Why Google Maps is a Small Business “Basic”

Google Maps Dominates Location-Based Search

With a market share now exceeding 70%, Google Maps is one of the small business marketing basics you just can’t do without.  Yet, nearly half the time when we engage small business owners to develop marketing strategy, they’re not even aware of it.

Yet Most Small Businesses Aren’t Using It Correctly

Your Google Business Profile, previously referred to as Google My Business, is an asset of your business that ranks right up there with your phone number, your domain name, and even your name itself as one of the critical assets you have to claim, own, and control.

3 Ways to Maximize Your Google Business Profile

Here are 3 basic things every business should be doing with its Google Business Profile:

#1: Claim & Own It.  Unless you have total control over your listing, you’re vulnerable to this being crowdsourced by the Internet, or worse — your competitor gaining control of it.  This is a critical way potential customers find you, and you need to be the owner of the information.

#2: Provide All the Information Requested & Activate as Many Features as Possible.  The profile is extensive, and it may seem like a huge investment of time and effort.  But it’s totally worth it.  The more information you provide, the more likely you are to match with a search and be shown in the results.  Most of our clients see an immediate and permanent increase of between 300% and 1,100% in the number of searches where they’re shown.  And if you activate features like chat and text, you’ll see even higher results!

TIP:  We recommend downloading the mobile app Google created to manage your listing at least once a week, you’ll gain even more attention from Google, because Google will trust that your information is up-to-date.

#3:  Engage by Posting Content & Responding to Reviews.  Just like a social media platform, your Google Business Profile allows you to post articles with photos, videos, and other content.  And when you post, you can get even more of Google’s attention, versus your competitors.

Whenever customers ask questions and/or leave you reviews, good or bad, it’s important to engage those in a timely manner.

When Google knows you, AND has high confidence in the accuracy of the information it has about you, it’ll show you more than any competitor.

Other Important Small Business Marketing Basics

We created a list of the minimum things every business should be doing on-line.  We refer to this as the Digital Footprint of your business.  And we write about it extensively in this blog.

Read More:

The Digital Footprint of Your Business

Why is Digital Footprint So Important for Your Business?

If you’d like a free evaluation of your Digital Footprint, just click here.  This is just one of the ways we invest in potential new clients long before we ever ask them to invest in us.

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