Google My Business: The best partner for your local SEO.

Google My Business is a free service offered by Google to enable companies with a “physical” business activity to improve their referencing, their notoriety and their reputation.

Google My Business (or GMB) is a social media that is much more than an online directory, this service has quickly become an essential tool to optimize the local SEO of a company in its catchment area.

In this article, we will present the advantages of this service and give you some tips on how to use it effectively.

With GMB, Google clearly shows its willingness to highlight in its results the sites of local businesses with the best “authority” in their field of activity. Its objective is to offer the best possible answers to Internet users who want Google to provide them with local results, as the following statistic shows:

30% of searches are local requests and 85% of mobile users carry out this type of search (Source: AntheDesign).

It reinforces the visibility and the SEO at the local level.

It helps to establish links with the clientele.

While opinions and comments are an important part of the customer purchasing process, they also provide an opportunity to interact with customers. Don’t be afraid of negative feedback: if well managed, it can also show that you care about the quality of your services and products. Responding to reviews, good or bad, is a good way to retain existing customers and acquire new ones.

It reassures and gives a positive image.

It stimulates business.

GMB’s services allow you to appear in two places in Google results and in Google map.

To open your GMB account, go to https://google.com/intl/en/business/.

Then simply sign in with your Gmail account (or create one if you don’t already have one) to edit your establishments listing, which Google may already have pre-filled.

There’s no need to explain here in detail how to edit and update your information, as the interface is intuitive and easy to use. In addition, you can use the online support https://support.google.com/business to optimize your listing and answer the most frequently asked questions.

Your GMB account will also give you access to a dashboard that compiles information collected on Internet users: number of visits, location of people who have consulted your file, queries used to find you, contacts generated, etc., which will be useful for you to better understand their behavior and expectations.

A (free) GMB application is also at your disposal to allow you to easily update and edit your information from your phone.

Keep in mind that prospects ask for information, often in view of a purchase, they will quickly turn back if they are faced with a half-empty or abandoned form.

Be relevant and attractive.

Google My Business being the most powerful tool to boost your local SEO we advise you to spend the time necessary to choose relevant photos and write an engaging description of your establishment and the products or services you offer.

The choice of the business is a very important SEO criterion because it is the one that allows your listing to be placed in the right place in Google’s results. Be relevant in the choice of this category, prefer “women’s shoe shop” to “boutique” and don’t hesitate to observe what your competitors and the professionals who appear in the local pack are doing.

Include a keyword or a group of keywords in your company name: XXX Hairdressing Salon, YYYY Law Firm, ZZZ Car Garage, even if they are not part of your company name.

Make sure that the NAP (Name, Address, Phone) indicated in your listing is the one of your establishment and that other sites such as local directories and social networks all have the same NAP.

Make it live!

Update your information and photos as often as possible. Indicate new schedules, promotions or a special event are attentions that your customers will always appreciate.

New products or services, a new collection, promotions or private sales; don’t hesitate to make a Google Post that will improve your visibility in the search engine on the one hand and on the other hand give fresh and direct information to your customers. This publication will only be visible for 7 days, so you will have to edit it regularly to maintain the attractiveness of your listing.

You can also enrich your content by offering a 360° virtual tour of your establishment.

Use the Call to action: “Buy”, “Find out more” or “Register”. to facilitate interactions with Internet users.

Microsoft offers a service equivalent to GMB on its search engine: Bing Places for Business. This service is also free of charge and even has a function to import data directly from GMB.

We strongly encourage you to use your Google My Business listing and exploit it in its entirety. The benefit in terms of visibility that you will get from it will quickly make you forget the time you have to spend to update it and make it attractive.

But don’t forget that this service, even if it is the most effective in terms of local SEO, is part of a global approach. You will always need to ensure that your site performs well and make good use of other local SEO resources such as directories or social networks.

All of these tasks can quickly become time-consuming, and if you don’t have the right working methodology, you risk creating inconsistencies between the information you disseminate on these different channels. These inconsistencies can be confusing for users and can lead to your GMB listing being downgraded by Google. So in order to avoid these risks and to devote yourself fully to your business, don’t hesitate to entrust the administration of your GMB listing and your local SEO to experts.