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For every local business, having a Google My Business (GMB) listing is really important. If you don’t have a listing or not updating for such a long time, you can loose the potential customers. It’s been said that a Google My Business listing is the new home page of your website.
Before we get to what the benefits of Google My Business are, we need to explain what it is.
What Is Google My Business
For a quick recap for those who aren’t familiar with this, Google My Business is a free listing on Google to help promote local businesses online. It’s a tool that enables business owners to manage how they appear online across Google and make their business stand out.
Why You Must Use Google My Business for Local Marketing?
1. It increases your visibility on the web
One of the biggest benefits of creating a Google My Business listing is that it improves your business’s visibility on the web. When you search for a product or service on Google, the first three listings are usually Google Adwords advertisement. Then the others are followed by a map with the Local 3-pack, then the organic results appear.
2. It helps you share information with your potential customers
GMB allows you to share information about your business, including your address, contact information, and working hours. It also allows you to share news, updates, announcements, offers, and more. These posts show up on Google Search and Maps. It is enabling you to keep in touch with potential customers and keep them updated.
3. Boosts your appeal among potential customers with reviews
Reviews are an influential factor when customers are making a purchasing decision. Nearly 90% of customers read online reviews to evaluate the quality of a local business, and most customers always choose the product with the highest reviews. Google My Business lets customers review your business and leave feedback. This not only boosts your appeal to potential customers, but you also get honest evaluations about the things you’re doing right and the ones you need to improve.
4. Increase traffic and sales
While in business you cannot completely avoid the ups and downs, having a Google My Business listing can help you increase your traffic and sales. According to Google, by having a Google My Business listing, businesses are 70% more likely to attract local visits from browsing users. The multiple verification steps that every business must complete before appearing in local searches create trust among customers, and hence, you’re likely to see a significant increase in sales. Having appeared in local searches, your website needs to capitalize on the opportunity by loading quickly. If your site currently takes too long, take steps to reduce the time that users spend waiting for pages to load
5. Free Google Advertising
There are several ways to promote your business and get it on the first page of Google. One way is to run a Google Ads campaign, but you need to have a budget. The other way is to improve your SEO, but this takes time to build your authority and ranking. A GMB listing, however, offers a faster and cheaper way to get targeted exposure on the biggest search engine. Creating, claiming, and verifying your listing does not cost you anything and you take less time to optimize your profile.
It’s crucial to keep your Google My Business updated in order for the listing to be useful to customers. Outdated listings are simply misinformation that can confuse and frustrate people. It’s also important to respond to and interact with reviews and customer posts on your listing. It shows that your company is active and that it cares about what its community members have to say—even the negative reviews.
Hiring a local SEO agency is a crucial step to ensure your Google My Business listing remains updated and accurate for your customers. Pixel Solutionz offers Search Engine Optimization packages designed for local businesses. We are committed to providing excellent local search management and ensuring customer satisfaction. We can help you reach your local community by creating a plan specific to your business. We’ll help you claim your Google My Business listing and optimize it. Google My Business is by far the most important online directory for local businesses. Contact Logical Position today to discover what an active and optimized Google My Business listing can do for your customers and company.
