How to increase your visibility using a Google Business Profile

Have you ever googled your company and found an entry about your company? Often, Google creates automatic entries for companies, but these do not necessarily contain current or complete information. Sometimes even incorrect information is shown, for example opening hours that do not match yours. This could annoy potential customers and prevent them from coming back again. To keep your online presence up-to-date and improve it, you can take advantage of the free Google Business Profile tool.

Optimize store presence with a Google Business Profile

The Google Business Profile platform is a kind of business directory that allows entrepreneurs to create and edit a free entry for their company on Google. Information such as the address of the business, the link to the website, opening hours or information about the services or products offered can be entered there. This will quickly give your business greater visibility on the web – the more complete your profile, the easier it is to find. In this Google help article, you can learn more about how you can influence your ranking on Google through your entry. One of the benefits of listing your business is that your customers can find the most relevant information about your business immediately. For example, if you have a phone number, customers can call you directly from your Google listing. Not only does this save them time in searching for relevant information, it also makes your business more trustworthy by making it easier to find relevant information. Customer ratings also contribute to this: According to a Capterra user survey, consumers trust the reviews of other customers even more than the recommendations of friends and acquaintances. For example, encourage your customers to rate you on Google, for example by newsletter, in a personal conversation in a store, or through other marketing materials. Once you’ve filled out your entry with all the relevant information, the “Insights” field provides you with important information about your customers’ behavior. Was your entry found via Google search or Google Maps? What actions were triggered by the entry? Were calls made or was your website visited? This gives you the opportunity to find out what is important for your customers so that you can continuously optimize your presence.

If there is already an entry for your company and you did not create it yourself, you can claim it. You can find out exactly how this works, or how to create a new business listing, in the help article about Google Business Profiles.

Increase in-store traffic with Google Maps and Local Ads

The business listing on Google Business Profile is directly linked to the Google Maps service. If you have entered the address of your shop in the entry, it will be displayed on Google Maps. The advantage of linking both services: In Google Maps too, users can see photos and reviews in addition to the address and opening hours, and even call your store if you have a telephone number stored. This creates a coherent user experience across mobile and desktop platforms – and simultaneously connects online and offline. Using their smartphone, users can be guided directly to your store. The Google Business Profile is helpful for this, as is the integration of Google Maps on your website or online store. This makes it easier for users to find your store directly from your website.

Another way to increase traffic to your store is to display ads, called Local Ads, which Google shows users based on their location. Google Local Ads allow you to reach more customers who are interested in local information because they are designed to reach more store visits through advertising. You can serve ads through your Google Account. To do so, you select your business location, the campaign budget, and specify information that you want to display in the ad, called ad assets. Google uses machine learning to automatically optimize ad bids, placements and asset combinations. Ads on Google Maps are shown to users who are near or plan to be near your location. When you select ads through the Google Search Network, they’re delivered on keywords relevant to your business and location. Through the Google Display Network, ads are delivered where they’ll be seen by as many people as possible.

More customer loyalty through continuous updating

Besides the increased visibility on Google, the entry on a Google Business Profile has another nice effect: more customer contact and customer loyalty. Through your profile, you can not only view customer reviews, react to them and take advantage of the feedback. With the ability to create reviews, you can also keep consumers informed about news, products, discount promotions or events. With a call-to-action button, you can encourage visitors to take further action, which you can then evaluate. This gives you a better sense of which articles your customers are most interested in.

Keeping your profile up-to-date will contribute to the trustworthy image of your company and the relationship with your customers. If you haven’t created a Google Business Profile yet, get started today and try out the various features.