Local SEO 101 – How to Set Up a Google My Business Listing

Local SEO can help your business stand out in the crowd. And if you run a local business in today’s digital world, you’ll already understand the challenges that come with marketing your business online locally.

Local SEO is much different to your standard SEO campaign. Local SEO is the practice of building reliability and relevant signals around specific locals rather than a general query. The importance of which can be illustrated in a few statistics:

·         72% of consumers who did a local search visited a specified location within 5 miles

·         78% of local-mobile searches result in offline purchases

·         Local searches lead 50% of mobile users to visit stores within a single day

·         Google revealed that 1 in 3 searches has “local intent”

Those numbers alone make it fairly clear the importance of making sure your local business can be found online.

What is a Google My Business Listing?

A Google My Business listing combines all your important information, provides a brief description of your business, opening hours, contact information, website link etc. and displays it across Google search and maps. This makes interaction with your customers much simpler and allows them to leave you good reviews which is great for attracting new customers to your website.

When a user begins a search for localised terms, Google will present them with a few relevant local listings tailored to the search term. From there, a user can call your business, visit your website, find out what time you’re open and even check out reviews left by other customers.

The Benefits of a Google My Business Listing

Setting up a google My Business listing opens lots of new avenues for driving traffic to your website. From the Google My Business dashboard you can:

·         Add or update your contact information, opening hours, description and more

·         Keep engaged with your customers by responding to their reviews

·         Allow potential customers to find you on Google Maps

·         Allow your customers events you have coming up

The biggest benefit to a Google My Business listing is that it’s a free way to attract local, organic traffic to your business. By granting users any and all relevant information about your business via your listing, the only thing that’s stopping them becoming customers, is their intent. Before setting it up, you can ask for help from Website Builder Leeds.

How to Set up your Google My Business Listing

Setting up your Google My Business Listing can be completed in a few simple steps:

1.       If you haven’t already, set up a Google account. Again, this is very simple and shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to complete.

2.       Head over to Google My Business and select “Start Now”, at this point you’ll be asked to loin using the Google account credentials you set up earlier.

3.       A search menu will appear. All you need to do now is enter your business name and address. You may already exist on google, in which case, a suggested listing will appear – just click on the suggested listing and complete any information fields that may be empty. Otherwise, you will need to create a new listing. Just select “Add Business” and complete the requested fields. Remember, the more specifics you provide about your business, the more useful your listing will be.

4.       You will be asked to choose a category for your business like Cost Effective Website Leeds– this is important as it will help Google determine what type of business you are and what search results you will appear in. There are pre-existing categories to choose from so make sure you choose the best fit for you. You’ll also have the chance to add up to 4 more business categories later in the process.

5.       Once you’ve completed these steps, you’ll then need to wait for Google to verify that your business is where you say it is. Google will send you a verification PIN either via postcard, text or automated phone call depending on which you option you opt for. Text is the handiest as it means you can continue to complete the process straight away.

6.       Once you’ve received your PIN, confirm your business and make any editions to your listing.

Common Problems

You may find that your business isn’t appearing in the search results. This could be down to 1 of 2 reasons. You may have fallen foul of Google’s guidelines for its business listings. Make sure you read through these before you create your listing. The second is that Google My Business is not longer a well-kept secret and you’re likely to face fierce competition from similar companies in your area battling for the most relevant listing spot. There are a few things you can do to improve your chances:

·         The more up-to-do date and detailed your listing, the more likely it is that you will rank higher. So be sure to add images and other content to your listing regularly and also update any changes to your information and replying to reviews are vital.

·         Make sure that you’re consistent with your information such as you Name, address and telephone number (NAP) across any and all online directories you may be listed in.