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Google My Business Archives - London SEO Company, SEO Consultants, PPC Advertising Services London - FirstRank

Dec 16
0
google my business

Google My Business FAQs

By | Digital Marketing, Google, Online reputation, Website

Google My Business is a free tool for business owners to manage their online presence across Google Search and Google Maps. It helps your customers to find you when they search for a business like yours. Hence having a Google My Business page is an integral part of digital marketing. If you have not claimed your listing yet, do it now.

If you are a new business owner, or if you are new to Google My Business, you may have many questions. To answer all your queries, we are listing all the common Google My Business frequently asked questions, and answering them. Read this blog post, and get all the answers for your queries at one place. Here we go.

1. What is Google My Business Q&As?

Google wants to provide all the information at one place. A typical Google My Business page has information about opening and closing times, address, contact number, reviews, map, pictures, directions, link to the business website and business description. These are the most basic questions that potential customers try to find an answer before making a contact.

However, there can be some more questions that should be answered. For instance, whether the business has a parking space? Or is the business handicap friendly? So, Google has smartly come up with the GMB Q&As. Google My Business Questions and Answers are crowdsourced. In other words, anyone can question, and anyone can answer the question. The best part is that your customers will get to know your business more closely. In addition to that, you will know what are the consumer concerns and how to satisfy them.

2. How much does it cost?

Google My Business is absolutely free. Do not pay any kind of amount to any person. There are many scams that try to charge you for setting up your GMB page. Do not fall for these scams. Setting up Google My Business is as simple as creating a Facebook account. Adding the correct business name, phone number, address, description, pictures and videos, and other important details is all it takes to set up. The whole process is, simple, effortless, and less time-consuming. Even a person who is new to Google My Business can create his page within a couple of minutes.

3. Why do I need Google My Business If I already have my own website?

GMB is not a substitute for your website. Your website and Google My Business page, go hand in hand. So, having both a website and Google My business account can work in favor of you and improve your search engine optimization and other digital marketing efforts.

The main purpose of Google My Business is to give your local business a public identity and presence on Google, so that, when a customer searches for a business like yours reaches you. In simple words, the information you provide can appear on Google Search and Maps and help your website to get more exposure and customers. Since Google My Business costs nothing, there is no reason to ignore it.

4. Does Google My Business have a mobile app?

Yes, Google My Business has a mobile app, and it is free. And this is one of the reasons why people love GMB. The mobile app allows you to do everything you do in your web account. Here are the main features:
Edit or add new information directly through the Profile Editor.
Click photos and enhance them with a range of excellent filters, and post in your Profile.
Create posts for new events, offers, and launches.
Know who is interacting with your GMB profile, and continue the connection. You can do this by using Customer tab. A Customer tab allows you to respond to reviews, messages directly with customers.
So, it can be said that Google makes it easy to manage your Google My Business page by providing a free mobile application.

5. Do I need to create a business website?

No. It is not necessary to build a website to create a Google My Business page. However, it will be good if you own a website. Just like social media accounts or pages boost the visibility of your business website, Google My Business improves organic traffic.

The good news is that Google My Business offers you to generate a simple website for free. Google does this with the help of website builder, which uses the information present in Google My Business profile. Although this website will be a simple one, you can customize it to suit your business.

6. How do I manage multiple business locations?

This is one of the frequently asked Google My Business questions. Managing multiple business locations is easy with Google My Business. Based on the number of location, there are two methods. If there are few locations, you can set up every single location under one Google login. In case, if you have ten or more locations, you can use the bulk upload tool. A bulk upload tool is a tool which helps you to upload numerous business locations at once. If you want to upload or edit your locations, you can go to Google My Business Locations.

7. What should I do if my listing is claimed by someone else?

In rare cases, you can see a “someone else has already verified this listing” message when you try to verify your Google My Business listing. If this is the case, then you have nothing to worry. GMB gives you an option to reclaim your listing. All you need to do is a request for admin rights and submit a transfer of the ownership request. Google will try to contact the existing owner to verify the transfer. If the owner does not respond within the period of seven days, then the current owner is unverified, and a verification code is sent to confirm his or her identity.

8. I am an individual practitioner. Can I set up a Google My Business listing?

Yes, it is possible. In fact, Google My Business is more popular among local business and individual practitioners such as lawyers, tutors, doctors, dentists, real estate agents, carpenters, painters, electricians or plumbers. What if there are multiple practitioners who belong to a common organization at one location? Digital marketing experts usually advise creating a listing for all the practitioners separately, in such cases. Not doing so will affect the visibility of the individual practitioners of the same organization. As the result, having a listing will not serve the purpose of owning a listing.

9. Can I skip business address on Google as I work from home?

No, you cannot leave the address field blank. However, Google My Business provides an option that resolves this issue. That is you can hide your business address by listing your business as a service area. Google gives you an option to provide the areas and cities that you cover. You can also choose to remove a service area entirely. If you are not sure about the service area listed in the GMB listing, you can go now and update the location.

10. I am shifting to a new address. How to update?

In most cases, the new address might be occupied by a business before you. If this is the case, then you must find out who the business owner is and mark the listing as closed. Closing the old listing before updating your new address is important for two reasons. One, customers of old business will not mistake you for the old business in your new address. Two, your potential customers will contact you at the correct place. Once the address is changed, your other information can also change such as a phone number, and office hours. So update all the information.

What if your new address is not occupied by a former business? Well, this makes your work easy. The only thing you need to do is update your listing.

Dec 16
0
Google My Business

10 Tips To Rank Higher in Google My Business Listing

By | Link Building, Online reputation, Search Engine Optimizaion, Social Media

Did you know? If you search something on Google, no matter which browser you use, you are more likely to receive results based on your location. These local search results play an important role in building a bridge between you and your customers. As a result, your potential customer can easily find you and rate your business.

Google My Business, is a platform that helps you to achieve the aforementioned goals. In addition to that, it makes easy for the customers to find vital information such as address, business hours, close and open days, contact numbers, about the business, directions, and service information.

Hence, from a Local SEO point of view, it is critical to be listed in the GMB listing. However, just having a presence on Google My Business is not enough. You need to rank your page in the topmost position. Therefore, in this blog post, we are presenting top ten tricks to rank higher in Google My Business listing.

1. Create posts

Let us start with the most important tip. Very few people know that it is extremely vital to add a post in Google My Business. If you have not created any post yet, you can go to the “posts” section of the Google My Business app, and write a lengthy and informative post that is relevant to your business and audience. Furthermore, it is a good idea to provide the link to any page along with a photo and submit it. Once, the post is published, you can see them on your Google My Business listing.

2. Add labels

Labels feature help you to organize the location into the groups. You can search location by the labels you added, from the dashboard. In addition to that, you can use labels to filter location extensions in AdWords. Google My business gives you an opportunity to assign up to 10 unique labels for each location. Note that the length of the labels can be up to 50 characters, and invalid characters are not allowed to use. However, you can add commas. To add commas in the label, use the string “%2c.” For example, “5%2c000+ customers” would create the label “5,000+ customers.”

3. Write an in-depth description.

If you want to rank your local business high, you must write a detailed description. Now, that does not mean you have to write a bulky article of 2500 words. Keep the words of the description to a decent number, and try to cover almost all relevant information. Your description should contain all the information that your customers look for. Since local results are more driven towards the relevant information provided by the business owners, a detailed description can enhance Local SEO.

There is one more factor that is equally important. That is accuracy. Yes, Google expects you to add accurate information. When you do, you are rewarded. The Google My Business pages, which have accurate information, are prioritized over the others. This is because Google wants your customers to know you better.

4. Build a free Google My Business Website

Yes, Google can create a website for you for free. Google My Business comes with a website builder tool that helps you to create a website within a couple of minutes. All you have to do is sign in to your Google My Business page and click on the option of a website on your dashboard.

That is it. Google will automatically create a website by taking all the necessary information from your Google My Business account. Once the website is created, Google will ask you to choose a theme. SEO experts usually do not recommend business owners to use the websites like these. Google My Business websites are very basic and are only for the small-business owners who do not want to spend money on building a website.

5. Build backlinks

When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), backlinks are the deciding factor. They are considered one of the most important pillars of white hat SEO. The same thing is important for local search engine optimization. Do not go for quantity, instead strive for quality. Stuffing the websites with backlinks can do more damage than any good.

Build links via natural methods that do not violate Google webmaster guidelines. Quality link building takes time. Google understands this fact very well. If you build numerous links within a couple of days, Google will get suspicious and penalize you. In the worst case, your website might get deleted from the index.

6. Use keywords in the business name

Keywords tell a search engine when to display your website. So, without keywords, there is no search engine optimization. One of the easiest ways to rank your business locally is to use the keywords in the business name. Developing content only for the sake of giving words to your voice is not a good idea. You also need to optimize your content with keywords.

Before optimizing your content, it is really important to figure out what are the keywords. Keywords differ even if the two websites run the same business. So, carry out a proper keyword research to select the search terms that are relevant to your business. SEO experts usually recommend business owners to pick the keywords that improve the conversion rate.

7. Gain Google reviews

Not many people know that Google reviews influence search engine ranking. Yes, Google trusts your customers more than you. Reviews and star rating are the best ways to know the ground realities of a business. So, it is good to gain as many reviews as possible. There are many methods to increase the review count. Here are the most popular methods.
Send the follow-up emails with the link to the review page.
Encourage happy customers to leave a review.
Offer discount code for leaving a review.
Distribute prizes for the lucky reviewers.
Add the link to the review page on the home page and service page.
Make the whole process of posting a review simple and effortless.
Be calm and professional while responding to the reviews.
Share the links to the review page on the social media platforms.

8. Keep contact number and working hours up to date

In a business, it is not uncommon to change phone numbers, working hours, address, and other important information. So, make sure that all the information in your Google My Business profile stays up to date. These things make the work of the customers easy. They will come to know when you are open without calling you. The whole point here is that Google wants to reduce the work for the customers. When you do the same, Google does reward you indirectly. After all, Google, business owners, and SEO experts want to provide a good user-friendly experience to the visitors.

9. Upload high-quality photos

Just filling your Google My Business account with all the necessary details is not enough. Your profile is incomplete without pictures. Think like an audience. If you own a school, people will like to see how the playground, kindergarten, and classrooms look. They might also be interested in knowing the staff, and achievements of your school.

Google My Business gives you an opportunity to express more with the photos. Make sure that you add high-quality pictures that the potential customers are interested to see. Adding irrelevant pictures can put them off, and you might lose them at the beginning itself. So, if you have not added pics yet, get ready to tell your stories through the pictures.

10. Create multiple categories

Last but not least, it is very important to add categories. This helps both the audience and Google to know what kind of business you run. The main purpose of providing a feature to add multiple categories is to describe your business and establish a relationship with the customers. Let us take an example. If you are mutual funds, you can add categories such as mutual funds, finance, commerce, etc. Such categories impact local search engine ranking to a great extent.

Nov 01
0
Google My Business

How to Setup and Optimize Google My Business Listing

By | Google, Local SEO, Search Engine Optimizaion

Google My Business (GMB) is an amazing marketing tool which helps you to achieve powerful online presence. With GMB, your business will be found at right time and right place. To extract maximum benefit, it is very important to optimize your Google My Business listing.

1. Keep Your NAP and Other Information Up To Date

NAP is nothing but Name, Address and Phone number. Keep all the information up to date and same across all directories, so that no confusion is created. With unclear or old NAP, you lose all your potential customers trying to contact you. Beginners usually fail to notice map listing. Make sure that pin placed over the map is at accurate location.

2. Verify Your Account

 Verified accounts are reliable and usually gain higher ranking. A verified account reflects professionalism and easily builds trust. There are multiple ways to verify your Google My Business page:

  • Via Postcard
  • Via Phone
  • Via Instant Verification
  • Via Bulk verification

3. Select Suitable Categories For Business

Google now allows you to select more than one category for your business and has expanded category section by adding many new and relevant categories. Choose appropriate and specific categories for your business. This reflects the services you provide and help Google to direct your business to probable customers effectively.

4. Hire a Professional For Images

With images, your potential customers will get a better idea about your business and things you do. It is advised to take help from a professional, so that your images’ exhibit professionalism and builds your brand.

  • Upload high-quality profile and cover photos, which display what your business/company is about.
  • Create a 360° virtual tour of your business place.
  • Make a logo for your business, so that people can easily identify you.
  • Add additional photos, which display different features and areas of your company.

5. Specify Accurate Business Hours

 Google My Business allows you to mention opening hours as well as special hours. Letting your customers know when you are available is important. Mention business hours and special hours accurately, so that a customer doesn’t have to make a call for knowing the status of your store.

6. Get Reviews

 Just like an app in the Google play store, your business will be judged on the ratings and reviews of your customers. Gently ask satisfied customers to review your business on Google. Getting a good review adds credibility and brings more business. Keep replying to your reviews. For negative reviews, be friendly and ensure better experience in the future.

7. Embedded Google Map on Contact Page

Your contact page is not complete unless you add embedded Google Map to it. It helps your visitors and potential clients to know your physical location without leaving your website. It is easy to add embedded Google Map.

  1. Go to Google Maps and find your store.
  2. Besides your store name in the search bar, there will be a menu button (look for three horizontal lines), click on it.
  3. A panel will open up in left. Click on “share or embedded map.”
  4. A pop-up box will be displayed. Click on “embedded map.”
  5. Copy the iframe code and paste it on your contact page.

8. Payment Methods

It is a good practice to mention payment options, which you accept at your business. It is advised to provide diverse payment options, so that customer has the freedom and experiences a user-friendly atmosphere.

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