We know for a fact that a Google Business Profile is an excellent resource for advertising your business, especially if entrepreneurs are looking for advanced, quick and free options to boost their sales. We’ve listed a broad list of reasons why creating a Google Business Profile is a great strategy for small businesses to compete with larger companies before, and in this article, we’ll cover more details about Google Business Profiles for service area businesses.
About 86% of people use Google as their main search engine. Therefore, no matter their inquiry, they will most likely be redirected to a local business. The vast majority of results are channelled by geolocation, which means that: if the user is looking for a hairdresser nearby, the places shown will be close to the user’s location. However, what happens if your business doesn’t have a physical location? Can you still create a Google Business Profile?
Many new companies are still standing without the need for a physical address. This might be because, after the pandemic, there was an increase in remote services.
Google Business Profile does have requirements for local business listings, mainly to avoid fake businesses from populating their search results and altering the validity of Google Maps. As a result of Google’s strict policies, their users trust their data and benefit the businesses that have listings on Google Maps and other Google Search platforms.
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Creating a Google Business Profile is not as difficult as you might think. This article will explain how to access your account in a few steps:
Add your business’ basic information
Important data such as your business category and hours of operation is necessary to complete your verification process and lead a potential client directly to your website. Using your business email when setting up the initial Google account to separate from your personal account is vital.
Go to google.com/business/ and click Manage Now. You’ll see the option of adding your business name as we already have a Google account. If you don’t, create one for free here.
Then, add your business name. Make sure to use capital letters and avoid typos and this is the title people see when they find your products or services.
Set an ‘alternative address’
By ‘alternative address’ we do not mean fake. Google still needs to verify a business's legitimacy, so you still need to add a physical address.
Google will ask you if you want to add a location customers can visit. In this case, you need to select No and add your business region. Add a home address as a physical address to verify the Google Bussines listing.
Keep in mind: The address will not be listed on Google Maps listing, so people won’t have access to your home address.
Add your contact information
Add your business phone number and website. Verify that your website link works properly, as Google Business tracks both phone calls and website clicks so you might be losing quite a lot of visits if the link is broken.
Ask questions
If you’re having trouble setting up your Google Business account, you will be able to ask questions to Google Support. Inconvenients like your business not showing up on the listings or missing the verification of the account itself will resolve data. To complete the process, Google will mail a card to the address with a verification code to ensure the business is functioning at the designated address.
Now it’s time to improve your local SEO and get tangible results in the first six months of starting your business!
If you’re not familiar with trends or other marketing terms you can always partner with an expert in local marketing, like Merchynt!
Request a Free local marketing consultation call to help your business rank on Google’s first page.