Business listings have evolved and changed with the times. Gone is the old-school physical copy of the Yellow Pages business directory from decades past. Now, if you need to find a business or service, you can simply pull up an app such as Google Maps and expect to be directed to local enterprises that match your query. Because of the extent to which information has been digitized, listing your business on Google My Business is essential to its visibility. Here are several tips to make your Google business listing stand out.
Use Professional Photos
One of the most important ways to advertise your business is through the use of images and graphics. High-quality photos that represent your brand are essential tools of advertising. Listings with photos get 42% more requests for driving directions and 35% more click-throughs to the website than businesses that don’t.
There are several types of photos to consider posting. Obviously, you could use your business logo or your brand’s recognizable image. You might select a photo of the actual product or an image representative of your service. Exterior and interior photos of your company’s physical location are helpful, and photos of your staff and their work environment build customer rapport. Whatever you choose should be able to visually represent your business and your service or product at a glance.
Collect and Display Reviews
Reviews are essential to the future of any business. By reading about the experiences of your previous customers, people can form expectations and biased judgments about your enterprise without even setting foot into your establishment. That’s why obtaining good reviews on your Google My Business listing or any other review site is crucial to establishing a good first impression with a potential customer.
Unfortunately, obtaining positive reviews can be difficult. Customers usually only leave reviews when they are upset because they’ve had a negative experience. However, you can take some steps to solicit reviews. One of the most beneficial ways is to always ask for feedback during your follow-up process and include a link to the feedback form. This not only ensures that you’ll have the framework for a potential follow-up policy, but it also allows you to obtain useful feedback and reinforce positive relationships with your customers. Having Google reviews and testimonials is extremely beneficial to your general exposure, and it confirms your placement in Google’s search results and Google Maps.
Populate Your Business Profile
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is not claiming, verifying, and populating their Google business profile. Your business will not show up on the results in Google Maps if your account is unverified, so make sure you verify your business after setting up the account. If your business is already in their database but it’s unclaimed, you have the ability to claim it as yours and edit the listing.
In addition, you’ll want to populate your business listing with as much information as possible so that potential customers have the resources available to contact you. Google My Business allows you to fill out an entire profile with photos, description, hours of operation, address, phone number, email, website, and social media information. You can also add specific keywords to your profile to increase visibility.
Making your Google My Business listing stand out from those of competing businesses is important. Our method of searching for local businesses has evolved. A vital but commonly overlooked method of gaining customers’ attention is to keep your business profile updated on one of the most frequently used business and map services in the world today.
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