You’ve read about the benefits, and your decision has been made you’re finally going to set up a Google My Business profile.
Before you can get going and start optimizing your profile, you have to answer this question: ‘How can I claim my business listing?’ Fortunately, the answer is a straightforward one. Simply search your business name on Google, find your listing, and select the “Claim this business” or “Own this business” link. Another method is to set up your profile via the following link:
https://business.google.com/locations
Although rare, you might be faced with the prospect of someone else having erroneously claimed your GMB listing. In this case, get in touch with Google to request for ownership to be transferred over.
Why optimization is important
Your account is up and running. This is already a giant leap forward in boosting your local search traffic potential. To maximize results, however, there are several steps to take when optimizing your Google My Business profile. Do this, and you’re in line to attract even more traffic thanks to your local SEO efforts.
Yes, time and effort are required for optimizing your profile. Yet the work needs to be done if you want to compete against your big rivals in local search. If you’re ready to learn how to optimize your Google Business listing, the following tips offer an ideal starting point:
Get the basics right
Before jumping in too deep, you must focus on the basics first. They serve as the foundation for your Google My Business account – if the basics are wrong, the rest of your efforts will crumble. So what are the basics? Essentially, the basics are the main pieces of data you initially enter when creating your GMB account.
This begins with your business name. It’s an easy starting point, right? Surely nobody could get their business name wrong, right!? Well, it happens more than you think. It’s not due to ignorance, thankfully. You see, there are certain SEO practitioners who believe incorporating keywords alongside your business name helps search ranking.
It doesn’t. It will only cause damage to your ranking if anything. Google only wants your actual business name. No keywords. No taglines. No location details. Just the business name and nothing else.
As a side note, targeted keywords do have a place on your GMB profile. They can be implemented on your website’s title tag and text. Furthermore, the business description is prime real estate – more on the description itself later.
Going back to the rest of your basic information, fill in your address, business category, phone number, website, and business hours. Ensure you’re accurate and consistent with these details – they should match up with the same information found on other directories and your site.
Photos
Visual content is massively effective as a promotional tool. You don’t need to be a marketing genius to know that. As a result, it makes sense to enhance the visual appeal of your Google My Business account by using photos.
Avoid uploading any type of photo. You want to implement high-quality, professional pictures that place your company in a positive light. The good news is quality images can be captured with most modern smartphones these days.
When uploading your photos, Google suggests following these guidelines:
- Minimum dimensions: 720 x 720 pixels
- Max 5MB file size
- Saved in .JPG or .PNG format
Your GMB account allows for different photo types to be uploaded. These include the cover, profile, and general photos.
Cover photo
‘What’s the cover photo size for Google My Business?’ is a popular search query for one simple reason: it’s an essential image for your GMB profile. It’s the picture which represents your business, used in thumbnails where your listing appears alongside the competition.
This means you need to select a quality cover image, one that isn’t stretched or overly compressed. As for a Google My Business cover photo size, it is recommended to go with the following dimensions: 1080 x 608 pixels.
Profile photo
On GMB, the profile photo is essentially your avatar. When you make a post or respond to a customer review, the profile photo will be displayed alongside your message. While most will go with a business logo, your profile photo could be a professional headshot for that added personal touch.
General photos
To fully illustrate what your business offers, various general photos can be uploaded. Here are some ideas to consider:
- The exterior/interior of the business
- Employees working
- Your most noteworthy products/services
- Customers enjoying your products/services
Videos
Alongside photos, it makes sense to utilize the Google My Business video upload feature. This is needed if you want to optimize your business listing fully. Videos are perfect for engaging your audience. It’s effective for demonstrating a product/service, advertising a special offer, and taking viewers on a business tour.
There are restrictions, however. 100MB is the max file size for GMB videos. 30 seconds is also the limit on videos. Yet with some creativity, you can work around these limitations to craft effective content.
Business description
Along with being a great way to sell your business to customers, the business description is the ideal opportunity to incorporate keywords into your Google My Business profile. When writing your business description, remember these two numbers: 250 and 750.
The 250 represents the number of characters displayed with your description’s short version. This means that, within these 250 characters, the description needs to be compelling while also being able to stand on its own.
The 750 is the total number of characters you’re permitted for your business description. That means the remaining 500 characters give you ample opportunity to insert keywords and cover all relevant business information.
Producing a compelling, keyword-focused description is not an easy prospect. If you need help, you can utilize our content writing services.
Still feel you don’t have a clear answer for the question, ‘How to optimize my business profile on GMB?’ There’s no need to worry – our managed SEO campaign has you covered. This managed campaign doesn’t just optimize Google My Business profiles, either. We can assist with your entire local SEO campaign, including keyword research, link building, and producing on-page content.
