A Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business) creates your unique listing on Google Search and Google Maps. This increases visibility and allows you to turn potential visitors on search and maps into actual customers. This Business Profile is important for small and new businesses to provide the right and useful information about their shops, products, and services to attract more local, national, and even international customers.
Google My Business is now Google Business Profile:
Earlier, just creating a Business Profile didn’t give you management control over it. To manage and edit your Business Profile so that it works as an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and generates leads for your business, you were required to create a free Google My Business (GMB) account separately for that profile. But in recent changes, Google My Business is changed to Google Business Profile and from now onwards you can do all the management and customization to your account through a single Business Profile. This, as Google had said is for easing the activities of Business owners.
What is Google Business Profile:
For your information, Google is the world’s most-visited website. The site currently has greater than 92% of the search engine market share. And thus, it is important to create a Google Business Profile for improving your business and to gain new customers through Google Search and Maps. Google Business Profile is a completely free Google business listing. It allows you to provide information details, and relevant photos of your products and services, including the location of your store or office. Creating a free, verified profile is an effective way to enhance visibility across the Google services such as Google Search, Google Maps, and Google Shopping. However, The Google Business Profile is available only for businesses that establish contact with customers. This means businesses with a physical location (like a restaurant or shop) and businesses that provide services by engaging with clients in other locations (like consultants or plumbers). If you are someone with an online-only business, you’ll have to use other Google tools like Google Ads and Google Analytics to improve your business.
How Google Business Profile can elevate Small Businesses to newer heights:
You can use the Google Business account in a myriad of ways to get more customers, increase value among them and grow your business leaps and bounds. Some of the best ways to use this Profile are as follows:
- Stand out from the Crowd: By creating this free business listing you can turn people who find your store or service area on Google Search and Maps into new customers. The process of creating the Google Business profile is easy and you can manage it from Google Search and Maps comfortably. You can also personalize your account by adding photos, hours of service, relevant posts, and more to engage with customers effectively and thus give a unique touch to your existing local home-based business or full-time small business.
- Highlight your Business and Create a lasting First impression: Through your Google Business Profile, you can highlight your business’ personality with photos, cover images, and your logo to create an appeal among the masses. You can also provide additional information about your business (stores, restaurants, or service providers) for customers’ convenience like:
- Contact number
- Location of your store, restaurant, etc.
- Operating hours (opening and closing time)
- Health and safety measures put in place at your place and in your service
- Shopping options like store pickup, home delivery, etc.
- Ordering options and reservations for restaurants.
- A link to access your website
- Attractive products, dishes, and services with their pricing.
- Unique features (women-owned business or catering to old age, etc.),
and such other details that give your business an extra edge. All these details should be visible in your SERP (Search Engine Results Page). You can also give updates and make other editing hassle-free with the same Business Profile.
- Connect and Engage with Customers easily: There are various ways in which consumers would like to interact with your Profile and you can establish that communication easily through your Google Business account. Some of the common modes of interacting with customers are given below:
- Create relevant posts, and share your special offers and events. By updating these things regularly, you can keep the customers on track.
- Respond to reviews given by the public as this will help improve your ratings and build trust with new and regular customers.
- A message with customers directly or through automated responses to give them real-time information.
- Post answers to FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), this not only lists important business information on top but also saves time for other customers. You can also let your customers answer the FAQs, this brings in more credibility.
- Gain insights into your Business: You can use the Google Business Profile dashboard to know the keywords which customers are using to find your Business Profile and gain key insights on calls, reviews, booking, etc. to understand how your business is engaging with people.In the analytics tab of the platform, you can know whether your audience found you on Google Maps or Google Search, a simpler analysis of actions taken on your listings, and how your photos are performing compared to other profiles in your business category. You can also use UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) code by attaching it with any URL to generate Google Analytics data and track the performance of your digital marketing campaign.
- Use Google Business Profile for SEO (Search Engine Optimization): As the Google algorithms rank ads and websites, similarly it also ranks the Business Profiles. Through your Google Business Profile, you can incorporate keywords into your business profile and perform other optimizations to help it rank up in the local results.Make sure to incorporate relevant keywords into your business account so you can tell Google what you’re intending to rank for. Use them in your description, in your responses to reviews, in your answers to the questions, and in the posts, you create and publish. Make sure to include them organically just as you would do in any other SEO strategy. A comprehensive and accurate description of your Business listing impacts its rank, thus make sure to provide the requested information in every section of your Google Business Profile dashboard. Most important in this context are your contact information, special hours, and special attributes. The final step to using Google Business Profile for SEO appeals to the trust component of Google’s algorithm. Keep your information verified and updated as your business grows. Keep a steady inflow of reviews coming in and respond to them frequently. Also, signal to Google that you are quite active by regularly uploading photos and publishing posts on your Business Profile. So, act now and create your free Business Profile to reach a wider customer base. Personalize your account by adding location, hours, photos, and other details to get noticed by customers near you, and finally manage your profile by sharing updates, responding to reviews, and connecting with more and more customers to grow your business to greater heights.
