Small business tips: Google business listing

If you want your business to be found locally online, then ensuring you are set up on Google Business listings is a step in the right direction. If this sounds like a daunting prospect, don’t worry, we’ve got it covered. We have put together the ultimate guide to adding your business to Google My Business Listing.

t’s definitely not as complicated as it sounds. You can have your business listing up and running quickly thanks to our straightforward guide. Before we get started, here’s some information on what Google My Business Listing is, and why you need it.

What Exactly is Google My Business Listing?

It’s a way of helping your customers to find you when they are searching for businesses in Google. If your website is optimized adequately, it should come up somewhere in the Google national search results.

However, if you want a local presence then a business listing is essential. Otherwise your competitors will be coming up in local search results instead, and you will be missing out on potential enquiries.

Why are Google Business Listings Important?

Google Business Listings can help you to position your business as a serious competitor in your business niche for a specific location, and is important for local SEO. If you don’t have a local business listing in Google, it’s almost as if your business doesn’t exist.

For local searches on mobile devices, the top three local business listings are usually placed above the natural search results, meaning there’s great opportunities to gain some extra traffic. So when someone types a query for a local product or service, they will be provided with relevant local businesses. For example, they might be searching for a flower shop in Orlando, or small business insurance in New York.

Google My Business Listing puts your core business information on Search, Maps and Google+, and ensures your business can be found across all devices. It makes it so much easier for customers to get in touch with you. If they want to get a general liability insurance quote for example, then they can use your Google listing to get in touch with you.

Plus, instead of having to click through to your website and then visit your ‘contact us’ page, they can call you directly from the Google search results. It’s also linked up with Maps, so your customers can get directions to your business address and are able to find you more easily.

Customers can subsequently leave reviews which are attached to your business listing. This can help to grow your reputation and build up trust in your brand.

What Measurement Metrics are Included?

Once you have set up your Google Business Listing, you can start tracking its performance and monitoring traffic to your website. You can get metrics such as views, clicks, reviews and new follower information. It’s also important to keep an eye on your reviews and respond to any negative comments.

You can even use Google Analytics to see new users, unique visitors and pageviews for all the pages on your website. These statistics can help you to see what people are viewing on your website, which pages are and aren’t working and how you can improve your site.

How to Make Sure Your Business Listings are Optimized:

So you have your business listing live in Google, what next? There are a few ways in which you can optimise your business listing effectively and help improve your chances of getting seen in the search engine results page.

• Encouraging customers to leave positive reviews can help to improve your click through rate from search. It’s also displayed when users find your business, and can help to improve your rankings.
• Get rid of any duplicate listings as these can be detrimental to your rankings.
• Make sure all of the data in your listing is correct and matches what you have on your website. Keep a consistent name, phone number and address across all websites that mention your business.
• If possible, embed a Google map on the contact page of your website.
• Select relevant business categories to help people find your business when searching for specific things.
• Add your business operating or working hours to your listing.
• Make sure you add pictures, these help people verify that your business provides what they are looking for, and helps sell your business.