How does google listings work

Even better, Google will embolden keywords in the content of your profile that it thinks are relevant. But there needs to be information to prioritize and keywords to embolden in your profile in the first place. Just as you or your agency would use a content management system like Wordpress to optimize your website for search engines, Google My Business is used to optimize your profile and expand your reach.

Well, since optimizing for Google is essentially optimizing for searchers, it all comes down to the same three things: targeting, quality of information, and trust. Make sure to incorporate them naturally just as you would with any other SEO strategy. Include keywords in your description, editable through your Google My Business dashboard. Maintain quality of information. The completeness and accuracy of your Business Profile impacts its rank, so make sure to provide the requested information in every section of your Google My Business dashboard.

Especially important here is your contact information, special hours, and attributes. Keep your information updated and accurate as your business evolves. Keep a steady stream of reviews coming in and respond to them. Also, signal to Google that you are active by regularly uploading photos and publishing posts to your Business Profile through Google My Business. Reviews and responses appear on your Business Profile.

Be sure to manage them through your Google My Business dashboard. SEO is important for any business, but particularly for small businesses that can use local targeting to compete against large competitors on the SERP.

Google is making local SEO even easier with its robust Business Profiles, so a Google My Business account is essential for any business trying to maximize visibility in their local market. A free tool that turns my Business Profile into a power marketer for my business?

Where do I sign up? To get a Google My Business account, go to google. Remember, a Google My Business Account does not automatically create a Business Profile —it gives you access to it and the ability to add more to it. Also remember that creating Google My Business account does not give you automatic access to your Business Profile. Once you create and are logged into your Google My Business account, you will then need to locate your separate Business Profile on Google Maps and then select the "Claim this business" or "Own this business?

Make sure you are monitoring your account by setting up email alerts so that anytime a question is asked, you are sent an automatic message. Go to your Google My Business settings to set up notifications.

As we all can attest to, reviews are a crucial factor in determining whether we will trust and try out a new business. Multiple platforms and websites are dedicated to eliciting reviews from customers and publishing them online.

Google is one of the primary players in the review market and Google My Business GMB is where you need to be to read and reply to reviews of your business online. Google has created a set of recommendations for replying to reviews and you can access those here.

You can flag a review to Google that you deem inappropriate and they may or may not remove it. Timeliness is key in responding to reviews.

You can set up an email alert to be triggered whenever someone submits a review via your Google My Business listing. There a lot of creative ways to get more Google My Business reviews.

First, find the link to use in your review requests by going to your GMB dashboard and scrolling down until you see a section called, Get More Reviews. Click there to get a direct link you can share with your customers. You have likely noticed products appearing in a carousel of images at the top of a Google search page. You can create collections as well as individual products. People looking for your company on Google can now directly text you via the GMB app.

With our increasingly speedy world, people want to be able to take action right from the spot on the web where they find info about your business. Currently, more than 60 different booking partners and another 40 coming soon, including major players such as EventBrite and Ticketmaster, are integrated with GMB. Read more about how to integrate your booking tool with GMB. The insights section of Google My Business shows you how people are finding your business online and provides you with analytics about your listing.

There are some really interesting data here so make sure to check it out. You can see exactly what queries people type into Google to arrive at your listing. You can also drill down and see what actions people took on your Google My Business listing: a visit to your website, a request for directions and calls to your business. Once you see the calls and visits coming directly to your business via your Google My Business you will be more motivated to enhance your listing!

Read more about how to do this on this detailed blog. This functionality was released in June of You can use a Google My Business Post to promote your next event, to share information about your latest sale or to cross-promote your most recent blog, just to name a few ideas. There is a seven-day lifespan on GMB posts except for a live event promotion, which will get automatically pulled once your event ends.

Space in a GMB post is limited to just words, so make sure you have a clear call-to-action and a catchy headline and include an eye-catching image to increase your click-through rate.

As of the writing of this blog, Google Posts appear towards the bottom section of the Knowledge Panel, which often appears on the right side of a desktop view. This Google Knowledge Panel also referred to at times as a Business Panel takes up a considerable amount of real estate on a desktop, as you can see in the image below:. That will open up the post creation function. The post copy can be as long as 1, characters but Google My Business recommends staying within the character range.

Remember to write a catchy headline. We shared some great ideas in our blog, 5 Tips for Writing Effective Headlines. Does your company participate in a community service project like Meals on Wheels?

Your Google listing is not a website ; it is a listing on Google that appears when potential customers are searching for your business name or service. It is sort of like a hub that allows customers to quickly find all of your contact info in one place.

And let's face it…the simpler it is for your customers to contact you, the more likely they are to do it. The Ads section always appears at the top of a Google search.

It shows paid ads for the businesses targeting you as a customer. Just under the ads section, is the Local Pack. This is the first section your GMB listing can appear. The Local Pack shows the top 3 ranking local listings. Your marketing aspirations as a business owner and our goal as a digital marketing agency is to have your GMB listing ranking in this section. This is the second place that your GMB listing can appear.

Under the Local Pack, characterized by a wall of text, is the Organic results section. This is where websites compete for ranking placement , not Google listings. This concludes our tour of the Google search page. However, there is one more spot that your GMB listing can appear. It is important for ranking, and for your customers, that your GMB listing is filled out as completely as possible.

Your listing should have:. Lets go into these sections in a little more detail to talk about their individual importance to the overall health and optimization of your GMB.

The GMB will display your business name front and center. It's important that you don't try to "keyword stuff" your business name on your GMB. That's a direct violation of Google's rules and will results in lowered visibility, if not suspension. Keyword Stuffing is the act of putting a bunch of unnecessary words in your business name, that are not legally part of your business name. Looks silly, right? Well, people actually do that. Don't let it be you. Customers have the ability to click on your Google listing to receive instantaneous GPS directions to your store.

The service area listed tells Google how far away from your location you are willing to travel. Just like with your address, customers have the opportunity to click to call you directly from your GMB listing.

If your phone number is incorrect, I can almost guarantee that you will lose that lead. Again, customers will have the ability to click to view your website.