Why do I need a Google My Business Page?
If you are a small business owner, your Google My Business Page is crucial for your online performance.
We’re always telling you that you need a website, we told you a Facebook Page isn’t enough, so why are we telling you that you now need yet another profile on another page? The answer is, this is no ordinary profile of your business. Having your Google My Business page set up properly will complement your website (not try to substitute it), and send you potential customers and more traffic. You will appear on Maps, Search and Google+, and Google will be happy because you’re helping them provide relevant information quickly to people using their search engine.
If you already have a Google My Business page (if you have a Google Places for Business or Google + page, then you will already have a Google My Business profile), skip to the bottom section where we’ll go over best practises. If you’re just getting started, keep reading:
Illustration via mantas gr
Setting up your Google My Business Page
Your first comment might be: I don’t have a physical business address, or I conduct most of my business from home and I don’t want my home address appearing on Google! There is no problem with that, Google My Business adapts to these specific circumstances as well.
Start:
- Visit https://www.google.com/business/ and click “Start Now”
- Select the Google account you want to use and sign in
- Search for your business name in the search field
Once you select your business, some pre filled information will appear (like address, phone number). If there is no match, simply fill in all the information yourself.
Important: at the end of the form, you will see this note: “I deliver goods and services to my customers at their location” and you will have to select ‘yes’ or ‘no’. What does this mean? Google includes this option because not all local businesses serve their customers from a brick-and-mortar storefront. Some operate from home and others are mobile and always on the go.
If you serve customers at their locations, you should list it as a service area business on Google.
When you click ‘next’’, it will ask you to confirm you are authorized to manage the business, and proceed to create your Google+ page first. Then you will see that Google needs to verify your business and you will have to click on ‘mail me my code’, which will be sent to your business location.
That’s it!
Once you enter your Dashboard, you will get a popup offering a quick tour to get started. Don’t skip this one! It will help you get familiarized with all you can do.
Set up your profile photo (with your logo), and fill in any missing information on your profile.
Multiple Business Locations
Once you are in your Google My Business location, you can add another location that will bring up the same form you initially used to set up your page. Read this post on how to create multiple locations.
What does the task look like on marketgoo?
On marketgoo you’ll get straightforward instructions (more in-depth than the ones I have shown you in this post!) on how to set up and manage your Google My Business page, as well as better understand why it is important for your business. Additionally, if you need extra help or have more questions not covered in the task, our Customer Success team is always just a click away.
Best Practises for Google My Business
- The number you list should be a local number that matches the number displayed on your website.
- Choose the correct categories!. Fall in more than one? List your top, very specific categories and go with the most ‘important’ (where you get most of your clients from). Google Says: “Choose the fewest number of categories it takes to describe your overall core business”
- Double check your opening hours are correct.
- Encourage reviews from your customers.
- Encourage visitors to upload photos of your business.
- Get citations: from directories like Yelp, Yext, Yellowpages, etc. This means get you list your business information (name, address, phone and website if applicable). Make sure this information is the same as in your Google My Business profile!!
Watch out for:
- Others trying to make (unauthorised) edits to your listing
- Any calls claiming to be from Google, telling you your listing is incomplete and that there is a number one spot waiting for you. This ends up in you getting charged. Google My Business is FREE and Google does not charge for inclusion or for optimising your results. You may get calls from Google to verify details like location, and Google does have salespeople for their AdWords product, but no money should exchange hands in order to optimise your Google My Business profile.
Eager for more? Start with Google My Business and other ways to optimize your website with marketgoo now! Sign in or sign up for a free trial.
Resources:
Check out this video that goes through the steps we mentioned above:
