Is Google My Business Worth It? If you’re a business owner you may have heard of Google My Business as a method of marketing your business online. However you may be wondering is it worth the time, effort, or investment to create and optimize a Google My Business listing? The short answer: yes, absolutely! Google My Business has a lot to offer to help you with marketing your business online. Read on to learn more about this service and the benefits it provides.
Is Google My Business Free?
We all know Google as the search engine where you can instantly access a wealth of information from across the web. Google doesn’t charge for this service, but rather it relies on the revenues generated from advertising on its platform. Often times businesses are the ones to actually receive the bill from Google for advertising, so is Google My Business an extension of Google’s advertising services? You may be shocked to learn that no, it is not! Google My Business is actually a free service available to business owners. This is largely in part because the service actually helps Google to improve it’s search engine platform by allowing it to display more detailed search engine results with data supplied by the business.
Is Google My Business The Same As Google Analytics?
No, Google My Business is not the same as Google Analytics. Google Analytics monitors key insights such as visitors and sources of traffic to your website as well as conversions. In contrast, Google My Business compiles data related to your business and displays it in search results in a user friendly format. While separate services, Google My Business does in fact have it’s own set of analytical tools offerings insights on valuable actions taken from your listing such as clicks to your website, phone calls to your business, and request for directions to your physical storefront if applicable. You can also add photos to your Google My Business listing and see how many times they were viewed.
What Are The Benefits?
There are many benefits to establishing a Google My Business listing. One of the most important benefits of having a Google My Business listing is the ability to have greater visibility in search results. Once your listing is completely filled out, it may be included in one of two different sections in Google search results.
The first section we’ll mention is between paid search results and regular organic search results. This section displays a local map along with three top Google My Business results for a specific type of business. The businesses are ranked on various factors such as proximity, total number of reviews, average review rating, and completeness of the Google My Business listing. In the example illustrated, we have searched for lawyers in the Miami, FL area. You can clearly see three listings prominently displayed just below the paid results and before any other search results.
The other section where your Google My Business listing may appear is to the right side of search results. This section is most likely to display if someone is searching specifically for your business by name. In the example illustrated, we have searched for “Tradition Marketing Miami, FL” and you can see where our very own Google My Business listing appears to the side of search results. You can see the listing contains a lots of valuable and easily accessible information including our hours of operation, website, phone number, and address. There’s a section where customer reviews are prominently displayed and we’ve even included a few services we sell as packages in the “Products” section. Additionally customers can ask questions, and you can leave a public response in the “Questions and Answers” section. Other sections include an “About” section where you can leave a short description of your business as well as a section where you can place special offers available to the public.
Required For Google Maps?
Finally we should mention that having a Google My Business listing is required to be seen in Google Maps both on the desktop and on mobile. This is important because many mobile users don’t even bother doing a regular Google search and instead go to the Google Maps app when searching for a local business. From your Google Maps listing, users can visit your website, call your business, and even get navigation directions to your business address. That said, if you own a physical storefront, creating a Google My Business listing should be a priority simply to claim your Google Maps visibility.
Is Google My Business Good For SEO?
Yes! If you aren’t convinced by now that you need a Google My Business listing, you should know that it is an essential part of any SEO strategy. In fact it’s perhaps one of the first things you should aim to accomplish on your SEO to-do list for all of the additional benefits we’ve already mentioned above.
Final Thoughts
If you’re considering whether or not Google My Business is worth it for your business, the answer is most likely a resounding – yes! By giving you increased visibility in Google search results it will also help you to drive more traffic to your website, phone calls, and visits to your physical storefront. Additionally you will have the opportunity to claim your place on Google Maps. While Google does not charge for this service, there is a bit of setup involved before your listing will begin displaying in search results. However the effort is well worth it for your business. If you would like help setting up and optimizing your listing, one of our marketing experts will ge glad to assist. Schedule an appointment today for a free consultation and we’ll help you take advantage of all the Google My Business benefits.
