Formerly known as Google My Business, Google Business Profile (GBP) is an incredible tool for increasing online visibility and presence. It helps your business to show up in map results and relevant local search results. However, setting up a profile on Google Business is not enough to put you at the helm of local search results. You need to get people to actually click on and engage with your profile to convert the generated leads into customers.
The following article will explore what Google Business Profile is, why it is important and offer practical ways to boost engagement on your GBP.
What is Google Business Profile?
A Google Business Profile is a free online listing from Google that showcases essential information about your business. A well optimized GBP can enhance the chances of your business appearing in Google maps and local search results. That makes it easier for potential customers to find and interact with your business.
Optimizing your GBP can help your business to appear in some key places online. One of those places is the Map Pack, also known as Local Pack. It is a collection of high-ranking businesses that appear at the top of search engine results pages. A user who clicks on one of those listings can learn more about the business and take action. It works more like getting directions or making a reservation for a table.
A GBP listing can also show up when users conduct a direct search for your business. Besides, your profile on Google Business can also appear in Google Map results, both on desktop and mobile platforms.
There are various pieces of information displayed on Google Business profile including;
- Name and address
- Contact information (email address and phone)
- Website
- Operating business hours
- Business Category, for example, restaurant, medical clinic, salon etc
- List of products and services
- Customer reviews and ratings
- Videos and photos showcasing your products, services and location
- Booking information and service inquiries
Your GBP can also show your recent posts and attributes such as whether your business is wheelchair accessible.
The Importance of Optimizing your GBP
Optimizing your Google Business Profile can have major impacts on the online visibility and presence of your business. Here are the key benefits of optimized GBP.
Increased Visibility
According to Google Business Profile statistics from Google, users are 70% more likely to visit your business if have a complete profile. Besides, 50% of users are more likely to consider purchasing products and services from your business. Thus, failing to set up and optimize your GBP could see you miss out on views, clicks and paying customers.
Trust and Credibility
People will feel more confident about buying from you when they perceive your business as trustworthy. Your GBP offers a level of transparency to your business, helping to foster a sense of trust. Besides, users are more likely to regard your business as legitimate if they can see your physical location, contacts and what you have to offer.
Remember the Google algorithm favors content that displays four key properties including Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust. That means if you optimize your GBP better and make it appear more trustworthy, it could rank higher in local search results.
Better Customer Engagement
Your Google Business Profile is an opportunity to let your customers interact with your business. For example, your customers can leave reviews and ratings for your business. That engagement can help you to build better relationships with other customers. Your business’ credibility increases when shoppers see genuine feedback from other customers.
Besides, Google uses reviews as one of the metrics for ranking businesses in local search results. Therefore, getting more reviews can significantly boost your rankings on Google. Thanks to the Q&A section of your GBP, users can ask questions about your business and get answers conveniently.
How to Boost Engagement on Your Google Business Profile
Google Business Profile offers a wide range of features that you can leverage to drive GBP engagement. That could see you attract more clicks, messages, calls, bookings, requests for directions and visits to your business. So, how can you boost engagement on your GBP? The following are proven strategies for success.
Create a Compelling Profile
People will be more encouraged to engage with your GBP if they feel like they know your business and what it is all about. So, the first step to optimizing your profile and driving engagements is by setting up a complete profile with all the necessary information. Your Google Business Profile should clearly show the business’ name, address, phone number (NAP) and website.
That information is crucial for SEO and also helps with establishing trust with search engines and users. It also gives your target customers an easy time in reaching you. You should make sure that the NAP details given in your GBP are consistent across the various sites and directories that your business is listed on. Whenever other sites reference your name, address and phone number online, it is called citation.
Google may use the citations to rank content in local search results. Therefore, more citations from reputable and relevant sites and listings could see you attract higher rankings. However, it can be quite confusing to Google if the NAP details in your Google Business Profile are inconsistent with other citations.
It could also be confusing to potential customers who may want to visit your business if they find conflicting information. In case there are inconsistencies, edit the profile to reflect the correct information. Avoid including any extra details in the profile just to try and stuff in some keywords. Google could see that as an attempt to manipulate your rankings and, even suspend your Google Business Profile.
Your GBP should also showcase your main product and service offerings. That will make your profile to look more complete and attract customers with a sneak peak of what your business has to offer. Visitors to your profile can click on each item for more information, increasing their likelihood of converting into customers. Adding products to your GBP can effectively improve your rankings, click through rate (CTR) and user engagement.
It would also be ideal to add your business attributes to your listing. That would give users more information about your business and help them to decide whether it meets their needs. For example, a person who uses a wheelchair will find it quite helpful if you add an accessibility attribute to your profile. You can include subjective attributes and factual attributes to give your business a unique edge that could impact better Google rankings and engagement from customers.
Respond to Reviews
Google reviews are a crucial factor in local search rankings. Thus, getting as many positive reviews as possible in your Google Business Profile should part of your SEO strategy. Keep track of all the reviews that customers leave on your profile including the positive and negative ones. Try to respond to as many reviews as possible to demonstrate your commitment to customer service and engaging with them.
Responding to reviews can effectively encourage future customers to interact with your Google Business Profile. Besides, reviews can help customers to make informed decisions about making purchases or even bookings for your services.
In case you are having difficulties in attracting positive reviews, your best bet is to buy Google Business reviews in Kenya. At Superior Social Boost, we can help you to generate authentic and genuine Google Business reviews and Google Business replies from real and active users online. Our goal is to enable you to drive engagements on your Google Business Profile organically and affordably. We guarantee quick results to take your business to the next level.
Share High-quality Content
Your Google Business Profile serves as a link between you and your target customers. As such, it should showcase content that encourages people to find out more about your business and interact with you. GBP allows you to share content with others users in various formats including text, photos and videos.
According to Google, Google Business Profiles with high-quality photos usually get 42% more requests for directions and 35% more clicks through (CTRs) to their websites that those without.
Brick and mortar businesses should upload photos showing their exterior, interior, products or services and teams. On the other hand, service-based businesses can add before and after photos of their completed projects and, team members in action or the smiles in the faces of happy customers.
You can also share some videos, like a 360-degree virtual tour of the business or short-form videos of team members discussing your services. Remember, videos usually tend to attract more engagements that other forms of content. However, you should be keen to share content on diverse formats to keep things fresh and boost engagements from your audience.
You should also consider leveraging user-generated content into your GBP. Encourage customers to capture their experiences with your products or services and share them on your profile when submitting feedback.
While Google Business allows you to create and share posts, you should not treat your GBP as a social media profile. The majority of people who visit Google Business Profiles come to shop or buy, so, your content should lean towards that direction. You can share product announcements, offers and events. Your posts could also be about things such as changes to your catalogue or menu and, popular products coming back into your stock. You can also create informative posts about developments in your sector.
The posts that you share on your GBP should grab the attention of the target audience and convince them that your business is the best choice over its competitors.
Enable GBP Messaging
GBP Messages allow businesses a straightforward way to engaged with their customers directly. Enabling the messaging function gives customers a dedicated platform for asking questions or making appointments. Keeping track of and responding to those messages promptly can significantly boost conversions. That could also go a long way in driving Google Business Profile engagement.
When you enable the messaging function on your GBP, customers will also be able to see the average time that you take to respond. That is important because faster response times can encourage more engagement. People are highly likely to send messages if they think that they will receive a quick response.
Besides the messaging function, you can also set up automated answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). That can help you to reduce the tedious work of responding to Google Business Profile messages. It can also promote customer service delivery, ensuring customers get instant answers to their queries.
The Bottom Line
Overall, there are unique ways to drive engagement on your Google Business Profile. This article has discussed practical strategies that you should implement to improve visibility and drive engagements on your GBP successfully. However, you should be consistent in your efforts to generate the best results over time. In case you need to level up your efforts further, do not hesitate to engage the experts at Superior Social Boost.