Why Google My Business Monthly Activity is Important for your Local Business

Once your Google My Business listing has been optimised it is sadly just a start; as with all digital marketing it is not enough to just “do it and leave it”.

To rank your business effectively Google want to see ongoing activity, not just on your GMB listing about around the internet. They know how valuable a listing in the GMB 3-pack is and for this reason are looking to promote the best local businesses.

Now no-one knows what is in the GMB ranking algorithm but it is important to see what Google publicly says:

“You may find that your business doesn’t show up for relevant searches in your area. To maximize how often users find your business in local search results, ensure that your business information in Business Profile is accurate, complete, and engaging.”

Obviously, accurate and complete can be ticked off by the full optimisation of your GMB listing (although it is work keeping on top of this as Google are regularly adding new things – the key now is engaging.

What is engaging?

The key to engaging is to continually have activity on your GMB listing, your website and social media accounts that is optimised for your keywords. Just posting volume does not result in engagement. In the eyes of Google engagement is when readers do something with this content, including:

  • Clicking on hyperlinks
  • Likes
  • Shares
  • Responding to posts
  • Clicking on a call button
  • Asking for directions


The key areas on your GMB listing where you can stimulate engagement are:

Regularly add Google Posts

  • Regularly add Questions and Answers and respond to any other questions asked by other people
  • Request reviews from your customers
  • Respond to all reviews
  • Regularly add photos of your business, staff, products and customers
  • Regularly add optimised videos to your YouTube channel that link back to your GMB listing
  • Add your business to additional online directories


This ensures your listing continues to get more visibility, traffic, calls, and new leads which you can then convert into customers.

GMB Posts

Google My Business Posts are a social feed/mini blog where you can publish updates about your business. Most importantly Google Posts are an important ranking factor for your Google My Business (GMB) ranking. This is because Google believes it is important that a business keeps its customers updated about activity within the business.

It is recommended that at least 1 new post is posted each week but overall, the more you post the higher your ranking.

Questions and Answers

Google My Business Questions and Answers are a good way to build your activity on your GMB listing. The vast majority of businesses wait for people to ask questions (and even then often do not respond) but there is no reason you cannot ask and answer questions yourself. This way you can populate your listing with valuable customer focused information.

It is recommend that at least 10 new questions and answers are added monthly.

Google Reviews

Google My Business helps you manage your online reputation by allowing customers to write reviews. Online customer reviews gives potential new customers a valuable insight into your business as well as providing social proof to Google that your business is reputable and should be ranked highly.

It is critical to respond to each review, good or bad, as this will encourage others to post reviews as well as demonstrating your commitment to good service. And remember the reviewer will be notified that you have responded to their review.

The more quality reviews you have, the better. A business with reviews coming in on a regular basis will rank higher than a listing that gets sporadic reviews (90% of people read reviews before purchasing).

 

GMB Photos and Videos

Your listing includes the option to post photos and video of your business. Same as reviews: the more genuine, quality photos and videos you have of your business, the better (listings with photos considered reputable and get 35% more clicks).

We would suggest having a minimum of 100 unique photographs on your listing. Always try to use unique photographs rather than stock photos and where possible brand your photographs, an example is shown below.

Online Directories (Citations)

Over the months continually add to your citation listings – although citations seem to be less important in the algorithms local and industry specific directories are of particular importance as local people are like to use these to locate a local supplier.

It is also worth spying on your direct competitors to see where they are listed and if you are missing these citation sites then get yourself listed. Here is a very smart tool that will help you spy on your competitors. Just enter the following search string into Google search:

 “full company name” “company post code” -site:url
e.g. “JMW Solicitors LLP” “M3 3HG” -https://www.jmw.co.uk

The result of doing this regularly month after month is that you will see:

  • Increased local rankings
  • More phone calls and website visits
  • More driving and foot traffic (if you have a premises open to the public)


In summary this should result in more customers and profit.

About Techy business services

Google My Business Manager is a service owned and run by Techy Business Services Ltd.

If you need any advice on how to get more Google Reviews or have any questions relating to any aspect of marketing your business online to local customers please feel free to contact us.

Phone: 01306 480440
Email: support@techybusinessservices.co.uk

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