Make sure customers find you online with a Google My Business account

Google My Business is a completely free marketing tool that can help customers find and learn about your business. You can use your Google Business listing to advertise your company and promote information that will make customers want to choose you.

Creating a Google My Business account is easy, and once you have set one up, customers searching for relevant businesses, products or services on Google and Google Maps will be able to find you.

Google My Business gives businesses the opportunity to make a great first impression by building a detailed profile with information, reviews and pictures.

It’s also a great tool for keeping your customers up-to-date if anything has changed, maybe you’ve altered your opening times or expanded the radius you cover.

Whether you run a brick-and-mortar business, or provide a product or service online, GMB can be hugely beneficial for your business. 49% of businesses listed on Google My Business received more than 1000 search views per month in 2019, with some reports now listing this as 51% in 2022.

If you Google Search ‘Cafés Newcastle’ on desktop, this is what Google shows you:

The three results Google pulls through here are known as the ‘local 3-pack’.

If you click ‘View all’, you’re directed to Google Maps, where you will find a full list of relevant results listed and their locations pinpointed on the map. All the businesses you see here have Google Business accounts.

If you click on one of the businesses listed on the left, an information box will pop up. This is called a Business Profile. 

As you can see, the Business Profile gives you all the essential information you might need to know about the business. You can click a hyperlink to take you to the business’s website, you know what price range to expect, you can see the location, get directions, view opening times and contact details. You can also see the Google Business rating.

Scroll down and you find even more information, like Q&As, popular visiting times and pictures of the venue and products.

If your business doesn’t have a physical location, a Google Business profile is still valuable. Instead of a physical address, you can just include the areas in which you deliver your services.

A lot of people also use the search terms ‘near me’ or ‘close by’ to find local businesses. Being listed on Google Maps makes it a lot more likely that people will discover you when searching for a local business.

Creating a Google My Business account is a straightforward process, that only takes a few minutes.

1. Log in to (or create) the Google account you want to be associated with your business.
2. Visit the Google My Business page and click “Add a new business” in the top right-hand corner of the screen.
3. Search for your business name.

You might find your business is already listed. If this is the case – don’t panic. There are a lot of unclaimed businesses listed on Google, but it’s important that you claim any that are yours, so you have full control over the information they show.

It’s also important to search for your business before clicking ‘add your business to Google’. Creating duplicate businesses with the same name and details will damage your SEO.

4. Choose the category that best describes what you do.

There are almost 4000 categories to choose from when setting up a GMB account, so make sure you select the most accurate one to represent your business. You can find a list of the categories here.

5. Add your address.

Even if you don’t have a physical location, or work from home, you need to add an address. Once you’ve done so, you have the option to hide it from the public.

6. List the locations you visit or deliver to (if applicable).
7. Add your contact details so people can get in touch.
8. Finally, you’ll be asked to verify your Google My Business account by postcard. You’ll receive a postcard at the address you’ve listed in your profile with a verification code. Once you’ve entered this code, your account will go live and start showing up in search results.

The steps listed above are just the basics of setting up your Google My Business account. If you want to be seen by as many customers as possible, you need to optimise your account with as much information as possible.

Where businesses appear in a local search isn’t by coincident. The Google algorithm considers a number of ranking factors to decide which results to show first. Google’s intention is to make life as easy as possible for their users, so the more information it has to tell them about your business, the higher it will rank it.  

Things to include in your Google Business profile to boost visibility are:

1. Up-to-date and accurate information:

All the information listed on your Google Business account must be accurate. If anything changes, like your opening hours for example, you need to update your account. We all know the disappointment of checking on Google to make sure somewhere is open, only to arrive and find it shut. Try your best not to be that business!

2. Photographs

Google loves pictures, and so does your prospective customer. Businesses listed on Google with pictures in their profile receive 35% more clicks than those that don’t. Try to include your logo, a relevant cover picture and as many business-specific photos as possible. These could be images of your premises, pictures of your products or photos of your team. You can find more information on business-specific images from Google.

3. Keywords and phrases

Keywords are a fundamental cog in the SEO machine. Try to include them in your Google My Business description to maximise your visibility. You can use free keyword research tools to help you identify the best ones for your business.

4. Questions and answers

Through Google My Business, users have the option to post questions directly to the business owner. Check your GMB account regularly and if questions have been posted, answer them honestly and accurately.

5. Special attributes

Attributes are a newer element of GMB but are an effective way to boost your local SEO and get your business in front of prospective customers.

It’s easy to add attributes, just go to the ‘info’ tab in your verified GMB account and click ‘add attributes’.

Think about elements of your business that your customer might want to know about, like whether you offer free wifi, how accessible your location is via wheelchair or whether you offer gluten free options. It might seem like a lot, but you’re making things easier for your customer, and for Google.

If someone were to search a long-tailed keyword like ‘gluten free café with free wifi and wheelchair access’, the attributes you have listed in your GMB account would allow Google to quickly index the request, boosting your ranking. You can find out more about attributes, and what can be listed here.

6. Reviews

Reviews are so important, not only for your ranking, but for your overall customer perception. 93% of consumers say that online reviews influenced their purchase decision.

Actively encourage your customers to leave you reviews on Google and be sure to respond to each review and question you get. You can find out more about how to boost your online reputation through Google reviews by checking out UMi’s guide to Google Business Ratings.

7. Insights

Another great feature you get with Google My Business is Insights.

Insights is an analytic tool that lets you see how customers have interacted with your business listing.

Providing information over a 28-day period, Insights allows businesses to drill down and explore what aspects of their GMB account are working well, and what could be changed.

You can find out whether users found you via Google Search or Google Maps. You can see the words people searched to find your business, which can then inform the keywords you optimise in your GMB profile. And businesses can see what actions users took, like visiting your website or looking for directions to your store.

The data you can collect with Google Business Insights can be incredibly valuable, not just in optimising your Google Business account, but informing your whole digital marketing strategy.