Google My Business

By adminApril 14, 20206 Minutes

Local SEO via Google My Business

Why you need a Google My Business account

For those of you who’ve never heard of Google My Business (GMB for short), it’s a free easy-to-use tool that allows businesses with physical retail locations to manage how they appear on Google Search and Maps.

GMB doesn’t just make it easier for customers to find you physically, but digitally too. It can vastly improve your search visibility in Google.

Not to mention, when prospective customers are looking for local businesses, they are generally ready to make a purchase (or at the very least are highly interested in making a purchase).
Folks don’t Google, “delicious street kebabs in Manchester” to read a blog about kebabs… they do so because they’re hungry and want to hand over their hard-earned money to whoever has delicious street kebabs in Manchester.

1. Set up a new Google Account
Or access your Google My Business login, if you have one.

2. Head to google.com/business
And click ‘Manage Now’.

3. Enter your business name
If you have the same name as another business in your region, you’ll see the autocomplete function suggest those businesses for you. This is to allow you to see if your business listing already exists (to avoid accidental duplication), and to add a new GMB profile to an existing business if you’ve just opened a new location.

4. Enter the address of the business location
(Only if this is where your business engages in face-to-face interactions with customers).

If you’re a Service Area Business that delivers goods and services to your customers, you’ll need to tick the box at the bottom of this form. SABs have two options here:
• If you can receive customers at your business address, enter your address here, tick the box and click ‘Next’.
• If you don’t have any premises where customers can visit you, leave the address field blank, tick the box and then tick the ‘Hide my address (it’s not a store)’ box that appears below.
All businesses that deliver goods and services directly to their customers will have the option to specify a Service Area in the next step.

5. Specify service areas (Service Area Businesses only).
Before you can choose your business category, you’ll need to specify the areas you serve, so that Google can accurately surface your business for searches in those areas, even without a physical address. Enter one or more regions, cities, or ZIP codes that your business serves.

6. Choose your business category.

This is a very important field that will not only strongly influence the kinds of search terms you appear in Google for, but also appear within your Google My Business profile. It’s also something worth testing when you come to update your Google business listing.

7. Add a contact phone number and website URL.
Neither is compulsory but are strongly recommended if you want to take advantage of GMB functionalities like call tracking. If you ever need to change this when updating your Google business listing, be sure to make those changes to all other business listings, too.

8. Complete your Google My Business Verification.
Google obviously needs to be able to prove that your business is where you say it is,

Once you have an officially verified listing, it’s time to optimize your Google My Business!
Now you can:

Add photos and videos to your listing
Write and optimize a compelling business description
Use Google My Business Q&As to understand your audience
Create Google My Business Posts to showcase offers and promotions
Add service menus and product collections
Encourage your most loyal customers to ‘Follow’ you on Google Maps
Start requesting and managing Google Reviews

Use the Google My Business app to:

Update your business hours, location, contact information, and description
Post statuses and pictures
View search insights

Delve into and make use of Google My Business Insights, to learn things like:

How many people visit your website
How many people searched for driving directions
How many people called you
How many people viewed photos of your business