Why Updating Your Google Business Profile is Crucial for Your Online Presence

Google Business Profile, also known as GBP or Google My Business, is an absolutely crucial aspect of improving your local SEO and online presence.

The Google Business Profile is the summary box that appears when you google the name, service, or location of a business, and its importance cannot be understated.

Read on to understand why it is so important and how you can optimise your profile!

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Why Does Google Business Profile Matter?

Google Business Profile is your chance to provide important information about your business, such as your services, opening hours, reviews, and location, without users needing to trawl through your website.

In the modern digital world, search engine users love to have this kind of information at a glance, and it can make users more inclined to visit your website or reach out directly.

It also helps you appear more reliably in local search results and on Google Maps, as all that information will help when someone searches for your service in your location.

Additionally, GBP allows you to include features like Google Reviews, Q&As, and even allows you to post updates directly to your customers, enhancing business credibility and generating customer engagement.

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How can GBP Help your Business?

An optimised GBP profile will compliment your SEO strategy, helping you improve your search rankings and increase website traffic and sales. As previously mentioned, GBP can help you appear more reliably in local search rankings and on Google Maps, allowing people who are browsing your local area fast access to your key information.

With a summary of your services, opening hours, reviews, FAQs, and contact details, a user has all they need to know to decide whether you are the business they are looking for. With more people finding your business and website through GBP, you are likely to experience a direct increase in website visits, leads, and sales.

You can use the data collected by those who visited your website through GBP to optimise your website or information you provide according to their behaviour.

All of this is tracked through Google Analytics, as it will give you a breakdown of where exactly your web traffic has come from.

Incidentally, Google Analytics is removing the Universal Analytics platform on 1st July, meaning you have until then to export your historical data or it will be lost forever.

Five Quick Ways to Optimise your Google Business Profile

1.??? Complete Your GBP Profile – The best place to start is by filling out all the relevant information fields on the GBP page, which includes all your basic business information, contact details, and website link.

2.??? Encourage Customer Reviews – One of the first things users see on a search engine result is the reviews section, as it helps them easily identify reliable and experienced business. If possible, you should work to encourage your customers to leave positive reviews if they have had a good experience. Get the word of your good work out there!

3.??? Update GBP Regularly – Make sure that the information you provide is always up to date, including your existing information, like opening hours, and any new information you provide, like special events.

4.??? Include Photos and Videos – If possible, consider adding high quality images and videos to showcase your products or services in a business environment. Interactive elements like these are always more effective than words on a page.

5.??? Use it for Posts and Updates – GBP is a great place to share important news, offers, or updates regarding your business, and posting like this regularly helps new and existing customers see that you are active.

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Three Things to Avoid When Using Google Business Profile

1.??? Providing Inconsistent Information – If you have different opening hours or contact details on your GBP, website, and other materials, then your customers may be unsure which to trust. This hesitation could be enough to push them somewhere else, or they may contact you when you are closed!

2.??? Not Responding or Reacting to Reviews – If your customers have left Google Reviews, whether good or bad, you should react and respond to this feedback. Ignoring negative reviews makes it look like you offer a poor service or aren’t adapting to criticism, while ignoring positive reviews makes it look like you aren’t bothered by customer satisfaction.

3.??? Forgetting or Neglecting Updates – Failing to post any updates on the status of your business or indeed updating your key information could make people think twice about choosing you. Make sure you are always providing accurate information and keeping people engaged, as an inactive business is always a worry for customers.

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Not Sure Where to Start with GBP? Get in Touch!

At EDGE Creative, we live and breathe marketing. As an integrated digital agency, it is our job to ensure that your marketing is always running without a hitch, whether that’s your social media channels, SEO strategy, or Google Business Profile. It all feeds into leads and sales, so we’re more than happy to help.

If you don’t know how to fill in or optimise your Google Business profile, or you’d like to further understand the benefits of GBP, get in touch with our team today!

We can work to tie it in with a wider SEO strategy, set up your Google Analytics to capture key data, or even help drive a new Google Review strategy to help demonstrate your expertise with customer feedback.

Call our office on 0121 355 8092 or email [email protected] and an expert member of our team will be in touch as soon as possible.