There are a lot of ways to promote your business online, from social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, to professional networking platforms like LinkedIn, to SEO optimized native content on blogs and websites. However, the most important, useful, (and oft overlooked) tool is create a Google My Business profile, which offers myriad of uses to business owners looking to increase awareness of their services.
For those unfamiliar, here’s a brief explainer on how Google My Business works. Simply put, it pulls together all of your Google platforms to one central location — including your Google Reviews, Google Maps profile, Google+ profile, Google Analytics, and Google Insights. All of these things are controlled via your Gmail account, and the process of building your Google My Business page couldn’t be more straightforward. The most important thing to keep in mind is making sure you information is consistent and accurate — otherwise, Google does the rest of the work for you.
So, why create a Google My Business listing? Doing so boosts your SEO profile and increases the chances that your business or name will come up first whenever someone searches Google. It’s an easy, one-stop-shop for customers to find all the information they need as quickly as possible.
Of course, creating more of a presence for your business on Google is crucial, but at eEndorsements, our main focus is still managing and showcasing your reviews. Your Google My Business page will also help facilitate that, integrating Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and Google Maps. The profile you create displays your business prominently on the first SERP, and gives returning and new customers easy access to contact info, hours of operation, reviews, links to your site, and more.
There are also benefits for those businesses not being searched directly by name. For example, if you’re a real estate agent and a potential customer Googles “real estate,” Google My Business ensures that your page ranks for your chosen category on Google Maps. The integration allows your business to pop up as a pin on a Google map, even if a new customer didn’t search your specific name to begin with.
The benefits don’t stop once you’ve created your Google My Business page, either. Once you’ve optimized your page, you can use tracking data provided by Google to track clicks, page impressions, click-to-calls and other information.
Though other social media platforms are often celebrated for increasing SEO for businesses, the back-to-basics approach of Google My Business simply shouldn’t be overlooked. To learn more about how eEndorsements boosts your Google My Business profile visit our website.