What is a Google My Business Listing?
Google My Business is a free, easy tool that helps you manage your business listing on Google. You can claim and verify your listing, post updates and offers, and even sell products directly! Most importantly, you are able to confirm the most vital information for your business (address, phone number, and hours of operation) are correct.
A Google My Business listing is like a yellow pages listing on steroids. Not only can you list your critical information, but you can post a wide variety of other information: photos from your business and from customers, special promotions, and customer reviews. All this is great, but why should you, as a business owner, want to focus on getting the most out of your listing?
Show Up In Local Searches
If you’ve ever searched for a local business, chances are you’re familiar with a screen that looks like this. According to broadband.net, over 60% of all searches are taking place on mobile devices. Here’s what that means for you as a business owner: the better your listing is performing, the higher the chance that a business like yours is going to show up on a potential customer’s mobile device at a critical time. Are you a restaurant owner wanting more patrons to choose you at peak hours? Then the goal should be to show up in the top three of the Google My Business “map pack.” Getting there starts with a highly optimized Google My Business listing.
Rank Higher On Search Results
According to ahrefs, about 75% of all clicks happen on the first three results returned by a Google search. Ideally, you want to show up organically in these results (you can compete for ad space above these results, please see our page on Pay Per Click Advertising). To be clear: showing up in the top results for high quality keywords is a long term strategy, a strategy which starts with a well optimized Google My Business Listing.
A Quality Google My Business Page: Credibility!
A quality Google My Business listing is like having a quality business card: it is often the first impression potential customers will have of your business. Are your hours correct? Are your photos up to date? Do you have a solid, growing count of quality reviews? All of these details are signals to future patrons that your business is worth checking out.
Be sure to check out our page on Search Engine Optimization for more info on how to improve your rankings!
