Having a strong online presence is important for any small business in Red Bud, IL. One crucial way to increase your business’ SEO is by optimizing your Google Business Profile. Google Business Profile (GMB) is what Google will use to display your business on local searches. This profile contains contact information and other details. In this blog post we would like to explain why having a fully optimized Google Business Profile will help you boost your business’ SEO.
Claim & Verify Your Business Listing
The first and most obvious step for optimizing your Google Business Profile is claiming and verifying your listing. Make sure that you are signed into your Google account and from there you can either do a search for your business and claim your listing straight from the search or you can find it in on the Google Business Profile page itself. You might have to create a new listing entirely if your business does not already have a listing. Google will then likely ask you to do verification in order to verify the listing you claimed. There are multiple different verification methods Google uses and they may give you one or more options. The easiest way by far is the phone verification method in which they will send an automated call to your business phone which will give you a code to use for verification. They might ask you to do post verification where they will send the code through the mail to your business address. This may not work for every business, however, as many do not have a mailbox set up. The last verification method we want to highlight is video verification, in which you will record a video showing documents, signage, tools, vehicles, and the address and surrounding areas in order to show to Google that your business is legitimate. If you find that you are having issues with verification, Google has a support feature on the Google Business Profile page to submit to.
Fully Optimize Your Profile
One you have your listing claimed and verified, the very next thing you should do is fully optimize and update all information about your business. Make sure that your phone number and address are accurate. You may want to hide your business address if you do not want it to show. You may need to update your business address and phone number. Ensure that your business hours are correct. Add all relevant categories related to your business to help Google match your business with related searches. List the services that your business provides. Also be sure to add the URL to your website to your listing. Also write a good business description and add it to your profile. Never forget to add high quality photos and videos onto your listing to help show off your business.
Gathering Reviews
Start to focus on building up reviews on your Google Business Profile once you have optimized everything. GMB features a link to your profile’s review page, and you can send that link out to customers. You could include it in follow-up emails after services you have provided as a way to encourage your customer to give you feedback. Building up reviews will help your profile rank higher compared to your competition in local searches. We should point out, however, that businesses should avoid trying to get to many reviews at the same time as the platform dose not take kindly to spam reviews and may even refuse to post legitimate reviews if they deem the influx of reviews on your profile as fraudulent.
Stay Engaged & Active
Businesses in Red Bud, IL should aim to be active on their Google Business profiles in order to boost performance and ensure that all information is accurate and up to date. If you know that your business is about to change hours, see to it that your GMB is updated to reflect that as soon as the change takes effect. Add special hours for upcoming holidays and events when needed. You can add updates on the platform which can help drive up engagement by potential customers and improve your ranking. Make sure to respond to reviews as you get them. You can check your performance on the platform with the insights feature. As long as you invest time to check your Google Business Profile and make changes and updates as needed, you will ensure that it will continue to help improve your business’ SEO.
Some business owners in Red Bud, IL may not have enough time to manage their Google Business Profile. Thankfully it is something they do not have to go at alone. Hometown Marketing Group listings for customers on GMB and many other platforms to help businesses improve their SEO. C Contact us today to learn more about our services.
