In a world where technology runs things, being left behind is the last thing you want, especially if you’re an entrepreneur. Investing in internet marketing is one of the best ways to promote your business and sell it to a larger audience within your local area as well as beyond the borders. Internet marketing is a broad term that refers to a myriad of technologies, tactics, and strategies used to promote a brand or business, its services or products. Some of these strategies may include website marketing, content marketing, video advertising, app marketing, email marketing, social media advertising, search engine optimization and much more. But then again, most of these tactics require a substantial amount of money, time, and effort before they can start delivering the desired results for your business.
But the best thing about today’s world of internet marketing is that free tools that you can utilize to improve your business’ exposure online are also available. And if you guessed right, one of the best free internet marketing tools is Google My Business, about which you can find more info here in a comprehensive Guide by Ardent Growth! From the guide, you’ll discover plenty about GMB, including what it is, its importance for businesses, and how to create your profile, among other things. Alongside this, it would also be worth researching problem-solving for google, queries such as how to fix a Google profile suspension are great to know. Apart from the fact that it’s free, GMB comes with a plethora of benefits for businesses, including the following:
But amidst all these benefits, how well your GMB profile works for you will depend on how optimized it is. And the big question is, how exactly can you curate your Google My Business profile to work best for your business? In this article, we’ll be highlighting 7 simple (yet effective) ways to optimize your Google My Business listing, assuming that you already have one.
When setting up a GMB profile, Google asks you for basic information and details about your business. This may include information like your name/business name, telephone contact, location, and address. You may already know this, but this information will be critical to your business as it’s what they’ll use to find you or your business. Be clear and concise when providing this information and always keep it consistent and up to date in case something changes, say when you move to a different location or open up a new branch of your physical store/shop. It is also of crucial importance to your local SEO, which means that it can affect your ranks on search engines.
These days, Google My Business also allows you to provide a description of your business, which carries 750 characters in total, and only a third of it is displayed on search. To get the most out of your GMB listing, provide a professional description that preferably carries the right keywords in the first sentences, as well as your city name and the services or products you’re offering. You’ll also want to familiarize yourself with GMB descriptions guidelines to be on the right side of Google.
Similar to social media posts and mini ads, Google posts, can be a great way to optimize your GMB listings and improve your online marketing campaign. These are the posts that show up on Google Maps on the GMB Knowledge panel after a search relating closely to your business is performed on Google. The Posts option is located on the left-hand side of your GMB dashboard, and you can use it to advertise your offers, upcoming events, latest blog posts, or anything that your audience would be interested in. The best part is that you can use appealing images to make it more attention-grabbing. You can also add CTAs and URLs to pages your audience would want to visit. Used well, Google posts can easily make your GMB listing to stand out!
Now, research shows that a larger portion of consumers and online shoppers trust online reviews, almost in a similar capacity to how they’d trust personal recommendations. Apart from influencing consumer trust, online reviews are also helpful in improving search rankings as well as click-through rates. Appearing on the knowledge panel of your Google My Business listing, asking for reviews from your audience can be a great way to optimize your profile and make it stand out from the rest of the crowd.
Nothing is more important than engagement and communication when it comes to marketing your business online. Luckily, Google My Business has a feature that improves business-consumer engagement… GMB Messaging. Yes, customers can now send text messages to your mobile number through your GMB listing.
Did we not mention images somewhere in the previous paragraphs? Well, according to research, nothing is more capable of grabbing people’s attention that the use of stunning images and videos. And if you guessed right, you can use images and videos to optimize your GMB profile too! You just have to make sure you post the best quality, size, and resolution.
Another effective tactic you can use to optimize your GMB listing is to track its impact on your business. “But how exactly do you do this?” some may ask. Well, Google My Business Insights can provide you with lots of information about your business and its customers, including how most people find your business, how they find your listing, the actions they take when they view your listing, your customers’ demographic information, the number of calls they make to your business and much more. All this is information you can use to improve your listing and make your message reach out to even more prospects through today’s dominating search engine.
As we’ve seen, Google My Business can take your venture to a whole new level as an entrepreneur. It is especially effective in boosting your business’ outreach in your local area, with the possibility of attracting customers from beyond the local boundaries and abroad as well. With the above tips for optimizing your Google My Business listing, it shouldn’t be so hard to soar above your competition, improve your search rankings, and skyrocket your conversion rates.
