Imagine you are at a completely new place and have to meet a friend. You are not aware about the best cafes in the locality. Or maybe you want a local mechanic shop near your building? How are you going to search for it?
You will probably open Google and type ‘best cafes near me’ or ‘mechanic shop near me ’ and a list of cafes and mechanic shops will appear on the search result page along with their other basic information like contact details, reviews, photos & website.
This is because of Google My Business. Google My Business (GMB) Listing enhances your business profile to look more professional than a usual business profile. It also gives you the ability to customize the profile by giving them access to display important information about your business including a CTA, website links, updates, and the ability to list your business on Google maps.
According to reports, Google search has over 3.2 billion searches per day and with these statistics, it is one of the most visited search engines globally. Listing your small business on GMB can help you scale your local SEO ranking significantly.
If you are a new business owner then this is the high time to realize the importance of listing your business on Google. Especially, in the post covid times, where people no longer go to the telephonic directories rather, they search it directly on Google and if not found, they might look for some other option. It eventually sets a positive impression on the searchers who see your business information listed on the most trustable search engine globally.
7 Simple steps to get started with Google My Business Listing
- Create a profile on Google Business Profile Manager
To get started with Google My Business listing, do make sure you have a Google account from which you can log into Google Business Profile Manager. If not, you can create a new Google account. Or if you have a Google account, you’re already logged into the Google Business Profile manager.
2. Add your Business
Firstly, click on ‘Add business’. On clicking, two options will appear (i) Add Single business (ii) Import businesses. The basic difference between both the options is that, on clicking the first one, you are allowed to add only one business of your own and for the second one, you can add multiple businesses.
Moving forward, enter your business name and add a suitable category.
3. Add your Address
Once you’ve filled in your address, a list appears which asks you to verify if any of the business is yours. If you find your business in the list, click on it and if not found, choose none of the above and move ahead.
Up next, fill up if you provide any deliveries or home visits.
Here, clicking “Yes” will lead you to another page where you will need to enter the name of the areas you serve. If you chose “No”, the very next step would be filling up your contact information.
4. Add your Contact Information
Enter your phone number and alternate contact details for your customers to reach out to you directly once they open your business profile. More importantly, add your Digital Showroom store URL here so that they can get redirected to your website for more information about your products and services.
5. Verify your Business
Mention your business address in detail for verification purposes once again. It will ask you to choose a way to send an OTP via call or text. On choosing text, a six digit OTP will be sent to your registered mobile number. On choosing a call, you will get a call to provide the OTP.
Click next and enter the OTP in the given space. Go ahead and click Next
6. Customize your Business Profile
Following your verification, there are a number of steps to customize your profile. adding opening hours, messaging options, dining modes, a brief description about your business and its products and services.
7. Add Links
Along with your Digital Showroom website URL, you can also link your products with relevant images so that your customers can easily have a look and place orders effortlessly. This will help you increase the chances of turning your visitors into potential customers.
Post covid scenario and the need to get started with Google My business
You must be well versed with the set of restrictions put in place for maintaining the safety of the citizens. Google is the first place where most of the people go to have the right set of information. With the frequent changes in the rules and regulations by the government, an individual can only rely on Google to search whether a restaurant or a shop is open or closed. This is where the GMB listing shines. Fortunately, through Google My Business you have the ability to make updates about the latest opening hours, takeaways, deliveries, and other relevant information your consumers might need to be aware of.
Recent reports have shown that around 60% of the potential customers have contacted the businesses directly through Google my business listings, using their CTA — ‘Call” option. Undeniably, we all have used GMB listings to contact the nearby stores in our locality. With digitalization taking over, it is imperative to utilize and optimize GMB to display the right set of the latest information about your business, otherwise, you might lose customers because of your less active business profile on Google My Business.
