How To Optimize Your Google My Business Listing

You can engage with a business on Google without visiting its official website in many different ways. You may have ‘Googled’ the name of a business or a service you are looking for and come across a list of businesses along with relevant details about them. This is commonly referred to as Google My Business (GMB). If you are willing to make your business more discoverable on Google and have more audience engagement with your company, you will need to optimize your Google My Business listing.

What Is Google My Business?

Google My Business is a business listing platform by Google that allows businesses around the world to get themselves listed to be discovered by their target audience. Companies can create or claim their listings on GMB per their needs and preferences. 

A Google My Business listing gives the audience details about specific businesses, including working hours, location on the map, address, contact details, and more. By clicking on the GMB listing of a business, you can obtain all the information about it that allows you to easily get in touch with the concerned company. 

Google users can access these listings by directly searching for a specific business or typing in the right keywords for the products/services they are looking for. However, it is important to be precise to get the best options on the GMB listings. For example, if you are looking for SEO services in Pune, you can either Google the name of the company you know you want to engage with or make a Google search for “SEO company in Pune” to get relevant results.

Why Is It Important To Optimize Google My Business Listing?

Here are a few reasons why it is important to optimize Google My Business listing for your business:

Better Engagement

Many users visit and leave Google without landing on any website, thanks to

Google My Business. This is because they get all the information they require from GMB listings. Google My Business SEO allows your business to be easily discoverable by your target audience as they visit Google and search for the offerings you provide. As more and more people discover your business, you are bound to have better engagement. 

Improved Local Ranking

Several Google users use the search engine to discover specific businesses and service providers near them. If you want your local business to be listed high on the searches made by your audience locally, optimizing your GMB listing would certainly help. This would help you beat the competitors providing similar services and get to the top of the list to be easily discovered by your prospects.

Higher Conversions

Optimizing your company’s Google My Business listing allows your audience to engage with you through a different source, along with the usual SERP listings. If your prospects find your business listed in the GMB along with details about your email, website, and contact information, they can engage with you before they even start scrolling down the search results. This increases the chances of conversions you can make by being more discoverable on Google.

Optimizing Your Google My Business Listing

Optimizing your GMB listing the right way to get the traction you are looking for is important. Simply having a listing on Google will not make your audience discover your business on the platform. For your business to be made discoverable for your audience, various factors must be considered. 

Here are some of the most important ways in which you can optimize the Google My Business listing for your company:

Set Up A Google My Business Account

Before anything else, set up your GMB account for your listing to be optimized. Setting up a GMB account would be a foundation for all the Google My Business SEO activities you carry out in the future. All you need to do is go to google.com/business and sign in with the Gmail id you use for your business. 

Have A Complete Google Business Profile

Once you have created your GMB account, it is important to ensure that your Google Business Profile is complete. If your profile is incomplete, Google will not index your business high on the listings. Moreover, adding more details to your profile gives more options to your audience to engage with your business.

Here are the details you need to fill in right away after creating your GMB account:

• The name of your business
• The address of your business
• The contact details
• The official website of your business
• The working hours (availability) of your business

After you have filled in all the important details, you can spare some time thinking about the following information to be added:

• Products and services offered
• Attributes and categories
• Owner-generated queries (FAQs)

Always ensure you fill in as many details as possible to provide Google with all relevant information about your business. This would help Google suggest your business to your prospects better. 

Focus On The Contact Information

Of all the details mentioned above, your contact information is arguably the most important aspect of your Google My Business SEO. This information allows your prospects to engage with your business and start interacting with you. 

One of the most basic yet very important tips to keep in mind is to use the same name on GMB that you use on your store signage. Any difference between the name of your business in the real world and the name added on Google My Business may be considered spam. 

Moreover, as you update your contact information, ensure that the address you add on GMB is exactly the same as it appears on other listings of your business across the internet. Having a consistent business address across the board is advisable to facilitate better SEO. 

Finally, make sure you add holidays and regular hours while updating your work hours on GMB. This always helps prospects that are looking forward to engaging with your business. 

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Be Precise In Filling The “From The Business” Section

Before going any further, it is important to note that the brief description for your business appearing below your business name is the editorial summary written by Google to ensure consistency across the platform. You do not have any control over this section briefly discussing your business. 

However, the “From The Business” section of GMB is under your control. This section appears towards the lower end of your listing, below the reviews section. 

Here are some important tips to keep in mind while writing your “From The Business” description:

• Try making use of all 750 characters provided to you
• Make sure you cover all important details in the first 250 characters
• It is preferable to stick to the content written in the “About Us” section of your official website
• Use the keywords you are targeting for your SEO campaign
• Do not repeat anything that you have already written in other sections of your profile, and stay as original as possible
• Do not include any links or HTML in this section

Select The Right Category For Your Business

We live in an age of immense competition in every sector imaginable. Selecting the right category for your business while optimizing its GMB listing is important. Making your business fall under a specific category makes it more discoverable. In the case of most searches, Google users tend to search products, services, and sectors instead of directly typing in the name of a company. When Google knows which category your business belongs to, it makes it easier for the search engine to recommend it to your prospects as they do searches. 

Moreover, when you select a category for your business, Google allows you to include category-specific features that enhance your GMB listing. For example, restaurants can add a menu button to their listings; hotels can show their stars; salons can showcase the type of hair they specialize in. Adding these categories and features allows Google to push your business higher when relevant searches are done. 

Being precise is the key to successful Google My Business SEO. Make sure the category you choose for your business is specific, as it helps Google narrow the options down while recommending your business. For example, if you own a Chinese restaurant, do not merely select the ” Restaurants ” category. 

Also, it is advisable to choose secondary categories if your business provides multiple services. For example, if you own a Chinese restaurant that has dine-in and delivery options, you can always select two secondary categories to complement the primary category of “Chinese Restaurant.”

The Final Word

These were some important ways of optimizing your Google My Business listing. Once you have your business on Google, it is important to update your profile regularly to stay in tune with the goings-on of your business and impress the Google crawlers!