7 Ways How to Maximize the Potential of your Google My Business Listing

When it comes to the exposure of businesses and search engine optimization on a local level, your Google My Business listing is extremely important. GMB is the starting point for many SEO methods and digital marketing initiatives since it substantially boosts the likelihood that a company will be recognized.

In addition to this, it is a wonderful tool for providing prospective clients with a centralized location where they can access all of the information about your company that is most commonly searched for (address, hours, phone number, website, customer reviews, and so on).

In this piece, we will look at methods to optimize this potential value and get the most out of this resource and its offers, as well as provide some insight into the SEO possibilities of building, adding to, and maintaining a GMB listing. In addition, we will look at ways to maximize this potential value.

What Role Does Google My Business Play In The Search Engine Optimization Process?

The search engine results pages (SERPs) that are shown by Google nowadays are filled with snippet features, local business packs, and other useful resources that make the user’s search experience more comfortable. Because of this, it is possible for a company to get strong exposure on Google at the top of the page even if it does not rank as the top result for certain keywords.
Google utilizes its GMB listings in a variety of ways, including the creation of their local business listings and the filling up of Google Maps. Having a listing on Google My Business (GMB) might even help your organic rankings. The objective of search engine optimization (SEO) is to increase the visibility of your company on the internet; GMB accomplishes this purpose.
When individuals are undertaking discovery searches, this improved visibility is very obvious. When a person searches for a certain keyword phrase, they are doing so with the intention of learning more information and maybe discovering local companies.
This is distinct from a direct search, in which a potential client specifically looks for your company on the internet. A search for discovery can look something like this: “bakery near me” or “excellent coffee.”

A research was conducted in which 6 billion searches were reviewed and it was discovered that the great majority, 87.8%, were performed with the intention of discovering something new. This indicates that there is a significant amount of exposure to gain from these searches, provided that your Google My Business listing is appropriately optimized to get a higher ranking than that of your rivals.
Not only that, but Google My Business is also very significant for direct searches. When a user does a direct search for a company, the purpose of the search is often to locate a particular piece of information, such as the company’s address or phone number.
Your clients won’t even have to go to your website to get the answers to their queries since Google My Business neatly condenses all of that information into a box that’s easy to discover on the internet and makes it accessible to them.
In relation to search engine optimization (SEO) as well as other topics, the significance of this free tool cannot be overstated.

1 – Ensure that you have completed everything for Your Google My Business listing

Google will ask you a number of questions about your company when you are in the process of creating your Google My Business listing. It is essential that you put in as much effort as possible to fill out all of the categories and answer all of the questions.
This is due to two different factors. In the first place, you don’t want a prospective client to hunt for your website or phone number and be unsuccessful in their search. Second, other users may contribute missing information to your Google My Business listing and even recommend adjustments to the information that is already there. It is thus in your best interest to complete out all of the information that is requested of you in order to guarantee that your ad, along with all of its information, is accurate and placed by you.
Google has only just included a business description option, which provides you with 750 characters to explain the narrative of your company and add some more dimension to your profile. This is an essential location to start entering your keywords, so pay attention to it.
Note that just the first 250 characters of your listing will be shown in the panel unless the viewer specifically requests to see more. Therefore, when you are drafting the description of your company, you really want to make sure that those initial few phrases are helpful and explain all that your consumers need to know to make an informed decision about doing business with you.

2 – Write posts and add content

After you have finished creating your profile, there are more features and information that you can add to your listing. At this point, you’ll have your first meaningful opportunity to target keywords and establish your listing as an expert in its field. To give customers a feel of your company before they arrive, you may also post photographs or videos (up to 30 seconds in length) of your sales floor, building, or merchandise.
Be careful to give any images or videos that you upload a name that describes them accurately.
Google Articles is a feature that was only recently introduced to Google My Business (GMB) and it enables businesses to upload entries to their listing that are similar to blog posts. According to the findings of one case study, there is a very substantial association between the presence of these postings and an enhanced ranking.
In other instances, they were able to advance through many positions with just one or two postings every week. Therefore, this is an excellent, low-effort strategy to enhance your Google My Business listing, which may also increase your ranks in local search engine results.

3 – Make Use Of Other Relevant Features

There may be further GMB features that might improve your company’s operations, but this will depend on the kind of organization and the sector in which you operate. Even while adopting these features may not boost SEO efforts, doing so will still bring a significant amount of value to consumers and improve the experience that you now provide to them.
For instance, the bookings function enables a business that operates primarily on appointments to provide clients with the ability to plan a visit directly via the Google My Business listing. These new appointments will sync up with the scheduling software you already use, preventing any potential confusion or oversights that may lead to multiple reservations.
This level of ease is just unparalleled. Imagine that a potential client is looking for your company online to get a contact number so they may make an appointment with you. All of a sudden, people are scheduling their appointment directly via your Google My Business listing, and they have never once picked up the phone to do so.
It is possible to encourage more individuals to book appointments by reducing the number of stages in the scheduling process that is unnecessary.
Alternatively, if your company is a restaurant or is in the service industry, adding your menu or a list of the services that are offered is another essential step in the process of developing a successful Google My Business page.
There are probably already a lot of inquiries coming into your company about the food or services that you provide. If you include this information on your company’s GMB, your consumers will have the ability to answer these questions on their own without having to call and inquire, which will save them time and eliminate an annoyance for them.

4 – Make Sure You Communicate

On the GMB platform, there is a significant amount of user-generated material and engagement taking place, particularly in the form of reviews. Customers also have the option of sending a direct message to a company or posing a question that may be answered by the business owner or another customer.
After you have made your Google My Business listing, it is essential to pay attention to these interactions and provide a response in response to any reviews, queries, or comments that may have been posted.

Your company will look more accessible to potential customers if you use your listing to communicate with potential customers. It shows that you are committed to your clients and that you want to be able to serve them to the very best of your skills.
In addition, thirty percent of users indicate that they form opinions about local companies based on how well those firms react to concerns and reviews. It is possible that this may motivate other consumers to submit queries or reviews.

5 – Promote the above types of interactions

These exchanges, particularly testimonials from previous clients, are quite valuable. It will make your listing more full, it will contribute to the possible exposure of the keywords, and it will give the impression that your company is more trustworthy.
The vast majority of customers who shop online now depend, at least somewhat, on internet reviews as a tool to evaluate a company and the methods it uses. Many of these customers place the same amount of faith in an evaluation, even if it was written by an anonymous third party.
It is impossible to place enough emphasis on the significance of both the relevance and the effect of reviews. This is similar to the value of establishing a presence on Google My Business. Because of this, it is a good idea to make it a practice to ask clients for feedback in the form of reviews. The fact that you are interested in other people’s viewpoints will likely make a lot of people happy, and they will gladly comply with your request.

6 – Pay Attention and Evaluate the Outcomes

In a timely way, you should attend to all of the following: answering queries, responding to communications, and reacting to reviews. You do not want a query that was made by a user to be ignored for many weeks, nor do you want a nasty review to be unchecked.
This indicates that you should make it a habit to check in on your listing on a regular basis, ensuring that all of the content is current and accurate while also responding to any new user interactions. You have the option with Google to switch on alerts, which will cause the service to inform you whenever there has been a modification made.
This is perhaps the most effective and quickest method available for being alerted of changes made to your GMB.
In addition to this, Google has a wealth of useful, data-driven details about your Google My Business listing. Your Google My Business statistics may reveal how many new individuals discovered your company via the listing as well as how those people obtained the information they were looking for.
If they came via a SERP, did they get there by clicking the pin that represents your company on Google Maps, or did they arrive directly from a SERP? If the latter, what search phrases did they use?
You will be able to better alter your listing and other efforts if you learn how consumers are finding your company, the kind of information they are searching for, and the next action they plan to take.
These insights may offer you with vital information that you may use to develop a more effective keyword strategy or to determine where you need to focus your other digital marketing efforts.

7 – Always Remain at the Top

The more time and effort you put into modifying and enhancing your GMB listing, the more optimized it will become and the simpler it will be to keep your position towards the top of the search results. The Google Local Business Pack will get the top three local companies that are the most relevant to the user’s search.
It is vitally crucial to have a high enough ranking to be included in this top group of companies, since these are the only three that will be shown until the user chooses to browse additional firms.
Your search results will improve along with the growth of a local and devoted customer base that your company will begin to cultivate as a result of your regular publishing of updates and responses to customer reviews, inquiries, and comments.

Get in touch with us at Local Power SEO for increase your reach online.