Google Places for Business allows potential customers to view important information about your local business when they are searching for services and/or products that you offer. This can be a great source of traffic and sales.
Google places for Business is a hugely beneficial service for local businesses, it helps businesses share information about their stores, geographic location, products and/or services with online shoppers who have completed a relevant search.
If you are local business, or multi-channel retailer with an online and physical store, Google Places is a service that you should take advantage of. Here are some tips on how to make your Google Places listing compelling;
Google Places Quality Guidelines
When optimising your Google Places listing, the first step is to follow Google’s quality guidelines. This guideline outlines the basic information that Google expects to see in order for the listing to be of good quality. Here are the brief key points;
Ensure that you are authorised to manage the listing
Use accurate and precise information
Offer a truthful representation of your business online and offline
Complete Your Listing
Google, alongside many marketing experts, advise that completing your Google Places listing with as much information as possible is essential. Not only is it best practice, but it will also make your listing more appealing to potential customers.
To give your customers the best experience, offer them as much information as possible. This means you should fill out the optional fields as well as the required ones. Ensure that you include;
Store physical location
Hours of operation
Accepted forms of payment
Well written description of your business, including the products/services that you provide
Website URL
Contact information – email address and telephone number
Images
Select the Correct Business Category
To help users find relevant businesses, Google requests that all Business Places listings are categorised. To make sure that your business is appearing to the correct audience, it is important to select accurate categories that describe your business well.
Google recommends that business choose specific categories rather than more general ones to make sure that its users receive the best results.
Write a Compelling Description
The description of your business can be the deciding factor when a potential customer is comparing your business with your competitors. Business descriptions should be truthful yet convincing; you need to persuade users to visit your site.
The description’s content should be focused on your businesses core values and what services and/or products you provide. The user is at that search result because they have a question, consider what question they might have and solve their problem; this is your chance to communicate to your potential customers.
Remember that the amount of the description shown is different dependant on the user’s device, so make sure that your opening sentence is convincing.
Add Visual Content
When comparing business listings, many users will be persuaded to click on a business with visual content rather than a business with no images at all.
Consider providing as many relevant images and videos as possible, this is a great opportunity to communicate exactly what products and/or services you provide and what makes your business different from your competitors.
It is also worthwhile to add any other content you feel will set you apart from your competitors, this can include special offers, social media updates or your latest blog posts.
Encourage Customer Reviews
Google allows Business listings to be reviewed; these reviews can be viewed by potential new customers viewing your Business listing. It stands without reason to say that gaining positive reviews will have an encouraging factor when directing users viewing your listing.
It can often be a challenge collecting customer reviews, ways to do so could be by sending an email to your client database, stating that you value their feedback or offering a small incentive to those who complete reviews. For a less direct approach, you could include a link to the Google places listing on your website.
Connect with Google +
Connect your businesses Google + page with your Google Places listing. This will allow users to view your Google plus activity when visiting the listing, giving a better insight to your business and creating more brand awareness.