Creating a Google My Business page is a very important step in establishing your business online. Follow these six steps to provide Google with everything it needs to know about your business, making it as easy as possible for potential clients to find you on Google.
1. Add the location and contact details of your business
Adding your business’ location, website information, opening hours and contact details to your Google My Business page will directly link your business with Google. Verifying this information will ensure that your Google displays your website as high up in the Google search results pages as possible, making it more likely to be seen and clicked.
As a result there is a likelihood that you will get a Knowledge Graph Panel (example shown below). This is an ideal way to get noticed by potential clients.
Having this panel (or ‘card’) is ideal for showing important information at a glance
2. Connect all of your social media profiles
There is nothing to lose and everything to gain by using your My Business page as a marketing tool, alongside Facebook, Twitter and all of the others. Additionally by adding all of your social media profiles to your Google My Business page you are telling Google that they are all part of the same brand which will strengthen your online brand identity.
Google My Business social media profiles
Furthermore every time you share a link to your website on your Google My Business page, it will register it immediately allowing potential clients to view it straight away via Google search.
3. Integrate Google My Business with your YouTube channel
A huge benefit of having a Google My Business page is its seamless integration with YouTube. Linking these two Google products will:
- Encourage more shares and recommendations of your videos across Google
- Allow for automatic sharing of your YouTube videos to your Google My Business page
- Verify your YouTube channel and Google My Business page, ensuring your audience knows your brand is official.
4. Harness the power of Google reviews for your business
Seeing a positive review rating next to your business in Google is likely to attract more clicks than if it had no reviews. By asking as many people as possible to give your business positive reviews it will enhance the integrity and legitimacy of your business with Google. This will mean that your business should show up higher than those without reviews.
Having a positive review rating gives instant confidence to potential clients
A quick and easy way to encourage people to review your business is to create a custom link here. This will link directly to the Google review page making the process nice and easy.
5. Add a Google Map to your website
It is good practice to have an embedded Google map of your business’ location on your website. Your ‘contact’ page is a good place to show this. Consequentially Google will verify that you are located at the address you have listed. You can find out how you can add a map to your website here.
Adding a Google map to your website also lets people find your business easily
6. Create a share button for your website
Creating a sharing badge or button for your website not only directly links your website with Google, it also means visitors to your site do not need to leave your website in order to interact with your Google My Business page.
There are a number of different plugins that you can add to your website, they can be found here.
There are a variety of plugins that you can add to your website
By taking the steps above you will be significantly boosting your chances of potential clients seeing your website on Google. You can get started here. Alternatively if you would like help with setting up your Google My Business page please feel free to contact me.