One of the most powerful tools at your disposal is Google My Business (GMB), a free platform provided by Google that allows you to manage your business information across Google Search and Maps. Through Google business profile optimisation, you can significantly improve your online visibility, attract more customers, and stay ahead of your competitors in the competitive UK market.
In this short guide, we’ll explore the importance of Google My Business and provide actionable strategies to help you master google business profile optimisation, enhance your local SEO efforts, and ultimately drive business growth.
Having a well-optimised Google Business Profile is crucial for local SEO, but it's just one piece of the puzzle. Google also considers the content on your actual website when determining your local ranking. This is where SEO content length comes into play.
What is Google My Business or GMB Listing?
Google My Business is a free business listing that appears in Google Search and Maps results, providing essential information about your business, such as its name, address, phone number, website, operating hours, and customer reviews. When potential customers search for businesses like yours, your optimised Google Business Profile will be displayed prominently, giving you an opportunity to showcase your offerings, engage with customers, and attract new business.
Why Google Business Profile Optimisation Matters
Optimising your Google Business Profile is crucial for several reasons:
Improved Online Visibility
An optimised Google Business Profile can significantly boost your visibility in UK local search results, making it easier for potential customers to find you when searching for products or services in your area.
Better Local SEO
Googles algorithm considers a variety of factors when ranking businesses in local search results, and having a complete, accurate, and optimised Google Business Profile is one of the most important ranking signals.
Increased Customer Engagement
With features like Google Posts and customer review, your Google Business Profile allows you to engage directly with your customers, share updates, promotions, and respond to feedback.
Enhanced Credibility
A Google Business Profile with consistent business information, high-quality images, positive customer reviews, and engaging content can help establish your UK business as a credible, trustworthy, and authoritative option in your local area.
Optimising your Google Business Profile is a great first step, but remember that ranking factors can differ between search engines. Consider exploring Bing SEO strategies to solidify your local presence across platforms
How To Increase Leads From GMB?
How To Optimise Your Google Business Profile
How To Claim and Verify Your GMB Listing
The first step in google business profile optimisation is claiming and verifying your UK business listing. This process ensures that you have full control over your business information and can make updates as needed. Here’s how:
- Go to google.com/business and either create a new listing or claim an existing inactive one for your business’s name and address.
- To claim your listing, search for your business on Google Maps or Google Search, and follow the steps to claim ownership. Google will then guide you through the verification process, which typically involves receiving a postcard with a verification code at your UK business address.
- Incase if Google hasn’t created any business listing for you. Follow the step 1, select your business category and add key details like phone number and website URL.
- Verify the listing via instant verification, phone call, email or postal mail to confirm ownership.
- Upon verification, you take full control of the listing and can optimise all elements.
Properly claiming and verifying your listing enables your UK business to show up for relevant local searches and be managed directly by you.
UK carpet and flooring seller Carpetright saw a 50% increase in calls and walk-in traffic after verifying their undiscovered GMB listing.
It’s also crucial to keep all listing information up-to-date as details change. Google will re-verify listings every 12-18 months, so maintaining accuracy ensures your listing remains verified. According to Joy Hawkins, statistics show verified listings achieve up to 50% higher click-through rates compared to unverified profiles.
Steps to Optimise Google Business Profile Listing
Once you’ve claimed and verified your listing, it’s essential to optimise your UK business information to ensure accuracy, completeness, and relevance. This includes:
Business Name
Use your official business name as it appears on legal documents or signage, and ensure consistency across all online platforms.
Business Category
Choose the most relevant primary category and secondary categories that best describe your business offerings.
Business Address
Enter your complete and accurate business address, including suite or unit numbers if applicable.
Business Hours
Update your operating hours, including any special hours or holiday closures, to provide customers with accurate information.
Business Description
Craft a compelling and keyword-rich description of your business, products, or services, highlighting your unique value proposition and differentiators.
Business Photos
Upload high-quality, professional-looking photos of your business, products, services, team, and location to create a visually appealing and engaging profile.
PPC tools can provide valuable insights into your target audience's search behavior. By analysing this data, you can refine your Google Business Profile content and optimise it for the keywords your ideal customers are using.
How To Utilise Google My Business Posts
Google My Business Posts are a powerful feature that allows you to share timely updates, offers, events, and other content directly on your Google Business Profile. This feature is an excellent way to engage with your customers, promote special offers, announce new products or services, and keep them informed about your business. When creating posts, be sure to:
- Incorporate relevant keywords to improve visibility in local search results.
- Include visually appealing images or videos to capture attention and enhance engagement.
- Provide clear calls-to-action to encourage customer interactions, such as visiting your website, making a purchase, or leaving a review.
- Share posts consistently to maintain a fresh and active presence on your Google Business Profile.
How To Improve Local SEO With Google Business Profile Optimisation
Improving Local Search Rankings
A well-optimised Google Business Profile can significantly improve your UK local search rankings, making it easier for potential customers in your area to find your business. Google’s algorithm takes into account various factors when ranking businesses in local search results, including:
- Relevance: How well your business listing matches the users search intent, including the use of relevant keywords in your business name, description, and categories.
- Proximity: The distance between the user’s location and your business address.
- Prominence: How well-known and reputable your business is, based on factors like customer reviews, online mentions, and citations from authoritative sources.
Leverage Customer Reviews
Customer reviews play a crucial role in your local SEO efforts and can significantly impact your business’s online reputation, visibility, and credibility. Encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews on your Google Business Profile, as these reviews can help boost your prominence and credibility in local search results.
Responding promptly and professionally to both positive and negative reviews is also essential. This not only demonstrates your commitment to customer satisfaction but also allows you to address any concerns or issues raised by customers, showcase your customer service skills, and potentially turn negative experiences into positive ones.
Analyse Performance Metrics
Google My Business offers valuable insights and analytics tools that can help you track the performance of your Google Business Profile and make data-driven decisions. The Insights section provides detailed information about how customers interact with your business listing, including:
- How customers find your listing (direct search, discovery on Google Maps, etc.)
- Customer actions (website visits, calls, direction requests)
- Popular times and days for customer interactions
- Geographic breakdown of customers
- Listing performance over time, including views and engagement metrics
Organic search is important, but with Google Local Services Ads, you can take control and ensure your local service business in UK appears at the top of local search results. This targeted advertising option prioritises your business for searches related to your service and geographic area, and you only pay for the lead, not for the clicks/impressions.
Advanced Strategies for Google Business Profile Optimisation
Integration with Google Maps
Integrating your optimised Google Business Profile with Google Maps can further enhance your local SEO UK efforts and improve your visibility to potential customers. When customers search for businesses like yours on Google Maps, your listing will appear prominently, making it easier for them to find and navigate to your location.
To maximise the benefits of this integration, ensure that your business address and location information are accurate, consistent, and optimised across all online platforms, including your website, social media profiles, and directory listings.
Using Google My Business for Mobile Optimisation
With an increasing number of consumers using mobile devices to search for local businesses, it’s crucial to optimise your Google Business Profile for mobile users. This includes:
- Ensuring your business information is up-to-date, accurate, and optimised for mobile searches.
- Providing clear, concise, and mobile-friendly business descriptions and posts.
- Optimising images and visual content for mobile devices to ensure a seamless user experience.
- Encouraging customers to leave reviews directly from their mobile devices by providing a simple and streamlined process.
Responding to Customer Feedback
Responding promptly and professionally to customer reviews and feedback on your Google Business Profile is essential for maintaining a positive online reputation, fostering customer loyalty, and ultimately driving small business growth. Here are some best practices for responding to customer feedback:
- Respond in a timely manner: Aim to respond to reviews within 24-48 hours to demonstrate your responsiveness and commitment to customer satisfaction.
- Personalise your responses: Address customers by name and acknowledge their specific feedback or concerns to show that you value their input.
- Express gratitude: Thank customers for their feedback, both positive and negative, and acknowledge their loyalty and support.
- Provide solutions or explanations: If addressing a negative review, offer a sincere apology, take accountability, and outline concrete steps you’re taking to resolve the issue or improve your offerings.
- Maintain professionalism: Avoid defensive or confrontational language, and keep your responses polite, respectful, and solution-oriented.
Even for local businesses, a comprehensive SEO strategy is key. Learn how to get started with our beginners guide to SEO.
Want to Optimise Your GMB Listing?
Remember, Google business profile optimisation require continuous refinement. Regularly update your business information, do content marketing, monitor and respond to customer reviews, and analyse your performance insights to continually improve and optimise your UK business listing.
Consider partnering with our local SEO experts
Are you unsure about optimising your Google Business Profile? Need more advanced strategies, consider partnering with UTDS Optimal Choice, we specialise in google business profile optimisation. Our expertise can help you achieve better results and stay ahead of the competition.
If you’re a business owner looking to improve your online presence, attract more prospective customers, and outshine your competitors, now is the time to take action. Looking for Local SEO Services, Contact Us Now.
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FAQs
You can attract more customers to your Google My Business listing by having complete optimised profiles, posting engaging content regularly, running GMB ad campaigns to increase visibility, building local links, encouraging customer reviews, and using GMB posts to promote products/services.
Aim to add fresh content like posts, photos and updates at least 1-2 times per week. This shows customers your business is active and encourages re-engagement.
You can submit a listing claim and Google will investigate. Provide as much evidence as possible that you are the legitimate business owner to take it over.
Respond professionally to any violation notifications and provide info validating your business. Report competitor false reports to Google as abuse.
Yes, location extensions and call-only ads are great ways to drive more local traffic to your GMB profile and calls to your business.
