From its humble beginnings as an online listing that provides clients with basic information about your company’s existence and location, Google My Business has evolved into a powerful marketing tool with a wide range of features and optimization options in the past few years.
Businesses are missing out on a huge opportunity, according to recent research; Google searches account for less than 1% of all traffic, and this resource is still mostly unexplored.
It would be foolish to leave this useful tool out in the cold when you consider how competitive the local SEO sector can be. Next, we’ll examine a handful of simple strategies to boost your Google My Business position and get control of your online presence.
Make use of every single option presented
We already touched on GMB’s evolution into a feature-rich marketing tool in the beginning. Make sure you’ve exhausted all possible possibilities before settling on one if you want to create an engaging web presentation that attracts visitors and improves your search engine rankings. Make sure you have entered all the necessary details first, such as:
- Postal Code
- Verified company name Contact information
- Business opening times
- Domain name
- Category for businesses (you can use multiple choices simultaneously)
- Adequate search terms
Once you’ve taken care of these basics, move on to the question and answer part, service description, breakdown of flagship products, and high-quality visual coverage.
Harness the power of your regional SEO framework
We mostly meant the optimization keywords when we said that. Now, you should already have a keyword plan in place, because local SEO is now seen as the foundation of digital marketing. If you want your online presentation to stand out more, feel free to incorporate these keywords and relevant insights. Search engine optimization (SEO) keywords can increase organic traffic to GMB posts just like they would to any other type of written content. Both of these forms of advertising can benefit from a more cohesive strategy that makes use of the same terms you use for local SEO.
Keeping an eye on traffic and acting on the insights
Everything you’ve worked for and invested in will be for naught if you shoot at night. Consequently, you should be aware of your GMB profile’s traffic generation, keyword ranking in the business search result ladder, etc., in order to maximize its potential. A professional local rank checker is a great place to start when looking for this kind of information, but there are many more resources available as well. You may also get a lot of useful information from the built-in GMB reporting tools. It is imperative that you act upon the information you obtain.
Make extensive use of the images
Using the photos superficially is a common error people make when creating their GMB profile. Put simply, their purpose is to showcase the brand’s logo, location, merchandise, or employees. Most of the time, people don’t click on these kinds of photos. However, if you want to increase traffic and rankings, try providing more engaging content like infographics or creative visual storytelling. Feel free to add as much content as you think is required; research shows that the more photos there are, the more actions customers do.
Maintain a consistent posting schedule for news, announcements, and sales
Customers don’t have much of a motivation to go deeper into Google My Business listings, which is one reason why they don’t attract enough attention and lead to purchases. By utilizing this influential and widely recognized platform, you can effortlessly sidestep this issue. Use it to share company news, public announcements, or even offer exclusive deals to viewers who come from this channel. To maximize the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, it is recommended that you provide such content on a regular basis, ensure that your messaging are aligned with your other marketing materials, and use links and calls to action.
Motivate people to read it and reply to it
Lastly, we’d like to bring to your attention the fact that user reviews are a highly effective social proof tool, influencing the purchase decisions of 93% of consumers based on recent polls. That being said, you should encourage your customers to do just that. Listings without reviews leave a far worse impression and inspire less trust than those with evaluations, even if the responses are unfavorable but handled professionally and quickly. Offering a variety of discounts or customer loyalty perks is a simple way to motivate your clients.
If you want to turn your Google My Business page into a marketing tool that boosts traffic, ranks higher in local SEO, and adds to your marketing portfolio, then follow these six easy and obvious steps. Most of these steps, as you can see, demand minimal input and even more reasonable expenditures, but they can yield enormous returns in the long run. You may then unleash their full potential and establish your business as a major player in the industry.
