How to create a Google My Business account (and why)
Do you want more customers to find your business online? Hell yes, we all do!
If you do nothing else for your business, create a Google My Business account. It’s that powerful and it’s free!
This step-by-step guide will help you:
Increase visibility in Google Search & Maps
Grow your business and increase revenue
Build automatic trust through social proof
And so much more.
What is Google My Business?
Google My Business (GMB) is a tool that manages how your business listing appears on Google Search and Maps.
It’s a platform that allows you the golden opportunity to control how your business displays in Google searches.
It literally puts your business on the map.
Now, open your browser and google a business category in your area, any business.
See those three top listed businesses shown on the map at the top of the search page? This is called the 3-pack, and it’s prime real estate.
Why is it so coveted?
Because people are busy and don’t usually take the time to comb through a list of 20 businesses. They’ll assume the top three are the best and their search stops there. Which means they might not see yours at all.
So how do you get listed in the three-pack?
By following this guide. Consumers will find your business in local search results when they search for the products you sell or the services you offer.
You’ll get your business in front of people searching for you.
And it’s 100% free.
Latest Stats
Searches of ‘businesses near me’ has increased by a whopping 900%
46% of all Google searches are seeking information on local businesses (that’s 1.6 billion searches every day where people are looking for information on products and services near them)
3. 93% of these local searches feature Google My Business Listings
4. 88% of local business searches that were performed by people using a mobile device either called or visited the business within 24 hours.
Let’s make sure they’re calling YOU and not your competitor.
Create your Google My Business
Before we get started, it’s important to note your NAP (Name, Address, Phone, and Website) is consistently listed the exact same everywhere online so your business shows up accurately and completely across all directories, listings, and websites you’re on.
And it all starts with your Google My Business account. If any information doesn’t match, Google will hit you hard for it.
Here are the exact steps you need to follow to create your listing.
1. Go to Google My Business and select “Log In” in the upper right hand corner
2. Log into the Google account you want associated with your business. If you don’t have a gmail account create one here.
3. Search for your business so you don’t create a duplicate listing by mistake.
First, do a quick search to make sure your business hasn’t already been added to Google. You’ll be massively penalized if you create a duplicate listing by mistake.
If your business doesn’t show up when you enter it in the search field, you’re safe to then move to the next step by selecting “Add your business to Google.”
4. Enter your business name and click “Next”
5. Choose the category that fits your business best. Don’t overthink it, you can always change it and add more categories later.
6. Add your services.
This is a crucial step. Take time to think about what your customers would search for in order to find you.
Then select all the services you provide. If you don’t see a service you offer, you can create your own by selecting the “Add custom service.”
7. Add your business address.
Don’t skip this step –this is how you’ll show up in Google Maps when customers search for your products or services.
You cannot use a PO Box for your address. If your business is registered to your personal home address, or you simply don’t want to display your address to the public, you’ll have the option to hide your address.
If you serve customers outside your location (i.e. your a service-based business or you deliver goods outside your address), select the “I serve them outside my location” option.
8. Enter your local service areas.
The more towns and cities you can list in your area, the more your business will populate in search results when customers in those locations search for your business.
9. Enter your phone number and website.
10. Finalize your listing.
11. Validate your listing
This is perhaps the most crucial step. Once you finalise your listing, you’ll be directed to a new page to verify it.
Google gives you 5 options for verification:
Postcard
Email
Phone
Bulk
Instant
That said, almost all businesses are required to use the postcard method.
Once you receive the postcard via snail mail (you’ll get it no more than five days from making the request) log into your Google My Business account and click on “Enter verification code.”
After entering the code on the postcard, your listing will be live within three business days.
Next you’ll want to optimise your site so you’ll be found in Google Maps and Search results, driving traffic and customers to your business.
Optimise your Google My Business Listing
1. Complete your listing by adding a profile short name (eg: @dreamyholistictherapy) and a description.
Your description needs to clearly articulate your industry and the services you provide.
2. Finish completing every field, line by line, located in the “Info” section. It’s located on the left hand side of your Google My Business account.
I can’t stress this enough: double-check that all your information is accurate and complete to include your business name, address, operating hours, phone number, website, services, and opening date.
Pro tip: when adding your service areas, don’t simply list the city you live in. Meticulously add every surrounding area you want to come up in search results to include surrounding neighborhoods and counties.
3. Are you a Female-Owned Business? If so, you can now add these fields to the “Attributes” category found within the Info tab.
4. Upload high-quality photos to your account that reflect your work.
Google My Business Accounts that have photos get more clicks, calls, and direction requests.
Research shows a strong link between GMB photo quality / quantity and search performance. Listings that include photos get more views on search and maps and have a higher conversion rate.
5. Add your services in the Services category. If you sell gift vouchers or service packages with set pricing, list them in the Products category. Don’t forget to add high quality images to make your products more compelling.
6. Be intentional with you categories and subcategories. It’s important to get this right. If you put your business in the wrong category, you probably won’t see any traffic. The main category should be very specific to your business. Secondary categories are important as well, though you can be more vague with these.
7. Optimise your business description. You have 750 characters to tell potential customers about your brand mission and what pain points your solve for them. Remember to be genuine. This description won’t affect your rankings, but if you have an interesting story, it might peak people’s interest. Be sure to put the most interesting bits at the very start as Google tends to cut off midway in search results.
Build your Social Proof with Google Reviews
Reviews are a powerful thing when it comes to your business. They can boost or bomb your listing on Google and determine how your customers feel about your business. Moreover, reviews give insight to prospective clients what it’s like to work with you.
As of 2022, Google is considered the #1 review site with other platforms like Yelp, Amazon and Facebook falling behind.
This means Google reviews will have the most impact (good or bad). If you happen to get a bad review don’t stress too much I’ll explain how to bring the positive reviews to the forefront while minimizing the effect of negative opinions. More on that in a bit.
Getting five reviews is an important step to getting your business listed in the coveted three-pack (the top three businesses Google displays under the map).
So how do you get customers to leave reviews?
All you have to do is ask! If you collect customer emails at time of purchase, then you’ve got the best way to reach out for those reviews. If you’re not, then maybe it’s time to consider the idea.
You can grab your Google custom review link from the home page in your Home dashboard by clicking on “Share Review Form.”
Next, copy the custom review URL link to send clients directly. When your clients click on the link you send them they’ll get this prompt:
Requesting reviews not only ensures you get more reviews, but will also give you a better overall picture of how your business is viewed.
If you don’t ask, you won’t get accurate data. Instead it’ll be skewed by those who are more likely to leave a review on their own i.e. people who most likely have an issue with the customer service.
Thank you pages also work well. After a customer buys or downloads something online, have a thank you page pop up that thanks them for their purchase and then asks for a review. Simple as that.
Asking in person is another great option. After I close out every project I explain to my clients how powerful their reviews are for my business and ask them to leave a review. Because I go above and beyond to deliver excellent service my clients always “repay” me with a heart-felt review.
Generating reviews is great for boosting SEO and seeing all the things you’re doing right. Or you get honest feedback on how you can improve. To collect influential reviews you can lead your clients down a user journey with these strategic testimonial questions.
RESPOND TO REVIEWS
In order to find and respond to reviews, click on the Reviews tab from your Google My Business home screen.
From your dashboard you can filter the reviews by “Replied” or “Haven’t replied”. Make sure to reply to every review you get–the good and the bad.
This can be time-consuming, but is incredibly important when it comes to protecting and managing your business’s reputation.
Remember that your replies are public. These are not private messages so even if you’re responding to a negative review, remember to remain professional. You can combat a negative review with a sympathetic response.
According to a 2018 survey, 53% of people expect a response from you within 7 days, though 63% have never heard back from a business they reviewed. A whopping 80% of potential customers feel like the brand cares more if there are responses to reviews; especially to the negative ones.
Be the memorable business that writes back!
Your customers will feel appreciated and it’ll inspire confidence in potential clients.
What can you do about negative reviews?
First, take a moment to assess the feedback and ride out any anger or emotion you might feel. Don’t hurry to reply. Collect your thoughts and respond professionally.
But DO respond. It shows you care about your customers and that you’re attentive to their needs. Digital confrontation is never fun, but if you do it right, there’s a possibility they will delete or edit the negative review.
You can do this by really empathising with them and then offering solutions. That’s the most important part. You can write the prettiest apology ever, but if you don’t offer a solution, then you’ve missed the mark.
Try to work with them to fix the situation. Prepare for a long chat, it might take some to-and-fro to change their mindset. But it can be done and is actually a great way to find out exactly where things went wrong to improve your business process and services.
If you feel they’re satisfied with your reply then you can ask them to edit their review. But only after you’ve taken the time to change their views on your business.
Create posts for your Google My Business account
Whether you need to gain attention or announce something exciting, posting on your GMB account is a fantastic way to get eyes on your business.
Google gives you 5 posting options:
What’s new
Welcome Offer
Events
Offer
Product
Let’s take a look at each one.
WHAT’S NEW
This type of post is the most generalised one and great for business updates; whether you have something new and exciting happening, want to share a new blog post, or just need to increase your brand awareness.
Keep in mind that these posts expire in 7 days. However, this doesn’t mean that they disappear. Readers can still find them by clicking View All or View Previous Posts. You also can’t set a time frame; which is why making regular posts is so important for potential clients and customers.
WELCOME OFFER
This post is a little different as it’s only visible to new followers; aka people who just started following your business on Google Maps. This is a great tool for offering a freebie, discount, or exclusive offer to all the new potential customers.
The Welcome Offer post expires in 2 weeks. This means your new followers have exactly 2 weeks to take advantage of whatever it is you’re offering from the day they start following you. This doesn’t expire on your end though; you can leave it up for as long as you like.
EVENTS
If your business has an event coming up, this is the type of post you’ll want to use for the announcement. This will help draw interest from potential customers and let them know the what, when, and where.
This post does require a time frame, and is based on how long your event is running. It can be a day, a week, a month, or longer.
OFFER
This post type is for promoting specials, sales, and other one-off offers. It’s a great place to include a photo or video of your promotion to get some attention.
Google lets you choose whether customers can redeem these offers online, or if they need a discount code for in-store purchases.
This post has a time frame as well; the dates that the offer is valid for.
PRODUCT
This is the perfect place to show off any new products you’re offering such as packages. Or highlight specific ones you want to sell (eg: the high priced ones). Be sure to post a photo as well as a description and price.
Bear in mind that this type of post is only available to those who have a Products feature in their account. Product posts expire in 7 days.
IMPORTANT TIPS FOR POSTING
There are right and wrong ways to use this GMB feature. It can go a long way in helping your marketing strategy, so make sure to keep these hacks in mind to optimise your posts for maximum effect.
KEEP IT SHORT
I know it’s tempting to throw all the info you can at readers, hoping something will stick. But in reality, most people aren’t going to read a big wall of text. Even though Google was generous enough to give us 1,500 characters, you only need to use a fraction of that.
The ideal length for a post is between 150-300 characters. This number is important because it will help keep readers from having to click the Learn More button to expand the post. This may not seem like a big deal, but people browse so quickly; any extra clicks could lose someone skim reading.
In order to make your posts as effective as possible, put yourself in the client’s shoes. Look at GMB posts from other holistic therapy businesses similar to yours. Pay attention to how long their posts are. Did you lose or gain interest? What about the post that drew you in or pushed you off? This is a great exercise to see what works and what doesn’t.
ONLY USE HIGH-QUALITY PHOTOS AND VIDEOS
Because people scan the internet so quickly, you’ll need eye-catching media that will grab their attention long enough to make them stop and read. Not only will it pause their scrolling, but it helps to reinforce your brand’s image as well.
Now you might be wondering ‘Okay sure, but where can I find these high quality images?’ Google thought of that too. Head over to Google Business Profile Marketing Kit where you can turn your 5 star reviews into high-quality marketing material!
And while we’re on the subject of photos, make sure to add just the one to What’s New, Events, and Offer posts. Adding more than one will cause the images to jumble in different search results. For a smoother experience, try and narrow it down to the most relevant photo you have.
KEEP IT PROFESSIONAL
Even though this can feel like another social media post, it’s not. Facebook and Instagram are great places to get personal and tell people your values, goals, and beliefs. GMB is strictly an avenue for growing your business; and you’ll succeed quickly if you treat it as such.
CREATE A CALL TO ACTION AND LANDING PAGE
Some post types have the option to add a nice clickable Call to Action. Choose the one that tells the reader exactly what action they should take after reading your post. You can’t customise the CTA, but there are plenty of options to choose from.
Once that’s done, and the post is published, make sure your landing page is up to scratch. When visitors click the link, the landing page should be clean, pretty, and reinforces the message from the post. Whatever action you want potential consumers to take from there, make sure it’s obvious and leaves no question as to what you want the reader to do.
Now you’re all set and watch the bookings roll in!
