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Is visibility in Google My Business (and thus also a location in Google Maps) reserved only for the largest companies? How to create a business listing and what are the benefits of creating a Google My Business profile? This article will answer the above questions and show you how to set up a Google Business profile step by step.
It is increasingly difficult to imagine the functioning of our society without free access to the Internet. All age groups take advantage of the boundless resources of the global network, both the youngest Internet users and the elderly. They use the Internet to search for information, for entertainment purposes or to check the offers of shops or local service providers. In terms of business, having a Google My Business listing is necessary especially for local entrepreneurs for whom visibility in the Google Maps service is an opportunity to attract local users. The configured profile in the business service of the American corporation from Mountain View is also very important for visibility in search results (SERP).
As you can see in the screenshot below, the so-called “Three Snack Pack Google” (blue tick in the screenshot) has a chance to occupy most of the search results page on the desktop version. In the mobile version, the results based on Google My Business can be presented on the entire page visible on the screen (due to the smaller displays). Proper use of the business listing is crucial in local positioning. Correct configuration allows you to attract a large number of customers without the need to involve large funds. It is extremely effective in smaller towns and districts, where configuring just the Google My Business service places us at the top of the search results and Google maps.
The first step in creating a GMB (Google My Business) account is selecting the Google account to which the service will be assigned. Theoretically, we can use the e-mail address that we use daily in dealing with our clients, although this may be problematic when transferring access to other people. An example is a situation when we start cooperation with an SEO agency. The agency may request access to Google My Business to optimize your listing for local positioning. If the GMB account is also an e-mail account used by the company, there is a risk of violating the regulation on the protection of personal data.
So, we recommend that you create a dedicated email address that will only be used to support your Google Business listing. The best option is to create an e-mail address within your domain, as it is not threatened with deletion or loss of access data. If you do not have such a possibility, it may be another email account, e.g., Gmail or Yahoo (remember that the account should not be deleted, e.g., due to insufficient activity).
The second important element is having a physical location of the company and the ability to collect mail at a given address. The most common way to verify a business’s location is to send a postcard with a verification code through Google. More about the verification itself can be found in the following paragraphs of this text.
If you already know which e-mail account you want to use to create a GMB account, log in to it, then go to the following address: https://www.google.com/business/ and click the ‘’Manage now’’ button.
After passing the first step correctly, the next one is entering the company name that will be visible on the business listing – both in Google Maps and Google My Business. A good solution is to include keywords in the name, which is of great importance in local positioning. However, it must be used in a natural way. Do not create an artificial-sounding company name. A good example of a company name is, for example, “Law Firm – Jan Kowalski“.
When introducing such a classification, we hit the phrase “law firm”, without creating an artificial-sounding name of the company, directed only to indexing robots.
An example of a wrong company name in a Google showcase may be: “Law Firm: property law, civil law, criminal law Poznań – Jan Kowalski“. With such a name, we are exposed to rejections both by the user and a penalty for attempting to manipulate the results on the Google website.
The next step is to answer the question about the location, about a specific place that will be visited by customers. The answer to this question depends on the nature of your business. If you want your clients to visit your company’s premises, select the ‘’Yes’’ option. In our example (law firm), we want clients to know where our office is located.
The next step depends on the option selected in the previous one. If you chose ‘’Yes’’, then you are asked to provide the exact address where your company is located. This address will be presented to users in the Google Maps service and will be displayed in the Google My Business card (of course, it is possible to edit this data later on).
If you choose the ‘’No’’ option, when asked to provide the location in the Google listing, you will be asked to optionally provide the area in which you serve customers. We encourage you to supplement this value, it will have an impact on local positioning.
At this stage, you are asked to provide the exact location of your company. This is an important point, especially for the user. This makes it possible to show the exact location where the potential customer is going to go. When selecting the location displayed in the My Business Listing, we recommend using the “Satellite” option, thanks to which it will be easier to select the exact location (red arrow in the screenshot below).
If you have chosen the option in which you do not want customers to visit your company’s office, you are asked to select a region.
At this stage, you must indicate whether you offer customer service outside the office. This is especially useful for companies that operate over a larger area or deliver their services to the customer. An example is a company that manufactures fences based in Poznań, which also offers its services in nearby towns, such as Swarzędz or Luboń.
At this stage, let’s try to choose a category closest to our business profile. Unfortunately, Google is not able to enter all possible industries. It should also be remembered that the selected category should be related to the keywords that you want to rank for. Let’s try to select the main category here, and the additional ones, assigned to your business, will be possible to add after creating the business card.
Another very important step is entering the correct contact details. First, complete the field responsible for the telephone number. Then the URL of the website (remember to provide the correct address with the SSL certificate and depending on the correct version of the website with or without the prefix “WWW”). It is not recommended to check the other two options “I don’t need a website” and “Create for free …”. When choosing the first option, you give up entering the URL address, which means that they will not visit your website. The second option is responsible for creating an automatically generated low-quality page.
In the final step, you are asked to agree to receive further GMB guidance. In addition, you are informed about the options available after verifying your profile.
The next step is to choose the method of verification. Usually, this is a postcard with a code that must be provided upon receipt of the postcard. The card should reach within a maximum of a month. If you do not receive the postcard after this period, it is worth sending another request for verification. After sending a request for a verification code, you are transferred to the Google My Business card management panel.
Other verification methods are described at: https://support.google.com/business/answer/7107242.
After selecting the verification method, you are on the main menu of the service. From here you can manage all functions and edit the entered data. The most important functions of your service can be found on the left side of the panel. At the first start, it is also important to fill in the data in the centre of the “Home” menu.
All pages from the side menu are described further in this guide.
The appearance of the basic view depends on the progress of completing the business card. Initially, you are asked to complete basic data, such as:
This is where the American giant allows creating entries. The entries will be visible for a period when your company is displayed in the search results. If you want an extensive business card, you should regularly publish entries. In Google Business, you have the option of adding four types of entries: “News“, “Event“, “Offer” and “Product“. After clicking on each option, you will be instructed on how to complete the entry.
Here you can edit all basic data. We encourage you to diligently complete the information on this page. The data contained here affects both the reception of your website by the user and local positioning.
This page is available only after the verification of your business card. Here you will find information that will enable you to analyze data such as:
A very important page in terms of the company’s image. Here are the opinions posted on your business card. Using this menu, you can react to the feedback you receive. Thanks to this option, you can thank the client for a positive opinion and address the worse opinions. It is very important for the company’s image.
The function is available in the mobile version of the “Google My Business” application. Thanks to it, you can quickly answer all customer questions asked with the help of a business card. This function is not popular in our country yet, but it is still worth configuring this service
As the name suggests, the next two pages are responsible for photos and products placed in the Google My Business service. Here you should remember about the appropriate quality image files. An additional advantage positively influencing local positioning will be the geolocation of photos (an example of a tool that allows it is Geoimgr.com).
This is a feature that allows you to create an automatically generated website in your Google Business domain. The generated page is of very low quality, therefore we do not recommend creating it.
Other menu functions allow technical changes such as:
We encourage you to create or complete a Google My Business listing. This is an extremely important part of promoting services on the Internet. Thanks to a complete business card, you have a chance to gain local customers and present your activities to Google users along with directions and opinions.Please remember that the business card will appear in the search engine and on Google Maps only after successful verification.
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