For businesses looking to drive local visibility and sales in the UK, optimising your Google My Business (GMB) profile is essential. According to BrightLocal, statistics show 90% of users turn to Google My Business listings to find information on local companies, products and services.
By claiming, verifying, and fully completing your GMB profile, you can connect with high-intent local customers right when they are searching for businesses like yours. Enhancing key elements of your listing and promoting your profile can further improve visibility and click-through rates.
In this short note, we’ll walk you through the key steps to optimise your Google My Business profile to attract more local traffic, leads and sales for your UK business. Follow these tips to get found locally and outrank competitors on the vital Google My Business platform.
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Optimise Google My Business to Increase Sales
Claim and Verify Your Google My Business Listing
The first step is to properly claim and verify your business’s Google My Business listing. 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.
- 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 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.
Completely Fill Out Your Google My Business Profile
With your Google My Business profile claimed and verified, the next step is fully completing all key fields to present the most useful information about your business. Be sure to include:
- Correct business name, category and physical address
- Phone number, email and website URL
- Opening hours including any special hours or closures
- Detailed business description clearly explaining what you offer
- Profile photo and cover image representing your brand
- Menu of products/services and any associated pricing
- Videos highlighting your offerings or team
- Payment options and any delivery providers
- Attribution to your website and social profiles
Providing complete, accurate business data enables customers to learn all about your company and offerings when viewing your Google My Business profile.
One of the famous restaurant in UK, Busaba Eathai was able to drive a 20% increase in bookings after optimising their incomplete GMB profile, adding images, menus, booking links and more useful information.
In fact, Google research shows 92% of consumers use online listings to find new local businesses. Complete profiles build local authority that the search engines reward.
Optimise Key Elements to Stand Out
Merely completing your basic GMB profile is not enough. You need to optimise key elements to make your business stand out from competitors and rank highly in local search results.
Focus on optimising these aspects of your profile:
- Title – Make it descriptive using your keywords, location and niche
- Description – Craft a robust overview with details about your offerings
- Photos – Add high-quality interior, exterior, product and staff pictures
- Attributes – Select detailed relevant categories to depict your business
- Posts – Publish regular updates showcasing products, events and content
- Menu – For restaurants, build out your menu with prices and descriptions
- FAQ – Answer common customer questions to build trust
A case study by MOZ found UK retailer John Lewis increased foot traffic by 12% by adding more photos, beefing up their profile description to over 200 words and using more specific attributes.
Enhanced profile elements make your business prominent when customers are searching locally. Optimise your listing to look more professional and appealing than competitors.
Monitor and Respond to Reviews
Customer reviews are extremely influential for local businesses on Google. After providing great service, be sure to ask satisfied customers to leave an honest Google review to build up your stars and social proof.
Respond promptly and politely to all Google reviews, whether positive or negative. This shows customers you value their feedback.
A plumbing company in Uk named Plumbing Immediately started proactively requesting reviews from happy clients and saw new inquiries increase by over 20% within 3 months. BrightLocal Research shows 89% of UK consumers read online reviews for local businesses, so reviews truly impact buying decisions.
Analyse Performance Metrics
Within Google My Business, access valuable profile insights showing how customers are engaging with your listing. Analyse metrics like:
- Profile views – Total people finding your listing
- Website clicks – Traffic to your site
- Calls – Phone call volume from listing
- Requests for directions – Customers mapping your location
- On-profile actions – Menu downloads, appointments etc.
Some of the top digital marketing agency were able to optimise their service offerings based on the most popular profile sections customers were clicking on. This increased contact form conversions by 34%.
You can also link your Google Analytics account to track leads and sales generated directly from your GMB profile.
Keep Your Business Information Updated
As your offerings evolve over time, you must keep your Google My Business listing updated to reflect changes. This maintains accuracy and prevents your profile from appearing outdated.
Frequently update elements like:
- New products, services or menu items
- Changes in business hours and holiday closures
- Renovations, new locations or capacity
- Photos showcasing any refreshed visual identity
- Announcements of events, deals or content releases
Customers dislike clicking listings only to find incorrect or outdated information. Staying current ensures your listing remains useful.
Promote Your Google My Business Listing
To maximise visibility, actively promote your optimised Google My Business profile through tactics like:
- Linking prominently on your website footer or contact page
- Cross-posting GMB posts on your social media channels
- Creating a branded citation listing on directories like Yelp
- Running paid ads driving to your GMB profile
- Distributing stickers, magnets and other merchandise with your GMB URL
UK clothing retailer Next added GMB links to their site footer and email signatures, distributed business cards with QR codes and ran monthly LinkedIn ads targeting local areas. This resulted in a 40% increase in overall traffic from Google My Business.
By showcasing your profile and directing customers to it across channels, you can significantly boost awareness and clicks. Promote your GMB listing consistently.
Want to Optimise Your Google My Business Profile?
If you need expert help managing and optimising your Google My Business profile, the it’s time to contact UTDS Optimal Choice. Our dedicated GMB specialists can:
- Verify and claim existing inactive profiles on your behalf
- Fully complete and optimise all key profile fields
- Develop engaging, localised profile content that ranks
- Monitor metrics and optimise based on performance data
- Stay on top of new features and best practices
- Promote your profile through proven holistic strategies
We tailor our proprietary processes to each client’s specific local objectives across industries like restaurants, retail, services, automotive and more. Our optimisation experts become an extension of your team, allowing you to focus on day-to-day operations while we enhance your online local visibility.
Partnering with optimisation specialists like UTDS Optimal Choice can take your Google My Business efforts to the next level through proven holistic strategies tailored specifically to your niche and goals.
The bottom line? A truly optimised Google My Business presence is no longer optional – it’s essential for competing locally and converting searchers into paying customers.
Want to boost your business with Google Local Service Ads?
FAQs
To increase sales on Google My Business, focus on getting more 5-star customer reviews, create regular posts with special offers or promotions, run targeted local ad campaigns, and optimise website SEO with local keywords and schema markup. More visibility, clicks and conversions from GMB will lead to higher sales.
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.
Optimise SEO for Google business by including relevant local keywords in website content, especially on the homepage, contact pages and product/service pages. Add schema markup for local business and GMB link. Build more local citations and links. Improve website speed and mobile-friendliness.
To get your Google My Business listing on top, focus on getting more 5-star local reviews, create a complete optimised profile, build high-quality relevant links from directories and mentions, run GMB ad campaigns, and optimize website SEO with local keywords and schema markup. The more relevance signals the better the ranking.
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.
