How To Optimise Your Google My Business Profile

Google My Business is often the most forgotten (yet extremely important), online marketing tool for businesses.

When it comes to running a successful business, the constant ongoing tasks and distractions often push the management of free, simple marketing tools like GMB to the bottom of the priority list. However, when so many people use Google Maps daily to find new businesses servicing their area, why neglect it?

There are some very quick and easy updates you can make to your profile, ensuring you have the best possible chance of showing up above your competitors’ listing – especially if they are neglecting their own listings too.

First and foremost, make sure your details and descriptions are all up-to-date. Even in 2020, it seems most listings in a given area are either not completed, or have old/incorrect information in them if comparing to the actual website.

Make sure you give potential customer’s all the info they need and optimise your business description and title in-line with your organic keyword strategy. Ensure everything is filled out and up-to-date: from the descriptions and info, to opening hours and even your posts and images.

All of this below can be easily edited via the “Info” section from the Home screen.

The other major component to your profile is the reviews. We now live in a review culture, especially when it comes to eCommerce, so make sure you are incentivising reviews from your customers via email workflows and order confirmations.

It’s very unlikely you’ll get a positive review unless you ask for one, so make sure you include a link to your maps listing in your email signatures, on your website & social channels AND in your purchase order emails to customers.

The best way to do this is to generate a short link that goes directly to your profile, then opens the review section automatically – here are the instructions:

https://support.google.com/business/answer/9273900?co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&hl=en

Not only do potential customers read the reviews when deciding which businesses to engage with, but the star rating also impacts the click-through-rate and your positioning in GMB (see below). It’s also paramount to respond to any reviews, whether positive or negative to show that you care about your customer’s feedback and opinions of the business..

So next time you have 5-10 minutes spare, give your GMB profile some love – it might be the difference between gaining a new customer or not!