Get Your Local Business Found on Google - Finishing Up & Maintaining Your Google Business Listing

This is the 4th post in our series about Getting Your Local Business Found in Google Searches. You can see our previous posts on our Geek Notes blog. Today we'll focus on completing the rest of your GMB Listing and then suggest a strategy for ongoing maintenance of it. Once you've put in all the work of getting your GMB Listing set up, don't let it go stale!

Finish the Sections of Your GMB Listing:

• Add your Products and/or Services to your listing.
• Add Photos of your Business Location and/or Products.  If you have a brick & mortar business location, use photos of your shop. Use the best product photos you can find (source the product manufacturer if applicable, or hire a professional photographer for the best results). Don't use stock photography if you can avoid it.
• Just like with other social media platforms, you can post to your GMB Listing. Here they're called "Updates". Post at least one just to get started, but we're starting to get to those sections of your listing that are going to require ongoing maintenance. GMB Listing Posts only stay up on the main profile screen for 7 days before they are relegated to another page that users have to click to find. That's why you'll see this topic again below in our maintenance plan section.
• Answer questions that have been asked by visitors (or ask the question yourself and then answer it) in the Questions & Answers section. Although Google didn't really design it to be so, this can serve as a Frequent Asked Questions section of your listing. It can be a great tool for engaging visitors to your listing. Be aware though that some business users have reported that when they ask and answer their own questions, they may actually not be shown to anyone but you as the listing owner. To see whether or not this is happening to you, you may have to open the listing using an "incognito" window of your browser. If you have difficulty with this, just reach out and we'll gladly help you.
• Google Reviews - make sure you encourage them, check in to see them, and respond to them. Much more about this in both the next section on maintaining your GMB Llsting and also a deep-dive when we post on the entire subject of obtaining, managing, and responding to Online Reviews in a future article.

A Plan to Maintain Your GMB Listing:

• We've got a simple plan on the steps you need to take Daily, Weekly, and Monthly to maintain your GMB Listing.
• Daily:
• Ask your customers or clients to review your business on Google. Provide them with a direct link or QR Code to your Google Review Page. We can show you how. Better yet, stay tuned for our upcoming articles covering all aspects of Online Reviews.
• Look for any new Reviews left for your business and Respond to them.
• Look for any new Photos posted by customers.
• Weekly:
• Add a new Post/Update to your GMB Listing.
• Add a new Photo or Video to your listing.
• Monthly:
• Check for new Business Categories provided by Google. These categories change over time and you should see if any new ones have appeared that are even more relevant to your business.
• This is a good time to look at the GMB Listings for most direct Competitors.  Look both for things they're doing well, AND for things they might be doing that's not entirely "on the up & up". More info on the latter if you ask!
• Look at and track your Insights. This shows how well your GMB Listing is performing over various time periods. If you're compulsive about this you may need to do this weekly, but in our experience, monthly should be fine.

So, that's pretty much a realistic look at the info you need to take advantage of the #1 FACTOR affecting your business' appearance in Google Search - your GMB Listing. 

Next we'll move on to the #2 FACTOR - Online Reviews. Stay tuned.