Improve Your Google Business Profile Through These 9 Important Fields
Whether it’s an online shop or a brick-and-mortar store, we can’t stress enough the importance of the upkeep of your Google Business Profile. It’s not enough that you’re hands-on on the minutiae of your business operations, but also stewarding your brand’s listing in order to demonstrably improve its visibility on local search results.
In today’s SEO Premier Blog, we will discuss the 10 important fields on Google Business you need to fill to make a meaningful revenue impact for your business.
Why Local Search Visibility Matters?
There’s a handful of reasons why local search visibility matters, especially for emerging online brands. Most notably, we can provide arguments for why you must focus on padding your Google Business Profile more than other alternative listings:
- In the SEO industry, there’s plenty of brouhaha over Google preferencing its own results over third-party assets. This self-preference brought Google at the cynosure of an antitrust inquiry from the legislative department. In 2007, MapQuest used to be the dominant GPS app then. However because of Google favouring its own product - Google Maps, it pushed MapQuest to obscurity and dominated the map apps to near monopoly.
- In the past, there were SERP changes that were deemed unpopular by many. One salient example is the rushed rollout of AI Overviews, which pundits believed pushed Google self-preferencing even more. Publishers and business owners think that the content they create becomes input for AI and their struggle for visibility is even more highlighted because they are victims of content hashing by run-off-the-mill sites.
- Local holds greater weight than web traffic. For business owners unbothered by the impact of SEO, they believe that so long as a customer finds their way to your store or book an appointment, who cares where they saw your ad - SERP, AI Overview, Google Maps, and whatnot?
9 Important Fields to Fill for Maximum Impact
Before, there were only a few Google Business Profile fields that were believed to be directly contributory to your business’ ranking. Since then, our knowledge base has expanded and we’ve discovered additional fields that will influence the visibility of your listing to great effect. Here we go:
Business Title
You may be tempted to fill this out with long and extraneous keywords in the attempt to increase its relevance among search users. It’s okay to write your business name plus the generic name of your business plus details like location or specialty like “Happy Smiles - Dental Clinic in Iowa” or “Atty. Bloomwood | Family Lawyer.” Anything beyond these conventions may come across as untrustworthy or spammy, and then Google can edit it if it gets reported multiple times. Stick to the real-world brand name of your business such as the name you print on signages, billboards, and other offline collaterals. If you’re still apprehensive, look into the best naming practices outlined in Guidelines for representing your business on Google.
Address
Your local address does impact your ranking in a variety of ways. Consider the following scenarios: How close your business is to a searcher’s location, first off, can influence your local pack rankings. Naturally, your listing will appear in the packs, maps, and other finders. Establishing your business close to your customer base is common sense. The opposite is true: if your competitor is closer to the searcher, they will frequently outrank you. There’s only so far SEO can do to relieve this issue, and proximity remains a top factor for local searchers in choosing which entity to do business with. This is particularly problematic for businesses that lie outside mapped Google borders - while there’s a slim opportunity for great businesses to dominate a rural region because of low competition - it’s much better to situate your store where you’re easily found by your target audience.
Categories
Make sure that you mark your business with the accurate listing category, basically representing your core offering. Beyond that, there are nine extra categories to fill out to help you capture the full picture of your business. This field looks easy to cover, but if you’re still confused, you can learn more by reading How to Choose Google Business Profile Categories.
Website Link
Your primary goal is to build a compelling and high-quality website that answers the questions of potential customers. It’s easier to achieve that goal if your website is listed in both organic and local search results. It’s a whole ‘nother topic to learn the ins and outs of SEO, but you can easily link your website address on Google Business Profile to make a difference in your local search visibility.
Hours
Conducting a thorough competitor analysis can also give you a leg up at certain times by strategically tweaking your operating hours. For example, if a competitor bakeshop in your locality is closed on Mondays, your bakeship can see benefits from searches by simply being operational that day. In the same way, if all your competitors close at a specific time, you can pick up additional rankings by staying later than that. It’s always better to operate 24 hours a day, but we know that this approach is expensive and not applicable for a lot of businesses.
Reviews
Ostensibly, reviews can mean a lot for your ranking in local search. Your overall star rating, number of reviews, and specific text on some reviews - these can all appear in search snippets. There are views that the speed at which you receive reviews has a strong correlation to your ranking, but we suggest that you must strategise for a way to get a modest yet consistent stream of incoming reviews instead of a one-time bulky influx of reviews. Furthermore, get into the habit of responding to each review, whether positive or negative.
Services & Products
We learned from vigorous testing from peers in the industry that adding services and products to Google Business Profile can do wonders for your ranking. It is recommended to add as many Google-suggested services as are applicable to your business. For products, you can upload high-quality eye-catching photos of merchandise to enable your profile to rank high and appear on organic results via product grid.
Popular Times
Popular times is widely regarded as a ranking signal nowadays. Turns out, shops rank even higher during peak times, which Google conveniently instantiates through a graph. As a business owner, you can influence the movement of this ranking factor by offering promos or discounts at specific hours during the day to encourage more visits.
Menu Items
For diners and restaurants, supplying details of the menu can improve your local search ranking dramatically. By adding photos of the menu, best-sellers, and deions, the food becomes all the more attractive and informative for onlookers.
By filling out the fields correctly, you’re laying a strong foundation for your business to rank on local search. Consistency is key and with much attention to details above, you’ll drive more customers to show up at your store’s doorstep.
