What is Google Business Profile?
Google Business Profile is a widely used platform for helping business owners to showcase their local services and help users find specific and important information about a business such as an address, visuals, feedback, and business hours.
It has evolved over the years and is now seen as a valuable tool for businesses, giving potential customers access to the information they need quickly. The use of photos helps build familiarity, and allows people to get to know the business better, and offers easy, fast access to businesses’ websites and social media pages.
Here are reasons why business owners should leverage Google Business Profile.
Increasing local search queries
Easy access to technology has made online searches more convenient and that ease of use and availability has contributed to the increase in users of search engines like Google..
New users are likely to rely on top platforms and since Google dominates the search market, its user base is continually growing, resulting in increased platform usage and queries.
The internet is a normal part of daily life and users are more likely to choose reliable and trustworthy platforms, like Google when looking online. By enhancing your Google Business profile you can substantially increase leads and generate new business through this free tool.
Trusted platform
Google has been around for decades and continues to dominate the search engine market share.
Why is it a trustworthy platform? Google always sets its standards and policies to ensure that even user-generated content is not deceiving and doesn’t contain any spammy information.
Integrated into Google Maps
Something that always comes to our mind when searching for satellite visuals of a street is Google Maps. The 3D visual can help us get a better idea of an area and is essential in helping us navigate to our destination.
Google Maps is great for finding the best route suitable for you and can help you decide which route is better at various times of the day based on how much traffic is using those routes and how long it is likely to take you to get from point A to B smoothly.
So how does a business benefit from Google Maps?
When you are searching for the best route to get where you want to go, there are pins on the map that when you click will give you information about that business. This develops brand awareness and increases impressions for your business. It also helps people find a range of services close by to where they are going.
Google’s Map Pack gets is the most prominent position in Google’s local search results – where businesses are listed and their locations are identified on a map with place marker icons.
Map Pack has become a critical factor in how consumers decide where and what to buy when they search online. It’s also shown above the organic links and is verified to give consumers confidence that they are getting the best information available.
Making your business available when your customers are active
A part of any business marketing strategy is to widen audience reach and improve competitive advantage.
The earlier you start on this opportunity, the bigger the competitive advantage. This means long term benefits for your business.
Using Google Business profile enhances the convenience factor for your prospective customers and makes it more likely that you will show up on the platforms when they are active.
Free platform
Google Business Profile is free and what business owner doesn’t like a free tool to help improve their online presence?
It’s cost-effective marketing and provides impressive benefits which you can use to gain traction online. Nor does it require a huge budget or effort to create a Google Business Profile.
Customer Insights
The interaction you have with your customers on Google Business Profile can go a long way to helping you continuously improve not only your online presence, but also your business. By encouraging positive photos from customers, 5 star reviews and more you can build a greater understanding of what your customers think about your business.
If you operate from a store front (not just online) you can access Google Analytics to show organic traffic from your Google Business Profile to your website. This and other insights Google Analytics provides can be invaluable information when growing your business.
