Local businesses must achieve high visibility on Google. It’s essential for rankings and attracting viewers to their websites. When the pandemic emerged, it served to emphasize the increasing importance of local SEO. Now, it’s impossible to create a digital marketing strategy without a strong emphasis on local SEO. As a result, Google My Business listing optimization is a crucial aspect of your various local SEO ranking factors. 

Let’s dive into the subject of Google My Business and how you can use it to your advantage. Remember that your competitors are doing so as well. Therefore, it doesn’t pay to avoid fully embracing the benefits of Google My Business.

Your Google My Business Listing Needs To Be Fully–Not Partially–Optimized

Businesses certainly understand the basics of Google My Business. For example, they know that they need to be listed. However, it’s amazing how many companies don’t fully optimize their listing. GMB is free and it’s a vehicle for achieving better local SEO results. Therefore, it only makes sense to take full advantage of it.

Obviously, the first tip for maximizing the benefits of Google My Business would be to fill out as completely as possible the entry for your business. That sounds simple enough. Yet Dreamscape Marketing has repeatedly encountered new clients whose Google My Business profiles were extremely incomplete. Leaving information fields blank is a mistake that is literally costing you money. Don’t do it.

How Important are Keywords in Your GMB Description?

This is a tricky subject. Google now seems to imply that keywords aren’t important any longer. That is partially true at best. Clearly, the days of keyword stuffing are over. It was a practice that produced poorly written content and has long since stopped fooling search engines. That being said, they can’t be abandoned altogether. Keywords are one of the things that help search engine algorithms understand your content. If some people tell you differently, they don’t know what they’re talking about. 

In the end, keywords should be incorporated into your Google My Business. However, that doesn’t mean you should repeat them over and over or without good reason. Getting your listing suspended because you engaged in black hat marketing techniques is never a good idea.

How Can Google Posts Be Optimized? 

Posts on Google My Business are an excellent way to get viewers to visit your website. Posts enhance your listing. Therefore, it would be a mistake not to leverage them to your advantage.

What can you use as a Google post? There are many possibilities, including:

• Post about upcoming events at your business or any events that you’re hosting
• Announce sales or discounts you’re offering
• Run a teaser from a recent blog that links to the remainder of the content on your website
• Share information tidbits about new technology innovations that affect your industry

How Can I Maximize Reviews?

Reviews on Google My Business are a big part of how people shop for products and services these days. There’s just no getting around it. However, despite their importance among local SEO ranking factors, many companies don’t make any special effort to get them.

GMB reviews need to be real. People these days can smell fake reviews from a mile away. If you’re doing your job, good reviews will come. Yes, there will be the occasional negative review. However, it also looks odd when a company has no negative reviews at all.

Here are some ways you can maximize reviews: 

• Make use of Google’s Marketing Kit. It has features for persuading customers to write reviews.
• Generate an email to customers that asks them to leave a GMB review. If you don’t ask, they probably won’t think of doing it on their own.
• Ask loyal, longtime customers for reviews personally. An email won’t do for these VIP customers. Given their importance to your business, they deserve the personal touch.

How Important is Google My Business to Local SEO?

If your business isn’t prioritizing Google My Business listing optimization, you’re missing out on enormous opportunities to rank higher and generate greater traffic to your website. Don’t allow such an excellent opportunity to be underutilized (or, in some cases, unutilized). Dreamscape Marketing can help you leverage GMB to the fullest extent as part of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy. Call us today at 888.307.7304 to find out how.