The world is rapidly changing and it is the need of the hour that businesses change with it. With the advent of the age of information, our lives are on the verge of complete digitization.
On such a turning point in human history, it is important for businesses to focus on their online corporate identity. It is the small to medium sector businesses that face the greatest threat of extinction, if they don’t adapt to the new reality.
Having an internet presence of your business is thus non-negotiable, for which you must choose the right CMS. Small to medium businesses must also pay close attention to Google My Business while deploying branding services to create a robust internet brand.
What is Google My Business?
Since its inception, Google has offered multiple products that were designed to simplify the lives of users wanting to find local stores.
The latest Google products that can greatly amplify an offline store’s reach on the internet are, ‘Google Maps & Google My Business’. Both Google My Business and Google Maps are two integrated products, which you can leverage for your corporate identity.
As Google has renewed its focus on local businesses, using Google My Business helps you rank better in localized searches. Google My Business is a Google product specially designed to be the online representation of your offline store on Google searches.
How Google My Business Works
Google My Business is extremely simple to integrate into your local marketing strategy. A local business that is listed on Google My Business has an unparalleled advantage of SEO against its competitors.
Google My Business provides users searching are provided with these 8 key details about a business:
- Business’s phone number
- Business’s Website address
- Business’s store address (via Google Maps)
- Business Description
- Customer reviews
- Featured content
- Events & specials
They offer more comprehensive information based on your industry and particular niche.
According to Google the conversion rate for a local business using Google My Business as their online corporate identity is 40%.
How to Use Google My Business
Google has gone to great lengths to keep the setup and usage process of Google My Business simple and easy. Before you start to list your business on Google My Business make sure that your business hasn’t already been claimed.
Branding services deployed by you must make sure that there doesn’t exist another duplicate business listing claiming a business, as that hurts user trust.
The following are the steps for the Setup process of Google My Business:
- After conducting thorough research that you don’t already have a duplicate business listing with Google you are free to create your listing. Search “Google My Business” or go directly to the website through this link – Google My Business.
- To start the setup process, click on the Manage Now button in the top right corner of the web page.
- Now sit back and relax as Google automates the process of filling the details for you, all you need to do keep selecting the prompts as they come.
- Once the listing is done, it would be required to be verified. This can happen either through a phone call or postal verification.
Optimizing Google My Business
After you have successfully verified your local business with Google My Business the only thing that remains in optimization. To bolster your corporate identity you would be required to keep your online marketing strategy update with changing trends.
Make sure to keep pace with what is happening to your Google My Business profile, be prompt in answering questions and responding to reviews. Another key tool that will help you a credible online presence is content, it is a must to post regular photographic and videographic content.
In Conclusion
Small to medium businesses have nothing to lose by listing themselves on Google My Business. Rather they have plenty to gain like, ‘increased user-trust, more traffic on their official website, streamlining of website visitors, efficient SEO, etc’.
Small to medium businesses can fully unleash the power of the internet and completely dominate their local business landscape, by partnering with an experienced and skilled digital marketing agency to further their online identity.
