Gone are the days you would shuffle through yellow pages in search of a business, only to find that the location had changed! According to 99 Firms, 72% of customers searching online for businesses visit them within five miles of their search radius.
With the advent of search engines and the internet, the business advertising approach changed. This is a result of the digital transformation known as Google My Business Listing. After verifying your Business and entering your Business’s correct contact details, your Business will appear on Google search and maps.
Google My Business is not only a place to find basic information about your Business. It’s also a powerful tool that can increase your business revenue and give insights about your customers. Learn more ways that SEO companies in Thousand Oaks, CA can help you optimize Google My Business for SEO in 2023.
1. Verify your Business
You need a GMB account to optimize your Google My Business listing. Follow the link from Google and create an account. Provide all the basic information required, such as business name, location etc.
Note that filling in all the details correctly to get preference in ranking. Then, you can choose to do verification via post, email or mobile phone. After which, you will receive a 5-digit verification code that you enter to proceed to use the Google my Business Listing.
2. Enter all Details on the Google My Business Account Section
When verification is complete, it’s time to optimize Google My Business profile. First, you must provide every business information that may put you in front of searchers. Providing more information gives you a better ranking and makes it easy to reach potential clients.
There are three factors to consider as you complete the section. These are proximity, business relevance and popularity. In essence, you want to give Google reasons to put you first.
3. Enter Correct and Updates Contact Details
Contact details include more than the business phone number. It involves a few more things that you need to consider.
- Ensure that you use the same address on all your online accounts. In case of any changes, ensure that you update them timely, so there is consistency,
- Enter the correct phone contact that is on at all times. A direct number is preferable.
- Enter the business working hours to ensure that walk-ins are taken care of.
4. Write a Proper Business Description
A proper business description is important as it details what you do for potential clients. From the review section, you can add descriptions of your Business. However, keep a few things in mind to optimize the description.
- The character limit on the section is 750; hence ensure that you cover all the crucial information about your Business in the first 300 words.
- You must consider 1 or 2 highly targeted keywords in the description. It’s tempting to overwhelm the description with many keywords but keep the density in check.
- Note that you do not need to add your website link here.
5. Update and Publish Google Posts Weekly
As in your social media accounts, Google allows you to post content to your Google My Business account. Take advantage of this opportunity and post the most relevant information about your Business, such as new offers or sales.
On your Google My Business dashboard, you can publish posts that help to optimize your visibility and ranking. Here are a few tricks to ensure you do it right.
- Note that some posts last up to a week. Hence you must frequently post to gain the attention of Google.
- Take advantage of this opportunity and post on your current offers and sales. It’s a good trigger for people that follow your business profiles.
- Add links to your business posts.
6. Upload Photos Frequently
As you update the weekly posts to the page, ensure that you also upload photos from our Business. Photos act as proof of operations. In addition, clients are more likely to visit your Business when they see photos of it.
To optimize your Google my Business profile, use these tricks as you update your photos:
- Use your logo as a thumbnail
- Add a captivating cover photo. However, Google will automatically select a photo based on search queries
- Never upload graphically edited or stock photos
- Only upload photos with great image quality
- Always use Geo-tag on your photos
- Include a 360-degree street view
- Provide a video of your Business
7. Ask and Respond to Reviews
If you think about it, reviews affect the decisions of potential clients. As a ranking algorithm, Google weighs on the reviews and ratings; hence you need to pay special attention to this section. SEO companies in Thousand Oaks will give you a few tricks to help with your reviews, such as:
- Request for reviews from loyal customers
- Share reviews from happy customers
- Always respond to the reviews and express gratitude to the reviewers.
Investing in a Google My Business account gives your business an edge in the online scene. Ensure that you add as much information as possible and quality photos and videos. In addition, you must regularly log in to your Google My Business dashboard.
Make weekly updates while ensuring that all business information is up to date. You will be amazed at how this online presence can help scale up your business revenue as it attracts new customers.