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What is Google My Business
So what exactly is GMB? This is a service in which a business owner can register his company in order to get additional points of contact with the target audience, as well as provide maximum useful information. The data you have posted is presented in a company card format. It can be seen using the Google Maps service. Also, additional data about the company appears in the general search results forbrand inquiries…
All the functionality of the service is free. In the early stages of promotion, a company card in Google My Business can become one of the first sources of customers on the Web, acting as a small corporate website.
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In the event that you already have your own Internet resource, the GMB card will be a useful tool for attracting interested users to the site.
What opportunities does the service open for a business owner?
Drive traffic to your site from Google Maps . If during registration you indicate the URL of the company’s website, then all visitors to the card will be able to see the link to it and follow it to get more useful information.
Increase the number of conversions from general search . After your registration with GMB, in the search results you can get an extended snippet of your company when searching for a service with reference to a region or by brand queries.
Make it easier for clients to find a company . You are much easier to find as the company is visible inGoogle maps…
Inform potential customers . In Google My Business, you can specify opening hours, share news, pictures, videos and other useful data for clients.
Collect data about user activity . In GMB, you have the ability to view statistics on the activity of users who have visited your company’s card (dynamics of visits, actions, etc.).
We have already seen more than once that the card of the company and its branches in Google Maps can become one of the main sources of traffic and requests for the site. You can read about one of the examples in ourcase on the promotion of a network of pawnshops…
Features of Google My Business
To get all the benefits described, simply registering a company is not enough. In order for users to see your company more often, it is also necessary to start promoting the card and updating the data.
Every card in GMB has a rating that affects its visibility. It determines where your company will be visible among the search results on Google Maps. The rating is influenced by many factors:
user activity: ratings, fixes, reviews;
completeness of posted information;
reliability and relevance of data;
your GMB activity.
Also, the filling of the card depends on how many users decide to call, get directions, go to the company’s website or order your services.
An important feature of the service is that you do not have a complete monopoly on changing business information. Map users can propose edits, and if there are enough similar edits, service algorithms will accept them. Thus, Google Maps users can independently control the accuracy of the information.
This is also worth keeping in mind when filling out your business details. It is best not to give users unnecessary reasons to make changes, as this can negatively affect not only the visibility of the card, but also customer confidence.
Also, you do not have the opportunity to independently moderate reviews and ratings on cards. Of course, potential customers trust such reviews much more. But there is also a negative side – it is much more difficult to fight even with unfounded negativity.
If the negative review is not true and this can be confirmed, contact the service support, it will be removed if your arguments are convincing. If a real dissatisfied client left him, it is best to answer and try to reasonably convince the client, help in solving his problem, or explain why his dissatisfaction is unreasonable.
How to register a company with Google My Business
It’s easy to do, but it can take about a week to confirm that you own the business. You should know about this in advance. So, to add a company to the service, you have to follow a few simple steps.
Account registration
First, select the Google account to which the company card will be linked and go to it. To create a company account in Google My Business, go tohere and click “start”.
If someone has already pointed out your business location in Google Maps, find it using search. If not, click “add company”. After that, you have to enter or update the following information:
the name of the company and the industry in which you work;
the physical address that customers can visit;
the territory within which you provide your own services;
your contact phone number and website address.
We also recommend subscribing to sending news of the service, from which you can learn a lot of useful information about updates. Be especially careful about the section where you indicate the field of activity. Choose the most accurate option from all presented. If you enter it incorrectly, most target users will not be able to find you in the service search.
Verification of company data
The next step is to confirm that you are the owner of the registered business. If you have a company website and you have already confirmed that you own it inGoogle Search Consolethen you can use GMB’s instant confirmation.
If not, you can do this in the following ways:
by regular mail;
by phone;
by email.
The simplest is to send a paper letter with a verification code to the physical address specified in the service.
Before requesting a letter, carefully check all the filled in data. The address and type of activity are especially important. If everything is correct, you can make a request. You will have to wait 5-10 days. After that, you will receive an envelope with a card containing a five-digit confirmation code. Enter it in the “Check” item to verify your account.
Important: Letter delivery time is up to 10 days. Before they expire, it’s best not to re-request the code. Because of this, you can lose several times more time.
Registration of branches
If your business has several branches in different cities, we recommend that you specify the address of each of them. To do this, you do not have to re-register and go through the confirmation procedure every time. After verifying your account, all branch cards are automatically confirmed.
If you have more than 10 physical representative offices, the most convenient format for registering them is bulk loading of branches. To do this, go to your GMB account. Select “Add” in the lower right corner of the screen.
After that click on the item “Import from file”. Next, you have to create a table with data about branches. The easiest way to do this is to download and fill out the proposed template.
Basic information about branches:
Branch code . You assign it yourself. Most often, the abbreviated name of the company and the serial number are used as the code.
Address . If branches with this address have already been added to the map, the service will send a notification “matches found”.
Contact details . Phone number and website address.
After that, it is better to fill in the card of each branch separately. You can delegate these tasks to the employees working in them. To do this, you need to provide access to the users who will be doing this.
Access for other users
To provide access, go to the personal account of the service and click on the “Users” button. Enter the email address of the user for whom you want to extend access, and specify the level of authority. There are three levels of access to the board of directors with a company card:
owner;
administrator;
manager.
The owner completely controls information about the company, and can also delegate access to other users. The administrator manages only company data. The manager does not have the right to edit the information, but can publish photos, as well as post responses to reviews as a representative of the company.
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Card filling
It is very important to make the card as informative as possible. This affects not only the interest of users when viewing it, but also its position in the search results on maps.
It is necessary to additionally indicate:
working time (days, hours);
place a company logo;
add corporate photos and videos to the card;
additional attributes (availability of Free WiFi, parking spaces, etc.).
This data should be placed for each branch. Also in Google My Business it is possible to inform users about various events and promotions. It also has a positive effect on the company’s rating.
Reviews and ratings in Google My Business
Any Card user can leave reviews and ratings. But not all of them affect the ranking of your company in the same way. The service has a gradation of users, which depends on their activity. For example, a rating left by an unauthorized user will have little impact on your rating, but if it is rated by a local expert, it can significantly increase or decrease your rating.
As we said before, it’s best not to ignore user reviews. Especially when it comes to the negative. By responding to such comments, you demonstrate that you care if your customers are happy. Even if you fail to convince the author of the negative, you can gain the trust of the rest of the readers of the comments.
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