Google Business Profile (formerly called Google My Business) is a listing service
that allows you to register your business on Google. Once you are registered,
your business will be visible across Google Search, Google Maps, and Google
Shopping whenever people search for your brand name—or even if they search
for brands or services that are similar to yours.
A Google Business Profile includes:
Business description
Overview of your products and services, your primary contract information
Links to your website and your social account and section for customer
reviews
With a Google Business Profile, you can:
Boost your online presence
Highlight your products and services
Gain valuable audience insights
Attract new customers to your business
How to set up a Google Business Profile
Follow these easy steps to set up your business profile.
Create a Google account for your business
Add your business name, address, service area (for service businesses)
Select your business category (whether you are a retail shop or restaurant
or hotel)
Add your contact information
Verify account and get started
Once your business profile has been verified, it will appear on Google Search and
Google Map results.
How to Verify Your Google My Business Listing
Depending on what kind of business listing you’re attempting to create (or
manage) you’ll may have a few options available to verify your business:
Verify by mail (postcard)
Verify by phone
Verify by email
Instant verification
GBP Insights
The GBP dashboard also hosts the analytical features called GBP Insights. It’s a
very useful interface, though the titles and functions of some of its components
can be opaque. Some of the data you’ll see in GBP Insights includes:
How many impressions happened surrounding searches for your business
name or location (called Direct), general searches that don’t specify your
company by name but relate to what you offer (called Discovery), and
searches relating to brands your business carries (called Branded).
Customer actions, like website visits, phone calls, messaging, and requests
for driving directions.
Search terms people used that resulted in an impression of your business.
When things go wrong with Google Business Profile
When engaging in GBP marketing, you’re bound to encounter problems and find
that all kinds of questions arise from your day-to-day work. Google relies heavily
on volunteer support in their Google Business Profile Help Community Forum
Top Ranking Factors of GMB :
1- Verification of GMB
2- Make all the information as accurate as possible
3- Make sure your business name is correct
4- Make sure that the services listed are correct
5- Add your products/ services to your listing
6- NAP consistency-(name, address, and phone number) (The NAP on your
website must be consistent with your Google My Business profile.)
7- Manage & Respond to Reviews-Positive reviews increase your
company’s reputation as well as your Google ranking
8- Building quality backlinks
9- Posting to your profile about business activity, specials, or promotions is
an excellent way to optimize your profile and, ultimately, drive potential
customers to your website.
How Google determines local ranking
Local results are based primarily on relevance, distance, and prominence.
A combination of these factors helps us find the best match for your search.
For example, our algorithms might decide that a business that's farther away
from your location is more likely to have what you're looking for than a
business that's closer, and therefore rank it higher in local results.
-Relevance refers to how well a local Business Profile matches what someone
is searching for.
-Distance considers how far each potential search result is from the location
term used in a search.
-Prominence refers to how well known a business is- Prominence is also based
on information that Google has about a business, from across the web, like
links, articles, and directories. Google review count and review score factor
into local search ranking. More reviews and positive ratings can improve your
business' local ranking. Your position in web results is also a factor, so apply
search engine optimization (SEO) for best practices.
