How to Set Up, Verify And/Or Optimize Your Google My Business Listing So as to Generate Lots of Good Profitable Leads
Why Bother with Google My Business if I am on Yelp?
Estimates suggest there are 150+ million active users of Yelp, monthly. Studies have shown that 82 percent of Yelp users visit the site when preparing to spend money. Also, 93 percent of Yelp users go on to make purchases at the business they looked up and researched on the site.
“$8,000 is the average annual incremental revenue generated by a business claiming its free Yelp Business Page” ~Boston Consulting Group, March 2013.
All this is so good, why even bother with Google My Business?
Well because there are 3.5+ BILLION searches made daily on Google – that just dwarfs the number Yelp gets. If you have a Google My Business entry... any Google Searches relevant to your niche of business and locality, could end up seeing your name. Plus, a Google My Business profile puts your reviews and overall rank among consumers in front of that huge potential audience. Plus, Google My Business is synced with Google Maps, so people can find your location easily. You can even set up your Google My Business account to accept bookings!
In short ... Google My Business has the potential to gain you more customers/clients than Yelp does (especially in the future) and like Yelp it is free.
Note: online-only businesses aren't eligible for Google My Business listings. Either Customers/clients come to you or you go to customers/clients
Below, we describe how to set-up your listing, or how to optimize (make it more visible to your target audience) if you’ve already got a listing. We strongly advise you to read through the entire document once before taking any action... because the information provided nearer the end explains concepts that could change what information you use when setting up the listing.
How do I Create a Google My Business Listing/page?
Initial Sign-up:
First, sign up at business.google.com. You can add the basic information and address of your business, but before you can edit and gain full access to the My Business features, you need to verify that you're affiliated with the business. If you ever change these basic details in your GMB listing... you will have to go through the verification process again.
Go to https://www.google.com/business/
Why Bother with Google My Business if I am on Yelp?
Estimates suggest there are 150+ million active users of Yelp, monthly. Studies have shown that 82 percent of Yelp users visit the site when preparing to spend money. Also, 93 percent of Yelp users go on to make purchases at the business they looked up and researched on the site.
“$8,000 is the average annual incremental revenue generated by a business claiming its free Yelp Business Page” ~Boston Consulting Group, March 2013.
All this is so good, why even bother with Google My Business?
Well because there are 3.5+ BILLION searches made daily on Google – that just dwarfs the number Yelp gets. If you have a Google My Business entry... any Google Searches relevant to your niche of business and locality, could end up seeing your name. Plus, a Google My Business profile puts your reviews and overall rank among consumers in front of that huge potential audience. Plus, Google My Business is synced with Google Maps, so people can find your location easily. You can even set up your Google My Business account to accept bookings!
In short ... Google My Business has the potential to gain you more customers/clients than Yelp does (especially in the future) and like Yelp it is free.
Note: online-only businesses aren't eligible for Google My Business listings. Either Customers/clients come to you or you go to customers/clients
Below, we describe how to set-up your listing, or how to optimize (make it more visible to your target audience) if you’ve already got a listing. We strongly advise you to read through the entire document once before taking any action... because the information provided nearer the end explains concepts that could change what information you use when setting up the listing.
How do I Create a Google My Business Listing/page?
Initial Sign-up:
First, sign up at business.google.com. You can add the basic information and address of your business, but before you can edit and gain full access to the My Business features, you need to verify that you're affiliated with the business. If you ever change these basic details in your GMB listing... you will have to go through the verification process again.
Go to https://www.google.com/business/
You require a Google account associated with the location of your business to create a GMB listing. Do you have an existing Google Account? Of course you do, if you have Gmail, you have a Google Account. Gmail is just one part of that account. However you might not want your personal Gmail associated with your GMB listing, in which case, I suggest you create a new Gmail account for use with your GMB listing (if you don’t already have one). Ensure that when you create the new Gmail account the address you enter is the same as you would use in your GMB listing.
Adding Initial ‘Business Information’:
After you click the green start now button, you will face several screens where you will be asked to enter the following pieces of information:
Verifying your Business:
You need to prove you are the owner of the business, and so true representative of the GMB listing. You can do this immediately after adding the initial ‘Business Information’ – or later.
You can verify your listing via Postcard, Phone or Email.
If you select ‘postcard’ then a postcard will be sent to the business address you gave for your GMB listing. You then must enter the code placed on postcard, after you select ‘verify now’ inside your GMB account. If the postcard hasn’t reached you within a week, you should request another.
Some businesses are given the option to verify their GMB listing via phone. If you see a ‘verify by phone’ option when signed into GMB, select it and you will be sent a code via phone text.
Some businesses are given the option to verify their GMB listing via email. If this applies to you, you’ll see a ‘Verify by email’ option. The email sent to you will include a link that once clicked... verifies you.
Adding Initial ‘Business Information’:
After you click the green start now button, you will face several screens where you will be asked to enter the following pieces of information:
- The Name of Your Business (it’s very important you enter your business name exactly as it is online in other directories, yelp, your regular website etc. If possible as it appears in the real world too - across signage, stationery, and other branding).
- Your Business Address: P.O. Boxes are not allowed. (it’s very important you enter your business address exactly as it is online in other directories, yelp, your regular website etc. If possible as it appears in the real world too - across signage, stationery, and other branding).
- If you travel to your customers’ locations, rather than having them visit you, tick the box “I deliver goods and services to my customers.” And if you work out of your house or another address you don’t want to show publicly, Check “Hide my address”(it's not a store).” Finally, select your Delivery area/range.
- Select Your Business Category. (It’s important that you choose a category that's as accurate to what you do, as possible, and representative of your main business. If you enter multiple categories, the category entered in the first field will be your primary category).
- Add you business phone number or website
Verifying your Business:
You need to prove you are the owner of the business, and so true representative of the GMB listing. You can do this immediately after adding the initial ‘Business Information’ – or later.
You can verify your listing via Postcard, Phone or Email.
If you select ‘postcard’ then a postcard will be sent to the business address you gave for your GMB listing. You then must enter the code placed on postcard, after you select ‘verify now’ inside your GMB account. If the postcard hasn’t reached you within a week, you should request another.
Some businesses are given the option to verify their GMB listing via phone. If you see a ‘verify by phone’ option when signed into GMB, select it and you will be sent a code via phone text.
Some businesses are given the option to verify their GMB listing via email. If this applies to you, you’ll see a ‘Verify by email’ option. The email sent to you will include a link that once clicked... verifies you.
Optimizing Your GMB Listing (Basic):
When a potential customer/client reaches your GMB listing, it should be informative, attractive and compelling enough to help encourage them to do business with you. You have the opportunity to edit various sections of your GMB listing, and you should. Don’t leave anything to guesswork on the potential client/customer’s part.
- Business Description: Highlight what makes your business unique, and make clear what services & products you offer. Focus on unique details about your business and service, rather than details about promotions, prices, or sales. Be sure to use words that people might use if they were to search for your type of business in Google.
- Add accurate business hours
- Website & Phone: At least one Phone number must be your Primary Business Phone number, and only be used for that specific business (have a local phone number if possible, rather than toll free).
- Add Compelling Photos. The Logo Photo/Image will help your customers recognize your business on Google. The Cover Photo is your GMB listing’s ‘preferred photo’ among all the other photos you may have entered. Treat your selection of photos with all the seriousness a travel brochure selects their images of resorts. Your Cover Photo (and others) will reflect who & what you are. It must leave the viewer with a positive and accurate impression of you. According to Google, businesses with photos see 35% more clicks to their website and 42% higher requests for driving directions in Google Maps. Photos should be at least 720 pixels wide by 720 pixels high and JPG or PNG files.
- Menu: if you are a food supplying service... list your full menu. If you provide a range of services (barber or auto-repair, for example) then list the full range of services.
- Attributes: Describe factual attributes of your business (such as: outdoor seating, wheelchair access, wi-fi access, etc).
- Respond to Customer’s Reviews with appreciative comments. If the review was a complaint or critical, demonstrate you take such comments seriously and try to placate the unhappy client/customer with a courteous reply.
Suggest an Edit:
One of the major advantages with Yelp is that by claiming and verifying your Yelp Business Listing, you can prevent others (competitors/’vandals’) changing information on that listing. Google My Business allows other people to suggest changes to your GMB listing! So please make sure your listing is as accurate as possible to reduce the chances of Google accepting 3rd party updates!
Google My Business Insights:
Once you have verified your GMB listing, you will gain access to different types of statistical data that will give you insight into how customers/clients reach that listing. Did they type your name in directly, or did they seek a service/product via ‘Search’ and discover you that way? Did they come to your listing via the Google Search Engine or Via the Google Map service? Did they go on to Call You or Visit Your Website?
The data can help you understand the benefit of your Google My Business Listing, and perhaps whether to amend any entries you have.
Optimize Your Google My Business Listing (advanced):
It’s best to strategise your Google My Business optimization from the beginning, before you even create that listing.
What does optimizing your Google My Business Listing mean? Partly it means giving potential clients/customers a full, complete and ‘attractive’ picture of your business, compelling them to choose your business over others.
However, the main aim of optimizing could be said to be ensuring as many potential clients/customers actually reach your GMB listing / Website as possible. And to do this you need to maximize the chances of your GMB listing showing in the Google Maps Local 3-Pack.
The Google Maps local Packs are those three or four businesses that show beneath the section of map when someone makes a relevant Google Search.
So, for example, if someone searches for ‘New York Family Attorney’ in the Google Search Engine, this is what they might see (below):
It’s best to strategise your Google My Business optimization from the beginning, before you even create that listing.
What does optimizing your Google My Business Listing mean? Partly it means giving potential clients/customers a full, complete and ‘attractive’ picture of your business, compelling them to choose your business over others.
However, the main aim of optimizing could be said to be ensuring as many potential clients/customers actually reach your GMB listing / Website as possible. And to do this you need to maximize the chances of your GMB listing showing in the Google Maps Local 3-Pack.
The Google Maps local Packs are those three or four businesses that show beneath the section of map when someone makes a relevant Google Search.
So, for example, if someone searches for ‘New York Family Attorney’ in the Google Search Engine, this is what they might see (below):
The red (lined) entries are paid ads on the Google Search Return Page. The blue (lined) entries (and further down) are the organic entries. The green (lined) entries are GMB listings! However, there are dozens of Family Attorneys in New York, and yet Google only choose four to be shown here. Those four businesses enjoy a tremendous marketing advantage.
Optimizing your GMB listing increases your chances of having your GMB listing shown underneath a map, as part of a Google Search Query. There is a lot of competition among businesses to ‘reach the local map pack’ for their locale, and unless you live in a very small city or town... you’ll need to set aside a certain amount of time and/or cash to reach that coveted slot.
Quick/Cheaper Ways to Boost your Position in the Google Local Map Pack:
- Make your GMB listing as complete, compelling and accurate as possible
- Ensure your business name, address and phone no. (NAP) is consistent as possible (split exactly the same) across all online mentions of your company (GMB, website, yelp, local directories, etc)
- Respond positively to all reviews you get
- Don’t buy reviews!
- Request honest (not ‘good’) reviews from customers/clients (verbally, by posters on doors, email, invoices, etc)
- Provide a good service (or products) so your customers/clients are genuinely happy
- Ensure your business name, address and phone number is listed on every page of your website.
- Add unique and relevant local information on your “About Us” website page. Customer testimonials, embedded Google map, and lots of detail about your city and local neighborhood. Ensure the URL pointing to your website on the GMB listing points to your website’s “About Us” web-page
Time or Cash Expensive Methods to Boost your Google Local Map Position:
These are more complex activities you or your staff can take, or which you can hire specialist companies to undertake:
- Gain more Citations. Basically, have your company spread more diversely around the internet: Yellow Pages, Citysearch, social media sites (like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn), local search engines (like Google, Bing Places, and Yahoo) Local, online review websites (like Yelp and TripAdvisor), local business discovery apps (like Foursquare), or even local blogs (local chamber of commerce) highly connected with a specific city or location.
- Add structured data markup to your website: This allows Google to recognize the information better when its bots examine your website.
- Get a Press Release: Press releases can provide very effective ‘Citations’ for your business (i.e. good for ranking for in the Local Map Pack). Press releases can be purchased from dedicated providers.
The Most Advanced Method to Boost your Google Local Map Position:
The Hyper-Local (Neighborhood) Strategy:
Focus on Neighborhood and Hyper Local, rather than City-wide. In a large city with intense competition from many businesses trying to achieve a GMB Local Map 3-pack position is tough. Consider going Hyper-Local because you stand much more chance of success. So instead of trying to optimize for (for example) Family Attorney New York, you might optimize for Family Attorney Brooklyn NY or even Family Attorney Crown Heights Brooklyn NY.
The Hyper-Local (Neighborhood) Strategy:
Focus on Neighborhood and Hyper Local, rather than City-wide. In a large city with intense competition from many businesses trying to achieve a GMB Local Map 3-pack position is tough. Consider going Hyper-Local because you stand much more chance of success. So instead of trying to optimize for (for example) Family Attorney New York, you might optimize for Family Attorney Brooklyn NY or even Family Attorney Crown Heights Brooklyn NY.
Taking such a strategy will dramatically improve your chances of reaching the Local Google Map pack for anyone making a ‘family attorney’ search from within those specific locations (even if they don’t mention those geographies in their Google Search)
To do this you must ensure your business address and description includes the local neighborhood.
To take such a strategy means that all references to your business address, throughout GMB and all other online sources (Website, Yelp, Local Directories, etc)... should mention that neighborhood too (because Google strongly values the consistency of such data).
Taking this strategy to the extreme you could also add the local neighborhood name to your Business Name entry on the GMB listing (so for our example, instead of XYZ Attorney and Son... it would become XYZ Attorney and Son Crown Heights Brooklyn NY). To make this strategy really effective though... your Business Name would need to be consistent on all other online sources (Website, Yelp, Local Directories... and if possible official business registers too).
Note if you change your Business Name or Business Address on your GMB listing, you have to verify it all over again. That’s why I recommended you read this entire web-page before verifying your business listing – it might be best to go ‘Hyper Local’ right from the start.
Help with HyperLocal marketing can be obtained from dedicated companies like this: https://www.ndoseo.com/join-the-wolf-pack/
To do this you must ensure your business address and description includes the local neighborhood.
To take such a strategy means that all references to your business address, throughout GMB and all other online sources (Website, Yelp, Local Directories, etc)... should mention that neighborhood too (because Google strongly values the consistency of such data).
Taking this strategy to the extreme you could also add the local neighborhood name to your Business Name entry on the GMB listing (so for our example, instead of XYZ Attorney and Son... it would become XYZ Attorney and Son Crown Heights Brooklyn NY). To make this strategy really effective though... your Business Name would need to be consistent on all other online sources (Website, Yelp, Local Directories... and if possible official business registers too).
Note if you change your Business Name or Business Address on your GMB listing, you have to verify it all over again. That’s why I recommended you read this entire web-page before verifying your business listing – it might be best to go ‘Hyper Local’ right from the start.
Help with HyperLocal marketing can be obtained from dedicated companies like this: https://www.ndoseo.com/join-the-wolf-pack/
GOOGLE ADWORDS:
Optimizing your GMB listing is only part of the marketing a local business, though. If you wish to dominate Google, for your local area, and have relatively high profit margins then we suggest you consider Google Paid Ads (and consider using us to build and manage your campaign). Contact Us Now.