Leveraging the Power of Google Business Page

How many times a day do you Google something?

We’re constantly turning to Google for help—for directions, a correct spelling or definition, the weather, bus and train schedules, baseball scores and restaurant reviews. It’s hard to imagine life without this versatile tool. 

Yet many business owners still haven’t created a Google My Business page 

Google My Business (GMB) is a free tool for businesses to manage their Google presence–Search, Maps, Ads, etc. GMB can help your customers find you, increase your reach and drive traffic.  

With GMB you can:

• Manage information: Contact information, address, products and services. Businesses that verify their information with GMB are twice as likely to be considered reputable by consumers. 
• Interact with customers: Customer reviews, photos that show off what you do. Businesses that add photos receive 42% more requests for directions on Google Maps, and 35% more clicks through to their websites than businesses that don’t.
• Understand and expand your presence: You’ll receive a monthly report that details activity. Find insights on how customers searched for your business, and where those customers are coming from. 

Useful GMB page features

• Posts and Events. Share offers, updates, event information and other details with your customers. I post blogs to this section—title, a few paragraphs, a Read more and a link back to the blog on your website. My monthly report shows a surprising number of views and interactions with these posts. 
• What’s New:  COVID-19 updates. For one of my clients, we’re staying the course on our Covid protocols, and we want our clients to be reassured that we’re taking their safety seriously. 
• Offers: Having a sale or promotion? This is the place to share this information.
• Products: List products and services. Keep in mind that there are always character limits. Use your keywords and be strategic. Make sure you’ve communicated your value proposition, what makes you unique.

Creating your GMB page: Verify via U.S. Mail

• As with all Google tools, you’ll need to create your login using a gmail account. Don’t have one? Go to Google Gmail and create a new account with a login and password.
• You also will need to verify your GMB page. Most businesses are verified by mail with a verification postcard from Google. Yes. That really is the U.S. Postal Service. Google believes you need a street address to be a valid business—it’s also a Google Map dependency. A PO Box won’t work. Send this off to Google and watch for your code in the mail. Log back in to your GMB page and insert this code to complete the GMB process. 

But that really shouldn’t be the end of your GMB activity

Update your page with changes to your business, with new blog posts and events. Treat your GMB page like your other social media sites. Post your blogs to this page, add photos. Don’t let it stagnate.  

Need help making the most of Google tools? Contact Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and content marketing specialists.