The other half of the success story is getting your business to the people that need your products and services. For many companies this means appearing in search results and making it convenient for users to visit their website, access their contact details, read customer reviews, and get directions to their premises. Google Business Profile is the missing piece of technology that businesses need in order to achieve all of this and more, and it’s as simple to install as reading this guide.

So, what is Google Business Profile?

Google Business Profile — this is a free service that every small business owner needs to take advantage of. You can manage the data that’s displayed for your business on every Google service such as Google Reviews and Google Maps with your Google Business Profile. If you edit something in your Google Business Profile like your hours or location, everything updates automatically.

Consistency is very important for small to medium businesses (SMBs), in this digital age of web searching, Google Business Profile makes it super easy to offer a satisfying user experience. Utilizing all the resources such as the Google Business Profile you can generate more people that will be able to visit your company, get in touch with your employees and discover more of your quality products and services. Here’s how to get started.

How to Get Your Google Business Account & Check Your Business Info?

And then take your business. Sign in using an existing Google account or make a new one for this. – Your store location does not need to be a place that people can come to see. You can choose “no location” if you are home-based or if you have a warehouse, you don’t want customers to go to and so your listing won’t have your address or appear on Google Maps.

The first things you need to fill or confirm are the basics like location, hours, website, phone number, etc. Be as specific as you can as these are going to be listed on your Google Maps listing.

The second most important thing is to have your business certified with Google. This is a fairly quick way that Google can attest to the authenticity of your business. Usually this is by way of a phone call, but it can be done with a trigger email or postcard. After you are done, you’ll see a little blue sign next to your listing so everyone knows it’s verified.

Creating from the Google Business Profile dashboard.

But aside from being able to manage your business’s data, there are other handy features you’ll want to access on the Google Business Profile dashboard.

Info

It is in the info section that you can put your business information like your company name, address, phone number, hours. And if any of this changes (whether permanently or in the short term), you should correct the data here. : Google will usually email you to remind you to do things like update holiday hours.

Photos

The dashboard is where you can see the photos other people have taken of your business and add your own. Prospective clients (millennials in particular) want to see images of your business, like professional product shots (or imagery related to your services) and/or location shots (360-degree virtual tours) and your logo. Having these visual cues can direct potential customers towards you.

Products and services

These two dashboard rows are where you tell potential customers what you offer and what’s different about your product or service. Update this section when you introduce a new product/service or terminate a sale. If you’re a business that has appointment schedule, then include a link to make an appointment here.

Calls and messages

Google can log all calls and messages redirected to your company from Google. This gives you access to more prospects; you can see your leads from Google, and call anyone who didn’t speak to someone.

The calls’ function alerts you about missed calls by day of week and time of day so that you can man the phones when the lines are busy. Send messages — Customers can text you directly from Google search or Google Maps.

Insights

The nimble dynamic analytics dashboard for Google Business Profile is called Insights. You get Insights, and this is how people are finding you and what you’re getting to and not getting. It also shows you how many people visited you through search for your company name, and how many people visited you through search for your product or service.

Posts

You can use Google Posts to announce new deals and advertise your specialties to your customers. Posting sales and deals, seasonal events and offers is another good way to attract new customers. If people see your company in Google, then they’ll also see your latest posts, so a headline is the key.

Reviews

The reviews section is probably the most important section of Google Business Profile. You can also see the customer reviews of your business and reply to them in the reviews section.

While you may feel you should only respond to the bad reviews to make your own voice heard, you should respond to both the good and the bad reviews to thank them for their good reviews and work on correcting errors pointed out by the bad ones. Anyone who has left a bad review and then their issue was solved will be able to delete that review and edit it for good. Because this is a very important aspect of your reputation online, we will talk more about handling your Google reviews later down.

Other functions

There are other tools in Google Business Profile like you can add users like an in-house marketing person or marketing agency, a Google website for your company, get a personalized Gmail address for your company, and Google Ads.

What is the Advantage of Google Business Profile?

Search engines dominate: Google alone conducts about 5.4 billion searches per day and has 92 percent market share. Which means that the best chances are very high that your audience is already online on Google, perhaps searching for the products and services that your company provides.

If you are a digital marketer, to not be on Google is to be non-existent. As a business, once you claim and control your Google Business Profile:

• Tell potential clients you are out there.
• Garner credibility and legitimacy.
• Promote what you sell or do.
• Let your customers know who you are and how to reach you.
• Indicate which days and hours you are open.
• Tell potential clients who are current and former clients of you.
• Tell people whatever else you have to say.
• Drive traffic to your website.

How to keep Google reviews for your business in check?

Customer reviews are a core part of any company. Unfortunately, not all SMB owners are trained in how to handle and respond to bad reviews. So pervasive is the issue that Google offers business users some suggestions but we have some to offer too:

• Apologise is okay, argue is not: If someone had a bad experience and you think they are lying about what happened or are just misrepresenting what happened, you don’t want to argue or explain why they were wrong. Remember that you are not looking to nudge one irate reviewer out of the blue; you are presenting the type of businessman you are to every prospective reader that encounters you. Every business owner that comes off defensive online is a massive turn-off and huge red flag. instead: Apologize for the awful experience and thank them that you hope they will get better in the future.
• Promise to correct it: Even if the reviewer doesn’t take you up on your offer of correcting, it shows the rest of Google users that you are interested in your users and are customer-centric.
• Be short and keep it consistent: If you’re going to respond to reviews online, have a procedure for it. Who in your company is going to do it, when? Set a weekday time to answer queries and reviews. You also want your answers to be a little short. Your inner voice might be cool and friendly, but a long multipara graph answer will sound rather psychotic and defensive.
• Say “thank you”: There are also owners who don’t say “thank you” to regular customers but write lengthy answers to bad reviewers. People notice that. And if they leave a really nice, thoughtful review, leave a little “thank you!”
• Don’t dismiss repeated negative reviews: The biggest pitfall that businesses make when it comes to online reviews is focusing on the positive reviews and ignoring the negative ones. The thing is, even if you disagree or you don’t think that’s the issue, but after seeing several reviews where your service people are rude, your prices are overpriced, your service is not top notch or something else bad, hear. Online reviews are a free focus group, you can just keep your head in the sand at the first indication of something bad or evolve your business by learning from it.

Ensure your business gets noticed by more users.

Google Business Profile: Google Business Profile is the tool that users look for every business. Once you claim your profile, verify your business and populate your profile with contact details, location and pictures, you’ll give your users an amazing user experience which can help them decide to use you over another company. You should claim your business if you aren’t already with the free Google Business Profile — you may not see its effects till decades later.