Your Google Business Profile

An essential, and free, tool for all small businesses

Somehow, it’s so easy to ignore, or minimize, your business use of the tool that has, over recent years, been called “Google Local” and “Google My Business” and is now “Google Business Profile”.

This is the tool, offered completely free by Google, that means that when people search for a service, like “tutors near me” or “photographers near me”, they see a result that looks like this:

If you are establishing a small business that provides services, you should take your Google Business Profile very seriously.

There are many benefits

1. The first impression really counts

A prospective client will notice if your Google Business profile is lackluster, or has missing information. Google allows you to declare all of the following, and the more detail you provide, the more credibility your business will gain:

• Physical Address

• Your logo

• Description of your business (up to 750 characters)

• Business Hours

• Photo

• Accept messages

• Link to website (IMPORTANT if you have a website

• Social Media links

• Accessibility options for your premises

• Languages spoken

Google will scan your website (if you have one) and learn about your strengths.

2. Keep your customers updated

My closely managing your Google Business Profile, you have the option to post updates for Google to showcase. Furthermore, you’re not restricted to posts - you can also ask Google to highlight offers and events, right there on the search results page.

If you use these updates cleverly, then you can educate your prospective customers about your business activities before they even visit your website.

3. Reviews and Testimonials are critically important

According to online research, 88% of people who read an online review say that they are influenced by it. There’s no denying that it takes real hard work to build up a good set of reviews, it should be an important part of your business.

None of us wants to be the business on the list with the worst star rating.

4. Showcase your services

When you manage your Google Business Profile, you can add an endless list of services (and products), both through a guided process and also using a ‘custom service’ tool. I think it’s fair to assume that Google will drive traffic to your site according to the services you list - therefore, please make sure you don’t skimp on your listed services.

5. Benefit from business feedback

Google will give you truly important feedback, once you’ve completed the setup of your business profile. You will learn about the keywords that visitors were using to find your site, plus reports on reviews, messages and visits.

Remember, this is all completely free (although Google will work hard to encourage you to place advertisements during the setup).

It is, frankly, negligent to overlook this opportunity to tell Google all about your business and stand out amongst your competition.