How to keep your Google My Business (GMB) listing healthy?

Chances that your business has a listing on Google My Business (GMB), A.K.A Google Maps, are very high.

In fact, you might not even realize you have one, as Google tends to buy big data from third-party sources and indexes all the local attractions, interests & all kinds of businesses in its local search directories.

However, with the rising aggressive competition in the internet world to win the attention of hundreds of millions of daily internet users, it’s not enough to just have that listing there.

On the contrary, an unclaimed & unmaintained listing can do more harm than good to your business, & that impact is multiplied for small business marketing strategies.

The very first step of making sure you have full control over editing & optimizing your business, & get it ready for competition on Google’s local search scene, is to claim & verify the listing.

Once you’ve done that, then you must ensure to give the right signals to both Google bots & human searchers that your business is healthy, up & running.

If you want to show up on the first page, you need to first understand how Google thinks & what service does it offer to its users.

When a searcher enters a certain query like “how much does a Thai massage cost in Tampa Florida”, Google wants to give them the most related results to it, the most credible & updated listings within billions of indexes on its servers.

Either you manage your local SEO by yourself, or you're planning to hire a digital marketing agency like Media Number Seven to handle your small business marketing strategy, you'll need to gain some knowledge to track the performance of your business' online presence.

Here are some elements to keep in mind while managing your GMB listing,

There’s nothing more confusing to a customer than trying to contact your business & reaching a dead end.

Make sure you update all your communication channels (phone, email, website, live chat… etc) & fire test them regularly to make sure they actually work.

Inaccurate working hours can lead to big misunderstandings and frustration with your customers, you can simply avoid that by keeping your working hours accurate throughout the week, as well as updating holidays & special occasions that might affect your working hours.

We all use Google maps on an almost daily basis to navigate our ways, especially in big cities.

Expect your customers to be doing the same, make sure your GPS location pin is accurate & any special address instructions like floor or shop number are listed there.

Imagine a customer finding your listing, calling you, driving all the way to find no free parking, or no wheelchair access to your building while they’re on one… not cool.

You have to list all accessibility options to your facility, as well as amenities & special services.

It’s crucial to be clear about what services your business does or does not offer.

If you’re a restaurant, what types of cuisine or allergy-friendly food do you serve?

If you’re a dentist, do you do cosmetic surgeries? Are there any types of cases you do not accept?

Also, be clear about price ranges if possible, these measures have a great impact on user experience, which is Google’s top factor for showing your business to more searchers.

Internal pictures, external pictures, pictures of products & staff, pictures of amenities & facilities.

Demonstrative videos, entertaining videos, educational videos.

360 virtual tour… etc

Leverage all possible means of multimedia on your listing, keep posting them regularly & don’t forget to geotag them, geotag them, geotag them... your customers will love it & Google will love you for it.

You don’t want your latest post to be 8 months ago, that's a big sign to both Google & your customers that the business isn’t going very well.

Schedule regular posts & commit to publishing them periodically.

More positive customer reviews reflect an overall positive experience when dealing with your business… & that’s all that Google cares for when pushing your listing up to the first page, they want their users to find the best experience regardless of what service or product they’re searching for.

NEVER, EVER, NEVER leave a negative review unanswered!

Look at it as an opportunity to showcase your amazing customer service and how you handle your customer problems.

I’d say leave a reply on all reviews whether positive or negative & leave no question or query from a customer unanswered.

Google looks at the overall online presence of your brand, not only your Google My Business page.

This means you need to optimize your business listings on all other related platforms, websites, your accounts on social media, your listings on other local directories, your blog, links to other credible websites & make sure to always create unique content that adds value to your users.

Here in Media Number Seven digital marketing agency, we aim to help small & medium sized businesses to grow their online presence & convert it into profits, & we would love to help you with a free consultation & evaluation on your small business marketing strategy & overall online presence.