Optimising your Google My Business Listing

• Publish Google Posts
• Encourage and Respond to Reviews
• Utilise the Questions and Answers Section
• Update Photos/Videos Regularly
• Ensure your services are listed

Google My Business lets you publish your events, products and services directly on your listing.

You can make announcements, create events, highlight products, and run promotions. In addition, each post type has a call to action button, making the experience from discovery to engagement seamless.

To create a post, visit Google My Business.

Click on create posts, or you can select posts from the menu. Once you have created your post and you’re happy with it, click publish.

Posts stay ‘live’ for 7 days. The old posts still appear in your Google listing - they’re just pushed down by the new posts and don’t show on your overview tab. If you’re forgetful, Google reminds you when it’s time to create a new post.

• Create a templated email to ask for reviews.
• Use a tool to automate your review request process.
• Ask for a review at the right time in the customer journey.
• Put a link to leave a Google review in your email signature, or on point of sale items and invoices.

Google encourages business owners to ask customers for online reviews. These reviews appear next to your listing in Google maps and can help your business stand out in a sea of search results.

When making a purchase decision, people look to others for their opinions. We all do it. And we do it often. We want to learn from the experiences of those who have purchased before us.

88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations

92% of buyers regularly or occasionally rely on reviews when making a local buying decision.

To create a link from Google Search:

On your computer, search for your business on Google.

Find your business listing and click "Write a review".

Copy and paste the URL you see in your address bar.

• Publish Google Posts
• Encourage and Respond to Reviews
• Utilise the Questions and Answers Section
• Update Photos/Videos Regularly
• Ensure your services are listed

Responding to reviews can also help your local SEO. Getting new reviews is only part of the process. Responding to reviews builds trust with your customers, and also with Google. The response acts as a credibility indicator to Google, which makes Google want to recommend you.

To find out you received a new review on Google you may notice it on your Google My Business listing, but you would also receive an email letting you know you received a review.

If you go to your Google My Business page, click on reviews.

From here click on the specific review - underneath it would have a spot to leave the review, then push submit.

If you found out you received a new Google review via email, click on “READ REVIEW”.

This will take you directly to where you can respond to them.

If you have the Google My Business app on your phone, click on the notification “New review from …”.

Starting in 2016, Google started ranking businesses based on the quality and frequency of your photo updates in your Google My Business Listing. Companies who update their Google My Business photos more often, and who are uploading high quality images will see their businesses rank better in local search results. Businesses who haven’t updated their photos in years and/or have pixelated, irrelevant images will suffer.

To update your photos go to your Google My Business page.

Click on photos and then click on the big blue +.

Drag and drop any photos or videos from your computer. It then will be added automatically.

Adding services to your Google My Business listing is especially important if you have pre-priced services e.g a hair salon or optometrist.

This enables you to add specific keywords especially around different services you offer. Essentially because your category is so broad, it’s a way to encapsulate everything you do.

Go to your Google My Business page, and click on info.

On that page scroll to the bottom and click on services.

Once you click on the “Add or edit items” it opens up to an area where you can add “sections” for your services.

It gives you the ability to enter the service name, the price and description. Sometimes it can take a few days for the services to be approved by Google.