It might be about as fun as completing an online dating profile, but you don’t want to miss Google’s help here if you operate a business with a physical location or serve customers in a designated service area.
Google Business Profile (GBP) is a verified online listing separate from your website that tells Google all about your business so that it can be visible to users of Google Search and Google Maps.
Your GBP displays basic information about your business, like phone number, address, star reviews, and hours of operation, and it points people to your website. If your business receives customers at a specific location, like a restaurant or dental office, then Google Maps can also recommend you to a Maps user searching for services you offer in close proximately to where they are in that moment.
Utilizing as many of the web tools in Google’s ecosystem as possible demonstrates credibility and relevancy to Google and its users, which means your business gets recommended even more, lifting your online presence. It often reminds me of how the Apple products web together when someone has an iPhone, iWatch and all the other “i” things. All of the devices and apps linked together unlocks the most features Apple offers.
GBP is one of the most powerful – and free! – web tools available.
Setting the profile up accurately, keeping the details of your business current, and asking for reviews from customers, all have significant impact to your website’s organic SEO ranking.
The reason for this is the details and activity from your GBP are also factored into Google Search’s algorithms, which is where your website shows up as a listing if it is optimized and indexed with Google (meaning, a technical SEO has been performed). Every source of information becomes an input for Google to understand your business in relationship to a Search user.
Remember, Google Search prioritizes websites in the Ranking Pages that offer a strong user experience and are relevant to what a user wanted to find when they starting searching for information. This is called “user intent”, and search engines (especially Google) are very keen in understanding what someone likely wants to accomplish by the search keywords and questions they use, especially in light of their personal search history.
La Mejor Website offers a free analysis of your business’s website and SEO performance. Don’t be mistaken; completing your GBP is not the same as performing SEO. GBP is just one of the many SEO tools that contribute to the health of your online presence.
Best Practices to Create or Update a GBP
Keep the following in mind for best ranking results in Search and Maps:
Utilize and complete every field available in your profile. Add as many of the Google-suggested services as are applicable to your business. Everything here can act as a keyword that matches a user’s search. The more Google knows about your business, the more it can recommend you.
Be honest and accurate about your business details so that you remain credible.
Business operating hours are critical to include and maintain, especially if your business provides services at a physical location that people go to. Ranking in Maps can fluctuate based on your hours of operation.
Spelling accuracy can impact a user finding your business because everything in your GBP becomes a keyword that needs to match a user’s search terms. Google is intuitive about spelling errors and can often correctly suggest the intended word, but it slows down the search and can leave a negative impression to the user.
For restaurants and beverage businesses, using Menu Editor is imperative. Invest the time in carefully listing the name of each item with the price, and a quality photo, if possible. Every menu item becomes a key word, and it’s more inclusive from an ADA Accessibility perspective as well, which helps your Search results and sales in general.
TIP: This is not the same as taking a picture of your menu board. That’s an unhelpful shortcut, because Google cannot read words from a photo, nor can screen reader software that your visually disabled customers utilize.
Promptly interact with every review your business receives, no matter how many stars were given. You can read more here about how to respond to common review scenarios. We have experienced there is a major correlation between the number of positive and recent reviews your business has on GBP and your website ranking. Invest your effort here!
For clients who retail products online via an e-commerce site, you should sync them with Google Merchant Center, which is another free web tool in the Google ecosystem. Google will actually display your products in the GBP under "See what's in store" AND it dramatically impacts ranking of your website. Not only will your e-commerce website be performing for you, there will be another location and opportunity to be even more visible to customers. And the best part – because your products are synced between GBP and Google Merchant Center - your organic SEO gets a massive boost.
If you are interested in creating or updating your GBP or syncing your retail products with Google Merchant Center as part of our SEO service, get in touch. We love helping our clients succeed!
We will make an honest recommendation based on 15 years of experience. Need more social proof? Check out one of our 160+ Five-Star Google reviews.
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