The Importance of Engagement With Google My Business

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It is not only absolutely essential to have your company listed on Google My Business (GMB), you also need to maintain a relevant presence on your profile to show regular activity. These days, it is simply not enough to create a well-optimized Google My Business profile and then leave it untouched. You need to be continuously in the loop when it comes to the latest updates, optimization tricks and looking after a steadily increasing engagement rate.

If you think about it, a stagnant listing does no good for anyone. Additionally, it can lose credibility, not only from users but also from Google. As a business, Google ultimately wants to ensure that quality content, pages and GMB listings are available to their users. Otherwise, those users will go to Google’s competitors and start using other search engines. By showing consistent activity to your listing, it helps increase the trust that your listing is providing up-to-date data about your business. Without that trust, Google may decide to not display your listing prominently, or even at all. 

Consistent activity can also help you stay ahead of your competitors by allowing you to take advantage of new features as soon as they become available.  Google is constantly updating features and algorithms to provide the best results for its users.  Staying on top of these updates. They are incredibly beneficial for your business. This is why it can be easier for you to call an expert for help with your GMB management.

What Is GMB And Why Does It Matter?

Google My Business helps keep all of a business’s information in one place for users to see. This eliminates having to click or dig through a website for the information they would need to interact with the business.  An optimized GMB profile is a necessary for great SEO and an overall digital marketing strategy. By listing your business, you’re able to provide internet users with all the information they might need to get in touch with you. After all, the aim of a GMB listing is to drive more engagement and organic search traffic to your website. Additionally, customers have access to your services, products and your team of experts.

Not only does Google My Business provide a place for users to get easy access to your information, it also helps users search for businesses in close proximity to their location.  In fact, GMB is one of the most important tools you can use when trying to rank locally. This is because proximity is a large part of its ranking algorithm. This is proven by the local 3-pack. 

Have you noticed when you search for a keyword, there are three map listings above the organic search results?  These map listings are known as the local 3-pack and each of those listings within it are a Google My Business profile. This alone shows you why GMB matters so much.  They display in rankings just below paid advertisements. They are generally above the organic search results.  That is a prime location to display on a search engine result page.

Why Should I Be Active On Google My Business?

We understand that there are certain details about your business that will remain static. Items such as your name, contact details and web address may remain the same for many years. These types of details don’t need to be changed often in order for your listing to remain relevant and active. There are other ways that you can ensure your page maintains integrity and authority online. This is where customer engagement is so important on your GMB listing.

Anybody can comment, review or respond to your customers on your listing. Because of this, it’s highly important that your finger is on the GMB engagement pulse to monitor your customer engagement. The last thing you need is to leave your customers hanging as they await your response to their question or comment. You also don’t want someone else to come in and answer any question a customer may have incorrectly. 

Tips To Engage Customers on Google My Business

One of the main metrics we use to measure the success and growth of a digital marketing strategy are the engagement rates.

The reason we look at these is because a lot of the algorithms are set up to base credibility and relevance of content on engagement rates. If something is irrelevant, generally users will ignore it rather than engage with it. Think of your Google My Business profile as a social media profile. There are several ways you can keep it active and up-to-date while attracting engagement from potential customers. 

Below are a just a few of our tips to help your GMB profile stand out:

Customer Reviews

Requesting a customer review on Google My Business is a great way to give your customers an opportunity to have their say when it comes to your products and services. When it comes to management, you want to make sure you respond to customer reviews promptly to ensure they feel appreciated for their effort.

If you get a negative review it is still important to respond. Never neglect a negative review, show your great customer service and willingness to serve your clients well even from behind a computer screen. It is also important to take negative reviews offline.  We don’t mean try to remove them, we want you to simply respond to them with a phone number or other contact information they can use to follow-up directly in regards to solving their complaint. How you respond to the negative reviews will show your potential clients how you respond to problems.  It’s important to show you care about a customer’s experience.

• NO False or Fake Reviews: one thing we have to caution you on, is getting your colleagues, friends, or even hiring people to write fake reviews on your profile. This can be misleading and can at times be very obvious to users. Keep your integrity and credibility intact by encouraging reviews from actual customers.

Questions and Answers

Customers are able to ask questions on your GMB listing. This is great if you’re active and able to answer questions promptly. One of the dangers of leaving customer questions unanswered is that they could get frustrated at the lack of response and go to your rival brand. Conversely, someone else could respond to their questions which could be misleading if it is an incorrect answer.

Remember, anybody can respond on your GMB listing. It’s important to know what’s going on and be quick to respond yourself in order to keep the information true to your business.

Product Updates

Make sure you keep customers engaged by sharing your latest updates, specials and other information that might interest them as they consider your business in their searches. Product updates are probably one of the easiest ways you can stay consistently active on your Google My Business Profile. 

Remember how we mentioned earlier to think of GMB like a social media profile?  Well, your product updates are your posts to this particular platform.  The type of post you create will determine how long it displays on the front page of the knowledge panel. Although, Google is currently experimenting with keeping generic posts up without an expiration date making it so they display longer than the seven days they previously displayed for.  Your posts can be anything from blog articles, to special events, and even coupons you want to offer your customers.

Images

Images are another super easy way to show activity to your Google My Business profile.  Uploading images of staff, your offices or retail space, products, staff members actually working on a service you provide, etc.

You have probably seen us discuss these tips in previous blog posts as well.  We cannot stress their importance enough – especially since Google My Business is continuously increasing in importance to your search rankings.  These are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to optimizing your GMB profile but they are also the best ways to engage with your customers and show activity on your profile.

Get In Touch For Google My Business Support In Fort Lauderdale and Pasadena

At Connectica, we are all about developing high end digital marketing processes that will change the game for almost any business around. We offer assistance and support with Google My Business management and set up because we see the value it can add to your online presence. It’s our job to stay up-to-date on not only Google My Business updates. Additionally, we’re versed in updates throughout the whole digital marketing industry. We can create and update your digital marketing plan to stay on top of the trends allowing you to focus on running your business. 

Get in touch with one of our friendly experts today. As a full-service digital marketing agency there’s nothing we can’t do! Call us at 877-816-2259.

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