Claiming and verifying your local business’s Google My Business (GMB) page is an important starting point in any local SEO approach. Creating a Google My Business account can improve your chances of appearing in Google’s Local Pack, Local Finder, Google Maps, and organic results in general. Qualifying local companies may claim this free Google listing and enter information about their business, such as their address, phone number, business hours, and payment methods accepted.

Many local companies just claim their GMB listing and then ignore it. What most companies don’t understand is that Google provides a range of different options that you can use to optimize your Google My Business page, and causes why you should check your business listing on a regular basis to ensure its authenticity stays unchanged.

Let’s read this article in detail to learn more.

Provide complete information that Google asks

Google My Business requires you to answer a number of questions in order to finish your profile. When finished, your listing will have valuable basic information that will make it easy for potential customers to learn more about your business. And if you don’t fill out the form, someone else will. Many company owners are unaware that anybody, even your competitors, may recommend a modification (or “update”) to your business listing.

When a searcher clicks on your GMB listing, they will receive the following option: “Suggest an edit”. When someone selects that option, they will be able to modify your Google My Business listing. These aren’t simply “recommended” edits; these user-generated changes might be placed live on your listing without your knowledge. This is just one of the many reasons why you should check your Google My Business dashboard on a regular basis to ensure that no one has made any unauthorized modifications to your listing.

Google My Business Posts

Google Posts are “sub” or “social media posts” that appear in Google search as part of your Google My Business page. To begin using posts, go to your GMB dashboard and look for the Posts option on the left-hand side. You can make your Google My Business Posts more interesting by adding a picture, a call-to-action, and even a link to another page or website.

Not sure what kind of post to write? Here are some post ideas:

  • If you’re hosting an event, create an event Post with additional information, then add a link to the registration page.
  • Do you have a sale going on at some time? Make a post for a “sale” event.
  • Is your most recent blog post great? Include a brief description and a link to the article on your blog.
  • Do you have a new product that you’d like to showcase? Display a picture of this cool device and a link to where people may buy it.
  • Do you want to share the festive cheer? Post a festive greeting to target users.

Booking Button Feature

Google’s Booking button feature will help your business stand out from the competition. People may now make an appointment with your business directly from your Google My Business page if you have any sort of business that relies on customers booking meetings and you use integrated scheduling software. This can make adding new clients much easier. They won’t have to leave Google to schedule a meeting with you. The booking button is automatically added to your Google My Business page if you have an account with one of Google’s authorized scheduling providers. If you use the booking providers, take advantage of this integrated Google My Business feature; it will make it very easy to attract new clients or customers.

Business Descriptions

Google My Business now allows business owners to provide a business description in their listing. Google made this news through Twitter recently, and company owners were happy. Google, as usual, has left us with some guidelines to follow: Guidelines for Google Business Descriptions. It is important that you follow these guidelines since Google does check your business Description.

Get more out of your GMB listing

Google is always monitoring the level of engagement that searchers and you, as the owner, have with your Google My Business listing. The more engagement you have, the greater your chances of ranking higher in the local three-pack and overall organic rankings. That implies you must continue to optimize your Google My Business listing. Plan on using new features as they become available to maintain your GMB listing completely optimized.

Besides, Google has also included a new notification that tells users who have opted in to get updates about newly posted media on their Google My Business Locations. Hope these features have given you a new reason to log in to your Google My Business account and get started.

Please contact us if you have any further queries regarding improving your GMB listing.