5 Benefits of Using Google My Business

What is Google My Business?

Google My Business is a free tool offered by Google to manage your business listing.  It combines all features of what was previously Places, Maps, Google Plus etc.  By claiming and optimizing your Google My Business profile you are able to manage and control what Google says about your business in their search results. There are many benefits to your business to using Google My Business strategically as part of your digital marketing strategy.

Google My Business manages your business information such as your phone number, address, website link, reviews, questions, photos, and more.

In addition you can use the "posts" feature to add current information to your listing directly on Google.  This is a very powerful way of showing potential customers current promos, products and information right in search results!  Google posts is probably one of the number one most under-utilized tools available to business owners in 2021.  Posting to Google My Business on a regular basis helps with Search Engine Rankings, gaining more awareness of your business, and getting more website traffic.  Not using it is a huge missed opportunity.

You can access Google My Business via this link

Below are some examples of how a business will appear on Google from the Google My Business profile information:

The benefits of using Google My Business exceed 5 points for sure, however for the purpose of this article I will list and explain 5 benefits of using the platform.

1. Improve Search Results

Almost every business owner I talk to tells me that one of their goals is to get better search results.  Everyone wants their business to be found at the top of Google search results!  And this is a very admirable goal with many benefits.  This is because so many consumers and internet users rely on Google for finding information.  Over 68% of all internet experiences begin with a Google search!  And being ranked high on the first page of search engine results pages (SERP's) gives your website a much higher probability of being clicked on first.  The reason this matters is because Google search traffic is known to convert better than other sources of traffic because people are searching for exactly what you are offering!

Using Google My Business is an important part of your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy because it provides Google with the information it needs to help show your business or organization in it's search results.  

By optimizing your Google My Business profile with your keywords, and using these keywords in your Google Posts, and Photos you can help improve the search results for your business.  Pay close attention in the "INFO" section to all of the areas you can customize such as the category, info section, products & services etc.  Complete as much information as possible and use as many of your top keywords as you can.  

2. Outrank the Competition

Here's the thing on Google. You don't necessarily need to rank #1, just make sure your business ranks before your competition, and certainly not on page 2.  **less than 1% of consumers will click on a website on page 2 of Google**.  The higher up your business appears in the natural search results, the more likely a potential customer will click on your business, not the competition.

Using Google My Business is a tool that you can use in order to appear in search results before your competition.  Some ways to do this include:  make sure they keywords you are competing for are in your GMB profile, bio, and posts.  Finding it hard to outrank them for a certain keyword - here is a quick win - save photos with those keywords as the title of the file and upload them to your GMB profile under the photos section.  Another tip is to use these specific keywords repeatedly in Google Posts.

3. Drive Traffic to Your Website

This is a huge benefit of using Google My Business.  It actually will deliver web traffic to your business.  There are a few ways this is accomplished.  First is the link to your website in the bio.  If you notice this is a clickable link both from desktop and mobile.  

Secondly you can send traffic to your website from Google My Business by using the "POSTS" feature.  Google posts are a place you can put things like promotions, recent updates etc.  We generally use posts to publish content that was recently posted on social media.  However I have worked with clients that have a separate content creation strategy for Google My Business and post unique text and images to GMB for the purpose of SEO Rankings.

4.  Get More Reviews

Another goal that I hear often from business owners is to get more positive reviews on Google.  Not only is this great for your business reputation, but it is also considered in the rankings by Google.  The only way to get Google Reviews is to have a Google My Business profile.  ***note that if you have NOT claimed your GMB profile internet users can still post reviews to your business to an unclaimed profile of your business that you have zero control over, a very dangerous and risky situation to be in**

By having a Google My Business profile it is easy for internet users to leave a review.  If you are interested in learning more about how to get more Google Reviews check out my blog post:

HOW TO CREATE A LINK TO GET MORE GOOGLE REVIEWS

5.  Get More Customers

And ultimately you want to get more customers.  Google My Business can help you grow your business by driving more awareness to your business, delivering more traffic to your website, improving the trust in your business all of which will increase leads, increase customers and increase revenues.  

ARE YOU USING GOOGLE MY BUSINESS TO GET MORE CUSTOMERS?

If you would like to discuss how I can help you create a strategy to maximize this powerful platform please contact me today!

If you are looking to outsource the management of your Google My Business, my professional team at Dufferin Media would love to assist you!

Don't Sleep on The Photos!

Lastly here is a pro tip - don't sleep on the PHOTOS section of your Google My Business profile.  Adding photos on a regular basis (and making sure the file name includes a description of what the photo is of including your target keywords) can generate thousands of additional views to your business from Google!

I hope that you found this article helpful - I'd love to hear from you please comment below about your experiences with Google My Business!