Google My Business Optimization: Geolocate your business on Maps
Have you realized that you don’t have a presence on Google Maps and need some tips to remedy this problem and attract potential customers in your area?
In this article, we will explain why it is important to appear on Google Maps and how you can present yourself in a clear and detailed way to interact with your audience. This whole process will be useful for them to find you online more easily and to attract more potential customers.
Why appear on Google Maps?
Sometimes we prefer to focus all our efforts on distant users, voluntarily or involuntarily omitting those who are closer to us.
Let’s start from the beginning: what is local SEO? First of all, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and represents a process to gain visibility within search engines. As a result, local SEO refers to the process of optimizing a site to be displayed on Google and on the search engine results page when a user wants to receive information locally.
If you have chosen not to engage in this activity, you will have officially given a client in dire need of your skills to a competitor. Perhaps further away and perhaps less experienced. Did you understand why local SEO is important?
If done carefully, the local SEO process can lead to an exponential increase in sales. Keep in mind, in fact, that 30% of Google searches refer to local queries. This means that there are many who rely on search engines to track activity in the area where they are located.
In addition, it is important to keep in mind that most of those who perform this type of research feel an immediate need: those who search for “ice cream (location)” on Google, usually do so because they want ice cream at that exact moment. Is there anything more beautiful than being contacted by a potential customer who wants to become a customer as soon as possible?
Finally, the knowledge panel that seems to be looking for a specific activity allows you to attract more visitors to your site, as well as make your business phone ring more often. For this reason, the information entered must be accurate and detailed to allow you to reach them with the most varied means.
In short, imagine Google Maps as the old yellow pages, where in search of a specific activity opened a world: the same thing happens through local SEO. The only difference is that you, through a series of specific actions, make sure that Google ranks you higher than your competitors.
How to enter your business in Google Maps with Google My Business?
In the premise we explained why you might need a local SEO activity to increase your visibility, both online and in “real” life (if we want to define it that way). Now let’s get down to brass tacks: what is the first step to getting listed on Google Maps? It is to create an account on Google My Business, the platform par excellence that Google makes available to you for free to make your business even more visible.
Google My Business (or former Google Places, if you stayed a while back). It targets both you and your potential customers. In particular, with regard to your business, it allows you to achieve greater visibility, especially locally.
As far as your potential customers are concerned, Google gives them the opportunity to find your business with a single click, which should obviously respond to the need they have expressed. Keep in mind that Google My Business brings together Google Search, Google Maps, Google+, Insights and Google Analytics: in short, thanks to this platform you can easily monitor how your business is performing online in all aspects.
To open a Google My Business account, simply log in to the dedicated page and click on “Try now”. At this point, as usual for any other account, you will have to fill in the requested data.
The only real peculiarity of this Google platform during the creation of the profile is the fact that you will receive a postcard with a specific code directly at the address of the address entered.
This code will be placed on the platform to ensure that the search engine verifies that you are the real owner of the company. Sometimes, in particular situations, verification of the code can also be done by phone call or email.
We have seen how Google My Business can become a fundamental tool to reach new potential local customers, who in most cases have an immediate need and increase sales. The actions to be taken after creating a new account concern the detailed insertion of information, which must be consistent with the keywords for which you want to locate the site and with the keywords to which the inbound links refer. Even images and videos, as well as the sharing of posts represent useful means of interacting with the public that comes into contact with the knowledge panel of your business.
Finally, we should not forget a space dedicated to reviews and, why not, an instant messaging service via SMS. All these methods allow you to effectively develop a local SEO process, which brings more visibility not only to your site, but also to the actual company, and to create an aura of professionalism and trust around it. As a result, you will get a large number of users who will fill out the contact form to make a purchase process and the phone will start ringing more often.