Google My Business Optimisation: Tips to Increase Local Traffic

Have you ever wondered how beneficial it can be for your business to get displayed in front of millions of people searching for a product or service you have got to offer? Well, it is quite possible by making use of Google My Business. Google My Business optimisation helps your business rank better in local searches, thus resulting in more traffic and sales.

However, before moving on to discussing Google My Business optimisation in detail, let’s have a closer look at what Google My Business is and what are the benefits of having a GMB page.

What is Google My Business Page?

GMB is a free tool from Google that helps businesses and organisations to maintain an online presence across Google. GMB allows customers to find your business when they are searching for a product or service you offer, thus increasing your local exposure.

As the number of internet users is on the rise every day, businesses must have a GMB page to stay relevant in today’s competitive market.

What are the benefits of having a Google My Business Listing?

According to Google, around 46% of the searches have local intent. To rank better in these local searches, having a GMB listing is equally important. Let us now look into some of the benefits of having a GMB listing.

1. Your business show’s up in the Google 3-Pack results

Have you ever heard of the term Google 3-Pack? For those who don’t know what Google-3-pack is, try searching for the keyword ‘restaurants near me’ on Google. You will get a search result page like the one shown below.


Confused on how to make your business appear in Google 3-pack results? Well, it’s quite simple. By creating a GMB listing, your business can easily get into the local 3-pack results for relevant keywords. What makes Google 3-pack results more important is the fact that it gets displayed above the organic results as well.

2. Star ratings to show

You might have seen star rankings being shown near to the name of a business, in the Google search results page. These reviews and ratings matter a lot to both your business as well as your customers.

As a customer, every one of us prefers to buy products or services that are of the highest quality. And having customer reviews displayed near your business name is a great way to tell your potential customers that you offer some of the best services in your field. With GMB listing, your customers will be able to share their reviews about your business for others to see. Having excellent reviews will also help you to stay ahead of your competitors as well.

3. Better understand your customers

GMB allows users to leave their opinion or feedback about your business. Listening to your customers’ feedback can do a lot good for your business. Those reviews which the customers leave behind may contain lots of valuable points that can help you in further improving your business performance.

4. Increase traffic to your business website
 

The most challenging part many businesses find is to bring quality traffic to their website. Well, however with a GMB listing it is not at all a difficult one. Having a listing that shows up in Google search results is one of the easiest ways to drive traffic to your business website. Since 46% of the searches in Google have a local intent, being on top of the search results not only helps in driving traffic to your website but also results in conversions.

Now you might have got an idea about the benefits of having Google My Business Listing for your business.

Well, if you don’t know how to optimise your GMB listing for better ranking, need not worry, keep on reading to know about Google My Business optimisation.

Google My Business Optimisation

Google My Business Optimisation is the most essential and first step in any local SEO strategy. So if you haven’t claimed and verified your GMB page, visit https://www.google.com/business to get started. 

However, just claiming and verifying your business doesn’t guarantee that your listing gets ranked on the top of the search results. To get ranked better, you need to optimise your GMB listing. Following are the ways in which you can keep your listing completely optimised for better online visibility.

1. Google My Business Posts

Google allows you to add free posts to the business listings on Google search and maps. GMB posts are one of the best ways to increase the online visibility of your business. With this option, you can post information such as any upcoming events, mention about any new product or service you provide or inform people about any offers you are providing.
 

To get started with GMB posts, login to your GMB dashboard and click on the “Posts” option available in the left side panel.

 

Events- With this option, you can promote any of your upcoming or current events directly on your business’ knowledge panel. In this way, you can easily let your customers know about what is happening and what are the latest updates about your business.

Offer – Offer posts can be used for limited time promotions. Uploading a photo or a video that supports your message is a great way to draw customer attention.

Product – Show a picture of the new products that you are going to provide. You can also give a description and price range for the product.

What’s New – Businesses can make use of this type of post to highlight anything new that is happening in their company, be it a new product launch or any unique service you offer.

2. Booking Button

Google recently introduced a new feature that allows businesses to add a booking button to their listing. Businesses that involve customers making an appointment can make use of this new feature provided by Google. To get this feature enabled for your listing, the only thing you have to do is set up an account with Google’s supported scheduling providers. Once done, the booking button gets automatically added to your GMB listing.

With this feature, customers can book an appointment in under a minute, directly through the listing itself, making it easier for both businesses and customers as well.

3. Messaging

How great would it be if you can receive messages from your potential customers directly to your mobile phone? Well, with a GMB listing your customers can directly connect with you by sending messages.

To get started, log in to your Google My Business Dashboard and click on the “Messaging” option available in the left side panel. You can then add your mobile number to which you will receive the message.

If you don’t want to receive messages on your number, you can make use of the Allo app from Google. Once you set up your Allo account using the same number, the messages will be sent to the Allo app instead of appearing as a personal message. Allo app helps to separate your personal and business text messages, thereby allowing you to keep track of your business messages more easily.

4. Check Your Listing Regularly

Many business owners aren’t even aware of the fact that anyone can suggest an edit to your business listing.

 

By just clicking the “suggest an edit” option provided along with your business listing, people can suggest Google to make changes to your listings. And the interesting part is that Google can make these changes live, even without notifying you about the same. Login to your GMB dashboard and check under the “Google updates” options to see for any unwanted changes.

5. Q&A Feature

Customers will have several questions to ask regarding the product or service you provide. Being able to listen to those questions, and giving a proper reply to them can help in improving both customer engagement and satisfaction. That is why Google has introduced a feature, which allows customers to ask questions to the businesses directly through the business listings.
By clicking the Question and Answer option in your business listing, customers can easily ask a question about your business. You can even reply to those questions.

6. Business Descriptions

Google now allows businesses to add descriptions to their GMB listings. Adding an excellent and well-structured description makes your listing more appealing to your potential customers. However, it’s better if you go through Google My Business Description Guidelines before starting to make a description of your business. Also, add one or two relevant keywords in the description, for which you want your business to be ranked.
 

You can make use of the below-mentioned tips while writing Google Business Description to increase your chance of getting ranked.
1. Avoid adding any URLs
2. Avoid keyword stuffing
3. Include an email address/ mobile number
4. Don’t capitalise words
5. Avoid sales pitching

To add business description, log in to your GMB dashboard and click on the “Info” option from the left side panel. From there, you can click on “Add business description” to update the description.

7. Service List

Businesses can also mention services they provide in their GMB page. In the service list, you can also categorize and list your service, prices and other details. It is one of the simplest ways to attract potential customers.

Wrapping Up

Every day Google is coming up with updates to make GMB better and you as a business owner needs to keep track of all these updates to stay relevant and ahead of your competitions. More the interaction, you get for your listing, more the chances of your business getting ranked in the Google 3-pack. 

Take a look at our Digital Marketing Portfolio to know more about how we can be of help to your business.