Marketing strategies continue to evolve as we push into newer technologies and tendencies from searchers. While SEO is a process to embark on a journey for, requiring month to month efforts over time to create trust and comfortability with crawlers and users alike, Google My Business continues to present itself as a quick solution for being found on the web. In this blog, we will discuss the process of creating, verifying, then optimizing your Google My Business profile to make sure it is working for you and your potential customers.
SETTING UP YOUR GMB PROFILE
The first step with getting listed on the Google My Business system is to submit your business information. While there is a large number of potential fields to fill out, the most important for performance are the following pieces:
- Name
- Address
- Phone Number
- Business Category
This allows Google to understand where it should rank you and gives the users interacting with the system updated and verifiable information to get in contact with you. You are also able to submit your business URL, photos, short names, description, and a few other fields. Ensuring your name, address, and phone number are precisely correct will allow you to receive your verification postcard or phone call, depending on how you have listed your business.
VERIFYING YOUR GMB PROFILE
Profile verification is another chance for Google to make sure it is providing its users with fresh, relevant, and accurate information. Once you set up your profile you will have a chance to verify the listing and gain full abilities to build out the profile. Depending on how your business is set up, you may be able to request a phone call to the location. If a phone call is unavailable you will have to wait about 5 business days to receive a postcard in the mail with a verification code. This verification code will be a hexadecimal code with 5-6 letters and numbers and the Google profile verification system makes the entire process smooth. Once your profile is verified you have full access to add users and build the profile out further.
ONGOING EFFORTS WITH YOUR PROFILE
Once you have submitted your business information and verified your profile there is still work to be done. The GMB platform allows you to share posts from your website, respond to reviews, update information, and much more. With something like a global pandemic taking place (ugh), you may have changed up hours or want to give some information related to your community response. Google makes all of these tactics seamless and easy for anyone. Once you have started generating leads through your profile and look to hire an SEO expert, you can also add new users and change permissions related to the campaign. You can also add new photos, change your location, and develop posts within the GMB system itself.
While we have run through the process pretty quickly here, there is not much more to it. If you would like more information about the ways in which we make SEO and your Google My Business profile work together, give us a call today.
