Google My Business: Optimize Your Google Listing

You have surely come into contact with “Google My Business” several times. Because it is the brief overview with the key information about a business that is displayed next to the search results. There you will find the most important information about the respective company. If you didn’t know this before, in all likelihood you won’t be using it for your own business just yet. That is more or less fatal, because you waste a lot of potential. In this article, we’ll tell you exactly what Google My Business is and how you can use it for yourself.

What exactly is Google My Business?

Google My Business is a feature of the most popular and widely used search engine in the world. In Germany, people search almost exclusively via Google, which means that Google search results are an important source of traffic for your website or for your company. However, Google My Business is not a website, nor is it a direct search result. It is a kind of info box that is displayed on the desktop next to and on the move mostly even above the actual search results. This box contains the following information about your company:

• Company name
• Company address (on request also with a map of how to get there via Google Maps)
• Current updates
• Telephone number and email address
• Company website
• opening hours
• photos
• Customer rating(here you can interact directly with the customer)

With a simple Google My Business entry you can reach many people, who in turn see the most important facts about you and your company at a glance. Interested parties do not have to search long and are not put off by a potentially overloaded website .

What does the Google My Business profile cost you?

A website can sometimes cost a lot of money. It’s not about a few euros, but sometimes about four to five-digit sums. But the nice thing about Google My Business is that it doesn’t cost you a dime. You can register your company there for free and have your entry published for free. Google doesn’t want any money from you and so you have nothing to lose here for the time being. The effort to create the entry and to keep it up to date is extremely low and is in no relation to the creation of your own homepage.

Is Google My Business worth it for your business?

Basically, Google My Business has some advantages. Even if there is only one interaction via the dashboard, it was already worth it, since the cost of money and time is almost zero. But the entry on Google My Business is especially interesting for people who run an offline business. Because with such business models it is primarily important that the customer finds your store – not necessarily your website. And the hard facts such as opening times and location could hardly be presented on a website in a more catchy and understandable way than with Google My Business. Therefore, always make sure that your data remains up-to-date. It would be extremely annoying if a customer decided to visit your store but ended up at the wrong address because your business has moved and you didn’t change it on Google My Business. The same applies, of course, to the opening times.

Keep everything in view with simple monitoring

In fact, it makes sense to monitor the success of certain advertising measures. With some marketing strategies, however, this turns out to be difficult. Not so with Google My Business. Google gives you an analysis tool with which you can control exactly how well the users interact with your entry. To do this, you can simply see how your company was found and which websites were previously visited by the user. This data can help you to optimize your online presence. You don’t need a lot of technical know-how to get to this data. The Google My Business interface is easy and intuitive to use, so you don’t have to worry – even if you are a little at war with the technology itself.

When will your company appear?

Now you will probably also be interested in when Google displays your company as a My Business post. There are two options here:

• The user is looking for your company exactly
• The user is looking for the type of business you are doing

If the user is looking for your company exactly, you will be displayed as the only My Business post to the right of the search results. That’s good for you. But even if the potential customer is looking for a more general term such as “Pizza + Location (e.g. Frankfurt)”, you may be shown as a My Business profile. With more general searches, however, it is likely that other companies besides you will be shown. Usually you can also see a Google Maps map on which the locations of the different companies can be seen. Below are the summaries of the Google My Business entries, which can be called up with a click.

How to create a Google My Business listing

So that you know how to get your perfect entry step by step, we go through the individual phases of the creation together with you.

• Register an account and create a profile

When you call up the start page of Google My Business, you can easily start with the entry by clicking the “Get started now” button. To do this, you first have to set up an account. If you already have a Google account, you can also use it here. If you have successfully registered, your profile now exists and you can start creating your entry.

• Add location and address

So that customers can find you, you have to enter your location and thus the address of your business . If you even have several locations, you should also enter them all.

• enter further company data

Here you enter all the relevant data that customers should know about your company. This includes your name, your company category, your website, a telephone number and opening times. The more detailed your information is here, the more information the user gets at a glance.

• Confirm profile

As soon as you have completed the entry, you will receive a confirmation code for verification. This verification is important so that the entry is also displayed.

• Maintain photos

Photos that you can add after you have created a post are also particularly beautiful. Because based on this, the user gets a direct insight into your business premises or products. So use the opportunity and include appealing images that may convince the customer.

• Keep entries up to date at all times

Contributions, reviews and answers to questions should also always be kept up to date. So check out comments and reviews regularly to react accordingly. This is how your potential customers see that you care about them and they always find the most important information about your company.

Conclusion: A Google entry is always worthwhile

If you have little budget or you simply don’t need the website because your business can be understood by everyone and your offer is clearly definable, then you should definitely create a Google My Business profile and your company in Google Make search visible. However, always note that regular maintenance of the profile is essential. Regardless of whether the business premises are to be relocated, your telephone number changes or you change your furnishings and should therefore upload new photos – a current and “tidy” profile is the be-all and end-all here.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ) about Google My Business

What is Google My Business?

Google My Business is a feature of the Google search engine. However, Google My Business is not a website, nor is it a direct search result. It is a kind of info box that is displayed on the desktop next to and on the move mostly even above the actual search results. This info box shows company information such as address, opening times, pictures and a direct link to the website.

Why should I add a Google listing?

With Google My Business, you and your company will become more visible and camouflaged. It is particularly interesting for offline companies that rely on customers coming into the store. With important information such as opening times, telephone numbers or reviews, customers can find you immediately and find out more about your company.

What will Google My Business cost me?

You don’t have to pay anything for the Google listing. Google enables this feature as a free tool.