Deciphering Google My Business - My second book based on Research and practical experience (Rank higher in local search results)

People in today’s era believe more in learning and developing. They find new ways always to enhance their knowledge, irrespective of the field that they work in. This article will do the same for you today.

In the past few years, the Internet has grown at an astonishingly high speed. As a result, the number of businesses that are trying to create their online presence and derive sales from the internet has also grown immensely.

Today, I’m here to talk about “Google My Business”- A Magical platform that can be a game-changer for your business online. Some of you may already have your business registered here. But do you think only setting up the profile and getting it verified is enough?

With my experience and research, I would say that it’s not enough. Your instant question at the moment will be: So what do we need to focus more on? Well, put your worries aside and brace yourself to get all the answers and be the Google My Business (GMB) Expert. Yes, you read that right!

People spend large amounts of money and resources behind Paid Ads, Google Paid Ads, SEO, etc. But they tend to neglect the very first thing that gets displayed on Google results if someone is searching for any Product(s) or Service(s) locally. Yes, GMB is what I’m referring to.

With the help of all the organic methods, i.e. without spending even a single penny, you can rank much higher on GMB. At times, even on the top of the page. All you have to do is precisely take care of some crucial things.

It took us a lot of research and testing to understand what exactly worked and what didn’t. Since there is a lot of mis-information on the internet, we have jotted down all the pointers that need to be taken care of. All of this will be useful for you in making your business rank higher on Google.

Another amazing thing is that the entire process is absolutely free. However, even if you spend a little behind getting your listing a way above in the GMB section through Google Ads, that’s the cherry on the cake!

Now, let me directly tell you about how you can smartly use GMB to manage your brand’s appearance online and do a lot more. The first step towards getting your profile perfect is to start optimizing it. The need for it? It will provide your business visibility on Google Search and Maps, show up in Google’s Local 3-Pack, Generate Leads, and so on.

Begin with creating your business listing. Once you get it verified, you can further optimize it. Below are a few pointers that will help you with the process:

- Add every possible Information

- Stand out with Photos

- Post New Updates and Special Offers

- Add Unique Attributes and Features

- Inspire Customers to leave Reviews

- Build Trust by replying to the Reviews

- Refine Paid and Organic Reach with Insights

The next step is to use the GMB Post feature not only to funnel your potential customers but also Advertise for Free! Through these posts, you can publish updates about your brand, events, offers, products, and services, etc.

It’s said that the way you present your business is the way your customers see you. GMB Info is the section where you can give your audience a Five-Star feel. How? The answer is very simple - by filling in all the required details. A useful and less known hack for this section is to add - Your Company Name + “Your Services.” Doing this will give you more visibility!

Being in the cut-throat competitive environment, you may have used tools that give insights for a better understanding of how your business performs. GMB does this all for free! You get the insights handy that can help your business in rectifying the errors and implementing the best practices. The kind of data that you get here is precious. Try it yourself to experience the amazing features of this section!

Another valuable factor of building trust and credibility among your customers is by showing them what people think about your business. Wondering how this can be done? It’s by getting those Reviews! Feel free to ask friends, family members, clients, customers to leave reviews whenever they use your products and services. To further strengthen the trust, asking the customers to upload photos and videos of your products and services will be an excellent idea!

Everyone enjoys using various applications on their mobile phones as it comes in handy. Not only that, but it is also very feasible and hassle-free to use such applications. Why am I talking about this out of nowhere? Well, because GMB has its own Mobile App that is available on both - Google Play Store and App Store. You can view messages, respond to questions, and quickly provide support to your customers in real-time. What more could be asked for!

Let’s talk about one of the most important features to enhance your engagement and build immediate trust and visibility. It’s not anything very complex that you have to do. Just upload Photos and Videos! These can be divided into many categories but do not miss out on adding the Cover Photo and Logo that represents your business.

Other features include adding the Products and All your Services. GMB also offers you a free website with free hosting through which you can run Ads and promote your business effectively. Not only that, but you can also choose the Themes and Colors of your choice. You can either choose your existing domain name or use the one provided by GMB.

It can be a tedious and time-consuming process if you only assign one person to do all the tasks. Well, here too you can relax as GMB lets you add people to your business profile! Isn't that great? You can assign the people from your organization, such as Managers of different outlets to manage the account for a particular location(s).

NOTE: For every different location, you have to optimize your GMB account separately.

To add icing to the cake, GMB offers you some more Additional Features. Using them, you can do the following:

- Create Ads

- Get Custom Gmail

- Add New Locations (Everytime you open a new outlet)

- Manage Locations

- More Settings (Make sure that you checkmark all the available boxes)

This was just a sneak-peak of how GMB can be of wonderful use for your business's online presence and ranking. To get in-depth coverage of how you can step-by-step optimize your GMB account and take it to the next level, read our E-Book. Here is the link:

Book Link

An added bonus of some pro tips and tricks has been included too. It's time for you to set up the pace and win the race! Grab a copy for yourself and become the GMB Expert!

It wouldn't have been possible writing such a useful and insightful book without the help of my team members.

I would like to thank Shreyas, Pooja, Muskaan, and Iti for all their efforts and help in writing such an amazing book and for quality work! 

Cheers!!!