Why do you want to be easily found on Google?

You are a new business owner and wondering how to add your business location to Google Maps? Or perhaps, you have been around for a while just never needed to establish your company’s presence in local search results? Since your business had plenty of walk/drive through traffic…

Then 2020 happened… and COVID-19 “kindly” asked you to reconsider and reposition your business to go online. Now majority of your customers are coming from the web. And they are looking to find out more about your business online. Check your social media pages, address, credibility and what feedback others left about their experience.

Of course, the most popular way to search is to simply “Google it”. As statistics for 2019 show, Google performs 3.5 billion searches per day (oberlo.com), or average of 40k searches per second. Same article confirms complete dominance of Google on search engine market, as it held 92.18% of entire search market segment in July of 2019 (same source). And it most likely increased since then, as majority of people are doing everything online this year.

When we discuss on how to put your business on the map, we mean how to add it to Google search engine result pages (SERPs) as well as how to pin it to Google maps location. Since this article is about “literally” putting you on the map, we will discuss in detail, and explain how to Create your Business Google account and add your business location to Google maps.

Getting your Google My Business account is a second most important step you have to make in order to establish your online presence. First step would be getting a professional & responsive (mobile friendly) website, as website is a “face” of your business online. Your company website is a billboard that works 24/7 for you online and holds all the valuable information about products, services, initiatives, sales and whatever else you would like to promote. But regardless of how great your website is and how amazing your products and services are, if no one knows about them, you won’t be able to sell any. Not even talking about getting desired sales and growing your market share.

Google My Business Account

So, how to promote your business online? Create awareness, come up with marketing strategy, brand, create amazing website, implement SEO on your site and manage social media accounts. But before all that, you need to go to www.google.com/business and create your Google my Business account. It is easy, it is completely free, plus it gives you many marketing advantages online.  You would probably need to spend an hour to create a profile, insert all the company information and optimize it to the full potential (enter all required information, business description and services offered; add pictures and information on how to contact you, as well as link all your website and social media accounts).

Main benefits of having Google My Business account are: credibility and convenience for your clients and added awareness for you. Your clients can search your name, find location, estimate travel times, deals and offers. They also check what others had to say about you if you have any reviews available, or go and investigate your credibility on one of your social media accounts. Your customers can also call you straight from their phone with just one click (extremely convenient), as most of searches are performed on cell phones.

In 2019 more than 60% of all searches were performed on mobile phones, with some business sectors reaching over 70% (thesearchreview.com). In the same easy for a customer way, they can write your company’s name directly in Google maps and get directions without having to memorize your address and typing it in. Customer simply types “PNW Brewery in Seattle, WA” and presses “Go”.

How to setup your Google My Business Step-by-Step Guide

      Here are 12 easy steps to create your Google My Business account that should not take you more than 10 minutes:

1. Create or login into your Google account
2. Go to Google.com/business and click on “Start Now”
3. Enter your business name
4. Insert Category of your business (bakery, online store, photo studio)
5. Enter your business location
6. Answer the question whether you are serving customers outside of your business location. Example deliveries, servicing at their homes or online. If the answer is “Yes”, it will ask you to list all the “service areas” of your business, add all the areas you service.
7. Enter your phone number and website
8. List all the services your company offers. For example, for VP Web Solutions we entered, Web Design, SEO, PPC, SMM and Marketing Strategy.
9. Enter your business hours, what days & hours is your company open for business.
10. Describe your company and what it offers, be specific, clear and highlight your unique selling proposition. This is the message that will appear under your company name on Google results page, make sure it sounds appealing and offers solution to customer’s problem.
11. Add your company’s profile picture, this is your cover photo on Google, make sure it catches your customer’s eye. In addition, insert as many additional business pictures as you desire, – samples of your work, projects completed, and things that make you better than competition. Pictures will help customer to better understand your business, services you have to offer, and quality of work you provide.
12. Last step is to VERIFY your business, which can be done in a few different ways. Postcard (mail), phone, email, and instant verification. When you are looking to pin yourself to Google maps, you need to confirm your physical address. This can be done only via regular mail. Firstly, you need to request a postcard from Google to be sent to your business address by regular mail. Secondly, when it arrives (usually 3-5 business days), you need to enter the code into your account. Congrats, now you are all set and verified!

Takeaway