Google My Business

Published on 29 Jul 2014 at 7:55 pm.
Filed under Google,Informative,Marketing,Search Engine Optimization,Social Media.

Google My Business is a simple new way to help you connect with customers in search, maps, and Google+.

The new Google My Business logo.

Google My Business: Being Found in Google

One of the most critical aspects of Search Engine Optimization is being found. This is even more important for a small business when it comes to local SEO. Supplying Google My Business with your exact information is key. Essentially they are looking for:

• Your business name in the mind of your customers. Focus on what someone might use to search. They don’t care about your business’ legal name.
• The exact address of your business. This helps Google display your business in a map. You may also set a radius to target your typical customers.
• A premium-quality 360° interactive virtual tour.
• Contact information such as your website, phone number, and email. Google will display the website and phone number to customers in Google Maps, Google+, and the knowledge graph area of Google Search. With this customers can call your business directly from Google Search. This even applies to making calls on a desktop. I haven’t yet seen the email information displayed anywhere.
• Your hours of operation.
• Categories that customers might expect to find your business.
• Photos of your business to display in Google Search and Google Maps.
• A brief intro to your business.

Google My Business: Connecting with Customers

With Google My Business Google encourages you to connect with your customers through Google+. They suggest you converse with your customers by posting stories and conducting Hangouts. They hope that you include the Follow and +1 Buttons on your website to grow your brand.

In this dashboard Google has simplified the means of viewing your ratings and reviews. You can easily respond to these reviews as the business owner. By responding you can polish over negative reviews.

Google My Business: Beyond the Marketing

What Google’s marketing doesn’t tell you is that it’s really a dashboard to simplify the existing Google services. It does more than just what the marketing pages suggest. It even pulls in data from your YouTube channel, Google Analytics, and Google AdWords Express. This makes it a quick and easy tool to see how your business is doing.

You can even edit and view all everything for Google My Business directly from the mobile app. The mobile app is available for Android and iOS. I wouldn’t expect a Windows Phone version in the near-future.

Thank you and keep building your brand.

This post was originally published as Google My Business for Brand Builder Websites.