Do you really want to attract customers to your business from your locality?
Then you need to have a well-optimized Google My Business page. But before that, you need to create one.
Of course, you’ve heard about a Google My Business page before. However, you might have no experience with creating one.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through steps (including images) to create a page for your business.
You’ll also see examples from businesses that you can follow.
Without further ado, let’s go into the process of opening a page to boost your local SEO.
How to create a Google My Business page
The plain truth is that if you run a local business today, then having this page is crucial if you want to show up for important local keywords.
It also helps your business to show up in Google local Map packs result.
Google My Business page is one of the most important local listings your business can appear. There’s a full list of important local listings you can check in another post.
Does showing up for local search results even mean anything for your business?
Well, consider this statistic: 50% of smartphone owners and 34% of desktop/tablet owners who perform local search end up visiting a store within a day.
Show up for these local searches and you could be gaining extra customers daily. Otherwise, you’d be leaving a lot of money on the table.
Having said that, the first step to create your page is to visit the Google My Business page. On the page, click on the “Start Now” button to get started.
This takes you to the next page where you fill in your business name. You see similar business names as you type in your business name. If your business name is already present on Google My Business, all you have to do is claim it.
If not, you can continue to type your business’s full name and click on “Create a business with this name.” After that, you can click on the “Next” button to continue.
If you’re creating a new business name, then you’ll have to enter your business location. The location details required are that of your country, street address, city name, state, and ZIP code. You’ll also have to indicate whether you deliver goods to your customers.
However, the details required may be dependent on the country your business is located. For instance, if your business is in a place like Nigeria, the location details required are street address, local government area, city, postal code, and state.
If you tick the box that indicates you deliver goods, you’ll also have the option to hide your address. You can tick this box if you don’t serve customers at the location. After this, click on the “Next” button.
On the next page, you have to indicate where your business is located on the map. This is to ensure that your location is consistent with the address provided.
If the map looks too confusing, you can also use the satellite option. Click on “Satellite” beside the map to switch to this view.
The next step is to select your service area. The 3 options you have here are:
- Using mail or courier which is applicable if you run an ecommerce store.
- Distance around your business location where you can specify a radius in kilometers or miles.
- Specific areas which could be a city, region, etc.
After selecting an area, click on “Next.”
At this stage, you’ve entered your business name and location which are 2 important details that must be consistent across all your local listings. After this, you’ll have to enter your business category.
As you type a business category, you’ll see more options. Select one that suits your business. Ensure that you pick the right category as this could affect your page visibility.
After that, click on “Next.”
After selecting your category, click on “Next” to continue. On the next page, you have to enter your phone number which is the third of the most important business details (NAP) you should keep consistent on local directories.
You can also enter your website address below that. If you run a local business and you’re yet to have a website, it’s too late already. You need to have one to reap the benefits of a regularly updated website.
On the next page, Google asks if you want to receive personalized tips on how to improve your business’s presence on Google. Well, the answer is obvious isn’t it?
After this, you can finish your registration and use any of Google’s options to verify your business. Of course, without verification, you can’t have full ownership of your page.
With verification, you have access to benefits like:
- Promoting your business with images and posts.
- Potential customers finding your business on Google search and maps.
- Responding to customer reviews.
- Getting more details about your customers by tracking business analytics.
Click on “Finish” to complete your registration. Google gives you the option to verify your business by receiving a postcard by mail at your business location. Otherwise, you can verify with video chat.
If you don’t want to verify immediately, you can click on “Later.”
Another option you can use to verify your business is to click on the “Request your PIN” button in a mail that will be sent to your email address.
Now, you’re through creating your Google My Business page. With that, you have access to your dashboard and you can now run your page.
You can add more details like a profile photo of your business. You can also add a description of what you do and your business opening hours.
If you click on “Add hours,” you can specify the days of the week you open and the opening and closing hours for each day.
You can also select 24 hours if your business is open throughout a day. Click on “Apply” when you’re through with the setting.
If you click on “Add description,” you can describe what your business does briefly in 750 characters.
Create a post on Google My Business
One way of updating your page regularly is to add posts. Although your posts will usually disappear after 7 days, you should add them to keep your page fresh.
Whenever a visitor lands on your page, they can see recent information about your business. Through posts, you can inform visitors about recent developments in your business.
You can also inform them about promotional offers you’re running.
Click on “Try it now” to create an offer post. You can add details like images, offer details, title, start date and time, end date and time, etc.
When you’re through entering the details, click on “Publish.”
If you only want to update your page visitors about new developments in your business, you can click on “What’s New.” You can add an image, write your post and add a button if you want.
If you’re running an event that you want to invite your customers to, you can post about it. You’ll add details about your event like images, event title, event details, start and end date, etc.
Another part of your business you can write a post about is a product. This can be a new product you’re just introducing or an old product you want to create awareness for.
You’ll have to include details like product name, price, details, etc.
There are many other changes you can make on your Google My Business page. You can see them when you browse around your dashboard.
However, you’ll be unable to have access to some parts of your dashboard until you verify your business.
Create a website for your business
If you have no website for your business presently, Google gives you an opportunity to create one. If you have a website, there’s no need for this to avoid duplicate content.
You can design the website by selecting a theme, adding images of your business, editing content, and other necessary changes.
After adding all the important details, click on the “Publish” button to push your website live. You’ll see your new website address and you’re good to go.
You can edit the address if you have another name idea. If you want to see how your website looks to visitors, click on “View Site.”
On this website, you have all the important details about your business. It’s also easy for visitors to locate your business through the “Get Direction” button at the top right corner of your website.
Visitors can see Google Map to direct them if they’ve never been to your business location before.
When you follow these steps, you can easily get a Google My Business page for your business and gain more visibility for your business today.
Examples of Google My Business pages you can follow
If you’re looking for ideas on what details to have on your Google My Business page, what better ways to do that than by checking out businesses who have created well-optimized pages?
I’ll show you 2 examples from different businesses.
Dr. Steven Shoshany
He’s a popular chiropractor in New York City. You can see important details like address, hours, phone number, website address, etc.
You can also see the map showing his practice’s location.
When you go down the page, you can see images of the doctor and some of him treating patients. Here visitors can view the business images for better identification.
On another part of the page, you can see reviews by some of his past patients. One good part here is that he responded to patients’ reviews.
When you create your page, it’s important to encourage your customers to leave reviews on your page as it shows social proof on your page.
Greene Roofing
This is a roofing company in New York City. Here the details of the business like name, address, phone number, etc. are visible. You can also see the business location on the map.
There are also images of the business location and some of their roofing works. For your page, you should add both images of your business location and works you do.
Another part of the page you’ll see is the reviews of the business. This will show a potential customer how your business has provided its services in the past.
You can find other numerous examples of businesses online. All you have to do is search for a keyword related to your business with the location.
For instance, a search string like “business keyword + location” will show results in the Google local map pack. You can see businesses ranking high and check their page for more ideas.
Conclusion
There are no two ways about it. If you want to rank high on local searches, then you need a Google My Business page.
When you follow these instructions, you can create one in no time. This will help you reach more potential customers.
Do you have a page for your business? What difficulties did you face while creating a page? Let me know in the comment!
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Samuel writes long-form guides to help businesses and entrepreneurs achieve better results from their marketing activities. He also writes for marketing and SaaS companies that want more leads and customers. Get in touch with him to discuss your content needs.