How to optimize your Google My Business listing in 2024

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Google My Business listings are an important part of a business’s online visibility . Did you know that they represent 36% of a business’s local SEO 1 ?

Additionally, 72% of consumers who conduct a local search online then visit a store within 5 miles of their location 2 . Google listings therefore allow you to position yourself on your customers' journey to generate in-store traffic .

Your Google Business Listing has different sections and features that all need to be optimized to maximize your online presence .

So before you consider deleting your Google My Business belgium mobile phone number list listing because you're not satisfied with its results, follow our advice to make it efficient!


1. Elements of your Google My Business listing to optimize
2. Capitalize on new features in Google business listings
Conclusion


optimize Google My Business listing

1. Elements of your Google My Business listing to optimize
Let’s start by detailing the elements to be completed and how to optimize them:

Name : This is the title of your Google listing and should contain only the name of your business. Following an update in 2023, you should no longer add other elements related to the activity or geographic location. Remember to standardize your title for all your points of sale.
Description : Write a compelling and easy-to-read text to describe your business. Don’t get bogged down in details, get to the point and include your local SEO keywords.
Categories : you can indicate 1 main and 9 secondary categories (complete the secondary categories only if relevant). They allow you to specify your activity and stand out visually at the top of your Google My Business profile . Examples: Chinese restaurant, Personal services agency, etc.
Address : the location of your point of sale. Honestly, this is the basis because without an address, how do you expect your consumers to be able to get to your points of sale? The location also allows you to be geolocated on Google and Google Maps and therefore to appear in local searches and itineraries!
Opening hours : so that your customers do not come when you are closed. Remember to update them according to exceptional events and public holidays.
Telephone and email contact details .
Website : It helps improve the local SEO of your Google listing while responding to customers' ROPO (Research Online Purchase Offline) behaviors.
Images and videos : know that they are becoming increasingly important in the efficiency of Google Business Profiles . Do not neglect them and take the time to import them. Know that Google files with 1 single image have 71% fewer calls and 75% fewer redirects than the others 3 .
Services : here you indicate the additional services offered by your points of sale such as “take away”, “delivery”, “click and collect”, etc.
Google posts : these are a bit like posts on social networks. They are used to bring your Google profile to life with recent content and to develop a dynamic brand image. There are 3 types of Google Posts: News, Events, Offers.
Links to your social networks : this is new for 2023. Still in the spirit of ROPO behavior, do not hesitate to provide as much information as possible to your consumers by including links to your Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. pages.
Customer reviews : did you know that they directly impact the online visibility of your Google My Business listing ? They even represent 16% of your ranking in Google 1 . Take the time to manage your Google customer reviews by collecting as many comments as possible and responding to them 100%.
By working on all these aspects, your Google Business Profile is optimized and you improve your online visibility !
Optimized GMB listingOptimized GMB listing

Optimized GMB listing



Capitalize on new features in Google business listings

2. Capitalize on new features in Google business listings
To ensure the effectiveness of your Google profile on your online presence , you need to keep up to date with the latest developments. Don't have time? We understand, don't worry, we've done it for you!

As mentioned above, visuals and images have become more important in optimizing a Google My Business listing. This is due in particular to the development of visual search .


Thanks to artificial intelligence, it is now possible to analyze the photos of the Google Business Profile in Google Maps and offer Internet users results based on the images. As in the example below, if a consumer searches for a red car, the AI ​​​​suggests establishments with a photo of this car color.

google search google my business file optimized

Example query involving visual search

Another new feature concerns customer reviews . You may have noticed that different sources of customer reviews now appear on Google My Business listings ? Indeed, to break the monopoly position, the European Union has ordered Google to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) 5 . The customer reviews section of Google establishment listings now includes comments from several platforms: Google, obviously, but also TrustPilot, Uber Eats and Tripadvisor. Our advice: integrate all customer review platforms into your customer review management strategy .

By following all these recommendations, your Google My Business listings are optimized and you increase your in-store traffic !



Conclusion
The Google business profile represents an important part of your online presence . To optimize it, you must work on all the elements that constitute it. Whether it is your name, description, location, customer reviews or even Google Posts, you must carefully complete all its components.

For maximum online visibility , you also need to keep up to date with new developments such as voice search or opening up customer reviews from other platforms.

We know that perfecting every element of each Google listing can be tedious for a network of brands with many points of sale. That’s why we created a local marketing platform that makes it easy to optimize all of this data. Convenient, right?