Well, to be found by your potential customers as quickly as possible! What is it good for, who is it good for, what is the point, and how to do it: in this comprehensive article, we have gathered for you the most important information about Google My Business.
Imagine rushing to work in the morning. It’s raining outside, and you already know there’s traffic all over the city. In the evening, guests are coming over, and you need to go shopping, buy flowers, find a dry cleaner, and also find a mechanic to check your washing machine, which is making strange noises. You have no idea which mechanic to call, where the nearest flower shop and dry cleaner are, and whether the store that’s on your way is still open when you finish work. What do you do in such a situation? Of course, you take out your phone and search for everything on Google!
Your potential customers and clients do exactly the same thing: when a problem arises, they look for a solution based on recommendations from friends or Google. A good Google My Business account combines these two. If you register and fill out your account with as much information as possible, and if you spend 1-2 hours a month on it, or contract your online marketing agency to do so, you can experience amazing results in a short amount of time. Why? Because many of your competitors don’t even know if they eat or drink this, or if they do, they don’t consider it important enough. But it is very important.
Stand out from your competitors with the help of your Google My Business account and capture potential customers when they search on Google!
What is Google My Business? In Hungarian, Google Cégem.
It is a free service from Google that complements your website and provides your presence in Google search results.
You can summarize and present your company’s most important data in a clear and concise manner, appear on Google Maps, post photos, updates, menus, or opening hours, and stay in touch with your customers. It also functions as a tool for local SEO (local search engine optimization), which has the advantage of having fewer ranking factors than general search engine optimization, giving you a better chance of ranking high.
This is what it looks like as a visitor:
The features of Google My Business are as follows:
- Home: where you can see everything in one place
- Posts: where you can display short posts, news, and events
- Information: where the most important information about your company is displayed: contact details, address, description, products, services
- Statistics: where you can read reports about your profile’s activity
- Reviews: where your customers can tell you how they rate your product or service
- Messaging: where you can send messages directly to your customers
- Photos: where you can upload any number of photos of your store, products, or the area where your store is located
- Products: where you can display your products, and they can see what you offer
- Services: where you can specify whether you offer delivery, on-site consumption, or any other special service
- Users: where you can share the management of your profile with your colleagues
Entering basic data
Enter the main data of your business: your address, opening hours, contact information, and a list of your services.
Don’t forget to update your opening hours, and always modify them during holidays! There is nothing worse than someone visiting your store unnecessarily because they saw online that you are open. This is especially important on weekends, holidays, and off-season periods (e.g., at Lake Balaton locations in winter).
Create short descriptions and provide your prices for the services!
Images and videos
Whichever online marketing agency you ask, the answer will be the same: profiles with visual content are twice as effective at catching the attention of the target audience as those without!
Some suggestions:
- Have content in multiple categories.
- Create a 360-degree presentation, which is very illustrative and unique in the market.
- The length of the videos should be a maximum of half a minute.
Ratings and reviews
Collect reviews about your activities and products, as many customers choose online based on authentic reviews.
Google also filters good ratings and ranks those companies higher that have good reviews from customers. Encourage everyone to review, and definitely respond to them – whether the feedback is positive or negative! If you don’t have the time, contract an online marketing agency to do this for you.
Posts
Posts work the same way as on other social media platforms. There are 3 types: offers, news, events. You can also add images, links, and CTA buttons to each post. Since the outbreak of the virus, Covid-19 news can also be posted, these always come to the fore.
Questions and messages
Customers can ask questions directly, which you can easily answer. With the help of the mobile application, direct messaging is also possible.
Statistics
Statistics can help a lot in getting to know your target audience – online marketing agencies care about these with good reason. Within Google My Business accounts, you can automatically retrieve statistics and learn more about your business and how your consumers perceive it through various analyses.
You probably didn’t think that a Google My Business account could be useful for so many things, right? With a little attention, you can achieve great results and greatly help your Google Ads performance.
If you get stuck, feel free to contact us, we’re here to help.
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