Understanding Google Business Profile (Previously known as Google My Business)

Google Business Profile (GBP) is a tool that gives you the power to shape how your business is presented on Google Search, Google Maps, and Google Shopping. By leveraging this tool, you can easily connect with your customers, publish real-time business updates, showcase your products or services, and much more.

Why Google My Business is Vital for Your Business Growth?

Maintaining a Google Business Profile has three key benefits that can help you grow your business.

Boosting your visibility on Google

To increase your visibility on Google, you may have noticed the “local pack” or “map pack” at the top of search engine results when searching for a business. It displays a map and a list of businesses related to your search. The local pack is triggered by location-specific queries, such as “restaurants near me” or search terms that indicate a specific location. It displays Google Maps results and relevant business information.

Businesses with well-optimized Google Business Profiles are likelier to appear in these local pack results. Mobile searches containing phrases like “where to buy” and “near me” have grown tremendously recently. These are known as “discovery searches,” where users search for a particular category rather than a specific brand.

For example, if a user searches for your business with a term like “SEO Company in Jaipur,” your business is more likely to show up as a location-based result if your Business Profile is well-optimized.

Building trust with customer reviews

Customer reviews are crucial to building credibility for your business online. Around 98% of users read online reviews before purchasing or visiting a local business.

When you add a business to Google Maps, the star rating next to your business name (ranging from 1 to 5) reflects your overall customer reviews. The more positive reviews you will receive, the higher your star rating will be, which can attract more potential customers to your business.

Google Business Profile Reviews offer valuable feedback about your business and can provide insights into areas where you can improve. When you respond to reviews, it can help foster a sense of trust with your customers. According to Google, having a mix of positive and negative reviews can be considered more credible and trustworthy. By responding to all types of reviews, you can develop a sense of feeling among your customers that you care for them and are committed to delivering high-quality service. This can help build credibility with both your current and future customers.

For instance, if the customers like SEO services from a reputable company, they will write positive feedback about the company. This will help in building trust with the customers.

Sharing critical business information with your target audience

Your Google Business Profile allows you to share important information with your customers, such as your business hours, contact information, and list of services.

In addition to this, you can also update your customers about any temporary changes to your business. For example, you can list holiday hours or indicate if your business is temporarily closed or fully reopened. This can help keep your customers informed and avoid any confusion or frustration.

Now that you have understood the benefits or importance of a Google Business Profile, a question arises: how to create a Google page for business free?

How to Create a Google Business Profile from the Beginning

Want to see your Google My Business Listings? We can help you create or promote Google local listing for your business.

Suppose you are new to your business and want to set up your business profile on Google. In that case, W3Era is your perfect choice as we create your Google Business Profile and optimize it for better business visibility. Here is the step-by-step guide to creating a Google Business Profile from scratch.

Step 1: Add Your Business to Google Maps

The first step to creating your Google Business Profile is to add your business to Google Maps. To do this, you can navigate to Google Maps and open the menu by clicking the toggle button on the top left corner of the page. An option “Add your business” will be visible on the Menu list.

Step 2: Set up your Business Account

The next step is to create your Google business account. If your business account has already been created, you can sign in to Google My Business. However, on the contrary, if your account has not been created, then a new account needs to be created by following some steps.

Clicking on the “Create account” button and selecting “To manage my business” from the drop-down menu allows you to create a new account specifically for your business.

The next step is to fill out your personal information, such as your name and preferred username, and click the “Next” button. Google will then ask you to verify your identity with a phone number. After completing this step, you will be asked for more details before being directed to the terms and conditions page. After reading the terms and conditions, click the “Agree” button to set up your Google business account.

Step 3: Fill Out the Name

You must fill out your business name to set up your Google Business Profile. Then Google will display a list of existing businesses in its database. When you see your business on the list, you must learn how to claim it. However, if your business does not appear on the list, you need to write your business name as it is. If you add unnecessary keywords to your business name, this may result in the suspension of your account. As a result, your account will not be visible on Google’s search engine.

Step 4: Choose your Business Type

In this section, you will see three options that apply to your business. All three options are described in detail below.

• If you have an “Online Retail” business

You can select on “Online Retail” option if your customers can purchase your products through your website. After selecting your business type, select the “Next” button.

• If you have a “Local Store” business

You can click on the “Local Store” option enabling customers to visit your business physically, and then click on the “Next” button.

• If you have a “Service Business.”

You can choose “Service Business” if you visit customers and then serve your services to them. Then, click the “Next” option to proceed to the next step.

Step 5: If you select an “Online Retail” business

If you have selected this option, then you will be directed to the next sections that are listed below:

• You need to enter your website address. This section is optional. You can skip this section, enter your website address, and click the “Next” button.
• After clicking the “Next” button, enter your business category and select the “Next” button.
• If your business has a physical address, you can add it to your Business Profile and provide your accurate address for the convenience of your customers who want to reach your business. Your address will be visible to searchers if you get a listing on Google Maps.
• After clicking the “Next” button, Google will ask, “Is this your business?”. You need to select your business from the list, and if your business is not listed on the list, then you need to select the” None of these” option and click on the “Next” button.

Step 6: If you click on the “Local Store” business

If you selected this option, you need to fill out some information as mentioned below.

• After clicking the “Next” button, enter your business category and select the “Next” button.
• If your business has a physical address, you can add it to your Business Profile and provide your accurate address for the convenience of your customers who want to reach your business. Your address will be visible to searchers if you get a listing on Google Maps.
• After clicking the “Next” button, Google will ask, “Is this your business?”. You need to select your business from the list, and if your business is not listed on the list, then you need to select the” None of these” option and click on the “Next” button.

Step 7: If you click on “Service Business”

If you selected this option, you need to fill out some information as described below.

• You will be directed to the next section, where you need to enter your business category.
• After entering your business category and clicking the “Next” button, Google asks, “Where do you serve your customers?”. This section is optional, where you can add areas informing customers about the locations where your business is providing deliveries or office and home visits and then click the “Next” button. If you have skipped this section, you must enter the region where your business is located.

Before moving on to the next section, if you still have doubts regarding the business type, you can check out our video for a more comprehensive guide.

Step 8: Where are you located?

In this step, you can drag and zoom the map and spot the exact location where your business is situated. Then, click on the “Next” button.

Step 9: Add Your Contact Information

After choosing your business location, you can add your phone number to be visible on your business profile. Your contact information is crucial, as searchers will use it to get in touch with you. Due to this, you need to ensure that the information or data you provide is accurate and up-to-date. However, this section is optional.

Step 10: Receive Updates and Recommendations

After creating your Google listing for free, Google will ask if you want to receive updates and recommendations. If you opt-in for the latest updates, you will remain informed about the latest practices from Google.

Step 11: Verify Your Free Business Listing on Google

This step is imperative as verifying your free business listing on Google makes your Business Profile searchable. You can verify your business listing by phone, which Google will call or text you with a verification code. After verifying your contact number, you will be directed to the next section, “Customize Profile”.

Step 12: Customize Profile

In this section, you could add additional information about your business to create a customized profile for your business.

• Business Hours
• Accept Messages on Google
• Business Description
• Add photos of your business
• Get a customized domain name for your website

After verifying your contact information on the phone, your business details will be visible to your esteemed customers.

By following the steps mentioned above, our expert professionals will create an appealing and accurate Google Business Profile for your business to be listed on Google. This helps in the growth of your business through improved online presence.

 Avoid 5 Mistakes That Will Suspend Your Google Business Profile

Google’s business profile is an effective marketing channel that will help enhance the local search visibility of online businesses on Google’s local business listing. When you run a local business, you need to leverage the power of your business profile with the help of Google My Business Optimization services. If you plan to create a Google business profile, then W3Era is the leading provider in creating your business profile on Google.

If your business relies on your Google Business Page or Profile to attract customers, then careful consideration must be taken to set up a free business page on Google. There are 5 costly mistakes that every digital marketing agency needs to avoid to protect Google’s business profile.

Your Google Business Profile Might be in Danger

Identifying the common mistake you have made while setting up your Google business profile, you can find the answer to the question, “Why was my Google business profile suspended?”

• Address Violations

Google has mentioned which addresses are being used by businesses to create business profiles on Google. If you violate these rules, this can lead to the suspension of your Google business profile. All the addresses like P.O. boxes, UPS boxes, and virtual office or co-working space addresses come under the address violations rule and are generally not allowed unless a co-working space meets certain criteria. It is imperative to abide by these guidelines to prevent your business profile from being suspended.

One common address violation rule is using a home address that does not have permanent signage or a physical location for customers to visit. Service-based businesses that operate from home but visit customers for work are not allowed to list their addresses on their Google business profiles. This is a common mistake many business owners make, and violating this rule can lead to suspension.

• Editing your business profile

Editing critical information on your Google Business Profile, such as your business name, address, phone number, or categories, can result in suspension. Google categorizes such changes in Google’s business profile to suspend any suspicious activity and may flag them for review. Google has kept a close eye on profiles for suspicious activity and may impose penalties for violating their guidelines, including suspension. To avoid any issues, you must ensure that any changes you make to your profile comply with Google’s guidelines. Regularly reviewing and updating your profile with accurate and relevant information can boost your business’s visibility and credibility on Google.

• Adding unnecessary keywords to your profile

Adding extra keywords to your Google Business Profile’s name, known as keyword stuffing, can lead to its suspension on Google. This occurs when businesses attempt to manipulate their search ranking by adding irrelevant keywords to their business name. Google strictly prohibits this tactic and considers it a violation of its guidelines. To avoid suspension, businesses should use their name in their Google business profile. While keyword stuffing may provide short-term gains, it can damage a business’s reputation in the long run and make it challenging to recover from a suspension.

• The same phone number or address used by two businesses

Sharing the same phone number or address between two businesses can suspend your Google Business Profile. However, this rule excludes office buildings, malls, or car dealerships with separate service and car repair businesses. The guideline primarily aims to prevent home-based businesses from creating multiple profiles at the same address or a single business from creating more than one profile at the exact location. Ensuring each business has a distinct phone number and address is crucial to avoid suspension.

• Violations reported by the public to Google

Your Google Business Profile can be suspended if someone reports a violation to Google. The “Suggest an Edit” link on Google Business Profiles allows anyone to suggest changes to fix any violations; if these are true, it can lead to the suspension of your profile. Due to this, you need to ensure that your profile follows all guidelines to avoid getting reported and potentially suspended.

Conclusion

W3Era offers our esteemed customers the best Google business profile management services and helps them reach the maximum customer base in the market. Our expert professionals can set up a Google business profile keeping in mind all the guidelines of Google, and boost the online presence of your business. This marks Google’s business profile to online firms active and visible to potential customers, ensuring local businesses’ growth and success.

When your Google Business Profile has been created, it does not rank on top of the SERPs. To become visible in the top position, you will require affordable SEO services from the leading digital marketing company, W3Era. In addition to this, you will also need web development and PPC services to optimize your website for better visibility.

Google My Business Frequently Asked Questions

Is Google My Business free?

Yes, Google My Business is an entirely free tool offered by Google that allows you to manage your online presence across Google’s platforms, including Google Search and Google Maps.

How do I access my Google Business Profile?

To access Google Business Profile, you must create an account. You can do this by visiting the Google My Business website and following the prompts to create a new account or sign in with your existing Google account.

Why is Google My Business going away?

Currently, there are no plans for Google Business to go away. The platform has become increasingly important for small businesses to manage their online presence and drive more traffic and sales.

Is Google My Business worth it?

Absolutely! It is a powerful tool that can help you increase your online visibility, connect with potential customers, and drive more traffic and sales to your website or physical location.

How do I get my business on Google?

You must create a Google Business account and verify your business information to get your business on Google. This involves submitting your business name, address, phone number, and other relevant details and verifying your business ownership through a verification process. Once your business is verified, it will appear in Google Search and Maps.

1 Million Traffic to your website

Remember, every problem has a solution. Do you want 1 Million Traffic to your website in 2024? The fact is that certain fixed ways always yield good results.
You will agree with us once you review this article that reveals the greatest secrets to getting more traffic. Let’s get this show on the road.

1. Usage of LSI Keywords

A good content developer doesn’t stuff the content with keywords. He will not let the quality go down. He can use synonyms of the keywords that are used commonly and can drive huge amounts of traffic as for synonyms, the traffic density is low, so the competition is less and you can rank high easily. An SEO guy can generate a list of LSI keywords from awesome free SEO tools and the Content developer can use those. A trend has been seen in the use of long-tail Keywords they help websites rank high as the competition is less and the clients do use these long-tail keywords quite often.

When & Where You Should Put the LSI Keywords:

• LSI Keywords do not replace the main keywords. They supplement the main keywords and act as helpers.
• The main keywords are still essential; omitting the primary keywords will not improve your rankings.
• The main keyword acts with the LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords.
• Add no more than two LSI keywords to the main keyword to avoid keyword stuffing.
• This strategy is helpful in two different ways, it will help you to avoid Google penalties for keyword stuffing or help you recover from a Google penalty.
• This method still yields maximum search results without overdoing it with keywords.

2. Create Ethical Backlinks

Backlinks in Off-Page SEO are a genuine way of making your website visible off-page. It is considered risky as people tend to overdo it and try to buy backlinks, which is considered unethical by Google Police. If you get off-page links from good websites where the content is relevant to be linked to the website, it will bring you more traffic. Try to drive traffic from bloggers or guest bloggers who are developing content relevant to your website products or services and try to get backlinks from there.

We also have seen Sponsored links helping get more traffic to the website. But one must stay careful around it as it is an unethical way of backlinking.

Also Read: Custom Web Development Services

3. Get Reviews of Business

Reviews are a perfect way to bring more traffic to the website. First of all, try to get as many genuine reviews as you can. Ask your customers to drop reviews on your website, Google Page, or Social Media accounts. Some website owners go for paid reviews, but you must stay watchful there.
It has become a challenge, but what are sales without challenges?

4. Long Form of Content

A 500-word blog post will do no good to you. It will not have sufficient keywords to get your web page visibility, nor can the content be very explanatory. With long-form blog posts, you earn the credibility of knowledge, and people tend to trust websites that deliver more knowledge to the customers. There are many avid readers out there who want to read more and more about the things of their interest.

These tips for content marketing have been thoroughly tried and tested for many business domains, and they have yielded good results when followed consistently. To get more traffic on the website, one must stay enthusiastic and work continuously to keep the website ranking higher. The tactics will change every other day, but some are there to stay forever. If you are determined and stay consistent with the well-tested techniques, driving 1 Million traffic is no big deal for your website.

Develop good content with keywords and nice Visual content. The visual content is known to bring 400 times more engagement. Add a link to your website or landing page to a very enticing image once the audience clicks it, they reach your landing pages, increasing the traffic density and lead generation.

5. Social Media Presence

People are very active on Social Media accounts, which is a very lucrative channel that can drive them to your website. If you are looking for quick results on traffic, you must optimize your social media accounts with convertible data that can link your followers to the website. It is a very genuine way of driving more traffic to your website. An enticing title will work wonders to make the clicks happen.

Facebook Algorithms are programmed this way so that if they receive more comments, the posts rank high. These tricks help you increase the visibility across the pages and lead to more potential leads on the website.

Be consistent on your social media accounts with engaging content or visual content, as social media pages bring huge traffic to the websites. The followers can receive notifications from the pages and learn about a new page connecting them to the website landing page. If the content is interesting enough, users may share the posts and bring more traffic to their credibility.

On your Social Media accounts, you must have received a lot of posts that run contests, and then you win an e-book or a freebie. What are these? These are simple ways to engage customers and bring them to your website. Direct the contest forms to your website or the e-books to be downloaded from your website. It ensures the traffic density to your website increases.

6. Use Pay Per Click Marketing

If you are comfortable spending more money to rank high, running is advisable. These campaigns charge your website per click, but post that, you must ensure the website is spanked enough to retain and convert the potential customer.

7. Retarget the audience

Go deep into the analytics of the website. Every page links back to the traffic and can retarget the audience to any other page like a social media account or blog. Ensure your blog or social media page has good content that can spread like a viral wave. It adds to your credibility, making the retargeted audience easy to convert. This will increase the repeat traffic to your website, leading to higher rankings automatically and more traffic.

8. Start Guest Blogging Or Ask Prominent Writers To Write On Your Blogs

Content is king, and you must always focus on developing good and useful content. When you Guest Blog, you can earn yourself backlinks to your blog, and when other prominent writers write on your blog, your blog gets credibility.

This is how you can search for Guest Bloggers:

9. Control your bounce rate

A higher bounce rate and do bigger damage to your website. It is difficult to bring potential traffic to the website, but retaining the customers on the page is even tougher. If your bounce rate is higher, your ranking can sink badly. Keep a strong focus on the website analytics and make your website fast-loading, content-rich, and visual content, in addition to ensuring the least bounce.