Why do I need a Google My Business account and how to rank highly?

Why do I need a Google My Business account and how to rank highly?

Why do I need a Google My Business account?

A Google My Business account allows you to claim ownership of your business profile on Google. This unlocks free features which help to increase your business’s visibility, thereby increasing calls, emails and visits to your website. And best of all? It is completely free to set up and manage!

1. Engage with your customers by responding to reviews, enabling direct messages and answering FAQs. You can also post updates in the same way as you would on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram. 
2. Provide a better level of customer service by making key information about your business readily available. Your GMB profile should show your contact telephone number, email address, website URL, opening hours and other relevant information. 
3. Gain insights into your local search performance in the analytics tab of the platform. You can see which search terms people used to find your business, what actions they took on your profile and whether they found you via search or maps. 

How do I make sure my profile ranks highly?

In the same way as Google ranks websites and ads, it also ranks Google My Business profiles. There are tactics you can employ to boost the ranking of your GMB profile to make sure it appears when people are searching for matching queries locally. Google relies on targeting, quality of information and trust to ensure that it delivers the right information to its users. 

Targeting

With this in mind, use your relevant keywords in your business description, FAQs and responses to reviews to help tell Google what you are trying to rank for. For example, if you are a Chiropractor, make sure words such as “pain relief”, “experienced chiropractor” and “chronic pain” feature throughout your profile. 

Quality of information 

Make sure your profile is complete, with no missing information. Particularly important factors are your business description, contact information and opening hours. 

Trust 

Build trust with both your audience and Google by regularly updating your Google My Business profile with up to date imagery and news posts. Encourage new reviews and make sure you respond to them all; the good, the bad and the ugly! Sign up to our Business Growth Toolkit emailing list for tips on how to encourage new reviews. 

Google My Business account set-up is included in our “Get Online” package.