In a local marketing and SEO strategy, Google My Business has become essential. But it's not a magic tool, and knowing the right best practices is key to making the most of it. We've put together the most important points you can't afford to overlook when it comes to improving your local SEO.
By the end of this article, you'll know how to create and effectively optimize your Google My Business listing for your business.
Creating a Google My Business Listing
Before diving in, let's go back to basics: creating a Google My Business listing. There are two possible situations:
- Claiming a listing: by typing your business name into Google, you may notice that Google has automatically created a listing for your business. If that's the case, you can click "Claim this business" or "Manage this listing" and follow Google's instructions.
- Creating a listing: if no listing shows up after checking, simply go to the official Google website and follow the steps provided by Google (applying the tips in this article along the way).
Verifying Your Google My Business Listing
The final step before moving on to optimizations: verifying your listing. To do this, you have several options:
- By mail: Google sends a letter with a code to your address to verify your business location.
- By phone: Google sends you a text message with a verification code.
- By email: once you receive the email, follow the instructions to validate your listing.
Your listing is now created and verified. Let's move on to our tips for optimizing it.
Completing Your Business Information
The information about your business, and especially how you fill it in, will have a significant impact on the local SEO of your Google My Business listing. Below, we've listed the key pieces of information and our tips for optimizing each one.
Business Name
It might be tempting to add strategic keywords here, but don't. This practice is heavily penalized by Google and your listing could be removed. Simply enter your business name as it is.
Description
Google allows you to add a description to your listing to better explain what you do. The goal here is to present your business and highlight your value proposition: your area of activity, expertise, client references, and more. Note that this section of your listing does not directly impact the ranking of your Google My Business listing.
Contact Information
There are several essential pieces of information to fill in here. The goal is for users to have everything they need at a glance to know how to contact you or visit your location. You should include: phone number, address, and opening hours.
Make sure this information matches what's on your website, so you don't frustrate users or risk being penalized by Google.
Category
The category of your Google My Business listing is a very important ranking factor. Google uses this choice to determine whether to show your listing for relevant keyword searches. It's therefore crucial to think carefully about this.
To make the best choice, here are 2 tips:
- Identify your industry and, specifically, the main service you sell.
- Look at the GMB listings of your direct competitors.
You also have the option to add up to 9 secondary categories to further refine your listing. That said, we recommend adding no more than 3.
Services
After selecting your listing's categories, you can list the various services your business offers. To do this, select them directly from the list provided by Google, or create custom services.
On this point, we recommend making the most of your strategic keywords so the algorithm best understands what your business does.
Products
Of course, Google My Business also lets you showcase some of your products. By adding the corresponding URLs, you can send users directly to product pages. This is a free, high-quality traffic source that shouldn't be overlooked.
Website
In keeping with the goal of improving your listing's SEO, we recommend linking your listing to your website. If you don't have a website, it's not advisable to link to external pages (Facebook/Instagram pages, Yellow Pages, etc.).
It's also possible to add a direct link to your contact page from your listing, which is a useful feature for encouraging appointment bookings at your business, for example.
Adding Photos to Your Listing
Although it may seem obvious, the photos added to your Google My Business listing also play a decisive role in how well it performs. Regardless of your industry, photos are an excellent way to spark user interest and build trust.
We recommend adding several types of photos:
- Exterior photos of your business
- Interior photos of your business
- Photos of your products or services
Note that, based on extensive feedback, Google particularly values exterior photos that clearly show the business name. If you have videos available, it's also recommended to add those as well. Few businesses take advantage of this format, so it's a great way to stand out.
To close on this point, on average, a listing with photos improves its click-through rate by +35%.
The Impact of Google My Business Reviews
Simply put, a Google My Business listing's rating is one of the most important factors users consider when performing a search. It's therefore essential that your business has positive reviews and comments. On this front, you absolutely must integrate this into your existing processes to collect reviews on a regular basis (via SMS, email, etc.).
In terms of how it works, a dedicated section allows users to give your listing a rating out of 5 (and optionally leave a comment). Whether reviews are positive or negative, it's important to respond to them to improve your local SEO.
Google Posts Feature
Another useful feature built into Google My Business: Google Posts. This feature lets you publish content directly from your listing. You can use it in a variety of situations: launching a new collection, announcing upcoming promotions, and adding CTAs such as "Buy", "Learn more", "Book", etc.
To create a post:
- Go to the "Posts" tab.
- Select the category that matches your post: offer, update, event, or product.
- Fill in the relevant fields and click "Publish".
For reference, keep the following limitations in mind:
- Post visibility is limited to 7 days on your listing.
- 300-word maximum.
- Images must be in 4:3 format.
Google My Business Listing Performance
These days, it's essential to rely on data when making decisions. On this front, Google gives you access to a wealth of insights about your Google My Business listing's performance.
To access them, from your listing select "Promote" then "Performance". You'll then have access to various insights such as the number of direction requests, calls, clicks to your website, messages received, and more. You can find a breakdown of all the metrics in this Google article.
From there, you can draw out several optimization opportunities:
- In terms of searches: are users finding you by typing your brand name or keywords?
- In terms of interactions: which data on your listing is being consulted the most?
By following our tips, you'll have everything you need to create and turn your Google My Business listing into a true customer-generating machine (we hope so, at least!).
Want support with your digital marketing strategy? Feel free to reach out!
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