At the time of writing this post, 64% consumers use Google My Business to dig up contact details for local businesses. Considering that statistics are like bikinis — since what they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is often vital — that’s quite a lot! 

Think of it. Most prospects don’t seek contact details unless they’re ready to purchase, which makes them pretty much hot leads! This means Google Business Profile (formerly known as “Google My Business”) isn’t a nice-to-have but a need-to-have asset for businesses looking to stay relevant and forge light-years ahead of their competition. 

Like us, if you run a digital marketing agency, then you probably know that a large chunk of the customers looking to hire your digital marketing services is online. The stats back this up: 97% of people learn about your local business online than on any other marketing channel or brand touchpoint. 

As a business, you likely operate out of a brick-and-mortar store. Your sales process may be in person, by phone, or via mail. But if you’re without an online platform that puts you in front of a digital-first customer base, you end up missing out on sales. 

As such, you must look to gain online visibility via Google Search (via Local Search Engine Optimization efforts), Google Maps (if you operate out of a physical location), or Google +. Google My Business is the ticket to online visibility for your brand. It’s easy to execute, and is doesn’t cause a dent on your wallet to create one as it’s 100% free.

Why Google?

Talk about a search engine, and the name on everyone’s lips is Google. With over 90% search engine market share, the upward trend is looking to continue, especially as 91% adults use search engines to get information. 

With around 5 billion searches per day, an eye-popping 46% of inquiries have local intent. In other words, when people make a google search, they’re searching for stuff within their local area. 

So, if people are more likely to buy products and services around them, business owners have to drill down on visibility, and accessiblility. Google My Business offers both in one set-and-forget move that pitches your products and services without having to crank out ads, or fork out more in marketing spend. 

Besides increasing your brand authority, and appeal, you’re able to take your replationships with customers up a notch by delighting them with better support, which improves customer experience. You’re also able to beat your competition to a wider clientele at a zero customer acquisition cost. 

The Google Business Profile tool works for businesses of all sizes. It offers a level playing field for startups, small businesses, and large-scale businesses. All you need to do is to create an online profile [for free] that lets people know that you exist and are worth doing business with. 

Why Google My Business is Important

Google has become the first stop for reliable information for anyone with a mobile device and an internet connection. Wanna learn something? Google is your friend. Need a new pair of shoes? You’re only one Google search away from a vendor in your location. The same is true if you’ve got a serious hankering for lunch, pulling out your phones to tap in the keywords, “restaurants near me.”

Everyone is following this simple routine to find gyms, laundry shops, shopping malls, schools, and cheap hotels. But, flip the coin for a moment. Instead of being the one searching, how about being the one being looked up? Imagine someone looking for the best barbershops in a 5-mile radius, and yours shows up!

The benefits are endless, but across the board, here’re a few reasons why Google My Business remains an absolute must:

Show up in Google Maps, Google 3-Local Pack Listings, and Google Searches

Google My Business indexes whatever content you input across Google local 3-pack listings, Google Maps, and Google Search, so your information is consistent across these channels.  

The Google 3-Local Pack is a map listing that Google presents to customers as the top three businesses it considers most relevant to their search and the location they are searching from — in order of their quality. 

This list also displays relevant information about your business, including business contact number, open hours, star ratings (or reviews), and location on the map. It comes in handy for both customers and your business. 

Moz credits Google Business Profiles with being the biggest ranking factor for Google’s 3-Local Pack. As such, to connect to an audience that’s likely to patronize your business — those in your service area — you need to verify, update, and optimize your online information via Google Business Profile. 

Customer reviews & engagement

A key driver of brand credibility and online reputation, customer reviews are critical to your search engine optimization efforts as it helps you climb up the search results ladder. One Moz study shows that online reviews make up 10 percent of factors considered in search engine rankings.

With Google My Business, customers can leave positive feedback, nudging other customers to do business with you. When it comes to reliability, reviews’re the next best thing to word-of-mouth recommendations which are the most effective form of marketing. 

On the flipside, customer reviews serve as a warning to potential customers, and you can expect that not each customer will be delighted by your customer experience. Google My Business can also be an opportunity to leverage negative, constructive feedback to improve your product, provide more information about why their experience wasn’t optimal (where necessary) and rejuvenate your brand reputation. 

Ultimately, the more you delight customers with positive experiences, the more the leads (and ultimately, sales) troop in, and the higher your bottomline. 

Useful insights for business growth 

Google My Business drives value for Google rankings as it helps you understand your audience and keep an eye out on your local search performance better as you promote your product or service. With Google My Business, you get insights into critical areas that inform your marketing strategy and overall decision-making.

The insights tool gives you access to performance indicators, statistics, and analytics to show you which channels or touchpoints are leading your customers to your business. (whether Google Maps, or Google Search) This alone will help you to tweak your marketing campaigns to drill down on these channels for maximum results.

Would you like to learn how consumers find your business? Google My Business’s report shows you keywords people are searching for online to find your listing. Knowing the keywords that support your online presence means you can significantly boost traffic with search engine optimization efforts in your online content.

Then, when people interact with your posts, you want to know precisely what they do. For instance, what posts are they sharing? What types of comments do they leave? This helps you to know the type of content that support your business to grow. 

Using Google My Business, you can tell how many views and what measure of engagement your Google My Business, posts, photos, and tools are getting. It’s a helpful way to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns. You’re also able to track clicks from your Google My Business using Google Analytics and UTM parameters. 

Those who follow you are crucial for an effective online strategy. Google My Business summarizes the profile of people following. Age group, gender, and country are some of the available categories that can help you build better ad campaigns.

Supercharge your Local SEO

Much like how Google ranks websites and ads based on search engine optimization efforts, it also ranks business profiles. Your Google My Business dashboard offers you a shot at harnessing SEO strategy by inserting keywords into your business profile to help you rank in local search results. 

As you can see in the image below, the sweet spot for any business will be the highly coveted 3-pack: (think of it as the equivalent of your website or ad being on the first page of Google SERPs) 

How Much Does Google My Business Cost?

Google has specified who can create a GMB account. Your business qualifies if you fulfill either of these conditions:

• Your business has a physical location that customers can visit; or
• Your business travels to meet customers.

Like the best things in life, GMB is free. Once you create your Google Business Profile account, you can connect with customers across all Google platforms.

Getting Your Customers to Engage with Your Brand through GMB

Since the quality of information users provide to Google determines how much users trust the platform, you need to only include content and activities the platform supports, be precise when providing your business address and/or service area, ensure your branding is consistent across platforms, and be clear and concise when describing your business.

In building brand authority using Google Business Listing, you must keep your digital marketing services information detailed and comprehensive. Make sure you include the following core business information:

• Name
• Website URL
• Physical Address
• Contact Telephone Number
• Category
• Attributes
• Description of Business

These pieces of data are important for Google Search and Google Maps to index and begin to ascribe local search engine optimization points to your business. Note that if your company information doesn’t align with what you’ve listed on your website, it could negatively impact your search ranking.

Start winning with Google My Business today

An increasingly potent way to boost online visibility while you harness local SEO, GMB can be your ticket to proactively managing your online reputation as you upscale your local marketing. But, for the average business owner, it can be a lot to manage — kinda like juggling balls — and this is where you need a competent digital marketing agency. 

Need help? We’ll partner with you in your quest to maximize local online visibility and smash local competition using the right optimization strategy and a time-tested blueprint for achieving proven results!