Google My Business came into existence to help users quickly find local businesses and small and medium-sized enterprises–SMEs around them. Though the inclusion of local businesses appearing in the searches might marginally matter to the users but greatly impacts the businesses and their growth. Google My Business–GMB provided them with a platform to shine through the sponsored ads on the basis of location and maximize the organic reach and leads by leveraging the photos, reviews, and ratings.
Good descriptions, authentic details, and relevant information are available for the customer through GMB leading to the customers’ interest in conversion and benefits for the SMEs.
Boosting Visibility:
The primary benefit of GMB is higher visibility. Google’s algorithm for the users’ benefits by default prioritizes local results in the search engine result pages– SERP. It does not require the users to mention ‘near me’ in the search query. As a result of this, as per research, 97% of users have said to discover local businesses online.
The local ‘3-pack’ appears on the top of the screen immediately after the paid ads. As the local ‘3-pack’ are organic results and the highest organic ranking on the screen, appearing in those results holds a substantial value for the SMEs.
Cost-effective:
Google is a globally known and widely used search engine. It provides the GMB listing feature for free, resulting in the SMEs potentially reaching google’s audience of 4.3 billion.
The GMB listing is free of cost yet allows businesses to provide their potential customers with details like website, contact, address, work hours, busy hours, images, and customer reviews. It also provides customer insights for businesses to analyze and improve their strategies. GMB insights include the customers’ source of finding the listing, subsequent actions taken, and other interactions.
SMEs are majorly on strict budgets hence GMB listing is a highly beneficial strategy for them.
Maintains consistency:
Customers today like to stay informed, educated, and updated. They are more likely to check up and stay within a loop about the businesses around them, that interest them. One of the most common things customers feel repulsive about businesses it to not being able to find them online in the digital era.
GMB listing is fingertips away for customers to know everything about it. They can effortlessly access details without having to go through social media profiles or websites.
Improves SEO:
As mentioned earlier, GMB is prioritized by local searches, that is the local SEO. Every business especially SMEs significantly benefit from local SEO with increased visibility.
Optimizing the provided GMB data can help the rankings and SEO. The ranking results are based on relevance, prominence, and distance. Providing genuine data to support the same, along with business categories has proven to be beneficial.
GMB is essentially a powerful SEO tool and must be optimally used to drive higher organic results.
Provides authenticity:
GMB listing also provides a review feature along with its many other features. It allows past and present customers to provide reviews, which contribute to the rankings, and reputation, and invite potential customers. The local ‘3-pack’ listings are considered more genuine, trustable, and reliable by customers. The appearance of businesses on this pack is more likely to receive sales and conversion from customers.
As per research, 64% of customers have used GMB to access local businesses and SMEs’ details. Using GMB to its optimum potential can allow SMEs to not remain confined to traditional approaches to reach their audience base. Google constantly changes its algorithm for search engines resulting in the necessity for updating the strategies and making the most of this cost-effective strategy. Google My Business has consistently proven to be immensely valuable due to the reach, sales, and conversion it has provided various SMEs.
Top 5 Benefits of Google My Business (For SMEs)
Boosting Visibility:
Local ‘3-pack’ is the highest organic ranking on the screen,
Cost-effective:
The free GMB listing allows businesses to provide their customers with all relevant data and gain insights.
Maintains consistency:
Customers like to access details online and effortlessly while staying updated with the business.
Improves SEO:
SMEs benefit from local SEO with increased visibility, organic traffic, and sales.
Provides authenticity:
The local ‘3-pack’ listings are considered more genuine, trustable, and reliable by customers.
