Google My Business: How One Free Tool Can Transform Your Online Presence
It’s no secret that an online presence is becoming increasingly vital.
Whether your business is large or small, you’ll need to develop a strong presence on the web if you want it to thrive. But the road to building an online presence can seem daunting at first.
Where are you even supposed to start?
Well, luckily for you, there’s a tool that can immediately help to set you on the right path.
It’s easy to use, and it’s free too.
Did we mention that it’s been released by Google themselves?
The tool is called Google My Business, and any company that’s serious about their online presence needs one.
But what is Google My Business, and why is it such a great tool anyways?
What is Google My Business?
Here’s the thing:
Practically everyone and their mother uses Google to search for nearby businesses.
A study by Google themselves found that 4 out of 5 consumers use Google to make local searches, and 50% of those people end up visiting a store within the same day.
For the opportunistic business owner, this leaves a massive opportunity to get more potential customers through the front doors.
So it’s wise to do everything you can to get your name out in front of the people searching for stores and businesses online.
And one of the best ways to do this is with a Google My Business(GMB for short) listing.
Google My Business is a tool that Google’s made for businesses to let them easily manage their online presence, specifically when it comes to local searches.
It allows you to list your business across many of Google’s platforms and manage the listings from one place.
For instance, when you type “coffee shop near me” into Google, you’ll get results that look a bit like this:
All of these business listings are from Google My Business.
This means that if you don’t have one set up, you’re missing out on a metric ton of local searches, each one of which could be a potential customer through your doors.
But that’s not all; a GMB listing has plenty of benefits that make it well worth putting in the time to set up.
The Power of a Google My Business Listing
The immediate stand-out benefits of a GMB are that it gives your customers an easy way to find information like your open hours, number, and locations.
But there’s a bit more behind-the-scenes work that GMB can do for your business too.
It Lets You Show Off Your Customer Reviews
The first, and one of our favorite benefits at ReviewNhit, is that GMB makes for a great way to show off your fantastic reviews.
This lets people get quick access to customer reviews and business ratings.
So after you’ve put in the work to get a great reputation online, GMB is an excellent way to show it off to online searchers and further entice them to give you a visit.
It Plays A Massive Role In SEO
SEO is extremely vital to any business’s success nowadays.
Over 90% of all organic searches go through Google, so you need a way to get yourself in front of them.
Excellent customer reviews and a well-optimized GMB listing help you do just that.
If you set up your listing correctly, it’ll give your SEO results a considerable boost.
Keeping a consistently-updated listing on Google is going to be huge in maintaining a reliable flow of organic traffic.
It Makes Your Business Look Good
Consumers have certain expectations for businesses, and an online listing is usually one of them.
When you run a business that doesn’t have a strong online presence, it can make you look somewhat old-fashioned or unprofessional.
Most consumers expect that high-quality businesses are going to have listings on Google, so it’s a good idea to meet (and exceed) those expectations.
And there’s another great thing about GMB:
It’s free for you to set up your business account and get yourself listed.
The process isn’t hard to do, either.
How To Get Started — Setting Up Your Own GMB Account
Google’s done a fantastic job in making GMB account creation super simple.
While your listing should be as optimized as possible to get the best results, you can get an account set up in less than 5 minutes.
To start, you give Google your business’s name:
If you’re already well-established, there’s a good chance that Google will already have a basic listing set up for you to claim.
Then, you’ll give information like your business category, phone number, and more:
You’ll get to add your location so that you’ll appear on Google Maps and then go through a couple more steps:
And to get the start of your listing set up, that’s pretty much all there is.
As Google says in the screenshot above, you’ll get to use photos and posts to promote your business, respond to reviews, and get more data on your business to help you improve.
Even if you just stopped after this, you’d be doing yourself a huge favor, though as mentioned before, we recommend taking steps to optimize your GMB listings for the best results.
Get Your Business On GMB Today
If you don’t already have an account created for your business, we recommend you get to it as soon as possible.
It’ll take only a few minutes of your time, but the payoff is huge.
At ReviewNhit, we’d say it’s one of the essential first steps when working towards a strong online presence.
Already have a GMB account?
Find out how you can improve your listing to get better results with a few quick tips here.
