Take Control of Your Google Business Listing with Google My Business

Google Maps location pins, Google search results, and Google business reviews are crucial touchpoints for any local business including restaurants, franchises, retail chains, and more. Think about it: How many times per week do you utilize Google Search in order to find a service, such as a fence repair, a haircut, dog or cat grooming, etc? Without Google Search, how would you find a local business? Do you even have a Yellow Page phone book anymore? 

According to Google, 46% of all web searches are looking for local information, such as local businesses and attractions. This shows the vitality of your business listing on Google. So how do you manage how you appear to the masses in Google Search? Read on for the details.

A Google My Business (GMB) profile is an account with Google that allows you to manage your business listing on search results pages (SERP), including Google Maps. The account is tied to a Google user account, and once signed in, you will be viewing a dashboard where multiple businesses can be viewed and managed. From the dashboard, the following activities, plus many more, can be conducted:

• Create an update post that highlights featured products or services or provides an update on things like renovations, events, or promotions.
• Add photos of your storefront, customers, menu, products, or services in action that appear at the top of your business listing.
• Create Local Service Ads (LSA) to attract people in your area to your business, with terms like “Landscaping company near me” bringing customers to your business.
• Respond to reviews by viewing your reviews and providing information that helps clarify the product or service provided.
• Manage the hours of operation listed for your business.
• Manage the products or services that appear to the user.
• View web traffic data for your business listing, including business listing views and the number of searches in which your business has appeared.
• View the number of calls to your business as a result of your listing in Google Search.

Google My Business profiles are designed to give the business owner, an agency managing the business, or a business employee full control over the information provided to the public, with the exception of any control over the reviews received on the account, aside from responding to them as the business.

Google has the ability to create a business listing on your behalf. Google does this as part of its mapping accuracy, letting viewers know what businesses are in their area. When this account is created automatically, it is eligible to receive reviews from customers, it will be assigned an address, and Google users can also submit their photos of the location for review and approval, which will then be attached to the business listing. However, you can claim a Google business page in Google Search and Google Maps.

Alternatively, signing up for a Google My Business profile takes mere minutes, and is pretty straightforward. Google will walk you through the steps quickly, ensuring that you fill in all the necessary information. Once this account is established, you will see all of the menu options on the left of your dashboard, including reviews, addresses, hours, products, metrics insights, and more. Head over to https://google.com/business to get started, and if you would like to discuss a sophisticated marketing strategy for leveraging Google My Business such as update posts, gaining reviews, and more details on how to integrate your website with GMB, contact Fuze7 by calling (503) 830-0355 or sending an email to info@fuze7.com.

To make things very clear from the jump – businesses do not have the ability to delete unfavorable reviews from their business listing on Google Search and Google Maps. However, there are ways of managing reviews, such as responding to unhappy customers to provide review readers with the context for what actually happened, and the ability to flag a review as fake, malicious, or spam. When doing this, you will need to show Google clear evidence that the review is not from a valid customer, or that the review is intending to discredit your business in an unfair way.

To respond to a review, select “Reviews” from the left-side panel of the dashboard. This will open up all reviews. You can sort your reviews by the number of stars given to quickly address unhappy customers and their concerns or to send a quick ‘thanks’ to users that left favorable reviews. Fuze7 recommends that businesses just starting out on GMB respond to every review received whether positive or negative. This shows searchers that your business takes a hands-on approach to customer concerns, and gives users the sense that they will be well taken care of by the business they are researching. Many local businesses have zero involvement on their Google listing and therefore any business showing active responses to user reviews stand out for those showing strong intent to purchase or sign up with a business in their area.

Adding your Google My Business account to your website allows updates you give GMB to display instantly on your business website, such as a new business address, contact phone numbers, and the embedding of reviews. Adding your GMB account to these properties is usually fairly pain-free and simple. For example, the Wix integration for Google My Business is only four steps long. You will go to the Google Business Profile section in your Wix dashboard, located under Marketing & SEO. You’ll need to be signed into GMB in a separate tab to finish the integration.

A similar process to Wix can be found in WordPress. Several plugins assist with Google My Business, including the ability to post updates to your Google Search business listing directly from content created on WordPress.

To find a step-by-step guide for installing Google My Business on your website, conduct a Google search for “How to integrate Google My Business with ___” and type your website builder where the space is.

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Need a comprehensive strategy for leveraging your business listing on Google My Business? Drop an email to info@fuze7.com or give us a call at (503) 830-0355.