A Google My Business profile, also known as a GMB, is a free online listing that allows businesses to provide information about their company, showcase their products and services, and connect with their customers and potential customers. This profile contains important details about a company or organization such as its location, hours of operation, contact information, and high-resolution images or videos of their products / services, their team, and customers.
Some of the key features of a Google My Business profile includes a Google map showing the location of the business, user reviews and ratings, and the ability to respond directly to reviews in real-time, This capability can be especially useful for companies looking to build their online reputation and improve customer engagement.
Does Google My Business Affect SEO?
One question many business owners have is if a Google My Business Profile affects SEO (search engine optimization). In other words, does a GMB affect a company’s rankings in the search engine? The short answer to this question is, yes, and we’ll dive into this in greater detail.
Why Is Google My Business Important For SEO?
Maintaining a strong Google My Business profile can have a positive impact on a company’s overall SEO performance. And there is no denying the importance of SEO in today’s digital landscape. With millions of websites vying for attention online, it can be difficult for businesses to stand out and get seen by their target audience.
While many factors contribute to SEO, properly utilizing a Google My Business profile is a simple strategy that can be particularly effective.
How To Use Google My Business Effectively
There are several key steps for effectively using a Google My Business profile so that it improves your SEO, increases your visibility on Google, and drives more customers to your business.
Optimize Your Profile
First and foremost, you need to provide complete and accurate information about your business in the ‘About Us’ section of your profile. This includes your business name, address, phone number, website URL, photos, hours of operation, and more. It’s very important to ensure that all of the information in your profile is consistent with other information about your business on the web (such as your website), to avoid confusing potential customers. Having conflicting information about your business across the web can actually hurt your SEO.
GMB provides a description field where you can write a short “about us” snippet on your profile. Writing a keyword-rich description, as well as matching the description as best you can to the “about us” section on your website and other platforms, will help to improve your SEO. Consistency is key —- you want all of the information about your business across the web to be the same.
You can also list each of your products or services on your GMB profile, as well as add descriptions and pricing. Be sure to take the time to fill this out in detail.
Embed Your GMB Onto Your Website
The next step is to embed your GMB map onto your website. The reason you want to do this is because it works as a two-way boost for SEO. When you embed your map onto your website, Google makes the connection between the two.
Google wants to rank legitimate and credible companies on its site, so when it sees that you have a website and a GMB profile, and they’re connected, it earns your business “brownie points” in the eyes of Google’s algorithm. This gives both your website and your GMB a little boost in SEO and can improve your rankings for both.
Geotag Your Photos
Geotagging the photos that you add to your GMB is a crucial step in optimizing your listing. This practice involves adding geographical information, such as latitude and longitude coordinates, to the metadata of your photos. By doing so, you are giving Google more information about where each photo was taken, which allows Google to provide more accurate search results for its users and boost your listing’s positioning in the search rankings.
Request And Respond To Reviews
As we just mentioned, when it comes to SEO on Google, credibility and legitimacy are major factors. The more credible your business is in the eyes of Google, the better it’s going to rank. This is why collecting positive customer reviews on your GMB and responding to those reviews in a timely manner can have a positive impact on your SEO.
Nothing makes a business look more credible than having great reviews from real customers. This also allows you to engage directly with those customers and show that you care about their experience with your business. Google takes the quantity and quality of customer reviews into consideration when ranking business listings on their site. We discuss in greater detail how you can request customer reviews and attain a 5 star rating online in this article.
Regularly Post Content
Google allows you to post content to your GMB, the same way you post to your social media accounts. To make the most of your Google My Business profile, it’s important to create engaging content that speaks directly to your target audience. This keeps your audience engaged with your brand and is a great way to drive traffic from your posts to your website. Focus your content on answering the questions that your audience is actively searching for on Google.
Google My Business SEO Benefits
There are several benefits that come with utilizing a GMB to improve your SEO, a few of which include:
- Improved Rankings
When you properly utilize and optimize your GMB, you can reap the benefit of improved rankings for both your GMB listing and your website.
- Improved Visibility And Increase In Traffic
Improved rankings lead to the benefit of increased visibility. This means that your listing or website will be more likely to show up in the search results when consumers are searching for what you offer. When you increase your visibility online, you simultaneously increase traffic to your website, which results in an increase in leads and customers.
- Provides Analytics
GMB profile analytics provide a wealth of information about your business and the activity surrounding it online. These analytics offer real-time insights into key metrics such as views, engagement, and actions taken by users on your profile.
These analytics also provide data on things like the number of website visits or phone calls resulting from activity on your GMB page. Having access to these analytics allows you to see how well your business is performing online so that you can optimize your marketing strategy.
- Free Advertisement
We also have to highlight the fact that a GMB listing is free advertisement. It’s a free way to put your business in front of locals who are searching for what you offer. It’s not only an additional avenue for consumers to find your business, but it’s also a free way for you to boost your overall SEO, and what’s better than that?
Update From GMB To GBP
As we share this information with you, it’s important to note that Google has recently changed the term Google My Business to Google Business Profile (GBP). While many still refer to it as GMB, you’ll begin to see it referenced more often as GBP. It’s still the same feature, just under a different name.
If you need help with setting up and maintaining your GBP, feel free to reach out to us at The Alchemy Consulting Group. We specialize in optimizing GBPs and creating GBP content that helps our clients outrank their competitors. To learn more, call us today at 877-978-2110 or schedule a call to speak with us at a time that is convenient for you: https://calendly.com/gordonvanwechel/15min.
