The Dos & Don’ts Of Google My Business Management

Read Time: 4 minutes

With Google placing more emphasis on actual location and proximity to searchers, Google My Business (GMB) is more important than ever. As more companies realize the importance of GMB profiles, the more competition you are likely to have. This makes it necessary for you to optimize your GMB profile. We’ve compiled a list of a few essentials to maximize the use of your Google My Business management, we trust these will inform and bring some clarity to your approach.

Non-Negotiable #1: Represent Your Business Accurately & Make Sure It Is Verified

When listing your business on GMB, make sure everything is accurate and consistent with the rest of your corporate identity (branding, business cards, letterheads etc.) and be sure that all the written information is also consistent. This way Google will see that you are credible and not see you as a potential robot! Credibility is highly important in good GMB management practices.

Secondly, you want to make sure that if your business is already listed, that you claim it and update the necessary information. Once you have represented all the information correctly, then you can verify the business (you have to do this for it to rank) and this will give you credibility, as well as show Google that you are complying with their rules.

Non-Negotiable #2: Make Sure All Your Details Are Accurate & Current

The last thing you want to do is misrepresent your business in the GMB knowledge panel or confuse your potential customers with wrong or false information. When you’re editing your profile, it is essential to make sure all of the information you put in is relevant, current and truthful. Make sure your address is correct, opening and closing hours as well as contact information and website information.

If you have different hours, or even closures, for holidays or special events, you can enter them in with the specific date(s) those hours will be valid. This helps to keep your information current and up-to-date for your customers.

Non-Negotiable #3: Don’t Over-Categorize, Keep It To The Point

Having the right categories is how your potential customers will find you when they search for certain keywords. You want to keep it simple by only having a few categories in place so that when customers search, they will find specific results and Google will channel the right target audience to your page.

You want to keep your information and categories accurate and live in the following ways:

• Use a few categories; think about your business in a sentence form and then pull the essence of your business and services into your categories section.
• Be as specific and simple as possible, without losing the essence of what your business is about.
• Don’t use them as keywords or to describe only a small part of your business; think about one or two categories that will encompass as much of your business definition as possible.
• Avoid connecting too much with the information linked to other businesses or services represented near you.

Non-Negotiable #4: Only Create One Profile Per Business

The last thing GMB is trying to achieve is more confusion on the internet when it comes to businesses, services, and user experience for consumers. If your business already has a profile it’s best to try to access that one, and not to create a whole new listing if you’ve lost the login to the email address associated with your listing.

It is a good idea to add a trusted employee/colleague as an owner to your Google My Business as well to help with any login issues you experience.  You can remove them as owner if they leave your organization. If you have a business with multiple physical locations, you want one GMB listing per location. Having multiple business listings per location could result in duplicates – in which one of them could be removed.  It is also important to note that using PO Boxes, etc. to make a presence in different locations is against Google Guidelines – which could cause your listing to be suspended.

Non-Negotiable #5: Integrity Is Key – Google Knows All!

There is no point in having a GMB profile if it isn’t serving potential customers with excellence and integrity. When it comes to writing false reviews, or using dummy profiles to write false reviews, just don’t do it. This could get your profile suspended if Google finds out the users are invalid. Be honest with every bit of information you add onto GMB, you might be surprised at how integrity is always obvious in business. You want to use this tool to build consumer trust and not to take it away!

You want to follow Google’s guidelines when completing your profile. These guidelines are basically set to reduce spam profiles – though spam still does exist. If you do not follow the guidelines, you are more likely to have your profile suspended by Google.  Once suspended, you would have to fix the issue they flagged and submit a reinstatement request.  This could take up to three days or so for approvals. Possibly up to another 24-48 hours before going live again. Although, it can be quicker depending how busy the Google team is.  Any time offline could cost you potential customers or sales.

Call The Experts For Help With Quality Google My Business Management

At Connectica, we have a team of experts on all ends of the digital marketing spectrum including GMB management. Are you looking for help with your GMB and complying with the best practices according to Google? Get in touch with Connectica today at 877-816-2259!