6 Google My Business Listing Mistakes You Must Avoid
People are heavily relying on Google to find the answers to their questions. That’s why Google is also playing a vital role in finding the best products and services in the local area. Therefore, businesses should use Google My Business listing to manage their organization’s online presence in the local area. Business owners can get lots of benefits from the Google My Business listing. First, it is a cost-effective solution to improve the online presence of your business.
Secondly, it is the best way to increase the visibility of your business on Google Maps and Search. Thirdly, you can easily claim and optimize your business profile. Fourthly, it can ensure the online consistency of your business. While creating a GMB listing, you may make some mistakes. Here, we will discuss six common Google My Business mistakes that you should avoid.
Unclaimed Listings:
Without claiming your Google My Business listing, you can’t manage it. You will have to face problems editing your business website’s address, phone number, and URL. As a business owner, you can’t upload photos. Moreover, you can’t reply to the questions of the customers. Due to an unverified listing, you can’t get help from the GMB team. In other words, you can’t use Google My Business listing to create and edit posts. When you don’t claim your listing, another company may claim this listing. After claiming this listing, this company will change everything in the listing. Due to an unclaimed listing, Google will not send any notification to you for the change of information. As a result, your business may have to face real damages. Therefore, if you want to increase the online presence of your business, you must claim your listing.
Missing Information:
Missing information is a common mistake that business people make while managing their Google My Business listings. After setting up their listings, they don’t check these listings for a while. When they don’t check these listings for a while, there are chances of missing the major information. For example, you may miss the processing hours of your business. You can also miss the URL of your website.
In some cases, you can also miss your phone number. If you miss this vital information, your customers can’t contact you. When potential customers can’t access your business website, they will go to your competitors. To overcome this problem, you should log into your GMB account. After logging into your account, you should check the information. If something is missing, you should immediately write it.
Incorrect Information:
If you have not displayed information on your Google My Business listing, it may not hurt your listing. If you provide incorrect information on your listing, it will hurt your listing. For example, after changing the processing hours of your company, you will have to update these hours on your GMB listing. If you don’t update these hours, customers may visit your company during these hours. When they find it closed, it will last a bad impression on your customers.
Moreover, your customers will not wait for the opening hours. They will visit your competitor’s site. Moreover, the customer will leave a bad review on Google. Due to this bad review, you may also lose some other customers. Moreover, Google will not provide a higher ranking to those listings receiving negative reviews from the customers.
Map Pins:
While optimizing the Google My Business listing, most businesses overlook this option. In some cases, they can pin the maps in the wrong place. You might have seen lots of wrong map pins on the listings. Some businessmen have mapped the pins of the parking places. Some have mapped the pins of the end of the shopping centres.
In some cases, some businesses have mapped the pins of the streets in their business listings. These kinds of map pins will not provide any value to potential customers. Nowadays, people are using GPS to get the right directions. By following the GPS, they can easily reach the right spot. Due to wrong map pins, they will reach the wrong place. As a result, they may assume that your business is closed.
Ignored Reviews:
As a business, if you want to ensure the online presence of your business, you should never ignore reviews. Whether you are getting negative reviews or positive reviews, you should engage with the customers. Sometimes, customers post negative reviews due to the lack of information. When you respond and address their queries, you can easily satisfy the customers. When other customers see that you have satisfied the customers, they will also try to trust your business. No doubt, you will like to reply to those customers sharing positive reviews. Now, the problem is that you will not like to reply to negative reviews. In some cases, you may insult the customers by posting negative reviews. Instead of insulting them, you should talk to them politely and be considerate of their feelings.
Photos:
Photos are also playing a vital role in optimizing your Google My Business ranking. Some businessmen ignore the photos. If they post photos, they don’t provide the same view of their businesses. In some cases, they show the street view of the business. Some businessmen rely on the photos of the customers. These kinds of photos may not be attractive to the customers. These photos may lead Google to the wrong Facebook profiles or news articles in some cases. To my extent, you should post at least five photos of the interior views of your company.
Moreover, you should also post five photos of the exterior views of your company. You can post these photos with and without staff. With the help of these photos, you should show that your business is distinct from others.
Conclusion:
After claiming the Google My Business listing, you should perform an audit of your listing. While performing an audit of your listing, you should try to know whether your listing is facing the issues mentioned above or not. If your listing is facing the issues mentioned above, you should take immediate actions to overcome these issues. When you take immediate action, you can provide the best experience to the customers. Moreover, when you properly optimize your listing, you can enjoy a higher ranking on Google.
About Author: Tyler Archer, the famous author regarded to be one of the top rated writers of academic writing like Dissertation writing, PhD Dissertation writing and essay writing services in the UK.