Google Business Profile (GBP) is a free tool designed to help businesses manage their online presence on Google.
Previously Google My Business, a Google Business Profile is a verified business listing that appears on both Google Search and Maps.
Businesses can update their listing to include information important to their audience, such as their contact details, website address and opening hours.
A Google Business Profile is a valuable tool for local businesses looking to improve their online presence, as optimised profiles can appear higher in local search results, which may attract more customers.
But which Google Business Profile fields are the most important to optimise to help improve your rankings and visibility on Google?
Physical address
It is important to include the physical address of your business on your Google Business Profile, as this can impact your visibility in local searches.
The closer your address is to the location of a searcher, the more likely you are to show up in the search and map results. For example, when you do a search for “takeaway”, the search engine results page will display a list of takeaways close to your location.
Categories
It is important to select a business category that accurately represents what your business offers, for example, ‘Marketing Agency’ or ‘Video Production Service’.
You can select a category from a pre-defined list, or type your own. The category you select will aid with the search engine optimisation of your Google Business Profile, as this will be the term that you want your profile to rank for.
There are 10 category fields in total, and these can be changed at any time. Be mindful that changing the categories may negatively impact the visibility of your GBP in search results.
Opening hours
It is believed that the opening hours listed on your Google Business Profile are a ranking factor, and the hours listed can affect your ranking position in search results.
If the hours of your business are shown as closed at the time a user makes a search, it isn’t necessarily helpful to show your GBP to the user. Google may change the ranking position of your profile in favour of a business with operating hours that indicate that they’re open at the time a search is made.
We’d recommend analysing the opening hours of your local competitors and identifying whether you can advertise opening earlier or staying open later to pick up additional rankings.
Reviews
Showing reviews in Google Business Profile listings is important, as they present positive feedback to potential customers, which can help influence purchasing decision making.
Not only this, but reviews can also help improve the local SEO (search engine optimisation) of your GBP, as Google will take the nature of these reviews into account when ranking businesses in local search results.
If your business has a higher number of positive reviews than your competitors, it is more likely to appear higher in the search results, as it appears to be more trustworthy and credible to Google.
Website URL
Adding the URL of your website to your Google Business Profile is, as you would expect, a critical field to complete.
The URL provides an easy way for potential customers to visit your website, which can lead to higher conversion rates.
There are many SEO benefits to linking to your website from your GBP. It can help Google understand the ins and outs of your business better, which can contribute to better rankings for both your website and your Google Business listing.
There are many fields that you can optimise to improve the visibility and ranking of your Google Business Profile in local search results; however, these high-value fields are sure to make the biggest impact.
Need help optimising your Google Business Profile to attract new customers to your site? Contact the team at Engage Web today.
- The risks and benefits of a link exchange - September 9, 2024
- What are Hreflang tags and why are they important to SEO? - September 6, 2024
- What is a redirect and how do they impact SEO? - September 4, 2024
