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Optimizing Google Business Profile Listings for Small Businesses

How to Optimize Google Business Profile for Local Searches

Optimizing GBP Listings for Local Searches

What is Google Business Profile, and how does it work?

Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business) is a free tool provided by Google to help you promote your Business Profile (created on Google) and your business website, on Google Search results, as well as Google Maps. Google Business Profile (GBP) will increase your online visibility and improve your engagement with customers or prospects, resulting in more conversions.

Business Profile is a feature provided by Google to help promote your business when people search for businesses like yours on Google and Google Maps. While it is very useful, it comes with certain limitations. These have been overcome by using GBP to complement the features or enhance the utility of - Business profiles. You will be creating a separate account for GBP and linking it with your Business Profile to achieve this.

The importance of GBP (Google Business Profile)

GBP is a valuable marketing tool for businesses that have a physical office or storefront and are dependent on local area business. GBP adds value in different ways.

  • Maintain accurately and update information about your business online - Things like location, address, website, phone number, and working hours. The mobile app helps you stay updated about your online presence while on the move.
  • Engage with customers better - By posting photos about your products and services, responding to questions and reviews.
  • Attract prospective customers and increase conversions - You can change or manage how your business appears online (which makes it easy for people to find you). You can point them to your website and also harness location-based ads.

How does Google Business Profile help promote businesses?

Localized businesses thrive on local google searches for customers to find them. In the same way, a verified business with reviews and comments adds more credibility to the customer. GBP combines both of these nicely. People searching for a physical office or storefront while on the go will find this particularly useful.

Consumers use GBP in different ways and for various reasons, including:

  • To get address and directions to a local business
  • To find out a business's opening and closing times or working hours
  • To speak to a local business without having to visit their website
  • To read and write reviews, or ask and answer questions about a local business
  • To visit the business website
  • To view the available products and services
  • To see photos of the business's offerings (products/services/solutions)
  • To make online bookings and appointments

Optimizing Google Business Profile Listings for Small Businesses

Importance of Google Business Profile listing for every business

  • Be discoverable - Businesses with a physical presence are dependent on local area business. For them, merely having a website doesn't help as one still has to sift through loads of information. In such a scenario, a GBP page makes discovery simple by providing a ready reckoner of information about the company.
  • Update your customers dynamically - A better way of doing it is through the GBP. There are numerous day-to-day changes or updates about the business which cannot be published on the website always. For example, changes in working hours during the pandemic, upcoming events, a new client, etc.
  • Boost customer confidence - A business that responds to questions and reviews appears humble and reliable. It complements their marketing message and helps them earn better reviews. Such online reviews appear more genuine than testimonials on the business website.

How to rank high on Google Business Profile/Google Map listing?

There are some broad guidelines for this:

  • Claim and verify your Google Business Profile (GBP) listing. This will help you link your Business Profile with your GBP account.
  • Fully complete your GBP listing with necessary details
  • Ensure your GBP category is as accurate as possible to bring relevant customers
  • Add many high-quality photos about your products and services
  • Get relevant and valuable Google reviews
  • Regularly make postings in your GBP
  • Be aware of Local SEO factors that affect your rankings
  • Use tools to monitor how you rank for each of the most important, local keywords
  • Engage a Digital Marketing partner to simplify all the above

How to rank high on Google Business Profile

Optimizing your Google Business Profile for local SEO

Here again, some broad guidelines are useful:

  • Target your information through relevant keywords
  • Maintain quality of the information in every section of GBP
  • Make use of special features and attributes
  • Encourage customers to leave reviews
  • Build trust by responding to reviews and regularly adding photos
  • Manage everything in one place by using tools such as Hootsuite
  • Refine paid and organic reach with GBP Insights

While all these may look simple and specific, it needs quality control at every step. It requires experienced and subject matter experts who are dedicating time for the same. Not involving such professionals can render your efforts futile.

This is where a partner like LBN Tech Solutions comes into the picture. With over a decade of experience in web-based marketing paradigms, LBN is the right partner to handle your GBP account on a day-to-day basis and optimize your GBP page for local search, local marketing, and local SEO.

Contact us to get started this key yet underrated service.