6 Ways for Freelancers to Employ Google My Business

 

As a freelancer, one of your key objectives is to raise awareness of your services. Google My Business is a free resource you should not overlook (GMB). With it, you may reach a larger audience provided it is properly configured and optimized.

Google enables companies and organizations to manage their internet presence, including Search and Maps with Google My Business. It facilitates consumer discovery and provides a forum for business owners to share their tales. Some criteria and limits make utilizing Google My Business as a freelancer more challenging than a simple business listing.

 

Requirements Needed

Google first established GMB (Google My Business) to help local search engine optimization (SEO). Its principal function is to display targeted physical businesses in a certain region. Currently, the majority of freelancers operate from home and lack a client-facing framework.

In addition, the majority of freelance services are not local. Thanks to modern connection, freelancers may work with customers from across the globe. Consequently, some believe that establishing a profile as a freelancer is not worthwhile.

Setting up your GMB (Google My Business) profile is effective and simple if you want to increase your local SEO without a lot of work or experience. To comply with Google’s requirements, however, you must:

Add Your company name, Address, Category. and Operating Hours

 

How to Setup Google My Business as an Independent Contractor

When it comes to using GMB for your freelance company, everything is not lost. You may increase your local SEO by creating a service-based company profile that targets a specific service area.

Sign in to the Google Account you’d want to link with your company, or create one if you don’t already have one. Professionalism requires the usage of a corporate Gmail account.

Select “Start now” from the upper-right corner of google.com/business. Enter your company’s name and then click next. Follow the instructions to enter your remaining company information.

1. Create Your Account

Follow the website’s instructions and enter all essential information properly. You should create a profile as a service-based firm. You may choose just one core category for the category area, and then add subsidiary categories to elaborate on the other services you provide.

Once you’ve identified a category that corresponds to your offerings, the program will search for more similar categories so you don’t have to guess on GMB (Google My Business).

2. Correct your company’s name and location

If you run a limited liability company, use this as your business name. If not, try utilizing your name and area of expertise as the company’s name. For instance: “Joe Soap, SEO Specialist and Content Marketer.”

Currently, this is the most important phase. As a service-based organization, there are two possible locations. One is to state that you accept customers at your location, implying that you want customers to locate your address. The second is for those who do not want to share an address. There is an option marked “Hide my address (it’s not a shop)”

3. Choose Your Service Region

Those who opt not to advertise a particular address may pick the physical locations where your company will be promoted. GMB (Google My Business) is focused on local SEO. Unless your services are intended for a certain service region, you should be as inclusive as possible.

Google My Business enables you to pick a certain location, such as a small town, or the whole metropolis. Even while customers in neighboring cities may not necessarily see your GMB listing, it will be an effective marketing tool for prospective clients in your service region.

4. Await Confirmation

Google is obsessed with authentication and security. Before posting, they must validate your listing to prevent deceiving their visitors.

They accomplish this by the act of sending a postcard. The postcard normally comes within a few days and includes a verification number. Once you sign in to your Google My Business account, you’ll see the verify now option where you’ll enter the code and hit submit.

Transmitting a text message. If they give you the option of ‘verifying by phone‘, you’ll receive a code via text to the number you provided while filling your profile.

Sending an email. You simply have to click ‘verify by email’, and you’ll receive an email with a verification link, similar to the one that’s sent by most websites.

5. Ask for Reviews

Having a GMB profile alone will not accomplish anything for your company. Request feedback and be sure to publicize it. Google Maps will rank businesses depending on the number of reviews, unlike other websites. Therefore, the greater your yield, the better.

6. Refresh Your Posts

Keeping your page fresh and up-to-date will give clients the impression that you care about your services and will reduce the number of phone calls you get. You may submit deals, updates (e.g., on Covid-19), new goods, and questions and answers.

Maintain vigilance, particularly in the Q&A area, since anybody is allowed to ask or answer any question. To avoid unneeded drama, you might ask and answer the questions yourself. Google supports this for the sake of transparency.

To get more information about Google My Business (GMB) and to make this a seamless process, it is best to work with professionals like Local Power SEO. Get in touch with us for a free consultation.