Are you looking for an effective way to promote your USS Partner Shop as a local company free of charge and online? With Google My Business you can use a popular service of the world’s leading search engine, allowing you to increase your visibility in local online searches. Google My Business differs greatly from other online advertising methods such as paid search engine advertising (SEA), since it’s free of charge and provides consistency. While Google AdWords asks for defined budgeted limits and campaign periods, Google My Business merely creates a profile with static information (e.g. your company’s name). As a result, the marketing effect of a Google My Business registration is permanent, while other online marketing channels have an effect limited to a campaign period.
As a local business, you shouldn’t disregard the importance of online visibility: 18% of all smartphone users will make a purchase in the local shop on the same day they looked up a service in a local search query.
Google My Business is connected to other Google services, such as Google Maps, which turns it into a kind of central control platform for your visibility. Based on your company’s focus, its geographical business sphere, brand name, and other indicators related to Google My Business and other Google services, your business appears within the local search result lists.
Now let’s look at the steps you have to follow in order to set up a Google My Business Account for your USS Partner Shop.
Getting started
Firstly you need to register on www.google.de/mybusiness. [1]
- Enter your company’s address
- If your company already exists on Google My Business, it might have already been created e.g. by an employee of your company. In this case, try to get hold of the access data (Google guides you trough that process). If the company does not yet appear as a suggestion, just fill in the remaining form fields and register it.
- When defining the company name, it might be a good idea to add a brief description of what you do, e. g.: „Print Shop London – ‚Actual Company Name‘“
- You now need to add general information of your local business. This includes the country, address, postal code and city as well as your website’s URL. Please also make sure you select a business category that actually represents the service or production focus you’re offering. In addition to the categories, Google offers subcategories to chose from. These will make your business more visible when users have precise search queries.
After sending your data, you will receive a letter or postcard from Google (within 4 days) with a 6-digit code enclosed. [2]
You will be asked to enter this code on the Google website. By doing so, your verification and registration will be complete. [3]
Optimize your Google My Business profile
In the next step you should work on optimizing your Google My Business profile. The start screen shows a basic overview of your Google My Business profile. [4] This includes any data that you already have entered in your initial registration, as well as optional information that you should add to your account. This page serves as a dashboard: It provides key statistical figures related to search queries, customer reviews, and Google+.
You can also edit information via the “Info” tab. [5] Here you have access to some additional information and features: You can see on which Google services your company has been published and you can close or remove your Google My Business profile.
You might also want to consider using photos to present yourself and your business to potential customers. You can find this option in the “Photos” tab. [6] You can assign uploaded photos to the categories owner photos, interiour and exterior photos, photos at work, team photos and (most importantly!) identity photos. In the identity section you may specify a product image, which appears when you answer to reviews/ratings of your business. [7]
These ratings/reviews can be viewed and managed under the “Reviews” tab. [8] They list experiences customers had with your company and your products. Make sure you actively communicate with users (particularly when your receive negative reviews). Ratings and reviews have a great impact on customers’ decision making, particularly when your service isn’t greatly established yet.
The Insights section provides data that was collected by Google in connection with your My Business entry. For example: How many users were directly looking for your company? How many were just looking for a service in your area? How many users visited your website after they saw your profile or used services such as the call option on your profile?
Since Google is trying to link multiple services to Google My Business, you can also access AdWords Express and Youtube service using the menu at the top right. [9]
To sum it up: Having a Google My Business profile is a “must-have” for your business. Searching for businesses locally is becoming increasingly popular. Hence, being visible amongst these search results is important and may generate a large amount of leads. Keep in mind that this Google service is free of charge for you.
