If you are a business owner, you’ve likely heard about how Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business) is one of the most effective local SEO tools for driving potential customers to your business. Be it a restaurant, a book shop, a salon, or even a service-based business, ranking in local searches is crucial as it can help your business gain more visibility, ultimately leading to more chances of being discovered and getting more customers.
In this blog, we will talk about how to optimise your Google My Business profile effectively, in a way that boosts visibility, establishes your business as a reliable brand, and, in turn, generates more qualified leads. Let’s get started!
Why is Google My Business Optimisation Important?
Google My Business, often abbreviated as GMB, is your online business’s front door. To get more people to come knocking, you need to take efforts to get them to your door. For this, you need your business listing to appear for “near me” searches that are relevant to your business. Efficient GMB optimisation ensures that your profile is coherent, accurate, and engaging, improving the chances of users clicking on it and subsequently getting in touch and visiting your physical store.
With such an effective profile for Google Business, Search Engine Optimisation can do its job! For businesses based in the UK, this has become especially important, as local searches are growing by the minute, and customers only really trust results that appear at the top.
How Google My Business Optimisation Improves Local SEO
Increased Local Visibility
GMB optimisation is essentially just telling Google what your business is, what it does, and where it’s located. A more comprehensive Google Business Page helps Google better understand your business and rank it in relevant local searches. This impacts your local SEO directly, as usually local search phrases are very niche, for example, “best Thai restaurant in Manchester” or “emergency electricians in London”.
Better engagement and relevance
Accurate details, consistent updates, and regular engagement are key to ranking for local searches; Google’s algorithm prioritises listings that offer these. If you consistently respond to Google reviews for business, post regular updates about new offers, changes in timings and more, and add images on your Google Business Page, it indicates to Google that your business is active, reliable, and functioning. This boosts your ranking in local business listings in the UK and improves your overall Google Business search engine optimisation.
How to optimise Google My Business Profile?
Ensure every section is complete
The first step in Google My Business Optimisation is ensuring that every section of your Google Business Page is complete and coherently filled. These details include basics like the NAP (Business Name, Store Address, and Phone Number), along with category, business working hours, website, and service area. It is important that everything is consistent; all details filled out on the Google Business Page should be the same as your details on your website and social profiles. This boosts your local SEO performance significantly.
Pick the right category for your business
It is extremely important to choose the right category, both primary and secondary, for your local business listing in the UK. This helps Google show your business for relevant local searches. It is also crucial to be specific and not vague, for example, “Indian Restaurant” will always outperform a simple “Restaurant”, along with categories such as “Catering Service” or “Takeaway”. It can significantly boost your Google Business Page to appear in local business searches.
Use high-quality images and videos
Adding visual content along with text content can significantly add credibility to your profile and ensure that your potential customers can better know and understand your brand. This is the main reason adding high-quality images and videos of your products, team, store, storefront, and premises is an important step in your Google My Business Optimisation. Google Business Pages with visual content are known to receive more clicks, calls, direction requests, and ultimately, conversions than the listings without it.
Keep updating your profile
In case of any changes in your business operations, special events and offers, or changes in working hours, it is important to update the listing on your Google Business Page promptly. This ensures that your profile is updated with all the latest details, avoiding all confusion for users. Many businesses can lose potential customers if they do not update their details consistently, as users may not know about the changes in operations. Such regular updates also indicate to Google that your business is reliable and operational, and can contribute positively to your local SEO.
Encourage Google Reviews for businesses
Once a customer visits your store and makes a purchase, it is always a good idea to ask them to share their experience on Google. This can be done by sharing a direct link immediately after the purchase or having a printed QR code in your store that can easily be scanned, leading them to write a Google Review for your business. Many businesses think this is it, but they could not be more wrong. Once a customer leaves a review, it is also important to respond to their feedback, irrespective of whether or not their review is positive. This shows your customers that you value their feedback and care about the quality of products or services you sell, leading to trust building and efficient GMB optimisation.
Final thoughts: Optimise Google My Business For Better Local Growth
Google My Business Optimisation is a necessity in today’s world for local growth. Especially in the UK, if you focus on local SEO by managing your reviews, keeping your profile updated, using quality images and videos, and adding the right categories to your Google Business Page, you can appear in local searches and attract better leads that can potentially become your customers.
It is important to know that for efficient GMB optimisation, consistency and accuracy are the most important. It can change how your brand is discovered, bringing in heaps of customers to your business who make purchases and stay loyal.
