How do people find your business? When someone searches for a place near their location, Google shows Maps and Search results based on ranking.
“I want to look for a Korean restaurant”; I will type Korean restaurants from the search engine bar. Google will suggest “Korean restaurants near me” to show you the kind of nearby restaurants that you might like to consider.
As a business owner, you want to improve your business’s local ranking, so you use Google Business Profile, or “Google My Business,” as it was formerly called. Updating your business information will improve your visibility. Some businesses don’t show up in the relevant search in the local area because your basic business information is incomplete.
Businesses create a Google business listing to gain more visibility on Google. If you’re a business owner, you might not realize that creating a Business Profile doesn’t give you control over it. If you like your business profile, you need those command and editing capabilities to perform as a practical lead generation and SEO tool.
So how do you gain control over your Google Business Profile? The answer is that, in addition to creating a free Business Profile, you must also separately create a free Google Business Profile account for that profile.
Google Business Profile Desktop Search View
Creating a Business Profile is similar to adding a place to Google Maps— anyone can do it. It requires a business name, location, and category. Once Google confirms it is not a duplicate, they will create the Business Profile for that location.
The Business Profile is then open to consumers to leave reviews, add their photos, ask questions, and answer questions. The Business Profile may also get populated with information that Google pulls in from across the web.
A business Profile can exist on its own, apart from a Google Business Profile account. And whether you created your Business Profile or not, you can’t manage the information it displays or the reviews it collects.
That is where Google Business Profile comes in. By creating a Google Business Profile account, you can access, customize, manage, and enhance your Business Profile on Google, all still for free.
Mobile Search View
LOCAL MARKETING: USING GOOGLE BUSINESS PROFILE
So Google Business Profile is not your Business Profile but rather a tool by which you enhance your Business Profile – how you can boost its visibility and effectiveness.
Engage with consumers
There are many ways consumers can interact with your Business Profile – use your Google Business Profile account to engage back with them. You can respond to reviews, answer questions, enable direct messaging, and set up associated alerts. You can even useGoogle Business Profile to publish posts to your Business Profile, much like you would with Facebook and other social media platforms.
Your Google Business Profile dashboard is where you can respond to reviews, publish posts, and answer questions asked on your Business Profile.
Highlight your business
A Business Profile alone contains limited information about your business. But through your Google Business Profile account dashboard, you can provide business hours, a website link, products, pricing, attributes, and details that make your business unique. You may use your Google Business Profile to edit and update your business.
A complete Business Profile offers a complete snapshot of your business, including its best features, right in the SERP.
Gain insights
You can use the Google Business Profile dashboard to gain critical insights into your audience and local search performance. In the analytics tab of the platform, you can see the questions customers are using to find your Business Profile. Whether they found you on Google Maps or Google Search, a breakdown of actions taken on your listing and how your photos perform compared to other profiles in your category.
Take note: There are ways to track clicks from a Business Profile via UTM parameters and Google Analytics.
Perform local SEO
Just as Google has algorithms for ranking its ads and websites, it also has one for ranking Business Profiles. You can incorporate keywords into your Business Profile and perform other optimizations to help it rank in local results through your Google Business Profile dashboard, which we will cover next.
Google Business Profile can help you optimize your Business Profile to show up in the coveted 3-Pack.
How to use Google Business Profile for SEO
Google Business Profiles are dynamic. Not only do they change form based on the platform, but Google will also prioritize sections of your profile according to the term that most users searched and the type of information most important to consumers in your category.
Google will encourage keywords in the content of your profile that it thinks are relevant.
But there needs to be informed about prioritizing and keywords to encourage in your profile in the first place. Just as you (or your agency) would use a content management system like WordPress to optimize your website for search engines, Google Business Profile is used to optimize your profile and expand your reach.
How do you use Google Business Profile for local SEO?
Since optimizing for Google is essentially optimizing for searchers, it all comes down to three things: targeting, quality of information, and trust.
Target your information
To use Google Business Profile for SEO:
- Incorporate relevant keywords into your Business Profile to tell Google what you’re trying to rank for.
- Use them in your “from the business” description, your responses to reviews, your answers to questions, and in the posts you publish.
- Consider incorporating them naturally, just as you would with any other SEO strategy.
Include keywords in your description, editable through your Google Business Profile dashboard.
Maintain quality of information
The completeness and accuracy of your Business Profile impact its rank, so make sure to provide the requested information in every section of your Google Business Profile dashboard. Essential here is your contact information, special hours, and attributes.
Build trust
The final approach to using Google Business Profile for SEO appeals to the trust component of Google’s algorithm. Keep your information updated and accurate as your business evolves. Keep a steady stream of reviews coming in and respond to them. Also, signal to Google that you are active by regularly uploading photos and publishing posts to your Business Profile through Google Business Profile.
Reviews and responses appear on your Business Profile. Be sure to manage them through your Google Business Profile dashboard.
SEO is essential for any business, particularly for small businesses that can use local targeting to compete against large competitors on the SERP. Google is making local SEO even more accessible with its robust Business Profiles, so a Google Business Profile account is essential for any business trying to maximize visibility in their local market.
Go to: https://www.google.com/business/ to sign up today
How to sign up for Google Business Profile
A free tool that turns my Business Profile into a power marketer for my business?
Where do I sign up?
To get a Google Business Profile account, go to google.com/business and click “Manage now,” which will take you through the steps of creating an account. Remember, a Google Business Profile Account does not automatically create a Business Profile—it gives you access to it and the ability to add more to it. So you’ll want to make sure you have an existing Business Profile to access.
Also remember that creating Google Business Profile account does not give you automatic access to your Business Profile. Once you create and are logged into your Google Business Profile account, you will then need to locate your separate Business Profile on Google Maps and then select the “Claim this business” or “Own this business?” link seen right on the profile. Once you complete that process, your Google Business Profile account will then be connected with your Business Profile and under your management.
OUR TAKEAWAY
With precise knowledge of exactly what Google Business Profile is, how it works, and how to use it, you can now see that using this free tool isn’t just a good idea for local marketing
but a must.
Get your Google Business Profile to account up and running now so your Business Profile can outperform your competition and draw more customers to the world’s most popular search engine.
