A Close Reading: Google’s ‘How It Works’ guide to Google My Business
Google’s copy is famously succinct, but from A Close Reading, one can extrapolate more nuances and context
Published in
13 min readDec 26, 2018
Disclaimer: Google provides great content, and — in my experience — great customer service. I’ve found them easy to work with, and a huge part of my day-to-day job is working with their tools and platforms on behalf of clients. I always recommend that clients read Google’s documentation, Terms of Service, etc., but many of them either can’t or won’t, so I often wind up providing explanations, myself. These Medium posts are no replacement for actually reading and understanding Google’s documentation, but they can be a helpful companion or a way to ease your way into reading up on Google’s rules and regulations.
I’ll be taking a look at the above link, Google’s own documentation regarding Google My Business. Give it a visit, yourself, and glance at their copy and images, and then we’ll take a closer look. Or, A Close Reading, if you will.
A Close Reading: ‘How It Works’ from Google My Business
Update your Business Profile anytime.
- ‘Take charge of what people see when they do a local search for your business.’
Firstly, what is a local search? Generally speaking (‘in layman’s terms,’ which, incidentally, was the title of my first-ever column, a sports column for my college newspaper), if a user searches ‘restaurants near me’ or ‘bowling near me,’ they are — on the aggregate — more likely than someone searching for ‘history of bowling’ or ‘bowling rules’ to be looking for a particular place to bowl, straight away. Users on mobile devices (which Google pays more attention to; in 2015, the total number of mobile searches surpassed the total number of desktop searches for the first time, and Google has only catered to mobile users more and more with each passing year) also, taken collectively, tend to be more likely to be looking for a physical storefront, wanting to do things like ‘Get Directions’ or ‘Call Now,’ etc. - The copy also offers some insight into the underlying reasoning for the language, and we can infer some things about the kind of concerns Google was likely hearing: ‘Take charge of what people see.’
Many of our clients at search/local HTX initially come to us with the complaint that someone else has created a listing for their business, or claimed it, or that information they have no control of about their business is wrong.
Google is also aware of that. That’s why Google My Business is completely, end-to-end free for businesses to use. It is a library of information about your business that Google wants to know and get right on Search and Maps, regardless of whether you advertise through any of their platforms. Google’s share of the search market is astronomically large, and it only stays that way if they keep collecting huge quantities of good data to power their algorithm.
That’s what Google My Business is offering, on the first page of its GMB documentation, which many, many sources link to (they use it as the ultimate destination of Google My Business ad campaigns, for instance).
Because Google relies heavily on crowdsourcing data-collection (see my article on Google Local Guides for more detailed info), and incentivizes location creation, if you don’t create a Google My Business listing, someone will absolutely do it for you. So ‘take charge’ is very deliberate, pointed language that indicates the mindset of users its driving to these pages. - ‘gives you the tools’
Google is re-emphasizing that this suite of tools, which you’ve likely heard a lot about, is free. They are giving it to you, their words. Tools is also an important word for SEO-purposes. Business-owners and digital marketers are looking for tools to help market their small businesses online, so they refer to tools frequently on this page. - ‘engage with your customers from your phone, tablet and computer’
More and more of my clients are asking about ‘engagement’ rather than ‘traffic’ or ‘clicks.’ Slowly, the (correct) idea that quality of web traffic matters more than quantity (though both matter) is filtering out to the general public, I believe. More business owners I meet are less concerned with vanity metrics like ‘how many people viewed our post?’ and more concerned with ‘how did people engage with our post?’
Google is likely fielding more and more calls and messages from GMB users and potential users who are growing increasingly concerned with engagement metrics — as well they should.
Google also emphasizes ‘phone, tablet and computer.’ All of these powerful tools are available to you at all times on any device. That’s important for Google to do to be successful, and it’s important for your business to do to be successful. If your company’s online presence isn’t optimized for all devices/omnichannel, you’re not serving the needs of the modern user. - Photo/Image
It’s interesting to note in the images Google includes on the page what they choose to highlight or underscore. Google My Business’ logo is prominently displayed, and the GMB dashboard is sketched out vaguely, so users will be even more comfortable/familiar with the layout when they’re in the actual platform.
The verified badge is very vibrant and colorful, and stands out. They clearly are underlining the importance of being verified.
Insights and Reviews also reflect concerns of GMB users. They want more insight into (get it?) who is finding their business online, how they’re finding it and how that compares to other businesses in comparable industries.
There is also a near-universal understanding among all my prospective clients and clients that review signals (ratings and reviews on platforms like Google, Yelp, Facebook, etc.) are important. Few need to be taught that online reviews are hugely important. How to generate Google Reviews without violating their Terms of Service can be a bit of a steep learning curve, but everyone seems to understand they’re important. Google does, too, so ‘Reviews’ is front and center, and one of the most notable elements of this above-the-fold (before you scroll down) piece of the web page.
Local Business Profile Info
- ‘Keep your Business Profile info updated’
In marketing, we have a term you’ve probably heard: ‘Call To Action’ (CTA)
When you have a customer or user’s attention, you want to do something profitable and beneficial with it. Incentivize and encourage the actions you want users to perform.
Google wants you, the Google My Business user, to keep your business’ information up-to-date and accurate. Why? Because it benefits them, and promptly serving users correct data is what they do. Why do you care? - ‘so people can find you.’
This is pretty on the nose. It almost reads like an implied threat. Here’s what will happen if you don’t do what we say (keep your business profile info updated): no one will ever find you.
It’s amusing to imagine the copy read aloud in a sinister, Prohibition-era gangster voice, but their larger point is true. Without keeping your Google My Business listing updated, Google can’t be as confident in providing your business as a search result to its users. If you don’t play Google’s game, no one will find you (probably).
The part that makes this not evil (Google’s former official motto is ‘Don’t be evil,’ and I’m not making that up) is that Google’s ‘game,’ is very easy to play and benefits both your business and Google.
And the upside is that, for all of my clients, it’s a thrill to watch organic and search traffic grow, and it always does, if SEO and Google My Business optimization is handled well. - ‘Need to adjust your hours for the holiday?’
No surprise here — especially around this time of year (December 26, as I write this), holiday hours are a major concern. But idiosyncratic opening/closing times that don’t match your listed business hours are a huge problem for Google, which takes into account whether or not a business is currently open when it serves local search results to users.
This is a mild form of inception — a Jedi Mind Trick, if you will. ‘These ARE the hours you’re adjusting for.’
Because Google wants perfectly accurate business-hours information for all businesses in the world anywhere, they’re gently pushing users and readers to consider this element. It has a corollary on the Google My Business platform, ‘Special hours’ that alerts managers to enter in special/holiday changes to normal operating hours (see image below). - Published on
Note how Google Search and Maps (and G+, which is famously getting shut down after a potential data leak; just goes to show that even Google doesn’t bat a thousand) are displayed prominently in the dashboard mockup they’ve provided. It’s emphasizing to anyone reading that spending your time and effort on this platform will yield results on Google Maps (very valuable), Google Search (very valuable) and G+ (don’t bother, lol).
Photos
- ‘Turn snapshots into sales.’
It’s just that easy. That’s the message conveyed here. You know that thing you do all the time? Snapshots? That quick, simple action that you do without thinking about it often? Turn those into sales.
There’s a reason behind the carefully-crafted language here. Photographs of a variety of types are important to provide to Google Search and Google Maps users on behalf of a business, so it’s in Google’s best interest to push you to upload photos.
By extension, it’s also good (and vital!) for your business to feed content, particularly photos and videos, into the Google machine. Google will even show you charts in the GMB dashboard that pit you head-to-head against ‘businesses like yours’ in order to instill a sense of urgency about uploading photos.
I don’t find that dishonest or unethical, because here’s the deal: users, customers, clients — whoever it is you’re serving, they want photos and videos to help evaluate your business and make a decision about where to go. Get in the habit of taking photos, and making them available for your marketing team. They’re important, and only getting more important every day. - ‘Draw in new customers’
Google is making the point that these aren’t just rewards for customers who have already engaged with your business; these are a vital tool for search engine visibility, and uploading more photos and images to Google My Business will definitively help you reach and draw in new business. - ‘pictures show what’s unique about your business’
This is an allusion to best practices; i.e. you should be uploading photos relevant to your business, and while you’re at it, upload photos that show what’s different about you, what stands out about your products or services, etc.
Users use photos to distinguish one business from another (say, one pizza restaurant from a similar pizza restaurant, when making a decision about where to get dinner), so businesses should upload photos that help distinguish them from the competition, and showcase what’s unique about them. - ‘add as many as you like’
Unlike some platforms, where you have a profile photo, cover photo and a set, limited number of slots for certain types of photos, Google allows and encourages GMB users to upload as many as possible.
In fact, it benefits Google directly to have more photo results to serve to users for your business; whether or not those photos benefit your business is highly dependent on the photos you upload, but generally speaking, more photos is of benefit to both Google and your particular business.
Reviews
- ‘Build loyalty by starting a conversation.’
Again, a nod to the idea of quality > quantity. Customer retention is famously way less costly than customer acquisition, and nurturing relationships between your customers and your brand is likely a big part of whatever your business does.
Also, the way to build brand loyalty? Start a conversation. Be accessible to your customers, and responsive to their needs. These are both true, sound business principles in general, and specifically beneficial to Google’s Maps platform, which is trying to compete with platforms like Yelp and Facebook, in terms of being the source for decision-making information regarding businesses.
What Google is emphasizing here is the ability to respond to user reviews, and the value of doing so. ‘Freshness’ is potentially a ranking factor (Google says not for Google, but… I’m skeptical), so as a general rule, doing things on behalf of your business to reply to user engagement (replying to Facebook Post responses, Twitter mentions, etc.) is doubly beneficial: it’s a recent data point, which signals to Google that you’re still around, doing business, and it’s a point of engagement, which has both a digital, SEO value and (usually) a very tangible, real value in the way that customer feels heard and cared for.
Even if it’s not a ranking factor in a technical sense, in a very real-world sense, you know that if you see a business actively responding and engaging on a platform, that’s a good signal for that business, especially if it’s recent.
Just like with Photos — or with any content you produce and disseminate on behalf of your business — treat review responses as an opportunity to showcase what makes your business unique. Stand out, in the best possible way. Or — if you’re not a strong writer — hire someone who is, and who has experience managing business reviews on the Google My Business platform. These are important to handle well. - ‘a two-way conversation’
One complaint Google, and many other review-based platforms, received from businesses was the inability to set the record straight when reviews were unfair, antagonistic, hostile, conflicts of interest, etc.
Google heard you.
In recent months, non-authoritative elements like anonymous user reviews (the name of the reviewer would be ‘A Google User’) have been nerfed or phased out entirely. Google doesn’t wish to be a shield that a user hides behind to lob unfair criticisms at businesses, which is something that has definitely happened up to this point.
The Local Guides program is one effort to combat the misuse of its review/rating platform (Maps), and I’ve written elsewhere about how it intersects with local small-business marketing, but eliminating anonymity is another.
When customers leave reviews, diligent business owners will be alerted, and prompted to respond — whether positive or negative. This type of dialogue between businesses and customers (all of whom are, on some level, Google’s clients/user base) is more beneficial when they’re more transparent, and Google is working towards that.
Lean into this by replying to every review, I say. Others have disagreed, and say that’s overkill/useless, but I disagree back. Google’s prompting says to me (reading the tea leaves) that they want that dialogue to occur, and you’re not gaming the system by replying to every review, you’re optimizing, i.e. doing exactly what they want, to everyone’s benefit.
Like anything else you do on behalf of your business, do it authentically and forthrightly. Your marketing department may pick and choose spots where it adopts a tongue-in-cheek or sarcastic tone, but review responses are not the place. Speak succinctly, forthrightly and earnestly. - ‘View and reply’
My point about replying to every review is bolstered, I think, by the repetition of the ‘View and reply’ call-to-action button on every review in the image, even the blank reviews with obscured avatars and copy. ‘View and reply’ is displayed six times, in the most consistent and prominent spots of the image, no accident.
Google is trying to facilitate an honest, open dialogue between businesses and their customers, so I believe, in their minds, reviews and replies are halves one and two of a whole conversation. From that, I extrapolate: reply to all of them, just stay within the bounds of good reason and Google’s Terms of Service.
Q&A
What Google doesn’t mention in this content is that Q&A’s (questions and answers, obviously) can crop up and be populated (note to self: rap lyric) around your business’ Google listing without any input from you.
One horror story I heard on a terrific podcast I can’t recommend enthusiastically enough (‘Make the Most of Google Q&A with Mike Blumenthal’ from MozPod) involved a Google user asking whether a particular business location’s staff was racist, and then three users (I think two of them were Local Guides) gave three different answers. At no point was the business owner aware that this conversation was occurring and at no point did they have any input into this discussion, which is now curated and attached to their profile/listing.
The first line of this copy cracks me up, because it’s enormous and it’s imperative.
Get started.
It even has the punctuation (a period, for you grammar nerds) to help complete the idea of an imperative, i.e. a command. I’m a former newspaper editor (both with the Houston Chronicle and my college newspaper), so I know these decisions aren’t accidents and aren’t made blithely.
Google is deeply invested in you and your small business using this platform, because it serves the needs of its users and its business model. In addition, because of its stranglehold on the search market (and I say this as a big fan of Google, and someone who happily converses by phone with Google reps on a near-daily basis), it knows that it happens to serve your best interests, too.
So they’re unafraid to be very direct: Get [bloody] started [already].
That’s my read on things, anyway! If you have a different interpretation, or conjecture or something to add, leave a response to this story and let me know.
And subscribe to this publication for more Close Readings of Google Documentation. I have a feeling I’m going to do a lot of these...
