How To Use Google My Business To Boost Your SEO
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One SEO boost that’s often overlooked by business owners and web developers alike is Google My Business (GMB).
This free tool is a gold mine of SEO opportunities! Learn how to make the most of your Google My Business account to help your business show up on searches.
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What Is Google My Business?
It’s a free tool that Google makes available to business owners and managers, and it’s great for large and small businesses alike.
You can use GMB to create a business profile, promote your website, and show up more prominently on Google searches and maps. This tool helps you connect with customers and post important business updates, including deals you’re running and new services you’re offering.
Your Google My Business listing is a way to get your business in front of people when they’re searching for specific local services or products.
Do You Really Need GMB?
If you’re looking for a way to easily boost SEO, then the answer is a resounding yes! Of course, that’s not the only reason to create a Google My Business account. Benefits include:
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Helps You Reach More Customers: It’s another tool you have at your disposal to attract and engage customers.
Provides A Presence On Google Search And Maps: GMB helps you feature more prominently through a business profile that provides customers with information about your business in an easy-to-access format.
Creates More Engagement Opportunities: Through your GMB business profile, you can share more photos and key details about your business and encourage higher engagement.
Helps Establish Your Brand As Trusted: When people see your business profile complete with photos, map directions, hours, contact information, reviews, updates, and more, it helps establish your business as a trusted local brand.
We’ve already mentioned it, but we’ll say it again: Google My Business is a free tool. Why wouldn’t you use a tool that costs you nothing and can easily boost SEO for your Squarespace website? It’s a no-brainer!
More Exposure, Leads, And Engagement
With a Google My Business profile, your chances of making it to the top three local results are vastly improved. You’ll also appear on Google Maps and local finder for more exposure and leads.
A GMB profile that’s up-to-date and complete engages a wider audience without you having to pay for advertisement. GMB is a huge driver for SEO success.
GMB For Your Local Business
Especially in a competitive space, Google My Business can help differentiate your business from your competitors. We’ll walk you through an example.
Let’s say you own a carpet cleaning business, and there’s someone in your community right now who needs carpet cleaning services for a home they just purchased. They’re new to the area, and they don’t know which company to work with.
Through recommendations from friends, they’ve obtained three business names, and yours is one of them. The person does a Google search on each of the businesses, by name.
Even before they have the chance to check each business's website, they’re drawn to the GMB profile that appears prominently on the right side of the page. From this business profile, they can quickly scan for what they’re looking for, including phone numbers, reviews, and current promotions.
From this information alone—especially the reviews that show up on each business profile—the person makes a decision on which carpet cleaning company to go with … without ever looking at the company’s website. The decision was made based solely on the GMB listings.
That’s how powerful Google My Business can be.
And one great thing about GMB is that you can use it whether you run a brick-and-mortar business with a physical address, or a home-based or service-area business that’s online, without a physical address.
Easily Boost Your SEO With Google My Business
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By optimizing your Google My Business listing, you can improve your rank in local search results. The key is to fill out as much of your listing as possible. It’s a fantastic customer acquisition tool; the more complete a business listing is, the more you’ll boost your SEO.
The first step is to claim and verify your Google My Business Listing. We’ll start there and then go over several important setup steps, explaining why each matter and how your business can benefit.
Setting Up Google My Business
Follow these steps to get your GMB profile set up and start enjoying the many benefits it can bring you, including improvements in SEO.
Verify Your Business
Having a Google My Business listing doesn’t happen automatically. You have to claim and verify your listing. If you run a qualifying local business, you will be able to claim your free listing.
Google provides step-by-step guidance on claiming and verifying your business on GMB.
2. Fill Out Your Profile
Once you have access to your Google My Business profile, the real fun begins! Here’s where you’ll have your chance to easily boost SEO for your business’ online exposure. The key is to fill out everything that you can in your profile.
In particular, the “Info” section gives you the chance to define your business by including all the pertinent details. Make sure to take advantage of this section and get all the details right. You’ll be adding your business name and indicating what type of business it is. You’ll include the full, correct address and list your service areas (be sure to include your community and all of the surrounding ones).
You’ll also list your hours of operation, phone number, and Squarespace website. Be sure to get these details right! Double-check and triple-check to make sure you didn’t accidentally make any typos.
When you write your business description, provide as much information as possible that consumers would find useful. In addition, include several of your best keywords in the description. This is a fantastic opportunity to work in some SEO.
3. Ensure Consistency Across The Web
It’s very important that your business name, address, phone number, hours, and other relevant info show up consistently across the web. Even small details, such as whether you write Ste or Suite as part of your address, can make a difference in terms of searches. Maintain consistency to avoid confusing customers or search engine crawlers.
4. Choose Relevant Categories
Categories allow you to tell your customers what type of business you run. Are you an escape room center? An auto mechanic shop? A dine-in restaurant? You’ll want to specify what you do and what services you provide by including relevant categories.
Through your categories, customers will be able to find you when they search for specific services they’re interested in. That makes it especially important to choose your categories accurately and wisely.
5. Include Semi-Professional Images
People are drawn to beautiful images. When you add photos to your Google My Business listing, make sure they are top-quality. Semi-professional images work best. If they’re too polished, they’ll look staged. If they’re too amateur, people will lose interest; what does this say about your business if you can’t even put up some decent photos?
Add a collection of semi-professional images that paint your business in the best light and draw people in. Photos are great for user engagement, as people who are interested will want to learn as much as they can visually about your business before making a decision to visit or buy.
6. Get More Reviews
Your Google My Business profile provides a way to get more reviews for your business. Whenever your listing appears, a tab within the listing gives visitors a convenient way to write a review.
Through your profile, you have the opportunity to respond to these reviews for even more engagement with your customers.
Need More Expert SEO Help?
We hope this article has helped you see the benefits of opening a Google My Business account and using your business profile as a way to easily boost SEO for your business.
If you need help setting up your GMB profile and optimizing it for SEO, turn to us. Our expertise can help you improve your online presence.
We specialize in Squarespace SEO and welcome the opportunity to help you get the visibility you need. Contact us today for assistance.
At Launch Happy we believe SEO can be fun and simple even for novices! We try to make it easy for you, and to that length, we’ve created a number of helpful, free guides anyone can use to improve SEO on their Squarespace websites.
Go ahead and look through our guides; you may even find something you can implement right away to easily boost your SEO and gain more visibility. Here’s to your success!
