It doesn’t matter if your business is online or offline there are so many benefits to using Google My Business to grow your brand. This is a tactic you can use if your business has been impacted by the COVID outbreak and it won’t cost you any money and needs just a few hours of time.
What is Google My Business?
If you are not familiar with Google My Business (GMB), it is a free and easy-to-use tool for businesses and organisations to manage their online presence across including Search and Map. If you haven’t already got a business listing then now is the time to register one.
What do Google want?
Google have asked business owners to affected by the pandemic to update their GMB profiles so customers can see if and when they are open and add changes to their services. When you log into your GMB account you will see the option to create a COVID-19 post and you can create public announcement for your business.
For instance If you still offer services and have delays then you can mention this or a restaurant now offering deliveries. If your business is still temporarily closed then you can make customers aware of this. The updates will show on your Business Profile on Google Search and Maps.
If you want your business listing to stand out locally then GMB really is one of the best marketing tools for this. This marketing tactic is quick and effective.
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GMB Tips
Here are 5 tips to give your Google My Business listing a quick audit so you can hit the ground running.
- When logged in to GMB check your hours of operation are up to date, check your business name, address, phone number and website url are all correct and the same as what is present on your website. These are some of the signals that Google use to verify your business listing.
- Upload fresh images inside and outside your business. Think about your showroom, product displays and even staff. Good quality images can appear hundreds of times in results and the more your images are clicked, the more Google will trust them which can help your listing be seen more often.
- Respond to all of your reviews, this is both the good ones and the bad ones. If you are looking to get more reviews you can log into your GMB account where you will find a box that says ‘Get More Reviews’ you can use the url to send direct to happy customers to leave a review, the url will look something like https://g.page/businessname/review?rc
- Use the posts function to post your latest offers, promotions, articles and news stories. This is probably one of the most underused features of GMB.
- If you have short business videos that you have added to social media then you should definitely add some to your GMB listing. You can either upload them to your photos area or upload as a post to appear at the side of search results in your GMB knowledge card.
Marketing Tool
Your google My Business can become an essential local marketing tool during the pandemic and when your business is back trading in traditional ways.
Increased brand visibility will lead to new website visitors, new enquiries and sales.
You can speak with the RAD SEO team about supporting you with expert local SEO services
