Your Essential Guide to Google My Business (GMB)

We work with clients every­day by help­ing them reach their goals through strate­gic SEO max­i­miza­tion. One of the most impor­tant ways to raise the vis­i­bil­i­ty of your busi­ness is through local SEO. This is the best way to ser­vice your local geo­graph­ic area and ensure prospec­tive cus­tomers and clients know where to find you. We pro­vide expert guid­ance on how to get on Google and use it to your advan­tage. The objec­tive is for your name to appear at the top of search results when some­one is look­ing for ser­vices you pro­vide online. This can be accom­plished using GMB, also known as Google My Business. 

What is GMB? 

This free tool is avail­able to busi­ness­es look­ing to man­age their online pres­ence through Google’s var­i­ous appli­ca­tions like Google Maps, Google Search, Google Ads, and much more. Over 3.5 mil­lion search­es are con­duct­ed on Google every­day, with over 50% of online traf­fic com­ing from mobile devices. GMB can help improve your brand pres­ence and dri­ve traf­fic to your website. 

When was the last time you searched a busi­ness using your mobile phone? Around a ⅓ of all Google search­es con­duct­ed by phone are relat­ed to the loca­tion of a busi­ness. More than half of all Google search­es in gen­er­al are made by phone, mak­ing it more impor­tant than ever for your prospec­tive cus­tomers and clients to eas­i­ly find your busi­ness. We can pro­vide guid­ance on how to get on Google and con­nect with new cus­tomers on a dai­ly basis. 

Benefits of GMB

There are a num­ber of ben­e­fits asso­ci­at­ed with using GMB effec­tive­ly as part of your SEO mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy. Mobile use is becom­ing increas­ing­ly pop­u­lar and a cov­et­ed space for busi­ness­es to adver­tise their ser­vices and offerings. 

• Man­age­ment — When users look you up on Google search results, you want to make sure they see the infor­ma­tion you want them too. This can include an expla­na­tion of the prod­ucts and ser­vices you offer and oth­er rel­e­vant infor­ma­tion you want to share. Tak­ing the steps to ver­i­fy your busi­ness loca­tion and infor­ma­tion on GMB will make you twice as like­ly to be regard­ed as a rep­utable and trust­wor­thy business. 
• Inter­ac­tion — Iden­ti­fy­ing your busi­ness loca­tion through GMB will give past and cur­rent cus­tomers and clients the chance to pro­vide feed­back and reviews with pho­tos. There is no more pow­er­ful mar­ket­ing tool than first hand expe­ri­ence from indi­vid­u­als who have inter­act­ed with your busi­ness and can show off how great your busi­ness is. You can also respond to feed­back whether it is pos­i­tive or neg­a­tive. When pho­tos are added to your GMB pro­file, you are 42% more like­ly to receive requests for direc­tions to your loca­tion on Google Maps and 35% more clicks on your website. 
• Analy­sis — Col­lect­ing data and insights on who is search­ing for your busi­ness online is price­less. It is a great way to pin­point where your cus­tomers are com­ing from and who is call­ing your busi­ness from your pro­file. Under­stand­ing your cus­tomer behav­ior gives you the abil­i­ty to devel­op more tar­get­ed mar­ket­ing approach­es to increase your brand vis­i­bil­i­ty and reach those look­ing for you faster. 

Creating and Maintaining Your GMB Presence

There are a num­ber of use­ful tools that GMB offers. They are all geared towards main­tain­ing a strong online pres­ence and are espe­cial­ly valu­able for any busi­ness­es that are fre­quent­ly searched for includ­ing retail, tourism, and hos­pi­tal­i­ty indus­tries. Some use­ful fea­tures to explore are: 

• Dash­board — For full con­trol of your busi­ness pres­ence, GMB pro­vides a dash­board where you can man­age all of the var­i­ous fea­tures for easy navigation. 
• Posts — Using GMB to get the word out about your busi­ness is a sig­nif­i­cant advan­tage when peo­ple search for your loca­tion online. When they find your loca­tion on their phone or desk­top com­put­er, they can read about recent news, updates, upcom­ing events, or oth­er per­ti­nent details your cus­tomers may be inter­est­ed in. There are sev­er­al types of posts you can add to your pro­file including: 
• New — COVID relat­ed infor­ma­tion for your busi­ness or new devel­op­ments in your business.
• Events — Tell prospec­tive cus­tomers about new events com­ing up that they may be inter­est­ed in attending.
• Offers — Every­one loves dis­counts and spe­cial offers! Share pro­mo­tion­al items and sales with cus­tomers look­ing for your business. 
• Prod­ucts — When cus­tomers look you up, inform them about the prod­ucts you offer. 
• Hours of oper­a­tion update - Keep your cus­tomers updat­ed on new or adjust­ed busi­ness hours. 
• Info — You can add and edit the busi­ness details in this sec­tion like your name, cat­e­go­ry busi­ness, busi­ness name, your address, and hours of operation. 
• Insights — Busi­ness insights can be valu­able tools when it comes to devel­op­ing effec­tive mar­ket­ing strate­gies. The Google My Busi­ness insights show infor­ma­tion about how cus­tomers are search­ing for your busi­ness, most pop­u­lar unique queries for your busi­ness, where cus­tomers are view­ing your search on Google, what actions cus­tomers are tak­ing when they click on your list­ing, what phone calls are made, and what pho­tos are viewed. 
• Reviews — This Google My Busi­ness sec­tion is for read­ing and respond­ing to cus­tomer reviews. It’s espe­cial­ly impor­tant to respond to neg­a­tive reviews so that the customer’s con­cerns are prop­er­ly addressed and it shows responsiveness. 
• Pho­tos and videos — You can add pho­tos and videos about your busi­ness in this sec­tion. Dis­play­ing visu­als of staff, loca­tion, and behind the scenes oper­a­tions will show cus­tomers what they can expect from your business. 
• Prod­ucts and ser­vices — This sec­tion allows you to clar­i­fy what your busi­ness offers. 

Before using GMB posts, you’ll need to ver­i­fy your busi­ness loca­tion and account. It’s best to check your dash­board to ensure that this fea­ture is avail­able. Google lim­its which busi­ness­es are able to use this fea­ture. It’s best to keep these posts brief but engag­ing. Know­ing how to get on Google and make it work for you is both an art and a science. 

We are GMB Experts 

What is GMB with­out oth­er SEO ele­ments and mar­ket­ing ini­tia­tives? Google My Busi­ness is only a small part of a pow­er­ful mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy. For over 20 years, we’ve cre­at­ed mul­ti — faceted inte­grat­ed mar­ket­ing cam­paigns that com­bine pub­lic rela­tions, mul­ti — media, brand­ing, SEO, web devel­op­ment, direct mail, and many more mar­ket­ing resources that gen­er­ate rev­enue. We under­stand that mar­ket­ing is a cumu­la­tive effect and are com­mit­ted to the process of improv­ing your busi­ness vis­i­bil­i­ty over the long run. As one of the most trust­ed dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing agen­cies in Fort Laud­erdale, we are pas­sion­ate about help­ing small busi­ness­es, espe­cial­ly post COVID. We know how to con­nect you to new customers! 

Give us a call today for a free mar­ket­ing assess­ment to get started.