Google My Business – Why you Need It
Google My Business is becoming one of the most important ways for a business to improve their online presence. Nearly 95% of people use Google to search the internet. This means you need to do whatever you can to get an edge on your competition. If you do this, more customers will find you. This means more sales for your business!
It is free to set up your Google My Business account. You first need to verify your address. Once your listing goes live, when people search for a business like yours, the chances of showing up on search results increases.
Google has also started to include details from Google My Business accounts to determine organic SEO ranking too. This means that if yours isn’t setup and being used, you SEO results will be lower than they should be.
However, to fully utilise your Google My Business listing you need to do more than just set it up. It needs to be carefully managed. So how can you do this?
1. Get Reviews
Getting your customers to provide reviews for your business is one of the best ways to take advantage of Google My Business. It is estimated that around 90% of people are influenced by reviews they read. In addition, it is one of the key ranking factors Google uses when ranking businesses. This is because good online customer reviews are a strong signal of trustworthiness and authority.
Google reviews are particularly helpful for local businesses. However, online businesses can also benefit. A recent survey of 30,000 businesses showed, on average, an increase in website visits from 5,500 to 8,000. This increase was over a nine month period.
To make the most out of your Google reviews, you need a direct link between your Google reviews and your website. This can be easily done by your web developer.
2. Google Posts
Google Posts are an important part of your overall SEO strategy. Essentially, it is short content that goes directly onto your Google My Business Listing. The posts can be used to highlight sales, events or even just general information about the services you provide. Most posts are between 100 -300 words.
In fact, for many small businesses this is a much more successful marketing strategy as compared to over utilised social media platforms. This includes Facebook and Instagram.
Some business such as beauty and fashion are still well suited to social media. However, for other businesses, including tradesmen, posting on Google My Business will get greater leverage. In fact, due to the importance of Google My Business to SEO rankings all businesses should be doing Google Posts.
Google Posts only last 7 days. This means regular posting of fresh content is required. Again, as Google loves new content this will help your SEO as well.
3. Post Photos
Posting photos of your business is one of the best ways to get more people to your website. In fact, according to Google, businesses receive 35% more clicks through to their websites than businesses that don’t have photos. If you are an online shop it is a great way for you to show your products.
Even if you are not an online shop, but say a tradesman then it is also a good idea to show your photos. For example, if you build fences, you can post photos of some of your latest projects. Not matter what industry you are in, photos are a great way of showing what services you provide.
As part of our SEO services, Dynamic Websites set up and manage Google My Business accounts for its clients. So take the hassle out of optimising one of the best ways you can improve your SEO.
Dynamic Websites specialise in small business web design. We are based in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn and provide services throughout Australia. We understand what it takes to get a small business online at an affordable price and with the minimum of fuss. Along with designing websites for small business, tradies and NDIS service providers we provide online marketing services. Our online marketing for small business extends to Google Ads, Google My Business, Microsoft Advertising, search engine optimisation (SEO), content writing and, blog writing.
