Google My Business And Its Importance For Small Businesses Owners

With new traction in the digital world, the small businesses springing up every day are taking advantage of social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to build their online presence and to gain new leads. As a small business owner, leveraging on any online tool is an easy and cost-effective way to increase your business visibility. One of such tools is ‘Google My Business,’ a tool that allows customers to easily find the physical locations of their favourite go-to brands.

Not all traditional businesses are aware of what Google My Business is and how important it is, for when you decide to fully take your business online in today’s age of digital economy. Being a conventional business means your business has a physical location, it could be a restaurant, a café, bookstore, or a fashion shop. Essentially, you are a business owner whose physical products or services are not sold in digital platforms. Being online is a way to gain a wider scope of potential clients. Now, if you’re looking to expand your business and create a stronger customer base, you must start doing business and using google my business.

What is Google My Business?

Google my business is a free tool for business owners to manage their online presence across the Google suite of websites, including Google search, mobile search, local search and google maps. It allows you to create, verify and edit a business listing in google.

When a customer or someone from your target audience googles your business name, the google my business automatically shows your business address, opening hours and contact information conveniently without the searcher having to visit your website.

Google My Business listing allows businesses to provide critical information about what product or service they offer to searchers which includes:

•Phone number
•Website address
•Business address (with link to directions via google maps)
•Business reviews
•Business description
•Featured posts
•Special or upcoming events
•And more (depending on your business).

They can also see photos of your business, complete a transaction (like book an appointment) and see other information that grabs a searcher’s attention — all without them even visiting your website. That’s a pretty powerful way of giving your business visibility. According to Google, around 40% of users who conduct a search don’t click on anything, which means they are likely getting the information they need directly from the search results page. This means that as a business owner, you are more likely to benefit from having a Google business listing.

Why your business should use a Google My Business Listing?

If you are a business owner, and you don’t have a marketing budget but are looking to increase your brand or market’s awareness, Google My Business is one of the most effective ways to do that and increase your company’s online presence. As a local business, Google My Business helps you to improve your business’ local search engine optimization and online visibility.

Google is at the center of the internet and has a market share of over 88% as a search engine, according to Statista. Google receives over 63,000 searches per second with an average of 3-4 searches each day per person which means that Google is your greatest asset as a business owner. Here is why you should open a Google My Business Account:

Increases Your Business’s Local Ranking:

As a local business owner in a particular area that is saturated with the same nature of business, it’s important to have Google My Business which will help you to optimize your business locally. Apart from helping businesses to increase visibility, Google My Business is a key local ranking factor.

In fact, according to local ranking factor industry research, Google My Business “signals” is the most important ranking factor for local pack rankings. Google My Business signals had a significant increase in ranking importance between 2017 and 2018 —rising from 19% to 25%.

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