Over the next while, I’ll be writing some thoughts about things you should consider when making or promoting your website.
Today’s topic is Google My Business. One of the most effective (free) ways that people find out about my website is Google My Business. It requires very little setup and the payback is tremendous.
So what exactly is Google My Business? When you search for something on Google, you’ve probably noticed that near the top of the page, a google map shows up with the locations of businesses related to your search. For example, you can see in the image below, when I search for Web Design Winnipeg, my page (Winnipeg Web Guy) comes up at the top. Part of that is because I am close to Winnipeg Web Guy. Actually, I’m sitting in it as I type this. But part of it is that Google thinks that those top few businesses will be very relevant to me.
So how do you get to the top of that list you ask? Well, Google keeps their algorithms locked up and secret, but, the fact that I have some Google reviews no doubt helps. My page gets a lot of traffic from the fact that my business appears front and center on many ‘website winnipeg’ searches.
How do I know that people are getting to my page from this link? Well, to be honest, generally these leads are phone calls. People tell me weekly that they found my phone number on Google, and this is the only place where my phone number appears on Google.
Signing up for Google My Business is easy. You simply go here: https://business.google.com/
In the top corner, click on Manage Now, and then scroll down and click on ‘Add Your Business to Google’. Of course if I am building your website, then I can help you through all of this.
Once your company is added, Google will send you a physical postcard with a code on it to verify that you are in fact the business owner. Usually this shows up within a couple of weeks. Once it arrives, you enter your code and then you can start customizing and setting up your profile by adding business hours, contact info, etc.
This also allows customers to leave reviews for your business. We’ll cover the value of Google Reviews in another blog post in the near future.
The one caveat to all of this is: if you don’t want people knowing your address, then this isn’t for you. You have to have a physical store or address for this to work. For me, I use my house. There are some businesses where this isn’t advisable obviously, so keep that in mind.
Long story short, Google My Business has probably been the single most important driver of business for me as a small business owner. Getting to the top of the list doesn’t happen over night, but I think you’ll be surprised that if you suggest people find you this way, your page traffic will increase from this great free service.
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