By now, you understand that GMB is not your business profile. Instead, it is a tool through which you can enhance your business profile and boost its visibility and effectiveness. Here are the core ways in which you can use this GMB to make your profile on Google listing a better local marketing tool.
1.Engage with Customers
There are many ways consumers can interact with your business profile. You can use your GMB account to engage with them and answer any questions they have asked. You can respond to comments, reviews, answer questions by direct message them, and set up any related alerts. You can also use GMB to publish posts to your business profile, just like you would do on your Facebook account.
2. Highlight Your Business
A business profile has limited information about your business. But through your GMB account dashboard, you can provide unlimited information, a link to your website, products, pricing, and other details that make your business stand out from the rest. You can also use your GMB to make any edits and updates required for your business.
3. Gain Insights
You can use the GMB dashboard to gain insights into your audience and local search performance. In the analytics tab, you can see customer queries that they are facing when finding your business profile. Whether the customer has found you through Google Maps or Google search, you can see a breakdown of actions taken on your listing and how your photos are performing as compared to other profiles of the same category.
4.Perform Local SEO
Just as Google has algorithms for ranking its ads and websites, it has one for ranking business profiles. Through your GMB dashboard, you can incorporate keywords in your business profile and perform any other optimizations to help it rank in local results.
5.Using Google My Business for SEO
Google's business profiles are dynamic. Not only do they change form based on the platform, but Google also selects sections of your profile based on the term that was searched the most and the type of information that is most important to consumers in your category. Moreover, Google will embed keywords in the content of your profile that it considers relevant.
However, information must be prioritized and keywords must be added to your profile in the first place. Just as you would use a content management system to optimize your website for search engines, GMB optimizes your profile and expands your reach. So how do you use GMB for local SEO?
Target Your Information
To use GMB for SEO, make sure that you incorporate relevant keywords into your business profile so you can tell Google what you are ranking for. Use them in your description, your responses to reviews, your answers to questions, and in the posts that you publish. Make sure that you incorporate them like you would any other SEO strategy.
Maintain Information Quality
The accuracy of your business profile impacts its range. Therefore, you need to ensure that you provide the requested information in each section of your GMB dashboard. The most essential information is your contact, special hours, and your attributes.
Build Trust
The last approach to using GMB for SEO is the trust component of Google's algorithm. You need to keep your information updated and accurate as your business evolves. Keep a flow of reviews coming in and try responding to them. Also, send a signal to Google that you are active by uploading photos and publishing posts regularly through GMB.
SEO is important for any business, particularly for small businesses that can use local targeting to compete against large competitors on the SERP. Google is making local SEO easier with its robust business profiles. Therefore a Google My Business account is essential for any business trying to be visible in the local market.[1]
[1] Word Stream (2020). What is Google My Business & Why Do I Need It? Retrieved from https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2020/06/08/what-is-google-my-business
