BENEFITS AND PURPOSE OF GOOGLE MY BUSINESS

The sweet, simple days of phonebooks are long behind us, and the trees thank us for that! But that means it’s no longer a nice perk to have your business in an online directory—it’s a must.

However, small businesses can’t upgrade their online presence at the rate of giants like Facebook or Microsoft. So I am here to help you take the first step of getting your business listed on Google My Business. AKA Google business profile.

What is Google My Business? And why is it important?
What is the purpose of Google My Business?
What are the benefits of Google My Business?

By the end of this post (BENEFITS AND PURPOSE OF GOOGLE MY BUSINESS), you’ll get answers to these and your business listed on Google like a pro.

What is GMB?

In short, GMB is like a virtual phonebook. Not only does GMB make your business easier to find on Google, but online directories such as GMB help you to reach potential customers that would otherwise not know about you.

It is a free tool that allows your business listing to show up alongside other related local businesses whenever someone looks up your business name or a related term. Your business information like your phone number, website, address, review ratings, hours, and more will all be available on one easy screen for potential customers.

Why do you need a GMB listing?

Is Google My Business relevant in 2022?” Well, let the statistics speak for themselves! 97% of people learn more about a local company online than anywhere else. More specifically, 91% of adults use search engines to find information.

Google may have about 90% of the search engine market share and has reported that a staggering 46% of all searches have local intent.

56% of actions on Google My Business listings are website visits. 24% of actions are calls to the business. And 20% of actions are direct searches.
64% of consumers have used Google My Business to find contact details for a local business.

16% of businesses receive more than 100 calls each month just from Google My Business alone.
Whether you’re considering creating a listing for your business or looking for the best ways to boost your local presence, Google My Business is well worth your time.

BENEFITS AND PURPOSE OF GOOGLE MY BUSINESS

Benefits of Google Business Profile

Despite those amazing statistics, many businesses are still missing out on the beauty of GMB.

1. Show up in Google Maps
searches to boost sales
While a quick Google search is effective for narrowing down options—especially for consumers on a mobile device—86% of people use Google Maps to locate businesses nearby. When it’s more convenient for customers to come to your business if they find you close by, you’re more likely to make that sale. Plus, customers who find a brand through their GMB listing are up to 50% more likely to make a purchase. By simply creating a Google My Business listing and completing the verification steps, your store location will start to pop up for local searches in Maps as well.

2. Build trust with customers

A major hurdle consumers face today is building enough trust with a business to confidently make a purchase online. As a business owner, one of the simplest steps you can take to help with that is to provide them your location on Google My Business.

In fact, brands that show up on Google are almost 3x more likely to be considered reputable by consumers.
This is due largely in part to the known legitimacy of the Google My Business verification process. Since it’s known businesses need to go through specific steps in order to show for a local search, Google is a trustworthy environment that users rely on.

3. Google My Business ratings boost your appeal

90% of people read reviews before making a purchasing decision. With a Google My Business listing, customers will be able to review your business and leave feedback for others to see. In doing this, not only will you get honest evaluations about what you’re doing right (or what you could be doing better) but you’ll also get that star rating system next to your business on Google. Over time, you’ll start to collect more reviews and a higher overall rating (responding to reviews helps with this as well). This is especially helpful when you need to gain a competitive edge.

4. Google My Business can increase your traffic

A common challenge local businesses face is that of getting an increase in quality website traffic as well as in-store visits. While there’s no way to completely avoid the ups and downs throughout the year, having a GMB listing can greatly help boost your numbers across the board. Just by having a listing and showing up in local searches, businesses on GMB are 70% more likely to attract potential customers for in-store location visits. Plus, your GMB listing can pull in up to 35% more clicks to your website. So, your local listing will grow your traffic in more ways than one—both on the web and on foot!

5. GMB can teach you more about your customers

It’s no secret that the more you know about your customers, the better you’ll be able to appeal to them. From your GMB page, navigating to the Insights section will give you a wealth of valuable analytics that breaks down how visible your brand is, who your target customers are, and how they’re engaging with your business. This is a powerful way to gauge how your business is performing so you can zero in on what’s working. By learning more about the kinds of customers your business is attracting, you’ll also be able to modify and improve your marketing strategy performance.

6. A GMB profile helps you to rank higher in search results
Just like all of us, Google has a job to do. While sometimes it may feel like it’s working against you, Google wants to tell customers about your business because it needs to provide searchers with valuable information. The more Google knows about your business, the higher it will rank you on the search engine and Maps results. How do you get Google to favor your business more? By supplying quality, consistent, and accurate information. Your profile is the best way to feed Google this information so that it can successfully meet your consumers’ search needs.

7. Increase engagement with your brand

GMB profiles provide ample opportunities for engagement. Potential customers can access your website or call you with one tap or click. Even more beneficial is the ability to reserve a table or book an appointment directly through your listing.

8. Free advertising

Running a Google Ads campaign is a great way to get to the top of Google, but it can feel easier said than done once it comes time to maximize your Google Ads budget. The alternative is improving your SEO. But this method takes time and resources to build up your authority and ranking.

A Google My Business listing, on the other hand, offers a form of fast and free advertising on Google. Google My Business gives you targeted exposure on the world’s most trusted search engine –and it costs nothing. It takes less time to optimize your profile than to get a solid paid search campaign up and running.

Plus, an accurate and updated listing is an essential component of successful local SEO. This is not to say that you should not run Google Ads or build your SEO through your website—these are marketing strategies that are well worth your time and money.

However, Google My Business is an additional marketing strategy that is cheaper than paid search advertising and faster than SEO—not to mention simpler than both.

9. Get ahead of your competition with Google My Business

Through a small snippet of content, your Google My Business description gives you an opportunity to stand out from your competitors in a consumer’s initial scan through search results. It displays a brief description to help users quickly identify if your business is what they’re looking for.

An effective Google My Business description offers a snapshot of your business, includes relevant keywords, and depicts something unique or authentic to help you show your value.

We shall continue with BENEFITS AND PURPOSE OF GOOGLE MY BUSINESS in the next post.

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