9 Ways to Avoid Mistakes With Your Google My Business Listing

Are you try­ing to increase your online busi­ness pres­ence? The best way to get the most out of Google My Busi­ness ben­e­fits is to avoid mis­takes that will derail your busi­ness list­ing. It is an impor­tant piece of your dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy since it is the first place your cus­tomers will look to find the most up-to-date infor­ma­tion about your busi­ness. If you’re con­sid­er­ing cre­at­ing a list­ing, you’ll want to imple­ment these Google My Busi­ness tips to avoid com­mon mis­takes that can decrease your web­site traf­fic. The more time you spend revis­ing your list­ing, the bet­ter your chances of increas­ing inter­est in your busi­ness and even­tu­al­ly your revenue. 

Google My Business Tips to Avoid Mistakes

Google My Busi­ness ben­e­fits are numer­ous when you take the time to per­fect your list­ing. Although increas­ing your effort into an online busi­ness list­ing can seem time-con­sum­ing and tedious, you should pri­or­i­tize spe­cif­ic areas con­sis­tent­ly to max­i­mize ben­e­fits like busi­ness cat­e­gories, new fea­tures, review respons­es, and user and Google-gen­er­at­ed updates. Reg­u­lar­ly updat­ing these areas will ensure your busi­ness is por­trayed accu­rate­ly for high­er Google rank­ings and cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion. By using these Google My Busi­ness tips to avoid these crit­i­cal mis­takes, you’ll be ahead of the competition: 

1. Wrong busi­ness cat­e­go­ry — While set­ting up your Google My Busi­ness account, you’ll have to choose a busi­ness cat­e­go­ry that coin­cides with the type of busi­ness you run. Select­ing the cor­rect cat­e­go­ry is an impor­tant step in ensur­ing that your busi­ness is found in Google search results. This may seem like a straight­for­ward step, but for some busi­ness­es, this may be more chal­leng­ing. If you choose the incor­rect cat­e­go­ry, you may be penalized. 
2. Incor­rect busi­ness hours — Adver­tis­ing the cor­rect busi­ness hours online is just as impor­tant as dis­play­ing the cor­rect busi­ness hours for a brick-and-mor­tar loca­tion. The dif­fer­ence is that cus­tomers will look to Google to find oper­at­ing hours first before arriv­ing at the des­ti­na­tion. It’s in every busi­ness owner’s inter­est to post the cor­rect busi­ness hours. When cus­tomers Google your busi­ness, the search engine will advise them whether your busi­ness is open or not. If hours are incor­rect and cus­tomers arrive at your door while doors are locked, any neg­a­tive expe­ri­ence will be passed on to you in the form of penalties. 
3. For­get­ting cus­tomer reviews — One of the most impor­tant Google My Busi­ness tips is to pay close atten­tion to cus­tomer reviews. Cus­tomers are your biggest adver­tis­ing asset, and a busi­ness with poor rat­ings will be placed near the end of the search results. You want to make sure your busi­ness is receiv­ing four to 5‑star pos­i­tive reviews con­sis­tent­ly to move your rank­ings towards the top of Google search results. Pos­i­tive reviews are help­ful across any social media plat­form you use, but pri­or­i­tiz­ing Google My Busi­ness reviews will help you opti­mize for local searches.
4. Incom­plete list­ing — If you’re think­ing, “My Google busi­ness list­ing is wrong,” you’re prob­a­bly right. Incor­rect or incom­plete list­ings can do dam­age to your busi­ness rep­u­ta­tion that you’ve worked hard to build. Some­thing as sim­ple as mak­ing sure your list­ing is com­plete with­out errors can go a long way. Your Google My Busi­ness list­ing should clear­ly com­mu­ni­cate every­thing about your busi­ness with noth­ing left assumed or guessed. The most impor­tant ele­ments that your list­ing should include are loca­tion, what your busi­ness does, and how they can pur­chase your goods or services. 
5. No key­words — With­out key­words, your busi­ness list­ing can become invis­i­ble. Your pro­file should include impor­tant key­words and search phras­es that will help you rank. Max­i­mize the Google My Busi­ness ben­e­fits that come with being tied to your busi­ness web­site. By using key­words in the busi­ness descrip­tion in com­bi­na­tion with local posts, you’ll be adding search val­ue to your pro­file to rank high­er in search results.
6. No pho­tos or videos — Poten­tial cus­tomers will be look­ing for you online and may not have seen your busi­ness before. One of the most valu­able Google My Busi­ness tips is to include your logo. It is essen­tial for brand­ing and vis­i­bil­i­ty efforts because you want cus­tomers to asso­ciate your logo with your busi­ness. Make a deep­er con­nec­tion imme­di­ate­ly by using pho­tos and videos that show­case your busi­ness behind the scenes or spe­cial prod­ucts and ser­vices. Uti­lize Google’s Vir­tu­al Tour for increased brand awareness. 
7. No local posts — Google My Busi­ness posts can be a high­ly impact­ful way to spread the word about your new offers, events, and ser­vices direct­ly to Google Search and Maps! All posts should be respect­ful and visu­al­ly appeal­ing with links to trust­ed web­sites. By using Google My Busi­ness posts, you’ll keep your tar­get audi­ence updat­ed with fresh and rel­e­vant infor­ma­tion about your busi­ness in real-time!
8. No prod­uct cat­a­log — If you are a mer­chant, you nev­er want to think, “My Google busi­ness list­ing is wrong” or incom­plete with­out a prod­uct cat­a­log that show­cas­es your offer­ings. Some oth­er help­ful Google My Busi­ness tips for cre­at­ing a great prod­uct cat­a­log include: 
   • Use Google My Busi­ness Prod­uct Edi­tor to show­case your products. 
   • Most small and medi­um-sized busi­ness­es are eligible.
   • Pro­vide infor­ma­tion about prod­uct pric­ing, details, and pho­tos to increase cus­tomer engage­ment and interest.
9.  No com­mu­ni­ca­tion — Allow cus­tomers to direct­ly com­mu­ni­cate with you by using the Google My App. You can auto­mate and cus­tomize mes­sages to wel­come cus­tomers imme­di­ate­ly. This fea­ture is espe­cial­ly help­ful to improve and main­tain busi­ness respon­sive­ness. To max­i­mize the busi­ness per­for­mance of your Google My Busi­ness list­ing, ensure that your respons­es are under 24 hours.

My Google Business Listing is Wrong

We’ve heard this from many busi­ness own­ers and have helped them with Google My Busi­ness Tips that increase rev­enue and web­site traf­fic. Our inte­grat­ed approach to dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing is strate­gic and focused. With over 20 years in the busi­ness, we infuse the high-qual­i­ty of a big firm expe­ri­ence with indi­vid­u­al­ized client ser­vice to pro­duce the best results. 

We are an award-win­ning mar­ket­ing agency rec­og­nized for per­for­mance excel­lence and exper­tise. If you lack the time and resources to imple­ment these tips, we can help—partner with us for your next busi­ness project to free up your valu­able time. 

Call today for a free mar­ket­ing audit to get started!