Our top Google business profile optimisation tips

 

Introduction

Setting up a Google Business profile is incredibly important for any business in Bristol. It can often be fully set up and created in a short period. However, adding as much detail and optimising your business profile as possible is essential.

Also, the Google Business profile will occasionally need some maintenance. For example, regularly update your opening hours or perhaps update the team photo from time to time.

The importance of a Google Business Profile is that you optimise it, and then you could come up and appear in the top 3 Google business map results in your area.

This can therefore send a lot of shoppers to your website if you achieve this.

 

What exactly is a Google Business profile?

Google (Alphabet) offers this service for free.

Plus, you can set up this account in a short period, in less than an hour most of the time.

You can add important business information to your profile, such as your website’s URL, business name, and other essential business information, such as the businesses opening hours.

Remember that you could be competing with hundreds, if not thousands, of other Google Business profiles. Because Google’s algorithms now shorten the number of businesses that get displayed to 3 at any one time, competition is therefore now fierce and hypercompetitive in most cities like Bristol.

Therefore, your agency needs to optimise the listing. A lot of work goes into the behind-the-scenes to do this. An example of this work would be raising the business’s authority, which means getting backlinks and obtaining genuine customer reviews.

Plus also you should maintain the profile, and ensure that all information is precise and you have consistent citations (NAP).

 

 

Does my business even need a Google Business profile?

The short answer is that an incredible amount of marketing statistics show that many people find local businesses through Google Business results. Google itself has reported that 46% of all searches have local intent. Whether you’re a plumber or a barrister, you have to ask yourself can you afford not to advertise your business within the Google Business results?

What is the local three-pack?

So seasoned SEO consultants among us, which have been around for a while helping companies improve their local SEO will know, Google once displayed seven businesses in Google Business results (7-pack).

However, Google’s algorithm has changed massively since then. So has the design of the page, which Google presents as the local business results. For example, you used to be a seven-pack, which means there are many more opportunities for a business to get onto the first page and shown in the Google business results.

Since then, Google’s algorithm has changed substantially and become more sophisticated than ever.
Results have been shortened now to just 3 or less results, therefore its now hypercompetitive to get any business rank there.

 

Setting up your Google Business Profile

We fully appreciate the fact that when you are setting up a business, say in Bristol, you will often have quite literally 1 million things to do.
However, what businesses underestimate is how vital the Google Business profile is to their company. Often, they think it’s something that could set up a matter of minutes and then forgotten about.

However, established businesses know that a properly optimised, and set-up Google Business profile can help attract a lot of customers if it ranks on the first page of Google.

 

Proximity.

However, please consider that in an area like Clifton Bristol, let’s say that you run a solicitors practice, you still have often a lot of competition.

Therefore, you must often compete with at least 10 other Google Business profiles around your city. Often a lot more, but lets say 10 companies as an example.

Therefore you will often face stiff competition.

Take the time to set up the account properly.

Then it’s a matter of optimisation, which can involve regularly updating your Google Business account. It also consists of obtaining genuine customer reviews and high-quality backlinks to your website to improve your authority.

 

NAP consistency

You have to take into account nap consistency.

This again is something that some small business owners can sometimes overlook.

You have to take into account that nap consistency must be 100% accurate.

NAP / Business citation issues can arise when changing business premises, that’s if the business fails to update their business citations.
Therefore, you have what I called conflicting business citations, if the NAP details point at two different addresses.

Change of holiday hours

When you change your holiday hours, this presents a brilliant opportunity to update your business profile.
Another reason Google can drop a business profile and replace it with a competitor’s profile is that it might be considered as having outdated business information.

For example, if a business profile is left unchanged for say 10 years, Google might start to feel that the details, such as the opening hours, are possibly incorrect.

Therefore, it was a good idea, from time to time, to visit your business profile and update it.

 

How To Verify Your Google Business Profile Listing

Verify your listing

This is important because, from our perspective as a well-known SEO agency, you’ve seen businesses set up in Google’s business profiles yet not verify them.

However, because it is unverified, other businesses might try to claim it, or people might try to make amendments by suggesting edits that are not accurate.

For example, in our experience, we have seen a business profile, where a competitor has marked all the opening hours as closed. This can harm the business as it was actually meant to be marked as open during that time, and therefore would confuse customers who visited that page.

Therefore, to lock your business profile listing, which means verifying it, showing that you own it, and that only your business can edit the details.

 

Do you have a duplicate listing?

Your business may have already set up a Google business profile?

It could be a Google Business profile, which Google itself might have automatically set up?

Therefore, look to see if your company already has a Google profile set up, because you might just need to claim ownership of an existing listing.

 

Business description and category

So this is a fairly common mistake, lets say you run a fencing business, which is categorised as construction company. However, if you categorise it as fencing and garden services, for example, this is much more accurate in terms of the services that you offer as a business.
Therefore, take the time to look through business descriptions and categories, and select the one most suited to your business.

 

Back links

Backlinks are an essential part of local SEO.

As they can improve the businesses Google EEAT score. . This can mean that Google prefers your business profile of your competitors because it is clear that many powerful links have chosen to link to your website.
Come to us

We are looking to work with new businesses in Bath and Bristol’s busy, bustling city.

We offer affordable SEO services, if you would therefore like a no obligation quote why not call us today.