Are you making the most of your Google Business Profile?

Over the years we have worked with hundreds of local businesses helping them to improve their online presence. This newsletter shares our top tips and tools to help you optimise a Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business).

Some Google Statistics

Whilst there are other search engines such as Bing and Yahoo, our focus is on Google for the following reasons:

• Google currently has has 90% of the search market.
• When Google was founded in September 1998, it was serving 10,000 search queries per day. By the end of 2006 that same amount would be served in a single second!
• Now there are 8.5 billion Google searches per day!

 The Importance of Local Search

A local search simply means a search that includes a geography e.g. “Marketing Solutions Berkshire” or “Lawyer Ascot”. According to stats from Google, 46% of all Google searches are local, while the Google Business Profile ‘three pack’ of results appear in 93% of all local searches. These statistics are backed up by a survey from Uberall, which found that ‘near me’ searches – those with local intent, were used by 83% of smartphone shoppers.

This is an example of a local search and the Google Business Profile “three pack”. You will notice that this three pack often appears above any organic listings. Also, please notice what is shown on the 3 pack – reviews, opening hours and the age of the business.

Why do you need a Google Business Profile?

Google Business Profiles are all about local search – this can include searches made near your business, and searches made outside the area with the location added.

Google Business Profiles are absolutely brilliant for local search and this is a free tool, so why wouldn’t you make the most of it? We insist that all of our clients, whatever their size, have a Google Business Profile (please note if your business is purely online than this doesn’t apply).

You just need a free Google account to get started.

Keywords

In order to optimise a Google Business Profile, you should consider your keywords first. 

Keywords can be used on all areas of your marketing – website, blogs, social media profiles, hashtags etc. There are lots of tools available to research your keywords, but we recommend the Google Adwords Keyword Tool as a great starting point. Ideally you are looking for keywords that have a high amount of monthly searches with low or medium competition.

How to optimise a Google Business Profile

Once you have decided on your keywords, start to create your listing here. Go through each section completing all fields as much as possible.

These are our top tips:

• The name of your listing should reflect the exact name of your business (for verification purposes). You can sometimes find listings with their keywords or locations in their name, but this is actually against Google’s Guidelines and you run the risk of suspension. For example, we have 2 listings as we have 2 locations (one in Berkshire and one in Buckinghamshire) but both listings must show as “One To Three Marketing Solutions”. For more tips to ensure your Google Business Profile is compliant, read our blog.
• Services v. location listings. You should only add a physical address if you have a location your clients can visit. When it comes to verification, you will need to prove that this is a business address with signage and you will need to have some formal document with the company name and the business address.
• Ensure the listing is 100%  complete and complete all fields including social profiles and the date the business started.
• Your business description is really important and you have up to 750 characters to describe your business and what you offer. This is a good place to include keywords.
• In particular pay attention to your categories. Categories are one of the most important factors and determine how you are found in local searches. Pick your categories carefully e.g. nail salon rather than just salon. You must have 1 category and can have up to 9 categories to really optimise your Google Business Profile, but make sure you only select categories that are relevant.
• We find this free tool a great way to research categories and work out the best categories for your business: www.pleper.com.
• You can add different services under each category (this is a great way to include your keywords as identified at the start).
• Also pay attention to your opening hours (if people are searching for you outside of your office hours, you won’t appear so highly in search results in the Google Business Profile “three pack”). If your opening hours are on your website these should match the opening hours on your Google Business Profile.
• Add photos. Ideally use your own photos but if you don’t have many photos of your own you can use a royalty free image site such as pixabay.com. You can also use Pixabay for videos. Please note that videos on Google Business Profiles need to be under 30 seconds in length.
• You can also add updates, events and offers. Offers can run for 1 year against your profile.
• Reviews are also really important as these are shown in the Google Business Profile “three pack”. When you get reviews please remember to respond.

Ongoing Updates

Once you have worked through the steps above you will have an optimised Google Business Profile.  As with all things Google, fresh content will help to keep the listing performing well. Every month we encourage our clients to add fresh photos, add new posts and get new reviews.  We also encourage our clients to check their performance each month.

Insights

• Use Insights to review progress.
• Look at customer actions (phone calls, website clicks and direction requests).
• Keep a record.
• Check keywords.

We provide lots of advice and guidance around Google Business Profiles and you might find our other blogs useful:

• How to make your listing compliant / avoiding suspension
• 10 ways to get more Google reviews
• Help with missing Google reviews
• How to remove a Google Business Profile

If you need any help with your Google Business Profile, please do get in touch.