6 Reasons Why Your Small Business Should Use Google My Business

01 Feb 6 Reasons Why Your Small Business Should Use Google My Business

Google My Business is a free local marketing tool that displays information about your business on Google Search and Google Maps. Within the Google My Business listing, people will be able to view your business name, address, contact information, link to your business website, and the hours of operation. When advising potential clients, we always encourage them to claim their business profile and share posts and photos at least one time per week, if not more. The main reason we recommend using Google My Business is that oftentimes, people who are searching for a local business are in the “ready to book” or purchase phase of the sales funnel. In fact, studies have shown that they are 52% more likely to book or buy after reviewing a Google My Business listing.

Imagine this scenario related to law firms. A potential client is interested in consulting with a family law lawyer. They perform a Google search for “Family Law Lawyers Near Me.” Only those law firms that have claimed their profile in the city where the potential client is searching in will show up in the maps area as outlined in the photo below. If you want your business to show in the Google My Business search results, keep reading for even more benefits to using Google My Business.

Six Reasons To Use Google My Business for Your Small Business

There are many benefits of using Google My Business and here are just a few.

1. Improves your local search results when someone is actively searching for a business like yours. When a local business claims their profile and verifies and edits their business information, it helps customers find your business and tells them your business story.
2. Introduces more of the world to your business and makes information about your business easily accessible. Have you ever been in a situation where you’re in a city you’ve never been to before and you’re looking for the best Italian food? In that situation, what would you think to do? Most people would think to Google “Best Italian food in [a city]”. That’s exactly what Google My Business would do for you. Google My Business will allow people who are interested in your service-based business to access information about your business with just a simple Google search.
3. Information about your businesses is accessible in real-time. This means that people who have visited your business are able to post images and share feedback in real-time about their experiences. Research shows that most people are influenced by other people’s reviews when looking for a service-based business to use. By using Google My Business, people are able to go online and post images that they took, and reviews that they made, which will influence others to use your business. TIP: Reply to the reviews that people post, it will make you seem more attentive to your customers and/or clients.
4. Allows you to answer inquiries about your business in real-time. When you decide to set up Google My Business for your business, people interested are able to contact you real-time to ask questions or make comments about their experience.
5. Google Ads! Have you ever noticed the ads that pop up immediately when you Google Search a local business? When you claim your Google My Business profile, you can then launch ads through your Google My Business dashboard. Google Ads campaign brings your business to the front page of Google search results for the keywords and phrases that you specify. By bringing your business to the front page of Google in search results, you will get more clicks to your website, more traffic, which means more customers and/or clients if you have the right lead capture strategy in place.
6. Get traffic data and other stats about how many potential clients/customers saw your profile page, contacted your business, or called your business from your profile. Your GMB dashboard shares key stats about how your business is doing in search results. Through your dashboard, you can see how many people called your business, what days are the most popular days that your potential clients or customers are searching for your business, and of even how many click-throughs you received to your website from your posts or from your profile.

New for 2020- Designate Black-Owned Businesses in Google My Business!

Google recently announced that Black-owned businesses can now add the special attribute below to their Google My Business to designate themselves as a Black-owned business. Visit your GMB dashboard to designate your business!

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Social Channel Marketing Group hopes that this information helped influence you to consider using Google My Business to help promote your business. Please reach out to us for a FREE consultation on how to better use Google My Business, we are more than happy to help!