Romance and succeed with Google and GMB by becoming viral in the digital world

The popularity of google is clear as it is now not just a noun, but a verb. For, many people do say ‘Google it” nowadays when trying to find out some information. We definitely need to know more about Google and leverage its strength in the digital world.

Image Source: attitudemarketing.com

1)      GMB is cost-effective:
2)      Add photos
3)      Add videos
4)      Properly categorize the business:
5)      Optimize the listing description

Google sends 50% of the traffic for free. We just need to use it to the best extent possible. For this, we must know what people are looking for. This is key principle of business itself, whether traditional or digital. The only advantage in the digital world is we have the power of search engines to utilise for free.

For this, we need to always focus on the users and not just on search engines when developing our optimization strategy. We need to ask ourselves what creates value for our users. These users are after all, our potential customers. 

Hence, we do need to invest in the quality of our content. This would earn natural backlinks benefits both the users and drives more qualified traffic to your site.

This is what would build our business on google effectively to leverage the digital world. Google is fair and completely democratic however, the competition too is global. For such a wide audience, we need to build content in such a manner that everyone can relate to it. This is not too difficult but does need care and commitment.

Google my business (GMB) is an app gives business owners more control of what shows in the search results when someone searches a given business name on Google. Naturally, there may be many who get shown but the quality of your content should be such that it should be shown when it is searched for.

The Benefits of Google My Business for Businesses, especially SMEs

People go online several times a day to find information to make their lives easier. Knowing this, Google has developed a way for businesses to stand out: it has developed GMB or Google My Business.

Essentially, google my business allows business owners to edit their information that shows up in a Google Search. This mainly include open hours, address, phone number, and photos.

Customers can review businesses about how the business is and business owners can respond to their reviews.

Google My Business mainly allows business owners to post updates about announcements or sales. There are currently 4 different types of post. They are: What's New, Events, Product, and Offer.

On each and every post type, users can add a description, photo, and link. We can also add an optional call-to-action button to posts. These options are book, buy, order online, learn more and sign up.

Why is google my business important and why should I care?

The benefits of google my business are:

1)      Increase visibility in search.

2)      Better experience for the buyers.

3)      More traffic to your website, social channels and so on.

A well formed GMB page helps google understand more about your business: who you are, what services/products you sell, where you’re located at, and what your website is.

The important thing is, the more google knows about you, the more the number of searches your GMB listing can appear in. 

Usually, when people type the name of our business, it often displays our knowledge panel alongside our website links.

When Google knows more about what we do and sell, it can help match you with other types of search queries.

Benefits of GMB

As we know,  GMB is a free business listing on one of the biggest search engines on the internet, putting your business in front of many potential customers.

There are of course several other prominent directories online for different industries. These listings usually come at a price, whether it’s a monthly fixed rate or yearly rate.

On the other hand, the leader, GMB listing gives potential clients easy access to your hours of operation, phone number, website and directions with a click of a button—all at no cost to us. Our free GMB profile also gives customers an inside look at your business by giving insight into your busiest hours as well as review ratings.

If we have a limited budget, every dollar counts, and having such a valuable resource for free can allow you to direct your resources elsewhere.

According to Google, businesses with photos see 35% more clicks on their website and 42% higher requests for driving directions in Google Maps. 

Photos should be at least 720 pixels wide by 720 pixels high and JPG or PNG files. 

Videos must be:

·                        30 seconds or shorter

·                        100 MB or smaller

·                        720p resolution or higher

Videos  add some variety to our profile and make us stand out among other businesses in our category. These however are optional and not mandatory."

We need to add a primary industry category, or “keyword” to describe your business.

Some people do not know that we can add up to five additional categories. We need to make use of all the five categories.

The primary category is always the main one while the remaining five categories incorporate local SEO keywords that act as additional descriptors. So, if we an educational institute in Mumbai, we must write Education as the primary category and Mumbai and additional details as secondary categories.

Your Google Maps listing has a character limit, so we must include local SEO keywords that describe our business. For instance, instead of “realtor with excellent customer service”, we could write “Dallas realtor with minimum costs” or something similar.

So, we do ask you to google it with GMB effectively and suggest the following checklist

Google Checklist

a.       Description

b.      Keywords

c.       Categories

d.      Images

e.       Videos (optional) 

In Sum

We have a global customer base even if we are just an SME. This is the power of the digital world. To use it effectively, we just need to understand and use it effectively. Let us begin now.