Google is the world’s most popular search engine, we all know that. With about 60,000+ searches per second, it’s safe to say that your business’s presence on Google is pretty important. Google provides businesses with free listings so they can be found online, but it’s the business owner’s job to make sure that listing is appealing to searchers. 

After you have added and claimed your Google My Business listing, it’s time to make sure your business’s space on Google is attractive to potential customers. To ensure that your listing is optimized for reviews, follow these steps:

Add relevant information about your business and keep it up-to-date. You can always edit your business listing on Google if your hours of operation, address, phone number or website change. It is absolutely essential for business owners to keep their business information on Google relevant and updated. Remember, if your business has special hours on holidays, that information should be added to your listing, as well. Searchers are coming to your listing to find out more about your business and deciding whether or not your business is the right fit for their needs. Keep your information abundant and up-to-date so consumers don’t have to dig for it.  

Describe your business using real keywords. You will have the opportunity to fill out a business description when you set up your listing, and it is important to add detail so readers know that they have come to the right place while reading through what your business offers. Your business description is a great place to add keywords, but be sure not to “keyword stuff” as Google might see that as spam. Keeping your keyword-driven description simple like: “John’s HVAC is an HVAC and plumbing company serving Boulder, CO and surrounding areas. Our technicians are highly trained in HVAC tune-ups, A/C repairs, furnace replacements, plumbing issues, etc.” You get the idea. Keep it thorough and informative, but with keywords that will ultimately help with your listing’s SEO. 

Make your listing visually appealing. In other words, high resolution photos are your friend when it comes to optimizing your Google My Business listing. Help your listing tell a story to searchers by showing them photos of your work, your business, your logo, your employees, etc. Standing out against the competition is what every business owner wants, and adding high quality photos to your listing allows you to do just that. 

Businesses that include photos on their listings receive 42% more driving directions requests and 35% more clicks to their website than those without photos. To put it simply, if you want more consumer interactions from your listing, include photos. 

Now, what? After you have taken the time to set up and optimize your Google My Business listing, it is time to rake in those reviews! Not only do 85% of customers say they trust online reviews as much as a referral from a family member or friend, but reviews also help with your SEO rankings. 

Even though the majority of your customers are happy and would be willing to leave your business a Google review, most don’t, because they were not asked to. Businesses miss out on reviews all the time simply because they are not asking for them. In fact, over 70% of consumers will leave a review for a business if they are asked to. Reviews are massively important to the success of a business, so gaining new reviews should not be left up to chance.

After you ask a customer for a review, roughly 20% of those who say they will leave a review, still don’t. Why? Maybe because they don’t know where to go on Google to leave the review for your business. Maybe because they think the process will take longer than it will, or they don’t realize how easy it really is. In order to pull that 20% back in and get their review, businesses need to make the process as seamless and simple as possible for them. This is why online review management and customer feedback tools are so valuable, especially to small and local businesses. FreshLime’s software makes it tremendously easy for business owners and their employees to send review invitations to happy customers, in the way that is most convenient for them (text and/or email). The process for obtaining online reviews is streamlined and easy for everyone, which results in more and more positive reviews for your business.

“I made the decision early on that I was going to build my Google presence without paying for ads, and I think FreshLime’s really come in and helped there.” -Seth Vermillion, Owner, Utah Safety & Emissions Testing

Download the full guide here!