Have you ever wondered what customers find when they search for your business online? How quickly can they get your basic information, like your phone number, your address, your business hours or, nowadays, your COVID policies? This information needs to be readily available even before they reach your website.

Google My Business listings provide this critical business information right in the search engine result pages, and at no cost to you. But few companies are taking advantage of this platform due in large part to a lack of optimization know-how. 

According to Net Marketshare, approximately 80% of all searches happen on Google — that’s 3.5 billion searches per day. If you want to turn your Google My Business listing into a powerhouse lead-generating tool in 2021, read on!

1. First, you’ll need to create a Google My Business account in order to optimize your Google Business profile. To create one, go to Google.com/business, and use your business Gmail account to sign in. (Don’t use your personal email address.)

2. Fill each section, since Google ranks you higher in search results if your profile is complete. A complete profile also provides customers with a greater range of actions to take when they interact with your business. 

This is an instance when it can be useful to enlist the help of a digital marketing expert who can effectively craft content for the more challenging sections, like Products and Services, Category and Attributes, and Posts and Reviews (both owner-generated and consumer-generated queries).

3. Optimize the “From the Business” section. While Google generates a business description for you, this section is yours to create. If you don’t optimize your listing, you’re leaving money on the table, because the traffic will go to your fully optimized competitors. 

To optimize your listing:

• Utilize all characters
• Fill the first 250 characters with key details
• Insert keywords
• Avoid HTML and links

Note: your information should be exactly the same as what is currently listed on your website. Inconsistencies will negatively impact your search ranking.

4. Next, pick a category. This will increase your chances of appearing in discovery searches and will highlight category-specific features. Google offers an array of categories — more than 2,000. So take time to browse them and select the one that is most relevant and will help your customers find you. Be specific with your description and utilize secondary categories, but keep it simple.

5. Add photos to your profile in order to increase your ranking and visibility. When you regularly upload photos, you demonstrate that your business is active, and this adds to your ranking points. A word of caution: don’t add too many photos at one time, since Google considers it spamming. You could receive penalties.

And just so you know, a Synup study found that “listings with photos are two times as likely to be considered reputable and get 35% more clicks.”

The whole point of your Google My Business listing is to provide consumers with accurate information about your business so they can find you. A Google study found that “50% of consumers who conducted a local search on their smartphone visited a store within a day.”

The process to claim your business is simpler than you think, and the benefits make it well worth the effort. 

Want to unleash your company’s true potential using the latest digital technologies and marketing automation tools? Contact Big Chief Creative Media, and we’ll get started!