Optimizing Google My Business for local businesses can lead to better business outcomes by helping local businesses achieve greater visibility on Google Maps. Google has recently launched a new Google Maps application that includes integration with local citations and reviews, allowing users to see what citations mean and get better insights on how their local business might fare in certain areas. Start easy by taking pictures of your place, inside, outside, employees working, and visitors enjoying your offerings. All you need is either a smartphone to carry around or upload pictures, and videos to share.
Be sure to link your Google Places business listing page and social media profiles. It will only take one tweet to expose your listing to your existing and potential followers. Another great idea is to add a custom Google Maps icon to your website. Whenever a visitor clicks this button, they will see your business location at the map’s bottom. When it comes to optimizing your Google My Business for local citations, be sure to use both methods to optimize visibility for your listings.
Try to update your Google My Business listings at least weekly. Updating information for your business hours will help visitors find you and keep them within driving distance. This is especially true if you are offering services like a taxi service. You want as much exposure as possible, but you don’t want to annoy your potential customers by keeping your business hours up late. Updating information on your Google My Business listings should be done regularly to ensure visitors get accurate information about your hours of operation.
Do your best to answer any Google questions that your prospects may have. This can help you build trust with potential customers. In most cases, when they search for something on the web, they’ll type in a phrase that makes sure it’s related to what they’re looking for. If you start answering questions in Google post, make sure your page is updated with the most recent information.
Be sure not to leave out any keywords in your business listings. You need to make sure that you include the keywords that potential customers may be searching for when trying to find you online. Don’t leave these important words out because this could hurt you when people begin to search for information based upon these words. Google does an amazing job keeping their listings up-to-date with new keywords and phrases. Make sure you do your part to keep your business name as closely related to the word as humanly possible.
While it might be tempting to add as many pictures as possible, this practice can actually hurt you more than helping you. Google does not allow any images to be placed into Google searches so be sure you use the right image file names. Also, be careful about adding photos to your Google business listings that are of low quality. Google does check this and could penalize your website for poor quality.
