How to optimize your local SEO with Google My Business?

Google My Business, a tool for local visibility

Your Google My Business listing will help you conquer the world. Well, maybe not THE world, but your world, locally. Thanks to Google’s local SEO, people searching for you will finally know that you exist, and how they can reach you from Google Maps.

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes for a moment. Imagine you need a plumber, a lawyer, you’re looking for a gym, or even an SEO Agency. You do a Google search and the search engine “concludes” that you want to contact someone. In an insert reserved for Google My Business listings, it shows you the best referenced professionals locally:

With Google Local Search, you can quickly find :

• The professionals closest to you, if you don’t enter a specific location and your geolocation is activated;
• The professionals with the best listings on Google My Business in the geographical area you’re interested in, if you target your search locally.

Once you’ve completed your listing, your customers will be able to find your company.

This insert is placed before the first natural results on Google, giving you a significant positioning advantage!

Another advantage: Google Maps will be able to geolocate you. Your potential customers will know exactly where to find you, and will be able to find their way around.

In addition to increased visibility, your customers will be better targeted and therefore more qualified!

Last but not least, you can add photos and videos to your Google My Business page, as well as publicize your news and gather reviews. All these reassuring elements also increase the confidence of your potential customers.

What are the main features of Google My Business?

The first questions, to get to know each other better

Thanks to your Google pro account (the “pro” part is really important). All you have to do is create an account that you’ll use only for your professional activity, then you can create a listing and start conquering “your” world!

Google will start by asking you a few simple questions. For example, it will ask you for the name of your establishment, a telephone number, or whether you have premises where your customers can visit. If you don’t, don’t panic – you won’t be penalized.

Your answers will influence both the validation of your listing and the visibility of your business on the Google Maps insert.

Next, enter the area in which you operate. For example, if you work for a law firm, you may want to target people in your department, your region or the neighboring region. If the catchment area isn’t important for your business, enter “France” to reach the whole country.

Be as honest as possible in your description. Don’t “bullshit” Google by thinking that by writing this, your Google My Business ranking will be better, or that by posting a photo that has nothing to do with your business, you’ll win over Internet users. That would be shooting yourself in the pixel.

Photos, because looks still matter

Choose good-quality photos and try to group them by theme. For example, if you’re a florist, group together photos of your premises, your arrangements and your team. This will be more “readable” for Internet users.

Through photos, and depending on your activity, the idea is to inspire confidence in your visitors, to let them into your world, to introduce them to their future contacts, to make them want to visit you…

A little tip to optimize the use of your photos: activate the geolocation option to boost your local referencing on Google.

Posts, because you have things to write about

They too help to increase your visibility. Just like the articles on your blog or website. You can use them to announce promotions, present your best sales or “recruit” additional subscribers for your newsletter.

If you have a blog on which you regularly publish articles, you can share them on your Google My Business listing.

It would be a shame to have done all that work and forget to give your customers a way to act! So set up a CTA – there are four different buttons:

1. Find out more ;
2. To register ;
3. Make a reservation ;
4. Buy now.

Place just one, chosen according to your activity or the action you want your audience to perform.

The itinerary, because you may have your own premises

For all those who have premises (stores, practices, offices…) where customers/patients can visit, Google offers the simplest route for Internet users.

Who benefits from this tool?

As long as your profession requires you to have customers or patients, your local referencing on Google is a real plus for you. Especially if your customers/patients are located in a specific geographical area.

If we take the examples of a patisserie, a psychoanalyst and a local association, all three operate within a limited perimeter (few people are willing to cross France for a coffee éclair!). Their Google My Business listing is therefore essential: it strengthens their local presence on the search engine.

The only non-negotiable condition is to have a valid postal address. Google will send a letter to verify the existence of the establishment.

How to optimize results on Google My Business?

Google asks for your company name. This can be your first and last name, or the name of your company.

On the Internet, you’ll hear two sides of the argument. The more acute will tell you to optimize this name with keywords. Instead of Jasmine Doras, for example, you’ll be told to specify Jasmine Doras Kinésithérapeute. The second, more serious sound will tell you that you can, but that it’s at your peril if Google catches you red-handed. Or rather, optimization in the name. It’s up to you…!

In the description section, you have more freedom. You have 750 characters to best describe your business, your establishment and anything else you feel is relevant. Use as much space as you can, and include key phrases.

Customer reviews can also help you move up the Google My Business ranking. With a certain semantic field, your customers will probably use keywords that will help you rank better. For each review, you can provide an answer. Your answers are also important, because you know the words you’re using, and are therefore using keywords that are important to your business. What’s more, if Google sees that you’re taking the trouble to reply to your customers, it’ll be nicer to you!

Choose the photo that illustrates your listing with care. A shot that’s too dark, merchandise that doesn’t correspond to what your establishment sells, or a poorly defined image can turn off your customers when they’re deciding whether or not to visit you.

How do you see and analyze the results?

After your listing has been online for a while, you can view the statistics and see how it’s performing. Just log in to your Google My Business account.

In your dashboard :

• Click on Manage address or on the blue icon next to your address (depending on the display mode selected).
• Click on Statistics

You’ll have access to a variety of data:

• Number of views of your listing ;
• Number of times your listing appears in search results;
• Number of times visitors opened your posts;
• Number of impressions of your photos;
• Number of clicks to get to your site;
• Number of clicks to display directions to your premises;
• Number of clicks on your telephone number.

You’ll also be able to see which keywords helped visitors find your listing. You’ll find the ranking of unique users who have performed a search.

This feature will help you improve your local SEO on Google My Business.

If creating a Google My Business listing seems time-consuming or complex, remember that it’s an important lever for your local SEO. It’s essential to inspire confidence in your potential future customers, and your listing can clearly help you achieve this.

When lack of time is the only obstacle to creating your listing, ask qualified professionals to help you. They’ll give you the best place in Google’s local listings!