BENEFITS OF AN OPTIMIZED GOOGLE BUSINESS PROFILE

We live in a digital age in which a wealth of information about products and local businesses is available right at our fingertips. In fact, any business that hasn’t established itself online is bound to find itself falling behind its competitors. This involves more than just creating an account for your business on Facebook or Instagram; it also means getting actively involved in managing your online presence.

With the growing demand for a more digitally aware directory, Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business “GMB”) was designed to link businesses with local consumers.
According to a 2019 study, the average business receives 1,009 customer searches each month through their Google Business Profile, with 84 percent of these from discovery searches, while the others are direct search results for a company’s specific name.

With an estimated 92.18% of market share, Google is the most used search engine worldwide. That means when someone searches for a business like yours, they’re most likely to use Google to find it. If you have a Google Business Profile, formerly known as Google My Business (GMB), there’s a good chance your business will show up in the user’s local search results.

What Is A Google Business Profile?
A Google Business Profile is a free digital marketing service that allows businesses to display their basic information, business updates, photos, and customer reviews— and process transactions — on a single platform. These profiles, or business listings, appear in both Google’s local search results and on Google Maps and serve as a prime search engine optimization (SEO) tool.

Search for a business on Google, and you’ll see the business information: name, phone number, directions, images, reviews, questions and answers, and a link to the company’s website. Some businesses even have a link that allows potential customers to order products directly from their Google Business Profile.

Google Business Profile is essentially a detailed, digital snapshot of local businesses. When customers want to learn what your business is about, they’ll first look at your Business Profile through a Google search.

This is why it’s important for your SEO to make an optimized, frequently updated profile that includes Google Business best practices. Your profile should be complete and have the following information:

• Photos of your business, inside and outside
• Complete contact information
• Keywords relevant to your business
• Working links, including a link to your website
• Your hours of operation, if applicable
• Regular updates, including links to your blogs
• Links to online and YouTube videos
• A new location
• And more.

A Google My Business Profile allows you to manage your online presence across the entire Google platform. Once you create and claim ownership of a Google My Business Profile, you can access and edit all of the information that appears in your listing, from the business hours and the location to any photos.

By controlling this information, you control the information that shows up in Google Maps or Google Search when potential customers search for your business online.

Benefits Of Google Business Profile
The benefits of A Google Business Profile are numerous and they go beyond what will be stated here.

1. Interaction With Your Customers Online And Get More Reviews
Google My Business allows you to do much more than simply post and update information about your business. It also allows you to directly interact with your customers.

One of the ways to do this is by monitoring and responding to Google Reviews. Online reviews are an increasingly important part of how customers make decisions about where to do business and what products to purchase. In fact, a survey from Podium found that 93 percent of customers say that online reviews influence their purchasing decisions.

It’s not enough to sit back and allow reviews to build up; business owners who really know how to manage their online presence use platforms such as Google My Business to get involved and respond to customer reviews. This includes posting apologies and initiating discussions with customers who have had a bad experience as well as thanking customers for positive reviews and encouraging customers to patronize and refer them.

2. Track Traffic and Create Campaigns
Understanding how your customers are finding your business gives you a better idea of where they’re coming from and how to handle those leads once they make contact with you. This is the case with drive-by business and it’s also true for customers who find your business online.

Google My Business allows customers to track insights on their listings. From your Google My Business dashboard, you can learn things like how many times your listing has been viewed, how customers find your listing, what actions customers take after finding it, and more.

This can help you learn things like the kinds of things that potential customers were searching for when they found your business, whether they visited your website or called the number on your listing’s contact info, and whether they clicked on the driving directions to find their way to your business.

3. Better Connections With Your Customers
Google My Business profile not only gives businesses control over ensuring that their contact, location, and other information listed on Google are correct; it also gives them a whole new platform through which to connect with their customers. From interacting through posts and commenting on reviews to learning more about what their customers are looking for when they find your business via an online search, Google My Business is a platform that every business owner should be using.

4. Increase Trust In Your Business
Google has established itself as a top trustworthy service. So, if your local business is listed on Google, this will improve your perceived legitimacy as well. According to Google, your potential “customers are 2.7 times more likely to consider a business reputable if they find a complete Business Profile on Google Search.”

A local Google Business Profile with predominately positive reviews helps potential customers build trust in your brand. If they see that most people who did business with you had a favorable experience, they will expect to have a good experience too.

5. Free Advertising And Free Organic Traffic
Google Business Profile is essentially a Google advertisement that is both quick and free. Google My Business is a free service that gets you tailored visibility to the top of the world’s most trusted search engine. It takes less time to improve your profile than it does to launch a successful sponsored search campaign.

This isn’t to imply that you shouldn’t use Google Ads or use your website to improve your SEO. Both are effective marketing methods and a service we provide for many of our clients, which is well worth your time and money. However, Google Business Profile is a complimentary marketing feature that is both cheaper and faster than paid search advertising. Once you list your business, you’ll begin to receive calls and visits to your website. Additionally, potential customers will be able to use Google Maps to track and visit your offline store.

6. Customer Views And Engagement
A Google Business profile has a significant impact on your local Google rankings. It doesn’t only help promote your products, but enhance your market research efforts. You will have access to insights that’ll help you learn more about who your target audience is and how to interact with them, including the following:

Views: Views tell you the number of people that have checked your business profile, posts, offers, and photos. This is quite beneficial for shaping the strategy to ensure successful campaigns. You’ll know whether your effort is performing well and getting the desired attention or whether they are unsuccessful and costing you money.

Engagement: Your Google Business Profile allows you to see how your audience reacts to the content you post. You’ll see the type of posts they like and the comments they leave on those posts. This will enable you to determine the types of marketing materials that work for your business and what to share more of in the future.

7. Boost Traffic To Your Website
Your website link appears on your main Google Business Profile page. It’s one of the first things customers will see when they visit your profile. If customers want to learn more about your local business, or can’t remember your website address, they can get to your website through your Google Business Profile. In fact, they’ll probably head to Google first to search for it.

This provides a quick way for people to find your website without spending too much time trying to locate your website address, especially if it’s hard to remember. The last thing you want is a customer, or a potential customer, to give up on visiting your website because they can’t find the link. Plus, let’s face it, Google likes it when you use their tools.

8. Access To Free Marketing
You can also use Google Business to manage other aspects of your business, such as contact details, photos, and more. This includes adding new locations, updating your address and phone number, as well as linking to recent website content for your customers.

Once Google verifies your local business and activates your profile, you can then access the free marketing kit, which contains personalized promotional and advertising materials for your business. You’ll get Google stickers and decals, templates for social media posts and postcards, and more.

9. Improves Your Ranking in Google Search- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Google Business Profile plays an important role in local SEO marketing by helping you stand out in your community and local service area. When it comes to SEO and Google search rankings, you’ll need to incorporate several tools and methods to continuously improve your rankings.

When a customer searches for a business, Google will first show local businesses that are close to the user. If you don’t have a profile, you may still appear in Google’s results, but much further down the list. That’s because Google gives preference to businesses that have a profile on their site, so these businesses will show up first. And, of course, you want to appear in the first few results because users tend to not scroll too far down in their search results.

Your local business profile will also appear on Google Maps, highlighted with a red icon that users can click to view your profile.

In Conclusion
Google Business Profile is one of the best SEO marketing tools to put your business location in front of thousands of local customers in both search results and on Google Maps. It’s also a great way to connect with your potential and existing customers. Without a listing, you’re missing out on a number of Google Business Profile benefits, such as more sales, increased traffic to your website, and greater exposure.

Are you ready to take your local SEO to the next level and generate more qualified leads using your Google Business Profile? Then talk to Geeksvillage Business Profile team today.

Using our Google Business Profile Management Service will help drive more customer engagement, increase Google reviews, gain more followers, and drive more leads and sales for your business.

We will create a Google Business Profile for your business, optimize your Business Profile following best SEO practices to allow you to connect with prospects and customers easily. We will also showcase your products and services, post and cross-promote content, creat offers, promotions, and sponsored ads, share photos, and use your Google Business Profile insights to improve your visibility and work to improve customer engagement, while also increasing your SEO rankings.

We will also work to increase your positive Google reviews and respond to both positive and negative ones on your behalf and also help you to optimize it to increase your visibility and enhance customer engagement.

Our expert team understands the top ways to grow businesses through Google Search and Google Maps.
So, don’t wait to create your Google Business Profile with Geeksvillage. Make it a priority today. And your business will thank you!