Suppose one fine day, you are craving a tasty pizza or maybe you are wishing to personally go and buy a new dress for yourself, or maybe you wish to furnish your home or office. The very first thing that you would most probably accomplish is to do a Google search and guest what? Within a second or two you are flooded with the top listed restaurants or shops you were looking for. It is just that simple, right?
Understanding this obvious ease of today’s customers, businesses can’t ignore the necessity of having a Google My Business Profile (GMB) for an online business presence.
Over the years, Google My Business (GMB) has significantly become a must-have aspect of the marketing tools and channels of businesses wanting to increase their footfall. This has now become a solid rock truth since the outburst of Covid 19.
According to BrightLocal, a business receives 1009 customer searches per month, out of which 16% of searches come from direct searches while 84% come from discovery searches. Hence, there is a great scope for getting higher footfalls from your GMB profile.
If you are planning on increasing sales and driving profits, footfall is a crucial metric to consider. You can use this indicator to determine whether your marketing efforts are successful or not. Increasing footfall is indeed a great challenge, but with the right practices on the right and popular platforms like Google My Business, it is achievable to a great extent.
In case your customers want to call you for an inquiry or check out your business address, GMB is the first that any customer would utilize. Right from deciding on whether to consider your business product or not, to whether to visit your store/shop or not, a GMB profile helps your customers on the go.
But what if your profile isn’t set up well or may not be properly optimized? This can even backfire on you. So it is important to follow the best and proven practices that work and help you increase your footfall.
Here are some very impactful, proven, and best practices for Google My Business that have worked for several of our clients to increase their footfalls. Let’s dive deep into them:
1.Genuine Title Name:
This is one of the most crucial practices to follow while optimizing your Google My Business Profile. Care must be taken that you do not stuff unnecessary keywords in your business tile name which can affect your business listing negatively.
Place keywords in the title only if it is a genuine business title with those keywords. Otherwise, you may end up getting your GMB profile suspended.
2.Optimize The Description With The Most Searched Keywords:
According to Google’s statistics in 2019, mobile searches related to “where to buy” and “near me” had increased by more than 200 percent.
To keep your GMB profile optimized and effective make sure that you do thorough research on the most searched and relevant keywords to place them in your description in an effective manner. This will increase your chances of appearing more in the organic searches helping you to reach your potential customers efficiently.
Place the main focus keyword and other related keywords strategically keeping in mind that it seems legit and genuine. Along with keywords you also need to take care that your description is compelling and high-impacting.
3.Describe Your Services In Detail:
If your description to explain your services is not on point you might risk losing a share of potential customers. Try to be as clear as you can while lifting your services and describing them.
Take care that you do not mislead the customers. Provide high-impacting and genuine content to describe your services best. Lastly, avoid using links while explaining your services in detail.
4.Seek Regular Reviews From Your Customers:
Online reviews are one of the most important aspects impacting the search results rankings, click-through rates, and most importantly customer trust.
Encouraging your customers to give a review on GMB is an effective way to gain trust. However, make sure that your business provides value to the customers which in turn provides positive reviews to get listed higher.
Marketing not only revolves around advertising or sales. Before you implement any marketing activity, it is crucial to understand the fact that marketing is all about building relationships in the very first place. These relationships need to be full of trust, faith, and value. So make sure that your brand creates an impact with the right practices at the right time. This fundamental understanding will take you further to provide value and gain positive social proof.
5.Select The Most Relevant Category:
Selecting the proper category for your services can either make you or break you! This is so because, if you select the wrong category you may end up compromising on features that you may lose.
For instance, if your business is a “hotel” but you are categorized as an “educational institution”, you won’t be able to use the reviews feature.
The selection of categories has a direct impact on the features or menus available for your business in GMB. In simple words, Google’s understanding of handling your business highly depends on your selection of primary and secondary categories.
6.Mention The City And State Within Your Description:
To increase your chances of appearing in the organic searches and Google Maps, mention your city and state within your description. You may try to use keyword strings in your description such as below:
- [keyword] + [city] + [state]
- [type of service] + [city] + [state]
- [type of business] + [city] + [state]
7.Regularly Post On The Update Section:
Regularly posting on your update section in GMB is a good practice to keep your customers informed about your business updates, the latest products or services, upcoming events, or any other relevant information.
This will provide a sense of value to your customers. Also, add a call to action so that the users can easily navigate your content.
8.Upload Interior And Exterior Pictures And Videos:
Businesses uploading images are more likely to receive requests for driving directions to their business location. Uploading interior and exterior photos and videos can impact your customers to take further relevant actions.
However, make sure that you upload high-resolution relevant images and videos only. Also, ensure that the image and video formats and alt tags are SEO optimized.
9.Make Use Of The Offer Section For A Higher Call Rate:
Utilizing the offer posts section in Google My Business allows you to highlight current specials, coupons, discounts, or deals offered by your company. You may also build a campaign that is only available for your Google My Business listing. This helps to promote sales and get a higher call rate.
10.Promote Your Business With Google Ads:
Google Ads integration with Google My Business is a great benefit that you can utilize to boost the visibility of your business. Along with higher visibility, you can also drive people to your website or get direct call inquiries.
Google ads in GMB as it is available in the smart version, which is easy and simple to use. You can promote your business more effectively by using the immense power of Google Ads.
Conclusion
Google My Business is a crucial aspect to establish an online presence for your business. However, if your profile is not properly optimized you may also face the negative side. Hence, by using the best and right practices to set up and optimize your Google My Business Profile you can make the most out of it.
This is pretty much it. Hoping that you found this article valuable. If yes, do share your thoughts in the comments section.
If you are looking for an extended team of experts to optimize your Google My Business Profile most effectively, connect with our experts at Insightus Digital now!
