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An optimised Google My Business Listing could be the difference between your customers finding you… or not. 

A well-optimised, highly detailed Google My Business Listing will perform better in localised Google searches. Think ‘Brisbane SEO Company’ or ‘Fortitude Valley Social Media Management’ – your Google Business Listing has the potential to rank for any location-based search terms or phrases that are relevant to your product or service offering (even if your website doesn’t). 

Many business owners fail to understand the potential that a well-maintained and optimised Google My Business listing has for their business’ online presence. While many businesses already have a profile on GMB, many more simply forget about its existence and let it fade into obscurity. 

The good news is that by following these simple tips for optimising your Google My Business listing, your business will see a major boost in local SEO, customer engagement, and an overall growth in digital presence. 

(For information on how to set your business up on other search engines, check out our article on setting up Bing assets for your business.

Optimise Google Business ListingNever Miss N.A.P Time 

When creating your Google My Business listing, it’s essential that the business name, address, and phone number (or N.A.P) you put down is the same across all of your digital touchpoints. This means that no matter how you’ve written out your business name, address, or phone number on your Google My Business listing, those same details are exactly the same on your website, social media profiles and any online directory listings. 

This might sound simple but there are some common mistakes that people make in this area:

  • Including or excluding the area code – a lot of people will put the local number on their business listing but then put the full international number or state area codes on their website. 
  • Address formatting – including or excluding the unit number or building name is another common mistake people make that leads to inconsistencies in the way their address is written across the internet. 
  • Business name – Using your full trading business name (including Pty Ltd etc) on your Google Business Listing but not on your website and social media channels. 

There is no right or wrong way in any of the examples above – the key is that whatever you pick, you roll it out consistently.

This is because Google will cross-reference these details to determine the consistency and reliability of your business. It may take a bit of time to align all your digital profiles, but it’ll be worth it when your GMB listing shoots to the top of the Google search page. 

Optimise Google My Business ListingDon’t Half-Complete Your Google My Business Listings 

Entering your business’ name, address, and phone number into Google My Business is just the first step – the job isn’t complete yet. Some business owners only complete the bare minimum for their Google My Business listing and call it a day. In reality, you want to complete each relevant section in as much detail as possible. Not only will this help with your local SEO, but it will have the practical benefit of giving your customers more information about your services from Google’s search pages alone. 

On your Google My Business listing, you should include: 

  • Photos of your business and a logo 
  • Categories of your products or services with detailed descriptions 
  • A detailed bio / description of your business, brand and / or company 
  • A list of all the suburbs you service, not just the suburb your business is located in 

Review Your Reviews 

Lots of positive reviews look great on your Google My Business listing, but be careful with how you get those reviews. While some try to outsmart Google with questionable tactics to boost their reviews, Google will pick up on these and penalise your GMB listing as a result. So, under no circumstances should you get a group of your friends and family to flood your GMB listing with a wave of positive reviews. It becomes very obvious to Google if something fishy is going down when most – if not all – of your reviews were posted at the same time, from the same IP address, or are from users whose email addresses are all from the same business URL. 

Instead, set up processes to get legitimate reviews from your customers and clients after you have completed a job. Google will recognise these reviews as appropriate, and your GMB listing will be further optimised because of it. 

However, it is important to understand that the quantity of reviews is just as important as the quality of them. According to Semrush, the three highest results on local Google searches were the three Google My Business listings with the most reviews. Simply getting your customers and clients to leave you a review on Google will improve your SEO ranking, even though the research showed that those top three results each had rankings over 4.1 stars. The takeaway: positive reviews and lots of reviews are equally important in helping your Google My Business listing rank higher.

Google Business ListingKeep Maintaining Your Listing 

Just like how your favourite plants at home need constant watering to remain healthy and continue growing, your Google My Business listing requires continual updating once you have planted it in its digital pot. 

You can regularly update your Google My Business listing by: 

  • Adding new photos a couple of times a month
  • Adding any upcoming events that your business is hosting 
  • Creating social-media style Google posts on your business profile 
  • Answering any questions that have been asked through your GMB listing 

A well-maintained and optimised Google My Business listing will continue to get your business views online long after you have first set up your profile. 

Need Help? 

Maintenance of your Google My Business Listing is included in all of our SEO Packages. Get in touch with us today to request our package pricing brochure.