Enhance Your Google My Business Listing for Higher Search Results and More Business

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Columbia Athletic Club Virtual Tour
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February 11, 2019
small business virtual tour
Small Business? We can help you get seen!
April 10, 2019
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Enhance Your Google My Business Listing for Higher Search Results and More Business

Google My Business Example

Google My Business offers business owners the ability to create a free Business Profile. This profile allows a company to reach and engage local customers through other Google tools like Search and Maps. Even if you’ve already got a strong, optimized website in place, Google My Business serves to complement business websites by pushing your content higher in search rankings.

Businesses with search listings are:

  • 94% more likely to be viewed as reputable
  • More likely to be used than businesses without a listing.
  • 29% more likely to motivate consumers to consider purchasing goods or services from them

Taking the time to optimize the content on your Google My Business listing can make the difference between booming sales and business as usual. Leveraging classic marketing techniques and innovative optimization tactics will help ensure that you receive the best search positioning possible– and in a world where everyone relies on Google for answers, that’s a big deal.

An Overview of Optimizing Your Google My Business Listing

Offer as much information as possible (and check it regularly)

The more information you can give Google about your business, the better. You’ll be asked a variety of questions about everything from contact info to hours when you set up your profile. Ideally, you’ll be able to answer every question Google throws at you. The more thorough your profile, the more likely it is to appear to consumers (and the more likely they are to show interest).

Inputting information is only half the battle, though. Searchers can “suggest” edits to your business’ information right from their search screen; and these “suggestions” actually go live immediately. This means that searchers have the ability to alter your listing– and you won’t be notified.

Log into your account regularly to keep abreast of any odd activity or changes to your company’s information. It’s critical to keeping your info accurate.

Start Making Posts

Google My Business gives business owners the option to put out small bits of information about their companies through Google Posts. Posts are accessible from the Google My Business dashboard and are quick and simple to add. You have the option of adding images, a call-to-action, and links to other pages.

Posts can be a great way to show searchers that your brand is active and interested in keeping consumers engaged. If you host sales or events, this is an excellent place to advertise them and drive interest. Taking the time to make quick posts surrounding holidays and other widely-recognized events can help your business seem more personal and relatable to searchers.

Including an image is key to snagging searchers’ attention. Before they know a thing about your company, their eyes will be drawn to your ad slot.

Watch Those Reviews

Customers and clients can leave reviews on your Google My Business page. This is a fantastic way to rack up a reputation– but you’ll want to make sure that it’s a positive one.

Ideally, you’ll be providing services that warrant excellent reviews on their own; but everybody has a bad experience once in a while. Keeping an eye on your business’ reviews will allow you to act swiftly when something negative pops up. You’ll be able to respond to negative reviews and speak with customers in order to smooth things over and work out compromises.

On the flip side, your happy customers will be glad to get some acknowledgment, too! Don’t let positive reviews go unignored– nobody likes a company that has tunnel vision for negativity. Let satisfied clients and customers know that they’re important to you with short, friendly responses to their reviews. You’ll be increasing activity on your My Business listing and be seen as an active and positive member of your community.

Monitor, Monitor, Monitor

Google has made immense strides in recent years to provide businesses with transparency when it comes to analytical data surrounding their brands. The My Business platform now offers a tool known as Insights that can give business owners new ways to understand how customers interact with their My Business listings.

Through Insights, you’ll be able to tell how and where customers find you through Google. You’ll also be able to see what sorts of actions they take on your listing– whether it be direction requests, phone calls, or browsing photos, you’ll have a front row seat into their journey through your listing.

These data points are critical to building a compelling and effective listing. If you think that clients and customers should be calling you much more often than they are, take a look at Insights. You may be surprised to find out that you’re actually getting several calls a day from your listing.

On the flip side, you might see that customers really aren’t calling. In that case, you’ll have some additional information in front of you that may lead you to the culprit of the issue.

Going 360

Google My Business offers you the unique opportunity to integrate 360-degree panoramic virtual tours of your facilities into your profile. The best part about these (despite the fact that they’re excessively neat)? They drive interest.

Google commissioned an economic research and consultancy by the name of Oxera in 2015. Their mission was to determine whether photos and more complete business listings contributed value to customers and businesses. Oxera found that listings with photos and virtual tours were twice as likely to generate interest.

The Google algorithm understands that consumers relish the opportunity to move around an image and get a sense for the physical location of a business. Searching for businesses through a mobile browser will, more often than not, turn up 360-degree photos as the initial images for a company.

Signs indicate that panoramic images carry a significant amount of weight. When they’re present, a business ranks higher.

It’s clear that the My Business platform offers business owners a variety of ways to increase exposure and bump up search rankings. 360-degree panoramic tours, in particular, are a standout option to set your business apart from the pack and play to Google’s ever-changing algorithms.

If you’re interested in shooting a 360-degree virtual tour of your business for your My Business profile, contact the True View360s team today for a consultation. Our team of Google Trusted Photographers are eager to get on-site and start helping you build a My Business profile that drives sales and success.

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if you are interested in finding out more about SEO in general, check out this video on improving your rankings without backlinks: