Google My Business (GMB)/Google Business Profile is a valuable tool for any business. However, it continues to evolve and change over time. By staying current on the new updates, your business will be able to take full advantage of the platform and drive more potential customers to your site.
About Google My Business
Google My Business is a free tool Google provides that businesses can utilize to optimize their online presence through Google searches and Google Maps.
Google My Business allows a business to create a Google My Business profile, which contains business information such as business hours, business location, business phone number, business description, and includes customer reviews. Having a Google My Business profile is therefore important for a business to appear in local searches.
Why are Google My Business Views Down?
If you’re wondering why your Google My Business account is getting way fewer views than normal, you’re not alone. But why is that? It’s because Google My Business has updated their algorithm.
With this new algorithm update, unique views are counted instead of repeat views. This update provides more accurate analytics for a business’s performance, which allows for more reliable data tracking and a better understanding of the business’s analytics. You can also use additional tools like Google Analytics to help optimize your findings of detailed metrics found through Google My Business.
What Does the Update Do for Your Business?
At the end of the day, Google My Business has improved the algorithm for businesses to get better insight. It is important that businesses stay up to date since Google My Business can have a major impact on both search ranking and how the business presents online within Google search results. In short, these changes allows businesses to reach new potential customers and build a stronger online presence.
- Google My Business offers new post types which include product posts, offer posts, event posts, and job posts. These allow business owners the ability to share more relevant information and allows more flexibility in the type of content a business shares. For example, a local business can promote posts about new events taking place. In addition, Businesses have the ability to post products with high-quality images, prices, and a Call to Action (CTA) that leads the customer to the product site.
- Google My Business has improved the ability for a business to message with their customers. Customers now have the ability to directly message the business through the business profile. Their businesses can answer questions customers may have asked. By a business responding to messages, it allows the business to build trust between them and the customers.
- Google My Business has added more attributes in which a business can add to their profile making it easier for customers to find detailed information. For example, a business can now specify if they are pet friendly or wheelchair accessible.
- Google My Business has made advancements on insights. Now, it provides businesses with more detailed analytics metrics about their online presence to gain more insight. For example, it now shows how the searcher viewed the business profile, such as Google Search versus Google Maps. This allows for better data-driven decision making. However, there are no more insights on photo views, posts views or post clicks.
How to Optimize Google My Business Listings
Overall, the main changes to GMB are how the data is presented to your business; Google My Business is focusing on more direct metrics associated with business performance.
Fortunately, there are several ways to optimize your Google My Business account to boost overall views and increase your local SEO reach.
- Complete every section of the profile with business information such as business name and business hours
- Be precise on contact information such as business address and phone number
- Select primary categories and secondary categories
- Add a list of your business’s product/ services
- Answer questions
- Have an FAQs sections
- Include cover photos
- Get Google reviews to gain star ratings
- Create Google posts
- Determine your business category
Remember: Optimizing your Google Business Profile plays a role in search ranking factors. Through optimizing you can help boost your business’s local ranking. This leads to your business ranking higher on the first pages of Google Search results and on Google Maps.
Having issues with optimizing your online presence? Digital Strike can help your answer questions. We have a team of experts who can help you optimize your online presence and improve search engine rankings. Contact us today so we can get started crafting the right strategy for your business.