As the digital horizon continues to evolve, any business hoping to remain above water today needs to exist in the digital world. Among the plethora of tools available for this kind of service, though, none are more common than Google Business Profile – previously known as Google My Business. This free service gives you the opportunity to feature in results produced by both Google Search and Google Maps. However, that’s not enough to attract visits to your place. It needs to be optimized towards more visits and potential customers.
This guide will walk you through everything you need to do to attract visitors to your Google Business Profile: optimize your listing, care for your customers, and strategically apply local SEO techniques.
Claim and Verify Your Google Business Profile
To optimize your profile and attract more visitors, you have to claim and verify your Google Business Profile first.
How to Claim and Verify
Search for Your Business: If the business is already listed, click on the button that says “Own this business?” and claim the profile.
Create a new profile
If your business is not listed yet, go to Google Business Profile Manager, sign into your Google account, and set up a new profile there.
Verify it: Google will most likely verify your business through a postcard mailed to your business address. In some cases, you can verify using a phone number or email address.
Verification is crucial because, without it, your business is not going to appear in Google Maps or local search results, and hence you are missing out on visibility.
Optimize Your Business Information
The more accurate and complete your Google Business Profile is, the more likely it will appear in relevant searches. And proper optimization can mean more clicks, calls, and visits for your business.
Key Areas to Optimize
Business Name
This should be your actual business name, Google does not allow for you to add extra keywords to your business name. Instead, it should utilize what is consistent with your brand.
Business Category
Your first choice for the primary category is crucial to your business. This is how Google determines which searches to add your business to. You can include secondary categories as a secondary means to other products or services you also provide.
Location & Service Areas
Update your business location as correct and include your service areas, should you serve customers at their locations, like a plumber or delivery service. If you have a storefront, only set your service areas.
Business Hours
Update your business hours, including special holidays or seasonal changes. Google features the businesses with correct information.
Business Phone Number & Website
Ensure your number is local and also used on other directories. Add in the link to your website to drive more traffic and for additional information.
Business Description
Write a description that captures what your business has in very few words. Use relevant local keywords to power your listing in local SEO while keeping the words natural and easy to understand.
Attributes
Add special attributes depending on the type of your business, such as “Women-led,” “Accessible,” or “Outdoor seating,” since that would change the type of customer who is likely to visit your profile.
Google Posts
Google Posts allows you to publish updates, promotions, news, and events on your profile. These posts will be highly visible when the customer is searching for your business, so use that to engage.
Promotions & Offers: Reveal special
offers or promotions. Let the visitor know what action to take, and drive them to your website or business by including a call to action.
Event Announcements
If you’re hosting or participating in an event, share information with your target audience. Be sure to include dates and times, and encourage visitors with a clear call to action such as “Register now” or “Learn more.”
Product Updates: Are you launching a new product? Create a Google Post for your customers to know about the product and its special features.
These posts stay active for seven days, so post regularly to keep the profile active and engaging.
Encouraging and Managing Reviews
Probably one of the most critical factors both for your local SEO ranking and your customer’s purchasing decisions are reviews. Most surveys have indicated that customers also rely on online reviews much like they rely on personal recommendations.
How to Get More Reviews
Ask for Reviews
The best time to ask customers to leave you reviews is after your business has been experienced by them. You can do this in person, via email, or even by sending a follow-up message through Google.
Remind Consumers to Leave Reviews
Offer incentives, such as discounts or freebies, in exchange for reviews; it should not violate Google review policies.
Make it Easy
Add the direct link to your Google Business Profile in your email signature, social media, and website to make entry easy on the customer’s side.
Response to Reviews
Positive Reviews
Respond appreciatively, acknowledging that they have taken precious time to write their feedback. This demonstrates the interest you take in your customers and the value you place on their experience.
Negative Reviews
Respond also in a negative manner with professionalism and a willingness to resolve the problem at hand. These future customers will appreciate seeing how you handle complaints.
A continuous stream of positive reviews helps improve your search ranking locally and drives in more visitors to your profile.
Include Good-Quality Pictures and Videos
Quality pictures and videos will make your profile look more attractive to your potential customers since they will be able to see the business, products, and services you deliver, which will be a deciding factor in choosing your business over the rest.
Pictures to Upload
Exterior and Interior
Show them what happens at the exterior and interior of the business so that when your clients get there, they know what to expect.
Team and Staff Photos
Help humanize your brand with a glimpse of your team in action thus giving that personal connection that so many customers want with the business.
Product and Service Photos
Uploading images of your products or services gives the potential customer an idea of what exactly you offer.
Videos
Short engaging videos explaining what your services are, and short behind-the-scenes, customer testimonials go a long way in keeping interest in your audience.
More specifically, Google reveals that businesses with photos receive 42% more requests for directions and 35% more website clicks than the same businesses without photos.
Use Local Keywords and Content
Local SEO is considered a marketing tool used the attract visitors to your Google Business Profile. More importantly, by optimizing your profile using local keywords, you will likely rank higher in local searches.
How Do I Do Local SEO
Use Local Keywords
identify and use keywords on local searches that your customers might be looking for in your area, such as “best coffee shop in San Francisco” or “plumber near me.” Use them in your business description, posts, and reviews.
Create Location-Specific Content
In case you have several locations then create location-specific content. Highlight what will be most relevant to each specific location.
NAP Consistency
Ensure your NAP is consistent across your website, social media, and other local directories. Inconsistencies can result in penalties with Google and lower your ranking in search results.
LOCAL SEO optimization leads to a good profile being in front of the right target audience; hence it increases visibility and visits.
Build High-Quality Backlinks
Backlinks are links from other websites that send the visitor to your website or Google Business Profile. They play a significant role in enhancing your SEO as well as raising your online presence.
How to Create Backlinks
Partner with local businesses
You can make an agreement with other local businesses and feature them. Cross-promotions may give you valuable backlinks and increase traffic.
List your business in online directories, either Yelp, TripAdvisor, or a niche directory. Ensure that information is consistent with the Google Business Profile.
Publish Content on Local Blogs: Offer to write guest pieces for local bloggers or news sites. These pieces can contain a link back to your business profile.
Quality links from good authority sources can enhance your ranking and thus make it easier for potential customers to find you.
Customer Engagement Through Q&A
Google Business Profile contains a Q&A section where customers can post questions about your business, and you or other customers can respond. Monitoring this section and answering correctly and as timely as possible can pull in more visitors.
Recommendations on managing Q&A
Monitor Questions Regularly
It is recommended that you check the Q&A section often so that you will be able to respond as soon as you can and accurately.
Detailed Response:
Think and type out a helpful response that thoroughly answers the customer’s question. Where applicable, incorporate relevant keywords naturally into your replies.
Preemptively Add FAQs
If you have identified any questions that keep appearing frequently, add them as FAQs to immediately provide answers and make the process easier for visitors to obtain the information they’re looking for.
Updating your Q&A page can let potential customers know the information they need; hence, the chances of them visiting your business may also increase.
Track Insights and Refine Strategy
With Google, you get very detailed views on the kind of interactions customers are having with your business profile. The insights could include information about how customers found your profile, what actions they took, and which keywords they used to locate your business.
Search Queries
Observe the words your customers use to find your business and draw on that to create a better adjustment to your SEO strategy with focused content
Customer Activities
Discover how many people came into your store looking for directions, people who clicked through from your profile to your website, or individuals dialing your business.
Photo Views
Check how many people are viewing your photos and which ones will be the best performers.
Going through them from time to time will help you optimize your profile to attract more visitors.
Conclusion
A well-optimized Google Business Profile is one of the best tools that will bring more visitors to your business, in person as well as online. The benefits may include optimizing business information, engaging with customers by posting and responding to reviews, using local SEO, and uploading high-quality media.
Apart from that, constantly checking and adjusting your insights keeps your profile active to compete in local searches. It is sure to bring in more traffic and help convert visitors into customers.
Help them attract more visitors through these strategies to expand your business through Google Business Profile right now!
