If a potential customer searches for a business like yours online, how likely are they to find you?
When someone performs a search for a business in Google, they’ll often be presented with a map listing at the top of their search results. Underneath the map, there will be three businesses listed.
Each of the listed businesses will have options for a user to contact or to click and find out more information. There are also review stars, showing reviews left by customers.
Take a moment to load up your favourite web browser and search for your business locally. Use a search term that represents your business niche. For example, if you are a tax consultant and you’re based in Cilandak, Jakarta Selatan, then you would search “tax consultant in jakarta selatan” or “tax consultant jaksel”.
Is your business currently showing up at the top of the search results, under the map? If you’re not visible there, you’re potentially losing out to your competitors whose businesses are visible.
The listings here are controlled by a free service that Google offers called Google My Business.
To create a listing you can visit: https://business.google.com/create. There’s a search box here where you can type in the name of your business.
If your business appears, then you already have a Google My Business page. The message on the page will let you know how you can reset your login details. Alternatively, if someone else set up the page for you, then you’re able to request access.
If the search doesn’t find your business, you’ll be given the option to create a Google My Business page.
As part of the setup process, Google will ask you to verify your business. The verification process works via post, telephone, or email. One of the most usual forms of verification is for Google to send a postcard to your business address.
Once your page is verified, you can then add in your business details and information. This includes opening hours, business categories, photos and more.
Try and be as detailed as possible with the content that you add to your Google My Business page. Good quality content, photos and information, will help Google to see that your business is genuine. The information also helps potential customers who are looking for a business like yours.
As I mentioned earlier in the email, reviews are really important. The more reviews you have, the better the chance of showing up as one of the three businesses listed under the map in the search results.
Your customers are able to leave reviews on your Google My Business page. So make sure you take a moment to ask them to leave you a review.
This could be something you do at the point of sale if you have a retail store. If you run a service based business, add a note to your invoices or email your customer after the service has been delivered.
If you serve customers in your local area, it’s crucial that you have a Google My Business page set up. It can mean the difference between being visible to potential customers and losing them to your competitors.
We offer a quick start service to help our customers with Google My Business. This includes helping you to set up the page and carrying out some optimisation work. If you’re interested to learn more about the service, you set a meeting with me here: https://calendly.com/sabdigital
