In this article, I am going to talk about what is google my business, its features and we will see why google my business is important for your local business
What is google my business (GMB)?
It is a free business profile listing service on Google which is provided by Google itself especially for small and local businesses.
For this service, Google will not charge anything from you.
Google my business allows you to list and update your business name, your business photos, service, working hours, and many more things to this profile. You can add your contact details to it. So people who are searching for your product or service can find you on Google. This is a small description of GMB
Why it is so much important for your local business?
1. Booming in the internet industry
Wikipedia Report
According to Wikipedia reports India is the 2nd largest country after China in internet users base. 57.7% of the total population of uses the internet in India
According to some other research, India will have 900 million active internet use by 2025.
2. Market share of Google search engine
95% of internet users use Google as their primary search engine.
More than 50% of people who use Google search for local businesses on google.
85% of people who search for local businesses trust the online reviews of Google my business.
Source Statista.com
3. Website Vs Google my business
Most of the small and local businesses cannot afford a website and if few businesses have websites then they need separate marketing for it to drive traffic to the website. And it requires a huge budget.
Google my business listing is totally free and it does not require separate marketing. Because if someone searching for your business, Google will automatically show your business profile on top before your website (if you are not running google paid ads)
4. SEO vs Local SEO (Google my business)
I will explain this by assuming you have an idea about the SEO (if not then check out this article)
Many big companies use SEO for their business websites to rank top in a google search engine.
Website SEO needs a lot of time to result (minimum around 6 months) and it also needs a lot of budgets.
But as you are a small business/ local business and you do not need to rank your profile globally.
You just want to show your profile to the local audience of your area and this can be easily done by Google my business
For. Eg. I’m a local business owner and I want to set up my profile as a ” digital marketing Ahmednagar ” so basically I have to use this ” digital marketing Ahmednagar ” keyword in my profile.
5. Google My Business for Franchise Businesses
To understand this I will again take one example.
If I’m working as a digital marketer in Ahmednagar but I am also serving an area of Pune. So what I will do I will register 2 google my business profile. One for Ahmednagar (i.e digital marketing in Ahmednagar ) and for another one for Pune (i.e digital marketing in Pune )
You can relate any business with the above example or you can assume you have multiple branches of your business in different cities and you can register GMB (Google My Business) for different cities for local SEO.
6. Inbound Method of Generating Sales
Inbound marketing in which people search for you, you just need to be there where they are searching for you.
GMB generates inbound sales for your business. Even if you are not advertising anything about your business (you just need to set up your profile and need to update it weekly)
The quality of leads that GMB sends to you is much higher than the display advertising/flex/banners advertising. Because people are searching for your product/service. And for that particular search keywords, google shows your profile to them free of cost.
If you are a shop owner, you just need to set up your shop profile on GMB and update some photos, contact details and GMB will send this high-quality free traffic to your business profile
7. what if you don’t set up Google My Business?
Sometimes some people say my business is well settled and I have a loyal customer base. But even if you have a loyal customer base now you will need more customers in the future.
Suppose today you have 100 loyal customers (assume out of that 40 people use GMB) but because you don’t have any presence on Google then those people can’t leave a great review for your business.
In other cases, you have the same 100 loyal customers but now you also have set up GMB, and let’s assume out of that 100 people, 40 people leave great reviews about your business.
By looking at your previous business reviews new people will attract to your business. And it will build trust among your future customer.
8. Strong Call to Action with GMB
While setting up a GMB profile you need to submit details likes phone number, website, local address, E-mail address, etc.
These details give a strong call to action to your audience to connect with you in a single click.
If your audience wants to check your website then he or she can redirect to your website from GMB in a single click and you will get free website traffic.
Features of GMB
1. Complete Business Profile
It offers you to submit and show the below details to your audience
a. Business Name
b. Business Photos
c. Services
d. Contact details
e. Location and Map
f. Website and a lot more
2. Analytics
Every month you will get an analytics report of the month which will help you to see the progress of your business
Analytics Reports
Customer Action from Google My Business
Monthly Profile Views
3. Dashboard to manage GMB
Below are things, you can manage using the GMB dashboard
GMB Dashboard
How to set-up GMB
Just visit this link and submit all your business details and you are good to go with GMB
You need a Gmail account to register on GMB
You can also watch some Youtube videos to set it up
If you want then I can set it for you for a minimum fee.
Just reach out to. me at ayazshaikh332@gmail.com or WhatsApp me @ +91 8999 1818 01
Conclusion
I hope you have learned why Google My Business is so important for your business.
If you have any questions or feedback please let me know in the comment section.
Thank you.