What is a Google Business Profile (formally Google My Business)?

For any small business to successfully operate, it’s essential to have a strong online presence in order to succeed. According to the Office for National Statistics, in 2021, 37.8% of retail sales were Internet sales.

So, if you have an online business, ensuring your online presence is up to date is essential. In this blog post, I’ll discuss what Google Business Profile is (previously Google My Business) and how it can help your small business.

What is Google Business Profile?

Google Business Profile (GBP) is a free tool offered by Google that allows small businesses to manage their online presence across Google, this includes Google Search, Google Maps, Google Shopping and Google Reviews.

By creating a GBP account, small business owners can manage their business information, such as their address, phone number, and hours of operation, and showcase photos of their business, products, and services.

But more importantly, it allows customers to post reviews about your products or services – essential for online businesses.

But that's not all! Here are some of the ways that GBP can help your small business:

Improve Local Search Visibility

When someone searches for a business or service in their local area using Google, your GBP listing is more likely to appear in the 'local pack' search results, including the map. According to Google, “Verified businesses on Google are twice as likely to be considered reputable”.

Provide Accurate Information

With a GBP, small business owners can manage their business information, ensuring that potential customers have accurate and up-to-date information about their business, including opening hours, phone numbers, and addresses. You can post updates, including links to blogs and news articles on your website.

Reviews

This is a big one especially is you sell products online, because according to a 2021 report by PowerReviews, over 99.9% of customers read reviews when they shop online. A GBP allows small business owners to respond to customer reviews and questions, helping to build a positive online reputation and engage with customers. Google reviews can also help you rank higher on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), helping you get to that coveted first page.

And, of course, you can use the reviews on your own website and social media accounts helping to build trust and credibility to enable customers to make those purchasing decisions.

Showcase Products and Services

By adding photos of their business, products, and services, small business owners can showcase what they have to offer to potential customers, helping to drive traffic and sales.

Gain Insights

A GBP provides small business owners with performance and insights, including the number of views your listing has received, how search users found you, the number of clicks on the call button, booking clicks, website clicks, requesting directions and total interactions. You can even narrow this down to a given date range. This information is useful to help refine your local marketing strategy.

You can also link your business profile to your Google Ads account.

This connection allows you to see how customers interact with your business on Google and make changes to improve your performance. If you would like to know more information about Google Ads you can read my blog post "Are Google Ads Worth the Investment for Your Small Business" here.

To sum up, a Google Business Profile is an effective tool that can aid small business owners in enhancing their online presence, expanding their reach to potential customers, and providing a platform to engage with customers. Furthermore, it offers valuable insights into the performance of the business on Google.

If you haven't already, I highly recommend creating a GBP for your small business today! There’s more information on how to do this here. If you want to see my GBP as an example please take a look here: Pledge Consultancy GBP.

If you are interested in getting started with Google Ads, why not contact me - I specialise in PPC, so you don't have to.