Why Google My Business is Essential for Local SEO & How to Optimize It

This is another blog on my local SEO series explaining how to get your business ranking for local searches on Google.

You can read more here What is local SEO  & How do I optimise my website for local SEO?

Google My Business (GMB) is a free service provided by Google enabling company owners to verify their business location and enter basic information about their company. This is then shown in Google search and on their maps. This allows business owners to engage and be found by existing and potential new customers in their local area. GMB is also known as Google Places and Google Business.

Summary of Google My Business

Simply put, Google My Business (GMB) is an essential part of local SEO.

GMB offers business owners metrics on their companies visibility and engagement levels that other products don’t provide, including Google Analytics. There’s also the easy to use companion apps, available on both Google Play and the App Store, making it easy to manage and monitor your business listing.

Is my business eligible for Google My Business?

Any business which has a physical location is eligible for Google My Business and can set-up a listing for their location. Plus, businesses with 2 or more locations can have separate GMB listings for each of their sites.

If your business doesn’t have a physical location or you work from home and visit customers so don’t want people to know your personal location, but your service covers customers in a particular area, you’re classed as a ‘Service Area Business’. For example, if you’re a window cleaner or dog walker. You’re still eligible for a GMB listing, although you’ll want to mark ‘Yes’ when completing your GMB listing and asked if you deliver goods and services to customers at their location.

The exemptions to being able to have a Google My Business listing is when for example, you’re an eCommerce company based in London, you would not be able to have a listing in Bristol without another physical location in Bristol; only your London site could have a listing. Just because you have customers in another location, you can’t have another GMB listing without the physical location.

How do I verify my location on Google My Business?

To enable Google to determine you are a legitimate business and protect its users you are required to verify your business through a couple of different options.

First of all, you need to claim your business. The simplest way to do this is to search Google with your business name. If you see a Google My Business panel pop up on the right-hand side of the screen, it’ll include a phrase, ‘Own this business?’. Before clicking the button make sure you’re signed into your business Google account or not signed in so you can create a Google account for your business. Do not use your personal Google account to claim a business; this is a tip rather than a requirement, but it’s easier to share access to the business listing with other employees or agencies when it’s a business account rather than personal.

If your business does not come up to claim to go to https://www.google.com/business/ and follow the easy step by step guide to claiming your business.

Once you complete the basic information Google My Business requires it’ll verify your listing to confirm your telephone number and address are correct. You’ll receive a phone call from Google with a pin number you’ll need to enter on your screen. If GMB has not identified a business with your telephone number and address before it’ll send you a postcard within 7 days. Just follow the instructions on your postcard and your business will be verified and visible through Google My Business.

What’s the basic business information needed for Google My Business?

It’s as simple as business name, address and telephone number.

There’s no need to overthink it when it comes to your GMB listing, these are the details required for GMB to help with your local SEO.

These three details; name, address and telephone number, are also known as ‘NAP’. They’re you’re businesses simple thumbprint online and create a digital trail online which helps give customers and Google trust that your business is authentic. Always make sure these details are accurate and the same where ever they’re listed online. If Google doesn’t believe your details, they’ll lose trust in your business and stop sending customers in your direction.

To help build Google’s trust, make sure the address you submit is the same address shown on your website, even if you consider yourself a ‘Service Area Business’. Do not use a PO Box address or similar, make sure its a physical address only.

Always double check where Google places the pin for your address on its maps. Google tends to be pretty accurate, but you can adjust the pin to make sure it’s perfect.

Don’t be tempted to use a tracking phone number to segment those customers you get from google. This can be detrimental to your GMB success, it’ll not trust this is an authentic detail as it won’t be able to match it to phone numbers on your website, etc.

Also, do not keyword stuff your business name. It might seem like a quick trick to get in front of your target audience, but Google sees it as spammy and monitors for this regularly.

Make sure you choose an accurate category for your business, this is the best way to ‘optimise’ your company in Google My Business. Have a good think how you best describe your company and then start typing it into Google. Google has established a very extensive list of company categories over the years, resulting in them providing you with a narrowed down list after you start typing the first few characters of your keyword. You should be able to find a relevant category fairly quickly.

You can choose multiple categories for your business. Although Google recommends as few as possible, as long as you keep them specific to your business, choose as many categories you can find which are relevant & specific to your business. Google may remove a few during its automated authorisation review, this won’t harm your listing. The more relevant categories you have the more searches you’ll appear in.