Google Business Profile Optimisation & Management
GBP Audit
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Google Business Profile
Essential For All Service Area Businesses
A Google Business Profile (formerly known most recently as a Google My Business Listing) Is in our experience one of the most under-utilised features on the internet today by both customers and even some digital marketing agencies working on behalf of their clients.
A GBP listing is your chance to communicate with your potential new customers and Google itself and it’s one of the best tools for your brand and exposure online to boost your company’s profile and enhance your business visibility in the search engines.
Did you know your Google Business Profile shows up on the right-hand side of the search engines every time someone types your business name into Google?
Already Have A GBP Listing And Got It Covered?
Congratulations if you have but just having a Google Business Profile is different to having a Google business profile account.
Once you create your GBP account you can claim ownership of it and from there, you can customise it with the editing functions available to you. The standard profiles are created by Google and populated with information it finds on the internet and may not represent your business in the way you would ideally like.
If you want potential clients and Google to understand your business, this is a fantastic place to start. You can customise your Google Business Profile and manage the information displayed within both the Google search results and the Map sections.
And guess what? The better Google understands your business, the more prominent it will display your business profile. When your Google Business Profile is managed effectively, it will only result in one thing, more new customers coming your way.
What Does A Managed GMB Listing Do?
A well-optimised GMB listing (especially an old one) can get free organic traffic from the search engine results page by appearing in the map sections displayed for location-based searches.
Plus, It perfectly represents your company to people and customers who already know who you are. It can give opening times, link to your website or eCommerce shopping carousel, give directions to your address and basically represents your whole business profile in the search engine results page (SERP) - this is called the knowledge pane where all this info is present. It’s invaluable for conversions and brand recognition plus it massively boosts local SEO.
Already Have A GBP Listing And Got It Covered?
Congratulations if you have but just having a Google Business Profile is different to having a Google business profile account.
Once you create your GBP account you can claim ownership of it and from there, you can customise it with the editing functions available to you. The standard profiles are created by Google and populated with information it finds on the internet and may not represent your business in the way you would ideally like.
Having a business profile is not the same as having a GMB account. The creation of a GMB account claims ownership of your business profile and allows you to edit it. A standard business profile is basic and automatically populated by Google in search results for both Google and Google maps. Google will take information from the web and insert your business name, location and business categories.
Clients will naturally leave reviews of your product and services. It is amazing how many GMB listings are still even in 2022, out there unclaimed by business owners. Without a Google My Business account in place to claim ownership of the Google-generated listing, you are unable to reply to reviews, add photos and videos of your business or edit it in any way.
Google may have pulled information from a directory or site that contains information that may no longer be accurate about your business. Your opening hours may be incorrect and causing you to miss out on valuable customers and opportunities.
How We Use Your Google My Business To Give You Even More Value
Using Your Google Business Profile Account To Advertise Locally
Your Google Business profile account is a great tool to connect and interact with your new and existing customers. You can answer questions, receive and reply to messages and respond to reviews placed by previous customers.
Through your Google Business Profile dashboard, you can also push updates from your GBP account through to your business profile very easily.
Personalise Your Google Business Profile
You can really bring your profile to life and stand out from your competitors by showcasing the best features and unique selling points of your business. You can include links to your website, cover photo and photos of your business. If you have won any business awards, this is a great place to display them proudly. Video is very effective on this platform both on the listing itself and within the posts section. Add in your business opening hours and company logo to ensure you create the very best of first impressions in Google’s search engine results.
Google Business Profile Insights
In the same way that for SEO & Google Ads, you use Google Analytics and Search Console to gain more understanding of your customer behaviour (among many other things) With your Google Business Profile you can analyse data to understand customer behaviour and trends.
You can view keywords used to find your listing both for maps and search, see the location demographics for the users and see how many called you from your listing or requested directions to your place of business. You can also see how many of the users that found your listing went on to visit your website.
Another useful feature shows you how your listing stacks up against your local competitors which will give you a very good gauge of where you need to improve performance to gain more market share.
Google Business Profile & Local SEO
Your GMB listing should be the cornerstone of your local SEO campaign. At Precision Digital we always include working on your Google Business profile as part of any local SEO campaign we are responsible for. For example, if we are working on a local Timber Flooring campaign, we will also be creating content on your Google Business Profile and posting content that links to the corresponding page on your website. We want both the website and the Google Business Profile to be working together to capture and convert as much local traffic as possible for our valuable clients.
WHAT INFORMATION DO I NEED TO INCLUDE IN MY GOOGLE BUSINESS PROFILE?
Your Google Business Profile is a golden opportunity for you to help Google to understand your business. We would recommend you complete every possible field within your Google Business profile account. Google likes it when you play with its toys and your Google Business Listing is certainly one of those.
Standard Google Business Profiles need to display the most important information concerning your business as it appears in search engines. So as a bare minimum it needs to include:
- NAP – Name, Address & Phone Number
- Business Operating Hours
- A link to your website
- Health & Safety
- Service Options
- Professional photos
- Reviews
A standard GBP business listing needs to make the most important information about your business available at a single glance. It should include:
- Your businesses name and location (full address)
- Phone number
- Alternate contact information such as an email
- A link to your website
- Operating hours
- Professional photos
- Reviews
There is no magic formula to getting your Google Business Profile to rank above your competitors. However, completing those fields mentioned above and every other section that you can fill in accurately will certainly help. Generating as genuine 5 Star reviews as possible, regularly creating content posts, updating professional images and adding videos will certainly help.
As with all things Google, Google wants to ensure the best quality experience for its searchers. So, if you are providing everything you can think of that would interest your customers and showcase what your business can provide them with, then you are approaching things correctly.
In certain respects, you should treat your Google Business profile in a similar way to your Facebook profile due to the posting feature it has. You can even share your content posts to your Facebook, Twitter & Email marketing and we recommend that you do to reach the largest audiences possible. The social signals gained here will also contribute to a highly successful local SEO campaign.
As we already know Google wants to provide its searchers with the best search experience. What it also loves is new content and updated information!
So here are some things you should focus on:
Sales, Offers & promotions
If you have a new sale, special offer or seasonal promotion, post content about it regularly and to reach an even larger audience, share it to other platforms.
Your Products
Add all the relevant details about the products and services you provide using the product tab. Searches will then be able to view information on the specifications, see images of everything you supply and can then see the benefits your business provides for them.
Update Your Information
If you have a new product or service that you are introducing, update your Google Business Profile with this information and consider sharing this with content posts. Adding new relevant images to your profile is always well received by Google and it’s always a good thing to be active.
Events & Other Items of Interest
If your business is hosting an event or attending one, sharing this through your Google Business Profile is the way to go. Include all the pertinent information including the name, date and time and a description of what it’s all about.
Many businesses do great things for the charities of their choice and these types of events are generally well received and attract a lot of views from people who you might not have reached with your business otherwise. Your events don’t just have to be about the business per say and if your business gets involved in other types of events to benefit others, publish this too to help them even more!
Digital Marketing Agencies and Consultants often create content calendars for social media. Content is prepared in advance and scheduled to be published at various intervals. it’s a very good idea to practice this with your Google Business listing too.
Content posts are only visible for 7 days which is why at Precision Digital, we produce weekly content posts for all our SEO, Google Ads & Google Business Profile clients, ensuring that they are always relevant to the search engines.
The data provided by your Google Business Profile within your dashboard will show you everything you need to know to continually improve performance.
When looked at by a professional Digital Marketing Consultant or SEO Specialists like us here at Precision Digital - we can give you a full understanding of the keywords and how to get the most from your new favourite digital marketing tool.
Google Business Profile FAQ's
How does my Google Business Profile connect with my local SEO?
GBP is an intrinsic part of your local SEO and should be the cornerstone of any local SEO campaign for service area businesses. If you are offering professional services like a tradesman in Newcastle for example, then you want your Google Business profile working in tandem with your website to produce great results in both the local pack and the organic search engines targeting the area or areas you work in.
Your GBP enables you to enhance your reputation through the positive reviews you garner and by creating content that’s relevant to the keywords and services you provide which will have a positive effect on your local organic rankings too if your SEO Agency is also doing everything else correctly.
Ensuring your NAP (Name, Address & Phone Number) is on all relevant local directories and citations, in the same format, will also help your GBP appear more consistently in both maps and search for local search queries like “Renovation Builder Newcastle” or “Electrician Near Me” And it will also help your SEO agency in their quest to rank your on page one in organic search.
With 46% of all internet searches being local searches, like the example keywords above, local search should not be underestimated, and it becomes more competitive by the day.
This means your SEO Consultant really needs to use every tool at its disposal to produce results. A well-optimised, populated and regularly updated Google Business Profile is a huge asset that can increase your local SEO results tenfold.
How Does A Managed GBP Grow My Business?
If you have a service area business, a well-optimised Google Business Profile can be expertly optimised for 16 different areas that your business services.
When you have a professional Digital Marketing Consultant working on the profile on your behalf, they will help you with your reviews, adding photos and videos, updating new products and services and creating exceptional content for both your website and GBP aimed at driving engagement and enquiries.
The content created in your Google Business Profile posts will be designed to make your potential new clients click on it and improve your overall click through rate which will also help with your local SEO organic results.
With the right optimisation strategies being employed, your GBP will show more often in the search and maps and you will receive more enquiries because your visibility increases greatly.
Google wants exceptional search results for its users, by optimising and populating your listing with all the required fields completed and post activity happening, it will feature your business more.
Precision Digital has SEO consultants, Google Ads specialists and professional Digital Marketing experts that have years of experience with all of Google’s tools and use them to grow our clients’ businesses exponentially.
Here are a couple of very recent examples of improvements we have made to clients Google Business Profile results within the first month of their campaigns.
How Much Does A Google Business Profile Cost?
Unlike your website, email systems and virtually every other tool, product or service out there that’s any use at all, Google Business Profiles are completely free!!! Google doesn’t charge you at all for your GBP. You might ask yourself why that is.
At the risk of sounding boring by repeating this message, Google wants to provide searchers with the ultimate search experience. This is the same for everything Google-related. Google Ads, SEO and every other aspect of what you see on the page when you search.
With that in mind providing you with a free listing for your business, it works toward Google’s quest. If you or a Digital Marketing Consultant or SEO Agency claims the listing and then corrects it and optimises the listing, it then improves the accuracy of the results that appear in front of the end user, your potential customer.
Then you or a consultant or agency get more involved by posting more content on the web and Google wins again. As everyone in Digital Marketing will tell you (Whether they can write or not 😉)
Google loves fresh and unique new content!
The only costs you will incur when it comes to your GBP is when it comes to hiring specialists to help with correcting the initial set-up of your listing and the work in the ongoing management of the listing and the content creation involved.
There is also updating the listing, adding images, and videos, replying to reviews where required and the time that it takes to analyse the performance and the research of your competitors.
When we correct the initial set-up, it ensures that you become more visible and that the content we create is seen in the right locations that your business serves, in order to help you grow your business.
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