SYNC360

Optimizing Google My Business for More Traffic

optimizing a google my business

Level: Intermediate
Time: 30 minutes - 2 hours (depending on the account

GMB optimization Goal

Optimize a Google My Business listing.

Ideal Outcome

Your Google My Business listing contains all the information necessary for potential customers to find you through search engines.

Prerequisites or requirements for Optimizing GMB

You need to have a Google My Business account already set up for this business. If you don’t have one already, you can follow How to Claim Business on Google to do that. If a Google My Business account already exists, you need to have access to manage it.

Why GMB Optimization is important

An optimized Google My Business listing is a fundamental element of local SEO. It allows businesses with physical presence to acquire new customers through Google.

When Optimizing GMB is Done

Most of this optimization will be done once and will only need to be reviewed if there are changes to your business (e.g. changes to opening hours, new services or products, etc). Other tasks are on-going and you will need to continue working on them for as long as the business is operating.

Who Does This

The business owner/manager or the person/agency local digital marketing/SEO.

Optimizing the Business Info

1. Manage Google My Business

Visit the Google My Business site and click “Manage now”
Manage now

2. Sign in Google Account

Next, sign into the Google Account you use to manage this business
sign into the Google Account

3. Optimizing a Google My Business then Click the Pencil Icon

Click the pencil icon next to the business you’re going to work on

Click the pencil icon

4. Optimizing GMB Update Click “Info”

On the left-hand-side menu, click “Info”
left-hand-side menu

5. Update Name of the Business

Make sure the name of the business is written correctly. Update it if necessary

name of the business

6. Business Category

Next, click the icon to edit the business category

  • A. Select the primary category that best describes your business. If you’re not sure what to pick, try searching for your main competitors in Google and see what they selected as their primary category.
  • B. [Optional] If there are other services or products that you offer that don’t fit the primary category, you can include it as an additional category.
optimizing google my business category
optimizing google my business primary category
optimizing google my business additional category

Important: don’t attempt to stuff your listing with loosely related additional categories. You want to select only those that are super relevant to your business. If you select unrelated categories, it can result in a high bounce rate (from users searching for a product or service, viewing your listing, realizing you don’t offer what they were looking for, and going back to the search results), which can end up hurting your search rankings.

7. Optimizing GMB with Business Address

Make sure the business address is written correctly. Update it if necessary:
optimizing google my business-address

8. Add Services Area

[Optional] If your business offers products or services outside of the business location (e.g. product deliveries, on-site services, etc), you can add a service area to specify the entire geographic location the business services

optimizing google my business-add services area outside business location
  • A. If that’s the case you can just type out the area you want to add to your listing
services area

9. Business Opening Hours

Next, edit the business opening hours
business opening hours
  • A. Toggle the days when the business is open, and input the specific opening and closing hours
specific opening and closing hours

10. Business Specific Hours

10. [Optional] If you have specific services that have specific hours within opening times (e.g. delivery times, happy hour, etc), you can add “More hours”

specific hours
  • A. Select the special services or offers from the list
special services or offers
  • B. Define the day and hours for each of them
Define the hours

11. Business Special Hours

[Optional] If you have special hours (e.g. open on specific holidays), you can specify that too.
Add special hours
  • A. Add the specific dates and define the hours for each of them
specific dates and times

12. Add a Business Phone Number

[Optional but recommended] Add a phone number where customers can contact your business

business phone number
  • A. If necessary, you can add several phone numbers to your listing
several business phone number

13. Add Business Website URL

Make sure the business website URL is written correctly. Update it if necessary:

business website URL

14. Optimizing GMB with Services Offered

[Optional] Add the services offered at this location

business offers products or services
  • A. Services are specific to the business categories you previously selected for your business. If you selected more than one category, you’ll be able to add relevant services for each of them separately.
services categories
  • B. For some categories, Google will provide you with predefined services you can pick from.
predefined services
  • C. In other categories in which Google doesn’t provide predefined services, or if you want to add a service that’s not listed, you can add custom services yourself.
add custom services
  • D. [Optional] Once you’ve selected your services, you can add pricing information and descriptions to each of them
add pricing information and descriptions

15. Optimizing a Google My Business Attributes Section

Next, edit the attributes section

  • A. In this section, add relevant details about accessibility, amenities, highlights, payment options, planning, and service options
  • B. Important: only select the options that accurately represent the reality of your business. For these options, Google will routinely survey people who visit your location to try to verify if the information is accurate.
attributes section

16. Business Opening Date

[Optional] Add the date when your business started in this location. This is mostly for branding reasons.

business opening date
  • A. Just fill in the opening date

17. Optimizing a Google My Business with Photos

Finally, an important element of GMB optimizing your listing is to add photos. It’s a good idea to add as many types of photos as possible.

  • A. The recommended dimensions for all Google My Business images are 720px wide by 720px tall (except for cover photos which is 1024 x 576), between 10 KB and 5 MB, and in JPG or PNG formats.
  • B. Logo: this is the image that will be used when you post updates or reply to questions or reviews.
  • C. Cover: this is one of the most important photos, because it will be featured prominently on your business profile page, search results, and Google Maps.
  • D. Product: include photos of the products that are for sale in your store
  • E. Interior: if relevant, you can include photos of the interior of your business (this is usually a great addition for businesses like restaurants, bars, cafes, coworking spaces, etc)
  • F. Exterior: if Google already has Street View images of the area where your business is located, this image will already be available. This helps users find or identify your business when they’re nearby.
  • G. Other: you can also add other types of assets like videos, or photos of your team, showcasing the work.
add photos

Managing GMB Optimization Reviews

Note: the first time you optimize this listing, you’ll need to try to reply to all the unanswered reviews the business currently has (if any). After this first round of replies is done, it’s recommended that you reply to new reviews as they come in (check out the section on managing Google My Business settings to set up notifications for new reviews.)

1. Inside the Google My Business dashboard, on the left-hand-side menu, click “Reviews”

click reviews

2. Click on “Haven’t replied”

Havent replied

3. Reply to all of the recent reviews for this listing – it’s a good idea to try to answer as many as you can.

  • a. It’s especially important to reply to negative reviews. Don’t try to pick a fight with the reviewer. Instead, provide an answer that would be satisfying to another person viewing your business listing and browsing through 1- and 2-star reviews - these are the people you are really writing for.

Managing the Question & Answers Section

Note: the first time you optimize this listing, you’ll need to try to reply to all the unanswered questions the business currently has (if any). After this first round of replies is done, it’s recommended that you reply to new questions as they come in (check out the section on managing Google My Business settings to set up notifications for new questions.)

1. The question and answers section is only accessible through the actual listing and not through the Google My Business dashboard. To get here, search for the business in Google and make sure you’re logged into the account that has access to manage this business listing.

Google My Business dashboard

2. Scroll down on the listing until you reach the “Questions & answers” section and click on “See all questions”

3. For any questions that don’t have an answer from the business, click on the “Answer button” to reply.
answer button

4. Before posting, make sure you’re replying as the business

make sure you’re replying as the business

Managing Google My Business Settings

To make sure you can provide timely replies to new reviews and questions, it’s recommended that you make sure you have notifications enabled.

Execution Time: 30 minutes – 2 hours (depending on the account)
1. Inside the Google My Business dashboard, on the left-hand-side menu, click “Settings”
Settings

2. Make sure notifications are enabled for “customer reviews” and “questions and answers” (and any other alerts that are relevant to this business)

customer reviews

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