If you are looking for greater visibility of your brand, I recommend a free and easy-to-use platform: Google My Business.
But what does this entail? The Google platform is free and allows businesses that have a physical location to be displayed in both searches and Maps.
Did you know that most businesses have an account on this platform? In fact, why wouldn’t they? After creating the profile, you will only benefit from advantages: greater visibility among potential customers, displaying your exact business location, opening hours, product images, prices or anything else useful.
Greater visibility
Let’s take the following situation. Your clients are looking for a web development agency, right in the city where you operate. So they will write “web development agency London”. If your business has a GMB account, it will be listed at the top of the search results, above paid and organic listings.
Customer reviews
Another benefit of GMB is the reviews. The platform allows users to provide testimonials about products and services, so that they also help other consumers. Even though the situation can be seen as a double-edged sword, if the services you offer are good, the reviews can be a strong point, making you come out ahead.
If you receive positive reviews, don’t forget to show your gratitude to the customers with a simple “thank you”. Don’t forget to focus on this aspect as well: the reviews. Even if they seem trivial, don’t forget one aspect: you are selling products/services to people, not to robots. People who are interested in the opinion of others, who are interested and do research before the final conversion.
But what can you do when you get negative reviews? Respond in a rational way, take responsibility if problems are presented and try to control the situation in such a way that the brand image is not affected.
If you don’t know your audience very well, do some case studies, analyze, observe and then implement the conclusions in practice. Emphasize the relevant aspects of your business, those that can attract customers and that make you stand out from the competition.
Give your business an image
Another aspect that you can enjoy in GMB are the images. The platform allows adding photos relevant to the business. So don’t miss this opportunity! You can even opt for hiring an experienced photographer to give the business a professional image. Don’t forget the panoramic or even 360° images.
However, do not forget the most important aspect: the relationship with customers, whether it is face to face or virtual. The platform allows the integration of the Hangout function, a chat and video application that facilitates direct communication with customers. I recommend you to use this functionality as well.
SEO friendly
Local results appear for people looking for businesses and places near their location. These are displayed in several sections of Maps and Search. For example, you can see local results if you search for “Indian restaurant” on your mobile. Google will try to show you the type of nearby restaurant you want to visit.
Local results are based on relevance, distance and prominence. These factors are combined to find the best match for your search. For example, Google’s algorithms might decide that a business that’s further away from your location is more likely to have what you’re looking for than a business that’s closer, and therefore places it higher in the search results.
Conclusion
Stop thinking and create your account on Google My Business. You have nothing to lose, only to gain. Through it you can get ahead of the competition, you can keep your online reputation under control and most importantly, you can connect with potential customers. All this in an easy to use and free way.
