep an eye out for new inquiries and respond as quickly as you can. Reducing the possibility of someone else providing a misleading response to the query. Therefore, you should actively answer these questions to feed a higher ranking signal to the Google algorithm.

4. Use Google posts to strengthen your GMB presence.

Google Posts are like a microblogging feature of the GMB listings. GMB Posts is a perfect tool for consistently sharing new, relevant, updated, and highly-targeted content. It offers opportunities for you to address your target audience effectively and will give you more organic engagement.

Usually, the clients that view your GMB Posts have a strong interest in making a purchase. As a result, the referral traffic that comes from your GMB listing is more significant than the traffic that comes from search results.

So, you need to use headlines and CTAs that are relevant to the content while keeping it brief and to the point. Moreover, all links on your GMB posts should only be relevant landing pages due to the negative impact they can cause on your web traffic.

5. Add ‘See Inside’ picture tour of your business.

Add photos. Photos are essential for any online presence. They’re important to GMB profiles because they are viewed in search results and can help drive organic traffic to the website. Plus, they’re more likely to get clicks than text-only listings.

For example, if you’re opening a new business or expanding an existing one, uploading photos showing what you do will help you stand out from competitors who don’t have them on their pages.

Bonus tip: Use photos that are professional, easy on the eye, and aren’t a low resolution.

Takeaway

Google My Business is an excellent resource for businesses looking to promote themselves. That’s why you also need to boost your Google My Business profile. If you don’t do this, you might lose the opportunity to get more business from the search engines.

Are you a local business owner and haven’t invested in Google My Business? Then, now is the time!  Let’s utilize Google My Business, a fantastic approach to growing your customer base. I hope you found this article helpful, and If you’re not sure how to boost your profile or where to start, reach out to us today!

About the Author

Janine Kelbach RNC-OB
Janine Kelbach RNC-OB

Janine is a Registered Nurse since 2006, specializing in labor and delivery. She still works at the bedside, as needed. She built Write RN back in 2015 when she started as a freelance writer.

Over the years, and many clients later, she studied marketing, grew her marketing skills, her portfolio (over 200+ pieces), and her business to the agency it is today.

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