Google Business Profile Benefits to Local Businesses

A Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business) is a powerful tool for increasing your search rankings and customer engagement. If optimized well, the information on your Google Business Profile will become the first local business listing in search results.

And best of all, it is free and easy to set up. But to maximize your potential customer base, you need to know some tips and tricks for managing your profile. This will help you get the most out of your Google Business Profile benefits. We’ve put together a great guide highlighting some of the best Google Business Profile support and how to make the most of them.

Read on for more!

Table of Contents

What Is a Google Business Profile (Formely Google My Business)?

A Google Business Profile is a free Google business directory tool available to any enterprising and savvy business owner. It is designed to connect you to potential customers, similar to social media.

A list of businesses will appear whenever you search for a business in Google, whether it’s a local coffee shop or a plumber.

You will be able to see all the relevant information for these businesses: their phone number, email, opening hours, address, and more.

This information isn’t just plucked out of the sky. It has been uploaded by the business owner into their Google Business Profile. For customers to find you, you will need to create your own.

Alternatively, you can hire a local SEO agency to create and optimize yours to get the best results possible.

Why Is a Google Business Profile (GMB) Important?

You create an online business profile with a Google Business Profile (Google My Business). This profile links up with Google Maps and the Google search engine to push your business to the top of local searches.

Since almost half of all Google searches are looking for local results, a Google Business Profile has become a crucial tool for local marketing.

Besides search engine results, a Google Business Profile also gives you the tools to easily connect and interact with your customers. Calls, reviews, and messaging are just a click away, and you can even post promotional offers to bring in more sales.

There are even more Google Business Profile benefits if you dive deeper beyond creating a profile. If you want to make it to the coveted top 3 local listings in a search, you’ll need to stay on top of the following things.

Engagement Is Key

With how easy your Google Business Profile makes interacting with customers, there’s no excuse not to constantly engage with them.

Reviews are crucial to any business, and many businesses are happy just to let good reviews roll in and only respond to the bad. But if you respond to every review in a timely and polite manner, customers will take notice.

The more reviews you receive and respond to, the higher your listing will rank in those crucial local searches. Customers are more likely to leave a positive review if they see you as engaging and responsive.

Consistency is vital when it comes to engagement. A flurry of responses to reviews every few weeks isn’t going to build a relationship with your customers. It certainly won’t help boost your status with Google’s algorithms.

You need to respond as quickly – and as constructively – as possible to reviews. If a review is negative, never ignore it. Respond in a polite and professional way, with the promise of either a solution to their problem or the promise of action taken.

Responding to messages and incoming phone calls is also of utmost importance. Customer contact is tracked via My Business, so the more responsive you are, the higher your ranking will be in local searches. Google values reliability in its businesses. If you are committed and consistent, you will be rewarded by quickly climbing up the ranks.

Use The Analytics Tools

Many business owners make the mistake of listing on GBP and letting their profile sit. But a Google Business Profile benefits include powerful analytics tools that can help you boost your listing further.

The powerful analytics tool helps to target potential customers and fine-tune your business marketing.

For example, analytics will show you where driving direction searches originate from. This can show you new customer bases to market to, or even places for potential new locations.

Google Business Profile analytics will also show how your business ranks in searches that customers perform for specific keywords. This helps you fine-tune your SEO in your GBP description and website to boost your ranking.

Using a built-in analytics tool designed by Google for Google is the perfect way to measure your results. Finding those tricky long-tail keywords and boosting SEO scores has never been easier.

You can also see how many searches turned into conversions to your website, social media pages, or direct contact via phone, email, or messaging.

If your conversions are low, you can re-evaluate your Google Business Profile and tweak it to increase engagement with these potential customers.

Google Analytics is a powerful tool to pair with a Google Business Profile; its straightforward, easy-to-use interface makes ranking and SEO feel simple.

Take Control of Your Business Information

Your customer has seen your business listed on Google, loves the look of what you are offering, and is pleased by the abundance of good reviews.

They go to the contact information of your page, but it is out of date. They fail to reach you and take their business elsewhere.

Nothing puts a customer off more than encountering roadblocks in the buying process. If it becomes more effort than worth, they will soon stop bothering.

This is especially vital if you have specific opening times to stick to. You don’t want people turning up to an empty store because Google tells them it’s open. Updating your business information through your Google Business Profile will make you an accessible option to customers and help you avoid awkward situations.

Regularly updating your information has the added benefit of boosting your search ranking – more on that later.

The Importance of SEO

If you haven’t guessed already, fine-tuning your SEO regularly is key to getting the most out of Google Business Profile benefits. With good SEO, you will rise to the top of the pack.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is making your website or profile more visible to Google and other search engines so that you will rank higher in search results.

Google will rank your profile higher in their searches if you provide quality information and content. This is where SEO comes into play and why going above and beyond with your profile is crucial.

Your SEO can be evaluated using analytics tools. The analytic, data-driven stage is essential to any SEO strategy. Using Google Analytics, you can find out what people are searching for and what is working for your competitors: giving you everything you need to form your strategy and find those all-important keywords.

Make sure to improve your profile listing description and posts with high-value keywords that customers are searching for. Maintaining a blog can also increase your local SEO rankings.

Use High-Quality Photos

Providing high-quality photos is essential when you create a Google Business Profile.

Visuals draw the eye immediately and will be the first thing a potential customer notices on your listing. Your business is less likely to be trusted if the images look unprofessional and blurry.

Having no photos at all is arguably worse than including poor-quality images. Customers are two times as likely to consider a business reputable if it has photos on the listing. It gives your business an air of authenticity online and helps drive conversions.

Select a handful of professional, well-lit images that best represent your business, and upload them to your Google Business Profile. They could be the difference between a listing that draws an audience and an ignored one.

Write a Business Description

Trying to simultaneously sum up your business and attract customers simultaneously can be intimidating.

It’s a difficult task at the best of times. In only 750 characters, it can feel overwhelming.

Many businesses ignore the description when they create their business profile on Google for this reason (or because they deem it irrelevant).

But you shouldn’t – it’s a vital tool for both explaining what exactly it is that you offer and ranking high on search results.

Your business description is the perfect place to add a personal touch that directly appeals to customers. It’s also a fantastic opportunity to fill in some SEO-friendly keywords. Including keywords that focus on the local area is particularly worthwhile, as 64% of consumers use Google Business Profiles to find information on local businesses.

While you will have 750 characters, only the first 250 will be displayed in the knowledge panel. Consumers should understand what the business offers from the first sentence, as it is often the only one that is read.

Verify Your Business

Verifying your profile will improve your ranking on search engines and establish the authenticity of your business.

While setting up your Google Business Profile, you will be asked to verify your business. It’s usually only a part of the account creation process but can be required again if any significant changes occur on the profile.

By verifying your business, you are highlighting to customers that you are an authentic establishment they can trust. The verified business also appears to appease Google’s algorithms, which tend to rank higher.

What Percentage of People Use Google Business Profiles (Google My Business)?

One survey found that 64% of consumers use Google Business Profiles to find information on local businesses. It was especially useful for finding the business’ contact details.

Set Up a Q&A Section

Open up a questions and answers section of your Google Business Profile, inviting people to submit queries about your business listing.

Anyone can submit a question, whether they’re another business owner or a general web user. Answering these questions allows you to interact with the community, build trust, and increase engagement.

Checking for new questions regularly and responding as quickly as possible is the best practice for maintaining a high position on Google’s search results. It also ensures you are the first to respond to a query: preventing someone else from responding with false information.

The Art of Crafting Your Profile

An essential part of engagement via Google Business Profile is maintaining a consistent posting schedule on your profile.

Update your profile regularly with product photos, videos, informative posts, and promotional offers. This is an excellent way to boost your ranking with Google, attract customer attention, and increase foot traffic.

Posts and offers on GBP usually expire after seven days. Ensure you are consistently updating these to increase your engagement and visibility.

Maintaining and cultivating your brand via your Google Business Profile also helps to tell your customers a story. When people perform a Google search, they will feel more confident about visiting if they know what to expect beforehand.

Make sure to use all of the Google Business Profile benefits on your profile. These include payment options, hours, locations, prices, and products you offer. These will also help boost your ranking in local searches.

Long story short, customers are looking for a business that cares about how they are perceived. Maintaining and updating your Google Business Profile daily not only helps increase your ranking but also increases your appeal to potential customers.

Is a Google Business Profile (Google My Business) Worth It?

With 64% of consumers finding local businesses through their Google Business Profile, it is worth it for businesses that rely on in-person purchases. Neglecting your Google Business Profile could leave you falling behind competitors, while optimizing well would potentially put you at the top of the search results.

Hiring Marketing Professionals

If all of this seems like a lot to worry about on top of running your business, don’t fret! We offer top-notch services across the board that will allow you to maximize your Google Business Profile benefits.

Please request a free consultation if you are looking for Google Business Profile support or other digital marketing help. We specialize in many digital marketing areas and have a personalized solution for your business needs!

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