3 ways to improve your Business Profile on Google
Key take-aways
It can sometimes feel difficult to stand out from the crowd online, especially for new or smaller businesses. If you want to improve the chances of users noticing you on Google and Google Maps, a Business Profile on Google is a free and easy way to make an impact and help potential customers find out about your business.
Business Profile on Google is one of the most important digital marketing tools that businesses have available to them. To get started, simply claim and verify your free profile and fill out your business details. Once the profile is complete, it will provide key information neatly and in one place in the form of a business listing, so that users can learn more about what you offer.
It's important to keep your profile up-to-date and ensure everything it contains is accurate, but you should also try to make it relevant and compelling to new potential customers. Here are three simple tips to improve your Business Profile on Google.
- Provide as much information as possible
- Encourage existing customers to share reviews
- Inspire people by posting regular content
1. Provide as much information as possible
Once you've claimed your profile, claim a short name and URL for your business. With this URL, you can easily refer customers back to your Profile to make a booking or to write a review after a visit. It's also important to fill in as much information about your business as possible. As well as basics like your business name and address, your Business Profile is a great place to share photos of your shopfront, include your business logo, your store's opening hours and a phone number or email address, so potential customers know how to contact you. By providing these details, you can ensure that potential customers are able to find what they're looking for quickly and easily.
Let's say a bakery in Leeds wants to take advantage of its Business Profile as part of a wider strategy to increase its morning footfall. The owner could start by claiming their business profile and filling out the basic information. As a result, potential customers who are seeking a new breakfast spot might stumble across the bakery's business listing on Google Maps and decide to visit because they can see the opening hours and get walking directions from their location.
Next, the bakery could add an eye-catching cover photo and photos of its range of baked goods and cosy indoor seating area. This will help new potential customers see that there are breakfast items on offer and let them know that the venue has seats available for people to eat in. Simply by providing some basic details, the bakery has made it more likely that those browsing for somewhere to eat breakfast might decide to try them out.
Call-to-action
A call to action is a message that is designed to encourage users to do something. Often this will simply be to click a link and keep reading, but it can also be used to generate sales or convince users to subscribe to a newsletter.
2. Encourage existing customers to share reviews
Research from Think with Google shows that 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, so they can serve as a powerful marketing tool for your business. Each Business Profile on Google prominently displays a star rating out of five—based on aggregated user reviews—as well as short written descriptions of a visitor's experience if a customer chooses to leave one. This feedback is an important and useful part of Business Profile on Google, helping you understand what people love most about your business and areas that could be improved.
A coffee shop in Brighton, for example, might notice that it only has a handful of reviews on its Business Profile on Google. A competitor on the same street, however, has hundreds of reviews and a high star rating. The coffee shop owner could simply put a sign up in the window encouraging new visitors to leave them a review. With just a little effort, the coffee shop could soon attract a stream of new reviews—which will make the business look much more appealing to new potential customers.
Businesses also have the option of responding to reviews on their Business Profile on Google, and the reviewer will be notified when a merchant responds. This is a great opportunity to say "thank you" if a visitor leaves a positive review or take action to resolve a problem if you receive negative feedback.
3. Inspire people by posting regular content
Business Profile on Google enables you to do more than share basic facts about your business. They can also be used to connect with potential customers and highlight new products or special offers through posts. These appear directly within the profile and provide additional content that may be of interest to users, such as:
- fresh images
- up to 300 words of text
- a call-to-action with a link
When potential customers search using relevant keywords on Google or Google Maps, posts from your business will be visible below the key information in your Business Profile.
A beauty salon in Grantham could use a post to display a simple call-to-action that asks potential customers to visit a page on its website in order to view availability and schedule an appointment. This makes it clear that treatments can be booked directly from the search results page. When browsing, potential customers may feel more inclined to choose this salon over another because the owner has highlighted how easy it is to make a booking.
When people use Google search, they want the right information delivered as quickly as possible. A Business Profile on Google allows you to provide everything users need in a neat and attractive format that's already familiar. Once you've claimed your profile, verified it and filled out your information, you'll soon learn how valuable it is for connecting with existing and potential customers—and, ultimately, growing your business.
