Google My Business complements the website you already have and gives your business a public identity and presence on Google. Whether you’re a home-based or a service-area business, you can list your details to show up on Google with or without an address, and it doesn’t matter if your business has multiple locations because you can add them all.
Note: if you’ve previously used Google Places for Business or Google+ Pages Dashboard to manage business information, your account has actually been automatically upgraded to Google My Business.
How to use it
Let’s go over how you can use this tool for your business. First, head on over to https://www.google.com/business/ to get started. The first thing you’ll need to do is enter in the information about your business, such as business name, location, phone number and website. Make sure this information is correct! I cannot stress this enough. Double check to make sure you entered in the right thing, otherwise this tool is worthless and is harmful to the reputation of your business. Imagine someone finds you online, only to find out the address you listed is wrong. Not good my friends, not good. Get it right the first time.
Usually, Google will mail a verification code to the address you listed to make sure it is an active address, or they will call to verify your information, and voila! Your business is now part of the Google community and you have access to the tool’s many features.
Google My Business comes with a business dashboard, the place where all the managing happens. If you need to update any information, such as changes to your business hours, you can do this in the dashboard and it automatically updates on Google search and Google maps. You can also do all of this on-the-go if you need to, as you can access it from mobile devices.
This tool provides another way to connect with your customers or clients through its reviews feature. As a customer leaves a review, you can immediately view it and respond with the comments feature. This way you are the first to know when people talk about your business, and you can track your ratings over time.
It also comes with an ‘insights’ feature which provides you with some analytics. With this information, you can see how many clicks on your business’s phone number and driving direction requests there are, and see how many website visits you receive. Track this on the dashboard over time and see what might or might not be working.
What are the benefits?
For being a free tool, Google My Business provides many practical benefits. The reviews and insights features help you learn about your customers and how they interact with your business. Find out how they found you and where they came from to improve your marketing campaign. The biggest benefit of all, perhaps, is that with Google My Business you are there when people search for you on Google. If you’re not there, you miss out on potential business.
“Find your people with Google My Business”
“Find your people with Google My Business” is one of Google’s mantras for this tool. Your people are out there, and by ‘your people’ I mean the people who could really use your business. And guess what? They’re online, searching for your services. Put your business front and center with Google My Business and help them find you today!
Main Promo Video for the “Find your people with Google My Business” Campaign: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCzri4tXuF0
