The Importance of Google My Business

In today’s ever-changing landscape of digital marketing, nothing is becoming more important than increasing your business’ online presence. One of these vital tools to aid you in doing this is the usage of a Google My Business GMB profile. According to Greg Gifford, “Your Google My Business listing is your new home page. There’s a wealth of information listed, and in many cases, potential customers don’t even need to go to your site.” Google My Business is a free tool that many businesses are failing to take advantage of. Whether you’re looking to improve your local online presence or simply create a listing for your business, GMB is worth it today more than ever. You can read the following blog to learn more about the benefits of GMB, and how to increase your business’ online presence.

Google is beginning to show more information on the SERPs than ever before. As Google begins to show more information, users have less reason to click through to your website, while still having the ability to increase your engagement and find crucial information they’re seeking. Need to know the phone number to a dealership? It’s on your GMB. Want to know if a dealership is reliable and trustworthy? Read reviews from previous customers in the Q&A section on GMB. Utilizing Google posts through Google My Business to share specials and promotions is a new feature we recommend taking advantage of here at Aronson Advertising. By providing users with specials and incentives right in the Google SERPS through GMB, we’re able to present users with incentives immediately without them even having to enter the dealership’s website. This gives a customer an even better opportunity to claim an offer and convert into a buying customer.

Local Map-Pack

Other than business reviews, showing up in your local map pack may be the single most important factor for a potential customer to choose your business over the competitor. Your business making it into the local three-pack is so important because the chances of a user scrolling down, to search past the first three businesses, is slim to none. You want to be in the top three of the map pack, providing users with an immediate answer or service they’re looking for.

According to Thrive, “What most brands don’t know is, by simply creating a free Google My Business listing, you can greatly increase your odds of making it onto this highly sought after list. The best part about being in the local 3-pack, you ask? Not only do these listings show users where your business is located on Google Maps, but they also show up BEFORE organic results—offering a major benefit to your visibility.”

Analytics & Insights

Not only does GMB provide information about your business to a customer directly in the SERPs, it can also provide you insights by providing detailed reports and analytics data on how your business is performing. This allows businesses to track website visits, calls and user events, as well as how your photos are performing within your GMB. It even provides you monthly search queries that users are searching to find your business.</p.

The main idea behind Google My Business is to capture and drive local traffic. According to Chatmeter, “97% of consumers are using search to find local businesses and 41% of people use local search to find businesses every single week. The majority of that traffic is going to Google and its Google My Business Platform, making it the number one local search site.”

How it Works

So, Google My Business is important but how does it actually work and rank your business accordingly in the local pack? Google’s local algorithm and local rankings uses three main features when deciding to put your business over the competition at the top of the list. The first is proximity, which is the physical distance between the customer and the desired search. Using proximity, Google is going to bring up the businesses that are closest to you that best match your search intent all using the physical location you’re searching from. The second ranking factor is relevance. For relevance, Google figures out if the business does or sells what the user is searching for. Lastly, the third ranking factor GMB uses is prominence. In short, this is the strength of your business in terms of SEO.

Getting Started

Now that you know how crucial Google My Business can be to your business and how it works, how do you set it up correctly? Below is a quick checklist to use when you set up GMB.

1. Business name is correct
2. Address is correct
3. Phone number listed matches your business website
4. Correct hours listed
5. Multiple photos and are updating/changing them frequently.
6. Good review score
7. More reviews than your competitors
8. Utilize Google Posts to share specials an

Still have questions about GMB or how it works? Don’t hesitate to contact us at Aronson Advertising or call us today at (847) 297-1700.