SEO LOCAL BUSINESS TIPS – TAKE FULL ADVANTAGE OF GOOGLE MY BUSINESS

SEO Local Business Tips – Take Full Advantage OF Google My Business

SEO Local Business Tips – Google My Business (GMB) is a free product that allows business owners to verify and submit basic information about their business to Google. And you can also interact with potential customers based on Google features.

Initially very simple and called the Local Business Center, Google My Business has become a sophisticated product over the past decade. Over the past few years, GMB has made many improvements. GMB is an essential part of a comprehensive website SEO strategy.

GMB offers highly-rated apps on the App Store and Google Play. It also provides statistics on the visibility and interaction with your website that no other product has (including Google Analytics). Follow mei-review to find out more.

Conditions For Signing Up For Google My Business

Any business with a location is eligible to apply for GBN in that position. For businesses with two or more locations, each is eligible for a differentiated GMB.

1. Verify Your Location

Google strives to ensure that only legitimate businesses are represented in the GMB. It requires verification for anyone creating the GMB.

The easiest way is to start doing a desktop search for your business name (for example, “Pacific Seafood Portland”). In the panel on the right of the page, you will see a link asking the question “Own this business”? It is important that before you click the link to verify your account, make sure you are not signed in to Google.

This is not a GMB request for verification, but sharing access with your friends or partners is easier to verify than the Google My Business admin account itself.

When you fill in the most important basic information, including your address and phone number, Google may call and verify for you. Otherwise, Google sends verification codes via regular mail for 1-2 weeks.

2. Business information: Name, address, and phone number

Name, Address, and Phone (NAP) are fingerprints online. If you do not correctly provide your business at GMB, Google cancels your verification.

• DO NOT put keywords in your business name. Google always monitors these types of abuse and will cancel your GMB if it is violated.
• The GMB verification address must be accurate and the same as the one used on the website.
• Zoom in on the map to see if the pin is exactly where the business is, otherwise, editing is required.
• Using a registered phone must match the phone number on the website.

3. Category

The category field is the most important attribute you can optimize at Google My Business.

Google maintains a classification system of several thousand descriptions for GMBs. By entering a few characters of the keyword that describes your business, you’ll probably find a list of suggestions.

Google says “use as little as possible“, as well as “be as specific as possible“. Google may detect category information from your website and mentions of your business on the web.

If you open a small restaurant that is open from 7am to 3pm, select “Restaurants”, “Cafes” and any other suitable categories. Enter multiple keywords that describe your business and search for the appropriate category. Use all of them if relevant.

Google’s automated review system may remove one or two from your list, but this is not spam – as long as you choose the relevant category. It helps you to be displayed on a large scale.

4. Website

Google calls this field “website”, but it does not necessarily require a website. If you want visitors to a specific page, you can also enter by URL not necessarily the homepage.

Other Business Information

After entering the above properties, you will be asked to verify your listing. And then update a few other very important attributes.

   +   Image

Photos are probably the most abandoned attribute of all GMBs. The success of Instagram, Pinterest, and any other app just shows how important the image is. Consumers often choose a business because of its image. Therefore the content of the photo is quality and professional.

Like all media, GMBi has its image format requirements.

Optimizing your photos also provides great opportunities to attract your customers.

   +   Work time

Selecting the opening hours of the business is quite simple. Google has greatly improved the interface so it can notify searchers of business hours.

You can change working hours into multiple time frames during the day, and add specific hours for holidays or special days.

Although you may not need to change your working hours, you should be interested in knowing that Google now shows your business busy in real-time. This is based on tracking the aggregate location of visitors with Android phones and iOS users of Google Maps.

   +   Menu URLs

Some types of businesses will have the option to add a link to a menu. If your business is suitable for participating in one of these categories, I recommend adding this link as it allows Google to add a set of keywords to your business.

   +   Other information

These are low-priority schools. All three products are primarily focused on large businesses and brands.

Other Important Ranking Factors

The other two important ranking factors you can control relate to the actual position of your business.

   +   The first is the distance from your business to the location where customers are searching.

All are equal, Google will choose to show a business close to the searcher.

In the early years, its algorithm always favored businesses that were near the center of a given city or its “focus”. Google simply cannot detect the location of the searcher. So it defaults to showing businesses in areas with the highest population densities.

This factor is now gone, especially for mobile searches, and Google can find your exact location. Google has also improved on detecting the location information of searchers on a desktop.

   +   The second factor is that there are other locations your customers are looking for.

For example, in New York and customers you search in London, Google My Business will not show.

You need to open other locations to target the areas your customers are looking for.

Detailed Information About Google My Business

Google offers a free analytics package about how customers and potential customers are viewing and interacting with you.

Insights show how many times your GMB appears in a search with Google Maps. It also shows the number of clicks to your website, request driving directions, and phone numbers.

Troubleshoot GMB Listing

The most common GMB troubleshooting problem continues to be the existence of other duplicate locations on the same business. While duplicate lists are difficult to spot, closing them is fairly easy.

The first step to identifying duplicate listings is to search for your business name on maps.google.com. You will see a comprehensive list of relevant results and Google will likely appear on Google.com.

If there is a business that is identical to you, select the business you want to delete and click “Propose edit”. On the next screen, in the “Place is permanently closed or never accelerated” frame select “Yes” and check the “duplicate” section.

Google support staff will usually assist you within 1 week. If you continue to have trouble, ask multiple people. They are colleagues, friends, family members, or relatives. Ask them to report the same issue and most likely Google will consider it.

The Future Of Google My Business

Google has released two major by-products in GMB-Messaging and Post-within the past few months.

The goal of both products seems to be for small business owners to contact their customers through GMB regularly.

While it’s still too early to say whether using any of these new features could benefit your rankings, that’s what community experts look for. Local will follow closely in the coming months.

Last but not least, thank you very much for reading my SEO Local Business Tips. Hopefully, it can help your business rank better on Google. Check out my relevant post here:

GOOGLE MY BUSINESS – FUNDAMENTAL KNOWLEDGE BEFORE STARTING