Google My Business

About

Google my business is a free tool, which is very useful for small business and organizations to list their online presence across Google. It is an updated version of Google places for business. It has transformed the world of local search. Google by integrating Google my business with Google plus platform has allowed small business and organizations to manage their information at one place in search and maps. As Google dominating the online search it is very useful and important to list your business in the Google my business.

 

With local search results, google will show the local business in that area which is known as local pack. Through this search results the customers will see things like your address, phone number, reviews, working hours, website, and even engage with customers who leave a review. The reviews helps a lot, not only it allows for a higher click-through rate but they also help your business to rank in the first place of local pack.

What exactly does it do ?

• Manages your information

It helps users to find about your business or the products and services you offer when they search over google. Businesses that are verified by Google My Business are trusted by consumers and when it appears in Google search and maps , you need to list all of your information like open hours, address, website and phone number in order to get potential customers.

• Interact with customers

It is very important to interact with the customers. Read and respond to the reviews of your customer whether it’s good or bad. According to a survey 85% of consumers trust online reviews and take it as a personal advice. You shouldn’t worry about bad reviews as it gives a opportunity to improve your brand and customer service.

• Understand and expand your presence

It is important to understand how people are interacting with your business. The insight section gives a detailed analysis of Visibility, Engagement and Audience. See insights on how audience looked for your business, click through rate, call you or ask for directions as well as the information on audience is broken down into categories like gender, country etc. And if you think you are ready , go for AdWords campaigns to spread the word about your work and expand your business.

How to manage a Google My Business Page

With the launch of Google My Business it solves the problem of managing your Google presence across different platform like Google search, Google Maps and Google+. According to Google, it helped small businesses to connect with their customers by organising all their business information and managing them at one place. But, by merely opening an account doesn’t count to success,  you need to manage a Google my business page for a greater return. Some of the ways to do it are listed below :

• The important tool is to have a great content strategy.  Having a unique and interesting content gives your existing and potential customers an amazing experience.
• Read and Respond to reviews at a proper time. Use the reviews tool to track your business review and check the ratings of your business over a specific period of time.
• Google My Business offers a lot of tools, exploit all the features and get the best of results. Using Hangouts chat live with customers , create photo albums for your products, services, customers or staffs.
• Increase the visibility and engagement of your brand by monitoring the Insights. It gives a useful data on how users find about your business, interact with your content, website visits , click through rate and other important stuffs.

Keys to Success

While understanding of Google My Business for the amazing benefits is important, make sure to follow the limitations which will guide you to build the success roadmap. The following points should be noted while listing in Google My Business.

• For communication purpose it’s important to have a physical or mailing address for mail to be sent. For Home or mobile businesses you need to specify physical address or a home address , which you can hide later and specify your service area.
• Opening an account in Google My Business is free. It doesn’t charge you for listing your business in natural search results. But you can use Google AdWords for paid advertising in order to expand your business.
• Go through Google’s Quality Guidelines properly in order to list your business. Failing so will prevent your business location from being approved and appearing in Google.
• It is best suited to attract the local audience and increase the visibility and awareness of your brand.

Final Note :

Yeah it’s a big yes and highly recommended for all kind of businesses. As Google being the king of search and Google My Business merges Search, Maps and Google+ in a single platform, it is highly productive. The small businesses make the most of it by listing their identity and spreading the word of their existence in their locality.

If you have any comments or suggestions i am open to it, leave them below in the comment section!!

Thanks.