Benefits of Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile (formely Google My Business) is a free tool for business owners, allowing you to create, verify and edit a business listing in Google and is essential for local SEO as it enables your business listing to appear in local search results for queries specific to your products or services.

How Important is a Google Business Profile?

Google Business Profile is hugely important for local SEO.

Around 50% of all Google searches are seeking local information and 88% of searches for local businesses on a mobile device either call or visit the business within 24 hours.

Google Business Profile is key to local SEO.

Benefits of a Google Business Profile Listing #1

If someone is searching for your business by name, then they are already aware of your business and your full Google Business Profile listing will hopefully display in the Google search results.

They might just looking for your phone number, address or opening hours so there’s no need for them to click through to your website – those details are provided in your Google Business Profile listing, right there in the search results.

They sit usually to the right of the main search results.

Benefits of a Google Business Profile Listing #2

If someone is doing a more generic search, for example:

web design Sutton Coldfield

Then you’ll often see what is commonly known as the “three-pack” or “local-pack” results panel.

You’ve probably also seen these three-packs before – a map with three local businesses on the page. Those business details are pulled from each business’s Google Business Profile listing.

Simply setting up your Google Business Profile page can be enough to get you featured in a three-pack result. And the fact that these results often appear on top of the standard organic search results makes them critically important for local SEO.

Other Benefits of a Google Business Profile Listing

There are a range of additional benefits that are also really useful:

Helps Your Website Rank Better
Control Your Information and Service Offering
Manage, Showcase and Respond to Google Business Profile Reviews to boost your local SEO
Learn More About Customers

* BONUS TIP *

Be consistent with your NAP!

NAP, in this context at least, stands for Name Address Phone number.

Make sure that they are the same on your website as they are on your Google Business Profile page and anywhere else they are shown on the web.

When Google scans the internet, if it finds inconsistencies with your NAP, it can negatively affect your ranking. Conversely, having a really consistent NAP will contribute to a better ranking.

Read more about why a good NAP is essential for local SEO and how you can maximise the benefits of business citations in link directories.

Conclusion

Make sure that your business has an up-to-date and detailed Google Business Profile listing. If you haven’t taken the time to create and optimise one yet, then you’re missing out on one of the best free ways of appearing in the Google search results.

Google Business Profile pages aren’t particulalry complicated, but they are important. While you may feel like it’s just one more thing to keep on top of, Google Business Profile should definitely go very close to the top of the list as one of the most important.

If you’d like more professional help and advice, please see my Google Business Profile Optimisation services page for more details.

Next Steps…

Hopefully I’ve convinced you that this is a very worthwhile step to market your business. If you haven’t already done so, then please claim your business.

Below are a few pages from Google on how to make the best of your profile.

Alternately, have a look at my Google Business Profile optimisation service where I can optimise your listing to make it appear more prominently in local searches.