\nthat is available to local businesses, true brick and mortar businesses, or service area
\nbusinesses. You have to have a business in a location to claim a profile for that location,
\nbut when you do, it does unlock some powerful tools.<\/p>\n
If you do work out of your home and you don\u2019t want to put your address in there, you can
\nactually claim a service area of where you go out and serve your clients, but it does have
\nto be in your community. You can\u2019t be in Chicago and say, \u201cWell, I\u2019ve got customers in
\nDallas. I\u2019d like to actually claim that\u201d. You have to have it in the city where you have your
\nactual business.<\/p>\n
I want to talk to those that have not claimed your profile, have not created it, or haven\u2019t
\nimplemented this idea at all. Under Google My Business, you really want to make sure
\nthat you claim that thing and enhance it. If you don’t want to, have the time, or are afraid
\nyou will do something wrong with it, hire someone who not only knows what they’re doing,
\nbut also knows how to “deck it out” …<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n If you just want to start from the beginning, set up a Google My Business profile, but once you <\/p>\n Remove duplicates<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s an issue that we come across all the time. Don\u2019t be surprised if you actually find duplicate So, what you want to do is you want to find the one that is incorrect or that is certainly not right If it was set up by somebody who no longer works for you or you don\u2019t even really know who set <\/p>\n Add your name, address, and phone number<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Now, go through your profile itself. The most important information is the name of your business, <\/p>\n The next really important element is something they call \u201ccategory\u201d and particularly, if you Some of the other information like hours and things are pretty straightforward. There is If you\u2019re logged into your Google account, and you do a search for your business, they Google is really investing in Google My Business and adding some very interesting new <\/p>\n Posts<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n There is some indication that this is actually helping people rank. So, maybe you have a <\/p>\n Insights<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Another tool is called Insights and this will give you a little bit of information on how many <\/p>\n Reviews<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n This is also a place where you can see not only your reviews but reply to your reviews First off, that person that gave you the review is going to get a notice and, quite frankly, <\/p>\n Messaging<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Another element I want to talk about is messaging. What they\u2019ll ask you to do is connect They want to hire somebody right now to do something and instead of sending an email or <\/p>\n Appointment booking<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n If you\u2019re the kind of business that books appointments, they\u2019re now actually making that an <\/p>\n Google websites<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m not recommending this for everyone, but they are actually now adding a platform where So, that\u2019s really all I wanted to cover today on Google My Business, but this is really a key <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Need more Marketing tips?<\/span> Check out my Strategic Marketing<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Need Software that will help you grow bigger and better than ever imagined?<\/strong><\/span> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"Google](\"https:\/\/www.imjusticemarketing.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/google-my-business.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nClaim Your Business<\/span><\/h2>\n
\nfind it, if you\u2019ve already claimed it, you should be able to log into business.google.com and do
\nall the editing we\u2019re going to talk about. But if you find that it\u2019s not been verified, you\u2019re going to
\nhave to go through the necessary steps, and sometimes these are easier than others.<\/p>\n
\nlistings. This again, I think, goes back to the days when this data was coming from Google Places
\nand from Google Local and sometimes, people just set up three or four accounts because some-
\nbody left the organization and they decided they needed one and so they set another one up. So,
\ndon\u2019t be surprised if you find duplicate listings and a lot of times, it might be a variation of the name
\nor a different phone number or maybe you moved your business and so it has a different address.<\/p>\n
\n(maybe it doesn\u2019t have the full information and so it\u2019s the one you want to get rid of). So, what
\nyou want to do is you will typically find a tab that says \u201csuggest and edit\u201d. You want to click on
\nthat and you want to mark that location as permanently closed. I\u2019m finding that Google wants to
\nclean up that information and so if they can verify that that is accurate, they will close it within a
\nweek.<\/p>\n
\nit up, it\u2019s going to take a little longer because they\u2019re going to actually try to reach out to the email
\naddress that they have on file for that and if they don\u2019t get a response, they will go ahead and
\nmake that change. So, cleaning up that duplicate may be your first step. So, claim or create,
\nverify that it\u2019s your listing, and then see if you can clean up duplicates. Unfortunately, that\u2019s the
\nfirst step.<\/p>\n
\naddress, and phone number. Don\u2019t get cute with this. I mean, in some cases, people will try to
\nput keywords at the end of their name and all kinds of goofy things that somebody told them to
\nget so they\u2019d benefit from it. Don\u2019t do it.<\/strong> Make the business the name of your business as you
\nwant your customers to see it, the address, make it consistent with what you have on your website,
\nand the phone number, make it consistent with what you have on your website as well. Make sure
\nthat those things are accurate. This might be a good time to look at your website as well. Have
\nyou got that wrong on your website? Don\u2019t laugh. I find it all the time. So, let\u2019s make sure that
\nthose are right and the same as your website.<\/p>\nChoose the right category<\/span><\/h2>\n
\nhave not claimed your Google My Business profile, Google will take a guess at what they
\nthink it is based on your name, based on a description, based on things they find out there
\non the web. Don\u2019t take their advice necessarily. They may or may not have that right.<\/p>\nAdding images<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
\nan opportunity for you to upload images and this is something that Google tracks in their
\ninsights and so I do think it\u2019s a ranking factor. Also, particularly on a mobile device, it\u2019s a
\ngood trust building and content element. So, upload 8 or 10 photos of your products, of
\nyour business, of your people. It doesn\u2019t really matter what it is, but make sure that you
\nhave some pretty good representative images that you upload. So, that\u2019s the setting up
\nof the profile and again, after you claim it and after you do some things to enhance it,
\nthere\u2019s really not a whole lot more to that.<\/p>\nUnderstand Google My Business attributes<\/span><\/h2>\n
\nhave now started showing an editable version of your Google My Business profile. Nobody
\nelse can see that, but you\u2019ll be able to see it and what\u2019s really nice about that is that you
\ncan actually respond to reviews right in there. You can make changes. You can see what
\nstatistical data they\u2019re now sharing, and more.<\/p>\n
\nfeatures. I think it\u2019s really a sign that this is a key component for them, which to me marks
\nthe reason for actually really getting involved in understanding your Google My Business
\nprofile and viewing it frequently rather than just set it and forget it.<\/p>\n
\nspecial coming up or maybe you have a new product or a workshop that you\u2019re holding,
\nit just allows you to put that information in there and you can set when it expires. People
\nare finding that they are getting traffic from these posts because you can also put a link to
\nyour workshop sign up or something like that. So, I think it is worth spending a little bit of
\ntime to go in and enhance that and add those posts on a routine basis.<\/p>\n
\ntimes your profile is showing up in search or in maps and what people are doing. Are they
\ncalling you? Are they clicking on it? Are they looking for driving directions? All the things
\nthat people can do and do frequently, particularly on mobile devices.<\/p>\n
\nand frankly, replying to every one of your reviews. Getting reviews, of course, is extremely,
\nextremely important. Replying to reviews I think can be very important as well and this is
\nor both good reviews and bad reviews. Bad reviews, of course, because it gives you an
\nopportunity to tell your side of the story, if you will, or maybe state the facts as only you
\ncan, but I think when you respond to five-star reviews as well, I think it does a couple of
\nthings.<\/p>\n
\nprobably appreciate that you saw that and replied. But it\u2019s also another opportunity for
\nyou to show a personal side of your business.<\/p>\n
\nthat to a phone that can receive text. So, it has to be a mobile device that not only can
\nreceive text, but does, and that you can respond with. If you\u2019re in the right kind of business,
\nthis could be a great leg up because a lot of times when people are searching out there on
\nGoogle, they are trying to solve something.<\/p>\n
\neven picking up the phone, because a lot of people don\u2019t like to do that, if they can text right
\nfrom their browser window and they can get a response from you immediately, you might
\nwin the deal.<\/p>\n
\noption right off of your Google My Business page. Again, you have to integrate it with one
\nof the booking kind of services that they work with. There\u2019s about a dozen that are on there
\ncurrently, so that might be an option if you\u2019re a hair salon or a massage facility or something
\nof that nature.<\/p>\n
\nyou can build a Google website. Essentially, it\u2019ll just be a very simple landing page but they
\nhave got a couple of tools on there to make it pretty and add photos and drag and drop some
\nthings. So, if you\u2019ve been living on your Facebook page and you don\u2019t have a full website,
\nwhich is certainly what we recommend, it could be an option for you as well.<\/p>\n
\nranking factor for local businesses and it\u2019s probably the primary building block these days
\nfor a local business. For example, when you see those businesses that show up in the maps
\nlisting when somebody searches hair salon near me, you can\u2019t show up in that unless you
\nhave a profile that you have claimed, that you\u2019ve optimized and obviously, getting things like
\nreviews, and frequently adding posts, and making sure that the information is accurate is
\nhow you\u2019re going to show up. That\u2019s one of the\u00a0pieces of the puzzle. There are of course
\nmany others, but that\u2019s the one I wanted to cover today.<\/p>\n
\nThen, CLICK HERE<\/a> to see them for yourself … My top picks!<\/strong><\/p>\n