How many times have you found yourself accessing Google to get absolutely any sort of information at all? Be it the meaning of a random word you read, the capital of a country you never heard the name of, or just the nearest places to your location; Google has got our backs since 1998. It is a gold-mine when it comes to accessing any and every type of information.
GMO Logo. [Source: Google.com]
However, what many of us do not realise is that Google is also a goldmine for all business owners out there. Google My Business is a free business tool that will help in promoting local ventures and managing their online presence all across all Google sites. Whether it’s a small business like a thrift or a hand-loom store, or a bigger business like an escape room, Google My Business can benefit one and all.
In this blog post, we will discover the benefits of Google My Business for small businesses.
1. Increases your visibility
Let’s just say that you are trying to locate the nearest gym to where you live. Do you opt for fieldwork and look for one personally, or just Google it up? Most of us will go for the latter option. Google is one of the most used search engines in the world, which records up to 63,000 searches/second at any given point in time.
Moreover, the Google ‘near me’ like ‘escape rooms near me’ searches have increased twofold over the past year. Customers find it convenient when your business is nearer to their location, which in turn would help you in boosting your sales. In fact, customers who discover your store through GMB are 50% more likely to make purchases from you. Optimizing your local SEO will help your small business compete with the bigger ones out there.
2. It’s cost-effective
The best feature of Google My Business is that it is free on one of the most popular search engines in the world. There are many more platforms out there to help you with listing your business but at a price. Google My Business, however, provides its services for free, which is a very pleasant surprise, especially for small business owners. Google My Business enables your potential customers with every possible information, from the busiest hours of the day to the contact details; everything is available to them at the click of a button. As a small business owner, each penny counts, and Google itself offering such a great service for free is nothing short of a blessing.
3. High Visibility
As we stated earlier, Google My Business helps in promoting local businesses by listing your business in its top three in the Google Local Pack. It provides most of the crucial information about your business in a single view. The Google Local Pack is a Search Engine Results Page (SERP) that offers information about places relevant to your research. For example, a salon, a boutique, a hardware store, etc. The customer gets access to the exact location of your business/store, contact numbers, website address, email address, etc. The more optimized the profile, the better. Google My Business is one of the biggest deciding factors for your Google Local Pack rankings of your business. Google My Business makes connecting to your target audience on a huge platform seem like a piece of cake.
4. Allows people to leave reviews
Customer experience is what determines how well your business is going to run the show, especially for a small business, which brings us to another beneficial feature of the Google My Business- reviewing. Any customer who discovered your business through Google My Business is sure to leave a review behind for everyone to see, including you. Reviews often make business owners assume the worst. However, if your small business is really worth it and provides services way better than any big business in the same line, one good review can flood a whole customer base into your store. Moreover, reviews help in boosting your local SEO. Hence, we encourage you to welcome reviews, for the 93% of your customer base would first like to know how good of a customer service you provide.
5. Offers to help you create an official website for your company
Contact details are necessary for any business to create a communication channel with their customers. Most of the time, after a customer views your business profile on Google, your website is the second go-to place for them. However, building a good website for your business requires a good amount of money, which is why many small businesses pass out on creating one. This is where Google My Business comes to your rescue once again. Google My Business offers a website creation option to you, that too, you guessed it, for free! As soon as you create and optimize your profile on Google My Business, your website will automatically generate information from your profile. However, you have the option to customize it according to your liking and the customers’ ease by supplementing with extra information like pictures and making it more attractive with design and text tools. All that is required from your end is to purchase a domain (which is usually inexpensive) and link your Google Analytics account to it.
Conclusion
One additional tip from our end would be to claim and optimise your business with this tool and get started with online marketing aggressively. Remember, most of your customer base is online, so it’s crucial that you increase your online presence, especially when you are trying to transition into a revenue-generating venture.