Hello! Welcome to my blog (or back again so soon?!) There are lots of articles you can read on this subject, I have condensed it down to all the good stuff right here.
What is Google Business Profile?
Google Business Profile is a free tool designed for business owners who want to manage their business listing and control exactly how it appears on Google.
Why would I want it for my small business?
You want Google to like you and help you.
Google processes more than 8.5 billion searches a day! (Internet Live Stats, 2022)
Google processes over 99,000 searches every single second (Internet Live Stats, 2022)
This will help your business to be found in Google searches and possibly going forward in voice search (Alexa, Siri etc).
Whilst you might think everyone knows how to find you, after all you gave out 1000 business cards and added the entire world on LinkedIn, they still might want to do a little detective work.
The ‘for’ argument:
First point
It’s the first place someone might find you and you want them to click to your website/find directions/call your phone number or whatever it is that brings them closer to doing business with you. You’ve apparently got 5-20 touchpoints to negotiate with these days – so let’s make it past the first one.
Correct information
You can update it anytime. Opening hours, contact details, closed for Christmas, new service etc. Keep the info up to date and accurate, keep your clients happy, you might find your business already listed with missing info.
Claim your business
As I just mentioned, you might already see your business listed on there, make sure to claim it (so no one else can).
It puts you on the map
Whether you are local (find my nearest) or you cover a specific geographical area. Again, it lets people know where you all stand without using anyone’s precious time.
Reviews
You can send your current clients/previous clients a direct link to send you a review. Adds to your credibility and helps potential customers make the decision to get in touch. Why not add the link to your email signature or make it part of your process to send the link to a client at the end of a project? Google will email you when someone leaves a review, this means you can post a timely and nice response.
Services
Add what you do. Great for SEO (those internet searchers).
Post content
Much like other social channels you can create posts, a Covid update, add video, photos, news to share. This allows potentials to take a look at your brand (do your values align?) and nudges them in the right direction – to go to your call to action. You can link posts to any URL – your homepage, blog, shop, social page.
Additionally, using the Insights tab you can also see stats on how many people click, view and how they find you. This will start to look different if you ever go down the road of using Google’s Pay Per Click advertising (PPC).
How do you set up Google Business Profile?
This is the point at which I will share a link, as these things often change and the nice people at Google have an easy-to-follow step-by-step guide. If you’ve tried it before, don’t be put off, it’s much easier than it was pre-2022. Don’t forget if you operate more than one business you can add them both separately.
I would say the bare minimum is to get your Google Profile set up, shipshape and then the next steps for investing your time would be to post regular updates, easy to do but not typically connected to any of the usual social media schedulers so it is a manual exercise.
Get cracking – this is a great Friday job!!
Take a look at the free resources available for download that I know will help you move forward in marketing your products or services.