Google developed GMB(Google My Business) to make it simpler for online users to get information. Google my business is a free tool that allows entrepreneurs to manage their digital presence without doing any extra work on their website.
Learning how to optimize GMB is the first step to ensuring your potential customers and business partners can find your company quickly and conveniently online.
You can display and update your company details with ease, including your location, phone number, website link, and promotional assets through Google My Business. You can ensure the accuracy of your business data and keep a consistent brand image on search engines.
In this post, we discuss and discover more about how Google My Business SEO can improve your local search visibility and increase your sales. Move your prospects and leads down the sales funnel with Google My Business optimization.
How Important Is Google My Business Optimization?
Economic insecurity calls for a more proactive approach to business marketing which means establishing a robust digital presence and maintaining customer relationships.
GMB optimization service allows you to-
- Rank high on search results and boost your local presence.
- Strengthen your online reputation and earn consumer trust.
- Build your brand authority to engage with customers.
- Provide accurate information to online users and attract attention to your brand.
- Drive quality leads and traffic to your website.
- Maximize your chances of appearing on Google’s Local 3-Pack
Google My Business SEO is crucial to your digital success, whether you’re managing a traditional brick-and-mortar store or an eCommerce website.
How To Optimize Google My Business: Your Step-By-Step Guide To GMB SEO?
Google My Business optimization allows you to highlight your business on relevant search results, attract high-intent customers, and increase your brand recognition. It creates a valuable impact on your local SEO efforts.
Learn how to optimize images for Google My Business, showcase your unique value proposition, write compelling GMB descriptions. Follow these steps to optimize your GMB listings.
1. Complete your business information
You must ensure online users can find the information they need when they arrive on your GMB page. Your GMB profile serves as one of your primary customer touchpoints. With the help, you can encourage your online users to take the desired action, whether it is to visit your storefront, make a phone call or explore your social media channels.
A comprehensive business profile includes your:
- Company name and contact number
- Location
- Website link
- Business category and description
- Link to Google Maps
- Working hours
- Q&A
- Company photos
- Customer reviews and ratings
- Related searches and among others
PRO TIP: Your target audiences must be able to tell that your business profile is 100 percent legit and accurate. Ensure your contact details and other brand information are consistent with your website content.
2. Use a local number
Customers who couldn’t find your phone number online are likely to move on to your competition. Don’t let this be the case for your company. Your business’ primary contact number plays a crucial role in lead acquisition and conversion.
Make your brand more trustworthy by placing a local number on your Google My Business profile. It also simplifies the call process, potentially increasing your phone calls and conversions over time. It demonstrates that your business welcomes customer interaction.
PRO TIP: Do not provide a contact number that redirects customers to other phone numbers or landing pages. In this way, you can avoid Google penalties and prevent customers from dropping the call. Use a local phone number under your business’ direct control and ensure it is displayed on the landing page linked to your GMB listing.
3. Maximize GMB call tracking features
By adding a GMB call tracking number, Google allows you to access accurate call metrics without affecting your name, address and phone number (NPA) consistency. Call tracking features to permit managing dropped calls, listening to recorded calls, assessing the quality of leads generated, and tracking call volume.
You can include your primary phone number and place two additional phone numbers under the phone number section.
Follow these simple steps to add your GMB call tracking number:
- Add your call tracking number to the primary phone field
- Place your main business line in the additional phone field
Using your main business line as an additional phone number ensures your primary contact number stays connected to all your other business listings across Google My Business and the Local Search Ecosystem.
PRO TIP: Leverage the personal-level data you acquire from GMB- oriented phone calls, such as call recordings and durations, to explore your lead and conversion opportunities. You can improve your SEO rankings and pay-per-click(PPC) marketing campaigns.
4. Choose a specific business category
Selecting the right primary and secondary GMB categories helps ensure your business shows up on relevant search results and it is one of the most significant factors in local search algorithms.
There are more than 3,900 GMB categories available. The lower the competition and the higher the chances of landing at the top of Google search results.
Choose the nearest possible category to your business type because you can’t create your category. If there’s no specific category that describes your area of expertise, settle on a more general classification.
PRO TIP: Choose a category that describes your business and not your services or products. Use the right tools to determine related groups based on what your competitors are using. Don’t guess.
You can select one primary category and up to 10 secondary categories, we recommend that you stick to a few specific, highly-relevant classifications.
5. Write a comprehensive, engaging GMB description
GMB allows potential customers to determine whether your company provides the solutions they need. Once you’ve got your GMB listing up to speed, the next step is to fill in your business description, it is a field where you can share useful information about your brand.
Here are some guidelines in writing a comprehensive business description:
Do’s:
- Use 1-2 high-value keywords
- Highlight your unique selling points (USPs)
- Spark curiosity
- Talk briefly about your customer approach and unique strategies
- Utilize descriptors (i.e., personalized, trustworthy, all-inclusive, etc.) throughout the content
Don’ts:
- Provide misleading information, Use all caps
- Spamming
- Keyword stuffing
- Include links or URLs
- Write prohibited content (i.e., hateful, profane, sexually explicit, or anything offensive in nature)
- Incorporate sales pitches or offers
PRO TIP:
You need to ensure your business description effectively conveys your brand message. Talk about your mission and goals, main brand offerings, and unique value propositions because GMB descriptions have a 750-character limit.
6. Upload high-resolution images
Photos improve the performance of your GMB listings. So you need to ensure that everything –from the format and image quality to alt tags– is SEO-optimized.
How to optimize images for Google My Business is a common question among marketers. Now, uploading photos on GMB entails more than selecting professional images.
The most important images on your GMB page are your brand logo and cover photo. You can also place additional photos, such as images that show your staff in action, storefront, and other features that highlight your USPs. Use the same image on your website to build customer trust and increase your brand awareness.
Keep in mind the following guidelines :
IMAGES
- Format: JPEG or PNG
- Size: 10KB to 5MB
- Minimum Resolution: 720 x 720 pixel
VIDEOS
- Duration: Up to 30 seconds long
- File Size: up to 100 MB
- Resolution: 720p or higher
PRO TIP:
Ensure your uploaded images have proper keywords, have no alterations, or excessive filters. Rename each photo with a specific description. For example, thrive_camp_2020. Don’t use generic file names like IMG_123.
Here are some tips to boost your GMB visibility:
- Ensure photos are properly cropped
- Optimize metadata before uploading
- Avoid using stock photos
7. Post relevant content on your GMB posts section
There is a post section to share your news updates, promote your special deals, or showcase your products and this is a fantastic way to boost your local search visibility.
There are five post types available:
❑ What’s New – This type serves as a microblog post where you can share relevant blog posts, business updates, customer reviews, or testimonials. You can choose to upload a 30-second video or GIF, up to 10 images, and every new post has a 1,500 character limit. Engage the readers and explain your latest offerings thoroughly to maximize this opportunity.
❑ Products — Highlight your latest brand offerings and position your best products in front of your target customers. You may include a price range, a fixed price, or even leave the area blank.
❑ Offers — Use discounts and sales to promote your unique offerings. Offer posts include a bright yellow tag, promo validity, and coupon codes to draw attention to your offers.
❑ Welcome Offer — Welcome Offer posts are only visible to people who follow your business and were released to allow businesses to convert followers into customers in the Google Maps app. You can also promote exclusive offers and freebies to your followers.
❑ Events — This is used as a promotional tool where you can post details about your latest conference, webinar, or any type of event you are hosting, be sure to add the correct event schedule (start/end date and time). Remember, the 58-character limit for the title and 1,500-character limit for the event post.
PRO TIP: Don’t forget to add CTA(call-to-action) buttons on your Google My Business posts, so online users can easily navigate your content.
8. Monitor your GMB Q&A section
The Google Q&A section is designed to allow customers to interact with brands, voice out their concerns, to amplify their local exposure, and build out your GMB profile.
PRO TIP: Provide useful, accurate insights and respond to all questions and concerns politely and professionally.
9. Generate positive Google reviews
Google reviews and ratings boost your brand authenticity and strengthen your online credibility, they are the backbone of local SEO. They speak volumes of the quality of your service and customer support.
To improve your GMB SEO, you need to ramp up your review generation and review response publishing practices.
PRO TIP: A review monitoring tool is one of the best ways to reach out to your best customers and encourage them to leave positive remarks on your GMB profile. Use reputation management software to streamline your review generation and review monitoring.
It is your responsibility to respond to positive and negative customer feedback. In this way, you show both search engines and online users that you prioritize brand experience.
10. Add links to your social media profiles
GMB allows you to attract leads, traffic, new customers to your social media profiles, and establish your credibility not only to your website but also to your social media accounts.
PRO TIP: Ensure your business information is consistent throughout your GMB profile, website, social media accounts, and always keep your social media pages up-to-date.
11. Avoid Google penalties
Google penalties may result in account suspension and removal of all your business information from search results because Google does not tolerate fraudulent activities.
Steer clear of:
- Using misleading redirects and multiple local listings for the same location.
- Keyword stuffing on your name field and GMB posts.
PRO TIP: Follow Google’s guidelines for GMB listings and stick to white-hat SEO strategies at all times.
12. Optimize your website for search engines
Google My Business is designed to guide your customers’ online journey and point them to your website. This is wrong to make the mistake of prioritizing GMB optimization over their website.
GMB and website optimization should both be well-optimized for search engines and online users to attract high-quality traffic. You need to maintain the balance between both platforms.
PRO TIP: Incorporate relevant keywords on your title tags, on your website, page content, meta descriptions, add structured data to your website, and ensure your website copies are geo-modified.
13. Update your business information regularly
You need to maintain the consistency and accuracy of your business information because every time you change something on your website or social media pages, it is reflected on your GMB page. This is one of the most crucial aspects of the ongoing GMB service.
PRO TIP: Inaccurate business information drives customers away and automatically results in lost profit so build and implement a standard way of writing your NAP.
To sum up, optimising Google My Business listing is an important step in making sure that potential customers may find your business when they conduct a Google search for items or services like the ones you offer.
If you want to rank higher on Google and have more people choose your business over the competition, you need to provide accurate and extensive information, post high-quality photographs, and encourage customers to submit reviews. In addition, you can increase your listing’s trustworthiness and credibility by replying to consumer feedback and maintaining its accuracy.
Overall, the rewards far outweigh the time and work required to optimise your Google My Business listing.
Making it simple for people to find your business on Google will raise your internet visibility, customer base, and revenue. If you want to grow your business’s good name, you need to keep your listing up-to-date, and you need to interact with customers.
