What Is My Google Business Listing?
Your Google business listing is essential for any business that provides local services such as a plumber, a cafe or a retail store. It’s how people find your business via maps and also within Google maps.
Below is the typical image you will see from a desktop or laptop which shows a Google business listing.
It’s completely free to use. It gives you the opportunity to advertise your business locally by providing your business details, contact phone number, email address, website, business hours, posts and photos.
If you don’t have a Google business listing click the link here to set one up for FREE!
What Are Its Benefits?
By using your Google Business listing correctly you can be seen in front of hundreds, or thousands of prospective clients looking for your services. Whether that’s via their desktop/laptop or through their mobile.
In fact your Google business listing is a form of Local SEO that you can do yourself.
Your business could be at the top of search results for people looking for the services or products you provide, which will give you more traffic to your website, more calls or emails to your business and ultimately more sales = more profit.
How Do I Use It Effectively?
Your business listing needs at minimum these 3 things;
- Business Name
- Phone Number
- Address
Or NAP for short. Name, Address, Phone Number.
These 3 key elements also have to be exactly the same across all citations and your website (citations are business listings on platforms such as Yellow pages, Facebook, Yelp etc).
That last paragraph is incredibly important!!
Stu Clark | Tylark Media Founder
On top of NAP your business listing should contain a website link, reviews, email address, posts and photos of your business. You’ll also be asked about the service area you provide which can be a specific location or it can be an area or radius from your business. As well as location you’ll need to say what services you cover, i.e. if you’re a plumber you might cover plumbing repair, bathroom remodels etc. If you’re a retail store it might be mens clothes, or home appliance.
The more you can add to your Google business listing the greater your chance of ranking higher within its results.
The image above shows a quick search for a plumber. As you can see there are 4 options, the first is a paid ad. We’ll ignore that. The next 3 are the top picks, or the “map pack”.
As you can tell from the “map pack” these business have a lot of positive reviews, they also have been in business for 7+ years which is a bonus! (this instills trust in customers) on top of this they also have a website link, a phone number link and directions to their offices.
All these things are essential for ranking your business well within Google maps.
The more you use your Google business listing correctly the better chance you have of seeing your insights improve and your rankings grow.
What If I Don’t Have The Time?
I understand that everything that I’ve mentioned above can be time consuming. Until you get familiar with the tool and into a routine of using it you can become complacent.
However, if it’s not something you wish to do yourself but want to still utilise we do offer a Local SEO service for $250NZD/month. This includes all posting, photo updates, business listing optimisation, reporting and review management.
If you’re interested in using our services please don’t hesitate to contact us or email stu@tylarkmedia.com
