Google Business – What You Need to Know
Over the past several years, the Google Business listing has slowly become one of the most important search engine optimization tools in a marketer’s arsenal – and its free for businesses to use! In this post, we will share with you how to mange your Google Business listing and to maximize its potential for your business.
Originally known as “Google My Business”, the Google Business listing was launched in June of 2014 and in the last few years it has grown into an essential part of any local or national business’s online marketing strategy.
Much of this is driven by Google’s desire to have a central place in the relationship between consumers and businesses. Using Grey Matter client Questpro an example you will see that that the Google Business listing takes up a 3rd of the desktop view in search. That is a giant amount of visual territory and is indicative of Google’s commitment to this process.
Notice that the Google Business listing only appears when users type in the name of what they are looking for and not the URL, which will still bring them directly to the web page.
Since Google values the Business pages so much, well optimized pages get the benefit of appearing in the coveted Google 3-Pack (see at right) 
and in map placement.
Interestingly, Google Business pages operate almost like separate search engine optimization drivers. Even if your site doesn’t rank highly on its own for certain searches you can still achieve a top position if you invest the time and energy in properly optimizing your Business page.
Understanding the Google Business Page
The Google Business page is broken into 10 or more key sections.
- The header section features recent photos and map information.
- This has more summary information including the number of Google reviews, direct links to the website and directions.
- This has more business information and a page access link.
- Products and services feature strongly in the SEO of the page and should be fully built out.
- Having product categories that are reflective of your business are critical as well.
- Review snippets.
- An overview of your business.
- Thumbnails of your recent posts (posts are another critical element).
- Your business’s social media profiles
- Other businesses like yours that people search for.
The business page used to be reachable through a separate management portal. Recently Google has moved to direct access for logged-in users from the search page. Below is an example of our page’s management access.
Much of the core business information can be accessed through the “Edit Profile” links. It is important to fill this information out as fully as possible.
The photo and video section of a Google Business listing offers a perfect way to showcase a business. Grey Matter client Monmouth Park has a
wide array of pictures and videos that highlight all of the ways that people can be entertained at this historic thoroughbred racetrack in New Jersey.
Adding products and services to your Google Business listing will provide a great boost for your marketing efforts. Not only will consumers like the information on what you offer but, by adding this information, you are directly telling Google what your company does and the products and services you offer. If you have a website, this information factors into the Google Search algorithm that ranks your site.
When you build out your products and services make sure that you add relevant images and enter well-written copy that uses high-volume and relevant keyword phrases.
Posts are one of the most important things you can add to your Google Business listing. For our clients we create a steady flow of high-quality, SEO-rich blog posts that are designed to be informative and drive some aspect of our client’s business.
Although you can create a complete post within the Google Business page, we like to provide some introductory text with a “learn more” link that takes them to post on the client website. This is part of our strategy of proliferating our client’s content across a large number of web and social media destinations.
At Grey Matter Direct, we feel that our holistic approach to content generation and proliferation is relatively unique among digital marketing agencies and ad agencies and accounts for the out-sized results that our clients benefit from.
Managing your reviews is an incredibly important aspect of your listing because reviews seem to have a disproportionate impact on the Google algorithm.
We are fortunate to have very good reviews from our clients but if you don’t have perfect review score it is not the end of the world. What is more important is how you deal with reviews.
Google likes to see that people are actively engaged in their listing, so it is in your best interest to respond to every review.
Responding to good reviews is easy and welcomed but responding to negative reviews is even more important. The best way to handle negative reviews is to calmly address the person’s concerns and offer to correct the situation. Some negative reviewers seem to be completely irrational and confrontational. In these circumstances it is critical that you do not engage in any negative dialog with these people through your Google Business listing. Remember that your customers and prospects are watching the dialog and you want to show that you are trying your best to resolve the situation. Even if you are unable to cure the complaint, people will see that you acted in good faith, and they will know that you will do the same with them if there is ever an issue.
Another nice aspect of the Google Business listing are the data analytics it provides.
The reporting is basic but gives business owners some nice dashboard analytics on things like the number of profile views, direction requests and website clicks.
Importantly, the dashboard also tells you how many phone calls came to your business from the listing. Getting phone calls from prospects is what many of our clients are most interested in and the Google Business listing is becoming one of the main conduits for calls to businesses. For some of our clients their Google page is producing 60% or more of their inbound phone traffic.
Much of the reason for this because Google privileges their business listing at the top of search. There are pros and cons to Google’s approach but until AI changes the entire way that search happens, it is best to leverage this impressive tool for your business.
If you would like to learn more, please feel free to contact Ned Barrett today. You can reach his cel at 856-465-6300 or send him a Text Message.