Guide to Google Business Profile in 2024 (Google My Business)
Google Business Profile - also known as Google My Business - is an indispensable tool for small and medium-sized businesses looking for online customers. Find out more in this guide to Google My Business in 2023. I'll give you all the tools you need to create and optimize a business profile that performs and gets seen on Google.
Want a basic introduction to Google My Business? Then read our previous blog post "Google My Business - how to set up your online business card".
How to create your Google Business Profile
First and foremost, it's important to check if your business already has a business profile on Google. The easiest way to do this is to search for your business name in the search results.
The next steps depend on whether or not your business already has a Business Profile. Because if you already have a Business Profile on Google, any new one will be loaded as a duplicate. You really want to avoid this - otherwise you can look forward to a very long conversation with Google support. Trust me, you'd rather be forced to watch an entire season of Paradise Hotel in one go than go through that.
You don't already have a Google My Business
If no profile appears when you search for your business name, you can start creating a new one immediately.
Example
Search for "Amplify" on Google. You will immediately see a company profile on the right side of the screen if you are using a computer. If you search on your phone, the profile will appear first on the page.
You have a Google My Business
If your business profile already exists on Google, try accessing it instead of creating a new one. To do this, click on "Do you own this business?" You will then be redirected to a new page where you will get some information that may indicate who the current owner of your Business Profile is.
You now need to click Request access. If it is your own email address, you will immediately receive an email that you can use to gain access. If you do not know the email address, you will be able to claim the company after 3-7 days, where you need to reconfirm via. postcard, phone or email address. I'll get into the verification methods in a bit.
Verify your business profile on Google
Your new business profile isn't worth much if you don't get it verified. In fact, it won't show up in Google search results at all.
There are several ways to verify your Google Business Profile - but it's not always up to you to decide which method to use. In fact, it's a rare sight that you're given multiple options.
There are the following ways to verify a GMB
1. postcard
In some cases, you will need to confirm your ownership of the company profile via a postcard sent to the address you have provided. The postcard will arrive within 14 days. Confirmation via postcard is a good method, although you may have to wait a while for the postcard to arrive at your address. This is often the method to use when creating a new company profile - although it seems somewhat slow and analog, considering we are dealing with online marketing.
2. E-mail
In other cases, you can confirm the profile via an email sent to the email address you provided. This is definitely the easiest method that works flawlessly most of the time. However, it's not often that you're lucky enough to get this option - but if you do, choose this verification method.
3. Phone calls
You may also find that you can verify your company profile through a phone call. However, past experience shows that this is not the best method as it is often difficult to hear the first few numbers that are listed. You can always give it a try and choose another option afterwards if it fails.
4. SMS
SMS verification is the last option to be able to verify your company profile. It's a good solution if the phone number you have specified can receive SMS messages.
Google My Business verification issues
Having created and verified a number of company profiles over the years, I've gathered a few tips and tricks to help you along the way.
Entering a phone number that should not be displayed
Many people choose to add a personal phone number that can receive SMS messages if the number that should be on the company profile cannot. This can be quite appealing as it's a quick verification method - but for God's sake, don't do it. Remember what I wrote about Paradise Hotel earlier?
Once you have verified via that phone number, you can't just change it afterwards. Your GMB is as attached to that number as Patrick Swayze is to 'Baby' in Dirty Dancing.
If this happens, after a lengthy email correspondence with Google's support line, you will be asked to reconfirm via postcard - and the number is visible until you receive the postcard. In other words, you risk being called on your home number until the error is fixed.
Submitting a change many times
Google cares a lot about security and they don't like it when you don't follow their guidelines. If you're submitting the same changes over and over again in the hope that Google will accept the change, you're sorely mistaken.
In most cases, this will only result in your Business Profile being suspended. You will then need to contact Google Support again and prove that your Business Profile complies with all guidelines.
Fill in the correct company name
Every business wants to appear in the local 3-pack, and if you work with SEO, you know that the most relevant ones show up first. Many are therefore trying to create a business profile with the name of the service they want to rank for.
For example, you have a carpentry business, so you choose to create a GMB and call it "roofing", "extensions" or "turnkey".
It's not a good idea - Google is constantly updating their algorithms and getting smarter and smarter. If you get caught cheating, you risk being blacklisted.
Fortunately, if you take some of my advice to heart, you can get to the top honestly.
How do you fill out your Google My Business?
If you want to make sure that your Google My Business is completely up-to-date, you need to pay attention to a number of points. In addition, you need to be aware of the profile on an ongoing basis if you want it to perform.
You need to review the following areas:
- Business category
- Description
- Web site
- Service areas
- Opening hours
- Extended opening hours
- Labels
- Service offerings
- Our products
- Images
- Storage.
If you already have a focus on SEO on your website, it can create value if you fill in the points above. Most of the points we have elaborated on in our previous blog post about GMB, and the ones not mentioned will be covered later in the guide.
The purpose of a Google My Business
Why should you have a company profile? There are several reasons, and you'll get some of them right here.
Appearing in Google's "local 3-pack"
The ultimate purpose of a Google My Business is to appear in the famous "local 3-pack". Google selects and displays the 3 most relevant business profiles when you do a search.
Does your company profile appear on one or more keyword combinations? Then potential customers have a great chance of discovering your business.
Visibility, visibility and more visibility
If you want to be visible in your local area, having a Google My Business is essential. Business profiles are one of the first things that pop up when you do a search, and of course your business should be listed there.
A 2019 study found that 81% of respondents needed to trust a brand to make a purchase - and that happens through visibility and brand awareness.
It makes for great customer experiences
Is there anything more important than a great customer experience? Great results are important, of course, but you're setting yourself up for failure if you don't value customer satisfaction equally.
If you have a business profile on Google, your customers can quickly find all relevant information about your business. If you've spent endless amounts of time trying to find a business' opening hours or address, you know how frustrating it can be.
Google Business Profile: Achieve greater visibility through listings
If you want to get the most out of your Google Business Profile, it's important that you remember to give it some love. It's not enough to simply update the opening hours every now and then. As mentioned earlier, Google rewards active business profiles - and one of the best ways to keep a GMB active and relevant is through posting.
Google has stated that the listings enable customers to make better purchasing decisions by having access to more business information and updates.
In addition, the benefits of creating posts are also that you have the opportunity to:
- Communicate directly with your local customers.
- Give customers a better experience with timely information.
- Promote sales, special offers, events, news and other offers.
- Engage your customers with videos and images.
Read more about Google's post on local business listings.
The different listings on Google My Business
What types of posts can you create on your Google My Business? Well, you have 3 different options. Your posts will both appear at the bottom of your business profile.
You have the option to create the following posts:
- General updates and news (updates)
- Offers (offers)
- Events (add event)
The main difference between the general status updates compared to offers and events is that you need to enter the start and end date of the offer/event. The great thing about this feature is that the posts are automatically removed from your profile when the post has expired. The general updates will not be removed.
Add images and videos to your posts
Most people are captivated by images and videos, and this is also the case when it comes to posting on Google My Business. Posts with images and videos of great products or friendly people simply get more views and clicks.
You can read more about Google's image and video upload guidelines here.
Google recommends the following when creating a post:
- "A compelling image that supports your message".
- "Text that speaks to customers: This is your chance to speak directly to your customers".
- "A call-to-action button that prompts users to take an action immediately".
8 tips for a good Google Business Profile
Having trouble filling out your business profile? Here are 8 tips for a great Google My Business profile that creates value for you and your current and future customers.
- Make sure that everything that can be filled in is filled in. This includes everything from website address and opening hours to products and services.
- Remember to update your opening hours in case of closing days, otherwise you can quickly get unhappy customers and bad reviews.
- Create products for the most important of your services/products and link to the relevant landing page on your website!
- Use different categories when creating your products, if there are several, they will be displayed on your GMB.
- Capture potential customers' attention with posts, be it any offers, events or status updates - and remember to add images or videos to posts to improve their performance.
- Use good images with friendly people or relevant products. Also, make sure to add new images often, not just when you create them.
- Answer your reviews - good and bad.
- If you want to display social icons on your business profile that link to your social media, you can't just add them. Place the icons with a link in the footer of your website and they are more likely to appear on your GMB.
Data collection: Get insights into views and search trends
Google sends you a monthly performance report that summarizes the number of phone calls, website clicks from the business profile, messages, profile views, searches and the number of people who asked for directions.
You will also see your top 3 search terms - when and for which searches your company profile is typically displayed.
The efficiency report compares the last month with the month before.
Stay up to date on a regular basis
If you want to stay updated on how your business profile is performing throughout the month, you can also access all information through "Performance".
Here you will be able to retrieve data from several months and see how many people viewed your business profile through Google Search and Google Maps - and whether they used a phone or computer. In addition, you can also see all search terms that have been used when your business profile has been viewed.
If you start creating posts, you'll also get a separate "status email" for each post so you can see how they're doing.
The synergy between Google my Business and SEO
Can a Google My Business boost my SEO? Isn't it more important to focus on on-page SEO rather than off-page? Surely it only affects local search results?
These are just a few of the questions you might get when you start the conversation about the synergy between Google My Business and SEO. You can read more about the others in the following.
- Det skaber mere trafik til hjemmesiden
Hvis der er noget, som vi SEO-nørder elsker, er det trafik til hjemmesiden. Det gælder alt trafik– lige fra trafik gennem de organiske and betalte søgeresultater til trafik via sociale medier og eksterne hjemmesider.De besøgende på din hjemmeside, styrker din hjemmesides relevans i Google øjne – hvilket er en rangeringsfaktor, når vi taler SEO. Så hvis du kan skabe endnu mere trafik til din hjemmeside, ved at styrke din Google My Business, hvad holder dig så tilbage?
- Google får en bedre forståelse for dine serviceområder
Hvis du arbejder med SEO, ved du forhåbentligt allerede, hvor stor betydning content har for din optimering. Der er en god grund til, at man implementerer et blogunivers, diverse guides og har fyldestgørende tekster på sin hjemmeside.Google vil altid vise brugerne det mest relevante indhold ud fra deres søgning, gennem information og opslag på din Google My Business tydeliggøre du, hvilke områder din virksomhed er specialister i. Jo mere relevant indhold om din virksomhed, desto bedre.
- Google er vilde med, at vi bruger deres værktøjer
Der er ingen tvivl om, at Google elsker, når vi benytter deres værktøjer og programmer – og det er også tilfældet med Google My Business. Har du tænkt over hvorfor, du kun kan tilføje mailadresser, der er registreret på en Google-konto i Google Analytics? Helt korrekt – de vil have, at du anvender deres værktøjer. Som Jakob Kjellberg ville sige: “Sæt i gang!” - Google prioriterer de lokale søgninger
Hvis du arbejder med SEO, følger du helt sikkert med i Googles mange algoritme-opdateringer. Googles “Local Search Update” i 2021 sendte et tydeligt signal om, at Google prioriterer og vægter de lokale søgeresultater.Hvis du har en tandklinik, tømrerfirma eller restaurant, vil du højst sandsynligt gerne vil være synlig i bestemte lokalområder. Her vil du gå glip af noget, hvis GMB ikke er del af din lokale SEO-strategi. Inden for lokal SEO er programmatic SEO desuden svært at komme uden om. Med pSEO kan du udgive flere hundrede relevante lokationslandingssider på én gang!
- Det skaber brandawareness – bliv vist op til 3 steder
Forestil dig at en kunde både ser dit virksomhedsnavn i både de organiske søgeresultater, i en betalt annonce og ovenikøbet i Googles “local 3-pack”. Hvad er chancen for, at du klikker videre til denne virksomhed? Efter min erfaring, så er chancen lige så stor, som at Brasilien kvalificerer sig til VM. - Du styrker din virksomheds troværdighed
Hvor vigtig er din hjemmesides troværdighed? Hvis du spørger en SEO-specialist, så vil de sige “meget vigtig”. Det deler vandene, om online anmeldelser påvirker ens placeringer på Google, efter Google delte deres Search Quility Rater guidelines.Anmeldelser kan du få og synliggøre gennem din Google My Business. Der er ikke meget tvivl om, at positive anmeldelser tiltrækker flere kunder til dit website, som kan bidrage til en højere konverteringsrate. Ville du ikke være mere tilbøjelig til at foretage et køb eller kontakte en virksomhed, hvis gode anmeldelser var det første, der sprang i øjnene.
- Produkter kan skabe trafik til de vigtigste sider
Det er meget muligt, at Google ikke har meldt ud, at en Google My Business påvirker placeringerne i de organiske søgeresultater. Dog ved vi, at relevante interne og eksterne links styrker SEO.I Google My Business kan man oprette produkter, hvor du kan beskrive og linke direkte til landingssiden om det specifikke produkt eller service. Jeg vil lade det være op til dig at bedømme, om det kan bidrage til en positiv udvikling i placeringerne.
Get help with Google Business Profile
I hope my guide helped you understand how Google My Business can add value to your business.
Does it all seem a bit overwhelming? Don't worry, at Amplify I or one of my skilled colleagues are ready to help you. You are more than welcome to contact us by phone on +45 70 60 50 28, send an email to info@amplify.dk or fill out our contact form.
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