SEO is expensive, competitive and hard. But, there are many free tools you can use to optimize your search engine rankings.
Google my business is a free tool offered by Google for business owners to manage how their business information is listed in search engines. By listing your website here, you can easily manage your location on Google Maps, the knowledge graph as well as online reviews. If you are a local business owner, you will surely want to set up your business location on Google My Business so people can find you when they look in Google Maps.
For local businesses, it is a must assure that Google My Business listing is optimized. You can opt for Local SEO solutions to get help for how to optimize Google My Business listings.
8 Ways: How To Optimize Google My Business Listing?
Set up your Google Business Listing
The first step is to set up your Google My Business listing. Go to Google’s My Business page and click “start now†in the upper left corner. Fill in every relevant detail that Google offers. Make sure that all the information is accurate and complete as possible.
Choose a relevant specific category
The category you choose will help Google decide which searched your local listings belongs in. You need to choose from the list of available categories, you can’t create your own. If there is not a specific category that describes what your business is, settle on more general once that describes it more accurately.
Load quality, high-resolution images
Images related to your business help your listing to stand out and give potential customers a glimpse of your business what it is about. Make sure you use high-quality images only that make your business look good and show off your actual products.
Make sure your information matches
One thing Google’s algorithm looks at to verify the legitimacy of a listing is consistency in how it’s listed across different websites. While that seems simple enough-your address is the same each time you enter it somewhere-it’s easy for little differences to slip in.
Pick a standard way to write out your address, a consistent phone number to use and make sure all your listings match both each other and the information you provided on your website. And try to make your website listed in as many relevant directories as possible.
Use a local number
In addition to keeping your phone number consistent between your different listings, it’s also important to use a phone number with local area code. That’s one extra signal to show Google that you are local. Make sure the number you use for listing is also available on your website’s home page or whatever landing page you link to from your Google listing.
Avoid penalty inducing offenses
Any work you do to optimize your website or local listing will be zero if you incur a penalty. Google suspends business listings for a variety of reasons. Getting suspended is stressful, confusing and bad for businesses, so its best to do anything that puts you on risk.
Encourage reviews
You’ll notice that the local businesses listed on the map usually have star ratings next to their business names. Google wants to provide its users with the most useful information, and users want to find nearby businesses with the best ratings. In both cases, it is beneficial for your business to have a high star rating.
As your happy customers to put a review on Google. A gentle reminder of it means a lot for your business and can make loyal customers that much more likely to take the time and say a few kind words about you.
Make sure your website and content is optimized
All the usual SEO techniques that help to increase the authority of your website in the eyes of Google matter here too. So don’t focus on optimizing your local listing only optimize your website as well.
A strong website that is optimized for both customers and search engines will be that much more likely to make it into the list of the top three in a local Google search.
Local SEO solutions may take some time to work, but the payoff can be big. You want to be easy to find when someone in your city is looking for your business and Google is the best way to get in front of your customers. Don’t let the opportunity go just because you have not listed on your website on Google Listing.
