It’s no secret that how actively you fill out your business page in the Google My Business service determines its position in local search.
That is, constant work with the page makes it easier for our potential customers to find us, easier and faster to make a decision to purchase our products or services. This service also provides an opportunity to keep in touch with customers through feedback and online chat.
Although the Google My Business service itself was launched back in 2014, every year it provides local companies with more and more opportunities for promotion. At the same time, it is actively used in the promotion of a few establishments: some do not see the point in it (they are already doing well), others do not have time, and the rest simply do not know about it. After all, the service is free, and our attitude to everything free is usually biased and depreciating.
While social networks are at the peak of attention, most establishments actively conduct them. Missing a few points though:
- the content you need for business pages on Google you already create for social media pages,
- local issuance pages are also present on Google Maps,
- Google My Business pages can be promoted through Google Ads along with or instead of the site.
That is, to regularly update the content of the page, you need only 5 minutes a day. At the same time, the Google My Business profile provides additional opportunities for paid promotion on Google, strengthening your site, if it exists, of course.
If you haven’t created or optimized your Google My Business profile yet, it might be a good time to do so. Google is constantly testing and introducing new features. Even over the past year, local companies have received a number of useful tools to optimize their presence in local search and attract the target audience.
Here are seven essential features of Google My Business that you should explore in detail
1. Description of the company
There was a time when this feature was disabled because Google believed it could be abused. Fortunately, now it is available and we can describe our company in the short text up to 750 characters (not words!). Google recommends that you provide only reliable and up-to-date information that is useful to your customers. Here, unlike the title, we can safely write about key products (services), and specify the location (and not in the “service area” item in the “Details” section). That is, put the right keywords here. The main thing is that it should be organic.
Attention! In the case of large enterprises, information for description can be taken from a source such as Wikipedia. Therefore, if it is available, you should check your brand page there and make sure it is relevant.
2. Publications (Posts)
The “Posts” feature allows you to create messages up to 1500 characters (about 300 words) that can inform our potential customers about important events or our company’s activities, products and other news. You can also add an image or video and a call to action in these short messages.
A special “bun” of publications is the ability to redirect traffic to your site through a clickable button with a link.
3. Goods
In fact, this is a full-fledged product catalog – a mini online store – right on Google Maps. In addition, as in the case of “Publications”, from each product card we can put a link to the corresponding page of our site. In this way, we will transfer even more traffic to our site.
4. Clients
Last year, the Customers tab in Google My Business was updated. Now in certain regions, it already contains three sections: Reviews, Readers, and Messages.
The “Followers” tab allows you to create a community, similar to a page on a social network.
We can monitor and respond to reviews about our business. This is one of the key metrics related to online brand reputation that we should monitor carefully.
Live Chat is another way that customers can quickly reach out to our business with questions or comments.
5. Questions and answers
Instead of private messages between customers and your business that can be repetitive, Google My Business has a feature that allows you to publicly list these questions and answers. Business owners are discouraged from “matching” their own questions. They will either show up organically, or you can encourage someone outside of your company to ask a few common questions for this section. Just make sure you provide answers!
6. Booking
Many consumers who use local search are actively searching for a product or service. If our product or service can be pre-booked, this feature in Google My Business will certainly come in handy.
An interested Google user only needs to click on the link (URL) provided by us to go to the relevant section of the website or page of the online booking service.
7. Analytics
In order to understand what content attracts visitors to your page on Google, you need to track page analytics. It gives information about how many people viewed our profile, how they got here, and what actions they took. Important! If our website analytics and the Google My Business page have the same owner (the account that manages the services), the data from Site Analytics will correct the user data in the statistics on the local search page. This integration occurs automatically and only in one direction – from site to page.
The disadvantage of Google business page analytics is that in the admin panel we can see statistics for no more than 3 months. Therefore, we recommend saving it monthly – at least key indicators.
The issue with the feedback of page statistics with site analytics can be partially solved with the help of unique UTM tags in the links that we place in “Publications” and “Products”.
You can also use our service to collect analytics. In this way, you will automate the process and save time.
Stay on top of all your reviews, wherever your customers leave them. Consolidate all reviews into one dashboard, identify where your online reputation needs improvement, and take action on negative reviews faster.
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Remember, a company’s reputation is made up of many aspects of its online presence. Search engine rankings are based on reviews, page volume on Google, social media presence, rankings across multiple sources, and other factors. Only constant work and multi-channel promotion will provide us with high results in the search engine.
