10 Ways to Optimize Your Google My Business Listing

Google’s local search results have become one of the most important places for businesses to get targeted visibility. To get this visibility, businesses must optimize their website and GMB listing.

Optimizing your GMB profile can help improve visibility, build trust, and encourage engagement with your business. Here are 10 ways to optimize your Google My Business listing: 1. Choose the right categories and attributes.

1. Claim and verify your listing

The first step to optimizing your GMB listing is to claim and verify it. Once verified, you’ll have full control over the information displayed on your business profile and can update it whenever needed.

The verification process varies by business, but generally involves either a phone call, email or postcard from Google with a code to verify your listing. Be sure to provide accurate and complete business information, including your name, address, phone number, website URL, services offered, and hours of operation.

Additionally, it’s important to add high quality photos to your listing and keep them updated. Also, be sure to respond to reviews and ratings, as this is a great way to show potential customers that you care about their experience with your business. It will also help you build trust with search engines. Having a verified Google My Business listing can make all the difference in acquiring new customers.

2. Optimize your business name

A well-optimized business profile can make your brand more visible to prospective customers. In addition to claiming and verifying your listing, optimizing it involves making ongoing updates and improvements that will enhance its visibility in local searches.

Begin by ensuring that your business name, address, phone number, and website URL are accurate and consistent across platforms. This will help build trust with customers and search engines.

Next, optimize your business description by adding important information about your products and services, including keywords that are relevant to your location. You can also add photos and videos to your business listing to improve its visibility.

Finally, if you have a call tracking phone number that forwards to your main business line, you can use the Info tab to add this as an additional phone number without messing up your NAP consistency. This is a helpful feature for businesses that offer multiple service options to differentiate themselves in the local pack.

3. Optimize your address

Having a well-optimized Google Business Profile is essential for local businesses. It acts as your digital storefront, providing important information like hours of operation, phone number, address, and reviews to customers.

The most important step to optimizing your Google Business Profile is ensuring that your NAP (name, phone number, and address) is correct and consistent across all platforms. For example, your business name should match that on your website and other online platforms like Yelp.

You can also optimize your listing by choosing the right categories and attributes for your business. These attributes can help searchers quickly find the services and products you offer, so be sure to update them regularly to reflect your product offerings. You can even use labels to organize your GMB listings, such as by region. This can be especially helpful if you manage multiple GMB listings for a national or regional brand.

4. Optimize your phone number

When customers search for your business, the information displayed in Google’s local results can make or break their decision to choose your product or service. Optimizing your business listing improves the chances of appearing in relevant local searches and boosts visibility.

To optimize your profile, ensure that all NAP (name, address, phone number) details are consistent with other online listings and your website. This includes the footer, contact page, and appointment pages.

Adding a call tracking number to your Google Business Profile allows you to track the sources of phone calls from customers who discover your business listing in search results. To do this, head to the info tab on your business listing and add your call tracking number as the primary phone number while maintaining your standard business phone line as the additional one. This is a great way to measure the effectiveness of your local SEO strategies.

5. Optimize your website

Any business today requires targeted visibility on Google. Most know that this requires optimizing their website and Google Ads, but many overlook a key component of visibility: the Google Business Profile.

Your GMB profile feeds valuable details directly to Google. Optimizing your profile ensures that Google has accurate information about your business. This information is used to help searchers find you online, whether they are conducting a direct search or a local discovery search.

In addition, your profile allows you to create Google Posts, which are like social media posts, that display on your business page. Adding these posts increases engagement with your listing and sends positive ranking signals to Google. It also helps potential customers understand the nature of your business. The resulting information will likely prompt them to take action, such as sending a request for directions or making a phone call.

6. Optimize your website content

A business’s GMB profile feeds valuable information directly to Google. It helps search engines know what kind of content and images to display for a given query. It also helps consumers make decisions about where to visit, whether to call or text, or go on the website.

Your GMB listing’s photo gallery should include your logo, a cover photo that best represents your brand, and other regular photos of your company. Then add feature photos that highlight specific products and services.

Encourage customers to share their own visual content with your business by posting a link on social media and tagging contributors. It’s a popular strategy among marketers that can give your business credibility and increase engagement. It’s also a great way to rank higher in local searches and attract more consumers. According to a study by BrightLocal, businesses that have feature photos are 42% more likely to receive direction requests and 35% more clicks on their websites.

7. Optimize your website images

Whether on your website or in your Google My Business listing, image optimization refers to decreasing an image’s file size without sacrificing quality. This allows your images to load faster and improves user experience.

You should use a PNG file format for images with transparency and a JPEG file format for photographs and other colored imagery. You should also optimize the dimensions of your images to prevent them from being too large, which can negatively impact your website’s performance and SEO ranking.

Finally, you should always use alt text to describe your images and incorporate relevant keywords. Also, use image compression to reduce an image’s file size without affecting quality. This helps to improve your site’s loading speed and SEO ranking. It’s like having a little helper on your side that makes all the difference. Lazy loading also makes your site’s images load only when they are visible to the viewer, which improves performance and usability.

8. Optimize your website description

Google My Business (GMB) listings provide a wealth of information for potential customers. Whether they’re looking for a local pet groomer or an auto repair shop, GMB profiles allow them to see reviews, photos, business hours, and more — all in one place.

The description is a key element of your GMB listing. Optimizing it is essential for driving clicks and boosting your search engine rankings.

Start by defining your target audience and writing in their language. Use a friendly, conversational tone and focus on your products and services. Be sure to update your business description regularly. This signals to Google that your company is active and relevant. However, do not spam your business name with keywords – this violates Google’s terms of service and could result in your listing being suspended. Also, be sure to follow Google’s guidelines for business descriptions.

9. Optimize your website keywords

Adding keywords to your website is important, but it is also essential to create content that speaks to the audience you’re targeting. Keyword optimization requires careful planning and a clear strategy. It can be difficult to keep track of everything when you’re optimizing your site. That’s why it’s important to have a checklist.

For example, you can optimize your business listing for discovery searches by including keywords such as ‘how to’ or ‘what is’. These are search terms that indicate a customer is in the awareness stage and are looking for solutions to their problem. You can then map those keywords to pages on your website that answer their questions. This will help increase your visibility in the local pack. In addition, you can optimize your business listing for transactional keywords by creating a website page dedicated to each product you sell.

10. Optimize your website reviews

With the advent of local searches based on individual user Centroids, business information is more relevant than ever. The most important information is found on your Google My Business profile, which is why optimizing it is essential.

Add photos of your business, which are not only ranking factors but also help searchers decide whether or not to contact you. Also, make sure to regularly update them.

Use your service area correctly by entering cities, zip codes or regions that you actually serve. This will ensure that your listing only shows up for searches in those areas. Do not spam your name with keywords, as this violates Google’s terms of service and could result in your listing being penalized. Also, make sure to respond to reviews on a regular basis. This will increase customer engagement and send positive ranking signals to Google.