A GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION WITH GOOGLE MY BUSINESS

What are the benefits of Google My Business?

Google My Business is a Google tool that displays a local business in Google products, such as Google Maps and Google search results. If you have a business that provides services to customers at a specific location or if you provide services to customers within a designated service area, people can find you through Google My Business. Verified businesses are naturally seen as more trustworthy by users.

What should you absolutely not do?

Google My Business offers the free opportunity to connect your business with your target audience. An ideal way to put your business in the spotlight. Besides quickly and easily providing information, a well-set-up GMB profile also brings countless benefits in the area of search engine optimization. But because businesses can fill out their GMB profile themselves, there are also some pitfalls involved. You should definitely NOT do the following:

1. Let’s fake it

Every business naturally wants to represent itself as well as possible. You want to attract customers! But unfortunately there are also businesses that make the picture prettier than it actually is. You might think that adding fake photos and videos could be good for your business’s reputation.

Suppose you don’t have nice photos of your product yet or you haven’t decorated your store as nicely as you would like. The temptation might then be great to use fake photos, but please do NOT do this. Eventually people will find out and this only damages the reputation and credibility of your business. Such a shame of course.

By the way, there are also businesses that add extra – fake – locations to increase their findability and it regularly happens that businesses fake their reviews to come across better. This is of course against Google’s rules and your content can even be removed if you don’t comply with this.

2. Ignoring reviews

Google My Business offers customers/guests the opportunity to leave a review. This can turn out both positively and negatively. A good review is great, but a bad review can drive away potential new customers or guests! You naturally want to prevent that. By interacting with your customers’/guests’ reviews, you add a personal touch to your service. Especially the bad reviews require extra attention. Try to solve the problem nicely by offering apologies, explanations or possibly even compensation.

This way you give the negative review a positive spin. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, negative reviews are therefore – almost – unavoidable. It’s mainly about how you as a business deal with the negative reviews. Other users also have insight into your answers! Never delete bad reviews, a business with only extremely positive reviews naturally comes across as quite untrustworthy.

3. A ton of categories

GMB offers the possibility to add categories to your business profile. This indicates what your business falls under. Do you have an online marketing agency for example? Then you could add the category ‘Internet marketing’. But the categories ‘Web design’ and ‘Marketing consultant’ could also apply. Now you might think that with as many categories as possible you’ll appear even more often. However, the opposite has long been proven.

Too many categories actually make your business come across as untrustworthy. And Google thinks so too. The algorithm will most likely ensure that instead of being shown more, you’ll be shown less. Want to achieve optimal findability? Then the art is to find the right balance between the number of categories.

4. Bad quality photos

Through Google My Business you can add photos to your business profile. This way you give potential customers or guests a look into your business. These can be photos of products, your store, your menu, your office, your restaurant and your team. Whatever type of photos you use: it says a lot about your business. What we therefore strongly advise against is the use of fake photos. Have you taken some nice photos of customers? Without permission from the customer themselves, these may not be placed on your business profile.

This is against the rules and a violation can lead to the removal of your content. Moreover, it’s also important that your photos are of good quality, comply with Google’s guidelines and are not outdated. Photos of your old menu, items you no longer sell or the previous interior of your hair salon usually don’t work very well.

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Outsource Google My Business at ROXTAR

Are you not yet using Google My Business? Or do you think your profile could use some optimization? As an online marketing agency with many years of experience in search engine optimization, we know exactly how to set up your business profile. Become more findable locally in search results, make yourself visible in Google Maps, ensure that customers can directly contact you by phone and gain insight into how customers/guests find your business. Engage our help today in setting up a complete and correctly filled GMB profile and benefit from the many advantages:

• You are more findable in local search results
• Generate reviews for more conversions
• You appear directly on Google Maps, making you better and more often found
• Customers can quickly and easily contact you by phone
• Improve local rankings by setting your service area
• Get more insights into how your customers find your business