Businesses today require targeted visibility on Google. Most business owners know that you gain this visibility by working on your website or with Google ads but you can actually gain far more with a Google Business Profile. This powerful listing provides a dynamic snapshot of your business, highlighting your best features whilst allowing potential customers to find you. The problem however isn’t that many businesses aren’t using this powerful platform but that they aren’t using it to its full potential.
So here are our top 5 tips for managing a Google My Business profile.
- Reviews matter but what is in the review matters more – Obviously, everyone knows that you need reviews for social proof but even more important is what the review says. Having the customer mention your services or products, the location of your business and key factors helps volumes in organically ranking your Google Business Profile.
- Be careful how you obtain reviews – Google’s policies are very strict. If you pay either a client or a third party to leave a 5-star review, Google will ban you. Instead, you should incentivise your current customers but this has to be regardless of the star rating. A great way is to offer $20 off their next purchase if they leave a review. This in turn will result in more people interacting and talking about your business.
- Post, post, post – Regularly posting relevant content (even if it’s similar to your social media posts) about your business helps customers know you are operating and posts help Google by your copy adding more content and context to your business.
- Ensure opening hours are correct – Adding special hours are important, such as public holiday opening and closing hours. Customers don’t enjoy trying to find open restaurants on a public holiday to only arrive and see the restaurant is closed. The same goes for any business. Customers are less likely to visit your premises if your hours come up as “hours may vary due to public holidays”.
- Max out the character limits – Google Business profile provides limited possibilities on how much information you can provide. Ensure you use the limited space Google has provided your business, and articulate ample information about your product or service offering.