Introduction
A Google My Business (GMB) account is crucial to being found online. It’s a free tool for businesses and organisations in Auckland to manage their online presence across Google, including Search Engine Results Pages and Maps.
GMB is a simple and crucial tool for businesses to establish credibility online with those searching on Google.
Google My Business is a free tool
Google My Business does not cost anything. It shows businesses, companies and organisations on Google searches and maps. You can use it to:
- Add information about your business, like hours of operation or the type of products you sell
- Upload photos of your business for your listings on Google Search (to see what we mean, try searching for “coffee shop”)
- Create a custom URL so that customers can find you easily (for example, www.google.com/mybusiness/berlin)
- Help customers plan their next visit by adding promotions or events directly from your calendar
GMB is one of the first places audiences find out about hours of operations, business services or products and previous clients’ feedback or reviews.
How to create Google My Business Listing and Verify
To create your listing, follow these steps to verify and claim your business using your business address or phone number. You can also provide additional information, such as a link to your or opening hours.
Essentially, to verify, you need to:
- Log in to Google My Business
- Choose the business you’d like to verify.
- Select “Verify now”
- You’ll be directed to a postcard request page. On the postcard request screen, make sure your address is displayed accurately. To help deliver your postcard, you can also add an optional contact name
- Select “send postcard”
- Check the mail for your postcard. You should receive it within 14 days.
Enter the verification code in the postcard sent to your address in your GMB account. After verification is complete, Google will list all relevant information about your location including.
You can edit your business listing at any time
After verification is completed, business listings can be edited using the info tab. This allows you to update information such as contact details.
You can respond to reviews on Google
Your business’s online reviews are extremely important for obvious reasons. Google My Business allows customers and clients to leave reviews and for you to respond to those reviews from any platform – computer or phone.
When you respond to reviews, the response is shown in the review section of your listing and also appears in search results. Suppose a customer posts a review with low stars. In that case, you can use this opportunity to turn around their perception of your business by responding with helpful information about what happened and how you’re fixing it for them. This allows consumers who were previously unhappy about their experience to find out that things have changed, and for prospects to have more confidence in your services or products.
A Google My Business Account is crucial nowadays
If you want people to find you online, Google My Business account is crucial. It’s a free tool that allows you to connect your business with customers and potential customers, and it’s also a good way to stay on top of reviews and manage your online presence.
You can use GMB to set up an official page for your business, which will appear in search results when people look up your name or the name of your company (e.g., “The Car Company”). This means you don’t necessarily need a website to have GMB presence, though it’s recommended. In order to get these benefits, there are some steps you need to take first:
- Create an account at https://business.google.com/. You’ll need an active Gmail account as well as some basic information about yourself or whoever is responsible for running the business’ social media accounts; if there isn’t a person who manages your digital marketing (which is likely), simply fill out all fields on behalf of whoever owns those accounts so that later they’ll be able to access them directly from their own devices.
Conclusion
Google My Business has become a crucial part of SEO and digital marketing. It allows you to manage your business listing across all Google platforms, including Search and Maps. It helps with building online credibility and presence.
If you’re looking for more information regarding different sections of the Google my business account you can check our other blogs regarding GMB.
Remember, everyone looks for anything and everything online. Google is often the primary place all searches happen. So make sure your business comes up as a “business” in a Search Engine Result Page.
