Heard of GMB? Maybe Google My Business rings more of a bell? Even if this tool isn’t quite on your radar as an individual or small, medium or large business, you will definitely have used it before as a customer. For those who aren’t familiar, a GMB listing is the business listing which appears when you make a search on Google; it sums up the key pieces of information and serves them up in a handy little section, clearly presented to the searcher. Often Google presents these without your help, however, if you want your business to be found and give out the correct information about your business, this just won’t cut the mustard, you’ll want to take control of that listing and utilise it as the nifty free online marketing tool it is! You can think of this panel as an easily accessible version of your about us and contact page bundled into one; if you don’t have a website or it’s not quite up and running yet, or even if you’re under construction for a short period, this tool has you covered, customers can find you, see your reviews, what your about and even take a look at you. Once you’re up and running, it takes little maintenance, bar the odd intermittent update here and there. This listing is a great one to tick off your SEO list and helps especially with local search!
Plus, if you’re just thinking about setting up your website, but haven’t got round to it quite yet, getting your Google My Business set up puts you in a great place to get started as Google can easily pull all of the information from your listing!
Getting Started
To get started head over to Google My Business, click get started and start filling in your information. It’s easy to do just following the steps, you should have no problems.
You’ll need to select which category of business you fall into; for example, if you are a shop front or a supplier and also choose one of the many categories such as bakery, accountant or library.
You’ll also have to verify your business; don’t be surprised if you get asked to wait for a phone call or for a postcard through the mail which will give you a code you must enter to verify it’s you at that business address.
Be The Best
The basics, you’ll add in as you set up your account, (name, industry etc) however you want this information panel to be as informative as possible to include as much information as you have to give.
You can include:
Images
Location
360 internal view of your business
Opening hours
Phone number
Address (if applicable)
An about us/ Intro
You can also add information like if you deliver so that customers know they can order from you.
And really you should be including as many of these as possible to give an accurate representation of your business and provide efficient information to your customers – they’ll thank you for it!
Get it into your next marketing planning meeting or on your to-do list, it’s an easy one to overlook but so useful that it’s worth the time to get it right. Once you’re up and running just remember to update it with any changes or bank holiday opening time changes etc, feel free to add some new images when you can to keep it up to date, both your customers and Google with thank you for that!
