How to Optimize Your Google My Business Listing in 30 Minutes

Choosing the right business category is a pivotal step in defining your business's identity online. The category you select should encapsulate the essence of your business, focusing on what your business is rather than what it offers or sells. Your primary choice should reflect the overall nature of your business, rather than individual products or services.

There isn't a one-size-fits-all answer, but all three options are appropriate. Google recommends choosing the most specific category, which in this case would likely be "chartered accountant." This choice may seem less intuitive but it maximizes your visibility in search results. A "chartered accountant" is relevant for searches for both "chartered accountant" and "accountant," whereas listing just as an "accountant" limits the search relevance to only those looking for an accountant.

For most businesses, selecting a category is straightforward. A plumber should opt for "plumber," while a pizza restaurant should select "pizza restaurant." However, some businesses might find the choice less obvious. Take, for example, a chartered accountant who runs an accounting firm. The dilemma might be choosing between categories like "Accountant," "Accounting Firm," or "Chartered Accountant."

This strategy is evident in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Regarding additional categories, include them only to highlight products or services that are not covered by your primary category. For instance, if "chartered accountant" is your primary category, adding "accountant" as an additional one is redundant due to their similarity. However, if you provide bookkeeping or payroll services, these could be valuable additional categories to include.

In setting up your business's online presence with Google, it’s crucial to accurately determine your business type, as Google categorizes them into three distinct models:

1. Storefront Businesses: These are businesses that cater exclusively to clients at their physical location, like hair salons, cafes, bars, and retail stores. If your business falls under this category, you should input your business address and omit filling out the service area section. This adjustment is done under the "Info" tab.

2. Service-Area Businesses: These businesses travel to their clients instead of hosting them at a fixed location. Examples include plumbers, cleaning services, and mobile hairdressers. For businesses of this nature, you need to specify your service area, limiting it to a maximum of twenty locations for precision. Avoid the temptation to list every conceivable area to increase search visibility. Google advises that your service area should not exceed roughly a 2-hour drive from your base location, typically encompassing just a few nearby towns or cities. For more detailed targeting, use ZIP or postal codes. Additionally, ensure your physical address is not listed in the profile, as this merely conceals your location from public view while still making you discoverable to customers within your defined service area.

Additional Consideration for Service-Area Businesses: If your services span an entire state or country, bear in mind that Google Business Profile map packs are primarily intended for local searches. Optimizing your Business Profile for widespread national or international searches is not the intended use; this broader reach is better achieved through your main website. Hybrid businesses should also heed this advice while ensuring their physical address remains available for customers preferring face-to-face interactions.

3. Hybrid Businesses: These businesses operate from a fixed location and also provide services at client locations. Examples include photographers who conduct shoots both in-studio and on location, or restaurants offering dine-in and delivery services. If you run a hybrid business, follow the steps applicable to service-area businesses, but retain your physical address on the listing to aid clients who may want to visit your location.

It's vital for customers to know your business's operating hours, making it essential for all businesses to include this information in their Google Business Profiles.

To input your business hours, navigate to Dashboard > Info > Add hours. Here, you’ll select the days of operation and specify the opening and closing times. For businesses that operate in multiple shifts within a day, like restaurants offering both lunch and dinner services, you can use the “add hours” feature to include additional time slots. This can be repeated as necessary to accurately reflect your business hours. Remember, providing clear and accurate business hours helps potential customers plan their visits or interactions with your business efficiently.

Surprisingly, many profiles lack this basic detail.

Ensuring your customers are aware of any changes in your business hours during public holidays is crucial. It can be very disappointing and frustrating for customers to arrive at your business, only to find it closed unexpectedly. This situation can lead to negative reviews, potentially harming your local search rankings.

To prevent such issues, it's advisable to set 'special hours' for holidays. You can do this by navigating to Dashboard > Info > Add special hours. Similar to setting regular business hours, the platform allows you to add multiple time slots for the same day using the “add hours” button. This feature is particularly useful for days like Christmas Eve, where you might open for a few hours in the morning and then again in the evening.

It's important to note that even if your holiday hours are the same as your usual business hours, you should still confirm them in your listing. If you don’t, people searching for your business on public holidays might encounter a warning on your listing, indicating uncertainty about your hours. Clear communication of special hours can enhance customer experience and maintain your business's reputation.

For most businesses, it's essential to provide contact information such as a website and phone number, which can be easily added in the “Info” tab of your Google Business Profile.

The only instances where you might leave these fields blank are if your business doesn't have a website or if you prefer not to receive phone calls. However, it's crucial to include at least one form of contact information in your Business Profile. Without this, potential customers would have no direct means of contacting your business, which could significantly impact your customer engagement and business opportunities. Remember, having accessible contact details is a key aspect of customer service and business accessibility.

Incorporating photos into your Google Business Profile is crucial, as Google states that businesses with photos see a significant increase in engagement—42% more requests for driving directions and 35% more clicks to their websites compared to those without photos. While customers can also add photos to your listing, contributing your own ensures that your business is presented attractively and accurately.

Here are some fundamental guidelines from Google for adding business photos:

Research by BrightLocal indicates that businesses with over 100 photos receive significantly more engagement, including calls, direction requests, and website clicks, compared to the average business. However, you don't need to add a vast number of photos immediately. Start with the guidelines provided and gradually add more over time. When uploading photos, ensure they are correctly named (e.g., bridesmaid-dress.jpg, not IMG_574921.png) to enhance searchability and relevance.

If your business has the option to add products and services to your Google Business Profile, it's generally a beneficial move. This feature can enhance your visibility in search results for more relevant queries.

For instance, a bridalwear business that lists their wedding dresses as products may find their listing appearing in local searches for specific dresses or brands, such as "lillian west wedding dress sheffield."

When adding your products and services, it's crucial to include comprehensive details. Make sure to provide the name, price, category, a detailed description, and a link to the corresponding page on your website for each product or service. You can streamline this process by copying and pasting descriptions and details directly from your website. This approach is perfectly acceptable and will not result in duplicate content issues. By thoroughly detailing your products and services, you enhance the chances of your business listing appearing in relevant and specific search queries, potentially driving more traffic and interest to your business.

Gaining more reviews for your business is becoming increasingly important for local search rankings, as indicated by BrightLocal’s 2020 study. Google also affirms that positive reviews from customers can boost your business's visibility and increase the chances of people visiting your location. Additionally, Google tends to highlight reviews that include keywords relevant to a searcher's query in the search results.

But, how can you effectively gather more reviews? Here are several strategies:

Remember, it’s against Google’s terms to offer incentives in exchange for reviews. So, avoid offering discounts or free items in return for customer reviews. This approach helps you to gather authentic feedback that genuinely reflects customer experiences and opinions.

Google offers a feature where people can ask questions about businesses, and these queries can be answered by both business owners and the general public.

This is a critical tool because unanswered or inaccurately answered questions can lead to misinformation about your business, potentially harming its reputation and SEO.

For example, consider a scenario where someone asks if they need to book in advance at a local bar, but receives conflicting responses from the community. This kind of uncertainty can deter potential customers or lead to negative experiences and reviews if their expectations are not met.

To manage this effectively, there are two proactive strategies you can employ:

By staying on top of questions and providing accurate answers, you can enhance customer experience, avoid negative reviews, and maintain a positive local SEO presence.

Posts on your Google Business Profile are a useful way to share updates, promotions, and events related to your business. Similar to social media status updates, these posts appear in a carousel near the bottom of your Google Business panel.

And can sometimes be highlighted in 'map pack' search results.

For instance, if you search for a specific term like “woodburn oregon sympathy flowers,” a business like Valley Pacific Floral that mentions “sympathy flowers” in a post might rank in the map pack.

This may or may not be the reason for their ranking, but such posts undoubtedly make the listing more noticeable and appealing in search engine results pages (SERPs), potentially drawing more attention from prospective customers.

To create a post, navigate to the Posts tab and start with your first post. Here are some tips to make your posts effective:

For more insights on crafting impactful business posts, refer to Google’s guide for creating engaging business posts. This approach helps in conveying your business’s offerings and updates in a manner that resonates with and attracts your target audience.

Activating the messaging feature on your Google Business listing introduces a convenient way for potential customers to communicate with you.

By enabling this, a "Message" button is added to your listing, allowing searchers to message you directly from Google Search and Google Maps.

To turn on this feature, you’ll need to download the Google My Business app, available for both iOS and Android devices. Once the app is installed, log in with your Google account. Then navigate to the Customers tab, followed by the Messages tab, where you will find the option to enable messaging.

It's important to note that Google manages these messages through the app itself, not via your personal phone number. This means that you can safely install and use the Google My Business app on any phone, including a non-business one, without worrying about privacy concerns. This setup ensures that your personal contact details remain private while still offering an effective channel for customer communication.

Now that you've addressed the main elements in your Google My Business profile, it's beneficial to spend a bit more time completing any remaining sections. The additional information you can provide varies based on your business category.

For instance, restaurants have the option to add their menu items, while hair salons can integrate a third-party booking system, allowing clients to book appointments directly from their Google Business Profile. Various other business types have similar category-specific features available.

When filling in these additional fields, there's no need to stress over "optimizing" them. The key is to provide accurate and comprehensive information. By ensuring that every aspect of your profile is filled out correctly, you enhance the completeness of your business's online presence, making it easier for potential customers to understand all that you offer. This thorough approach can contribute positively to your business's visibility and accessibility.

Optimizing your website is crucial for enhancing your Google Business Profile's visibility in search results. Google often includes Business Profiles in search results when the associated website mentions relevant products or services.

For instance, a business may appear in search results for "dermal fillers" even if these aren't listed on the Google Business Profile, simply because their website mentions this service. It's common for websites to mention primary products and services, but there might be additional offerings that local customers are searching for which you haven't included on your site.

To identify these, input the products and services already listed on your website into a keyword research tool like Keywords Explorer. Review the "Also rank for" report to discover related keywords that top-ranking sites for your products or services also rank for.

For example, a website offering various cosmetic treatments might already list services like dermal fillers and lip enhancements. By analyzing these services in Keywords Explorer, you might find related services such as cheek fillers or lip injections that aren't mentioned on the site. If your business offers these services but they're not listed on your website, it's advisable to add them, especially if they align with your other offerings.

When incorporating new services or products into your website, it’s important to do so thoughtfully and professionally, rather than simply stuffing keywords into your content. Here are some effective ways to do this:

This approach ensures that your website accurately reflects your business's offerings and improves your chances of appearing in local search results for relevant queries, without compromising the professionalism of your website.

Implementing the majority of the optimizations discussed above is a straightforward process, typically taking no more than half an hour. By following these steps, you can establish a well-optimized Google Business Profile, avoiding common mistakes many business owners make.

It's essential, however, to periodically review and update your profile to ensure its accuracy. Doing this once every few months is usually sufficient to keep your information current.

It's also crucial to understand the primary purpose of your Google Business Profile, which is to appear in searches with local intent. These are queries where people are looking for businesses, products, and services in their immediate area. This is a point of confusion for many business owners. If your goal is to reach a statewide, nationwide, or international audience, you’ll need to extend your SEO efforts beyond Google My Business. This involves conducting thorough keyword research, optimizing your web pages with on-page SEO techniques, and building backlinks to surpass your competitors in search rankings.

For a more detailed understanding of how to achieve this, you can refer to comprehensive guides on local SEO. These resources can provide deeper insights into enhancing your online presence and expanding your reach beyond the local sphere.

If you have any questions or need clarification about any of the optimizations mentioned, feel free to reach out for more specific guidance or assistance.

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