How to Optimize Google My Business Local Listing – 9 Secret Insights

Since the CODIV-19 impacted so badly and the lockdown periods of 3-4 months have now lead to an increase in the digital marketing requirements from business owners, specifically the local business owners are now looking for online opportunities to increase their business leads and sales.

Or in other words, we can say the local business owners that were not aware of the importance of online business promotions have now started understanding its importance.

In online marketing there very popular saying: “If any Business Is Not Online, that means It Is out of Business.” Which looks like a fact now.

Whenever it comes to the promotions of locally based businesses, Google My Business Listing plays the most critical role in this.

And if, the Google Business Local Listing is optimized in a good manner then it could generate 50-70 calls on a monthly basis and if the business is on its peak season then getting 500-700 calls only through the local listing is not a big deal.

But yes, the figures may be different based on the business industry type.

So in this post, How to Optimize Google My Business Local Listing, I’m going to share 9 Secret insights I use to grow the GMB listings of my clients and helped in generating above shared figures.

1. How to perform Keyword Research for Google My Business?
2. How to Perform Keywords Grouping for GBM Listing?
3. How to Implement the SEO Optimized Title in GBM Listing?
4. How to Add SEO Optimized Images in Google My Business Listing?
5. How to Update Basic Business Details (Contact Numbers, Business Descriptions, Business Labels, Store Code, etc.)
6. How to Select Preferred Business Category/Categories in Google My Business Listing?
7. How to Select Business Services List in Google My Business?
8. How to Add Products in Google My Business Listing?
9. How to Add Posts and Latest Business Updates in Google My Business Listing?

I’m going to show you the strategy for each point I mentioned above and I guarantee if you implement those points well then you can lead the Google MY Business box of in your local business searches.

How to Perform Keyword Research for Google My Business?

For any business promotions online performing the keyword research at the very beginning is so critical.

By performing keywords research for Google My Business listing will enable you to understand the potential terms and phrases your potential customers are searching to find a suitable service provider and by implementing those keywords could be GAME CHANGER in terms of getting customers calls and messages for the quotes.

HOW TO PERFORM:

Let’s assume you own a computer repair shop and also deals in Laptop repairing and PC assembling and your targeted locations are Laxmi Nagar, Nirman Vihar, Preet Vihar, Shakarpur and all other nearby areas under 5 KM.

To identify these your business key terms, you can simply do a Google search for the products you sell and the services you offer. Refer to the image below:

Once you have Google suggestions as in the above image, you can note down to them on your Notepad of Excel and split the top terms you thing could be helpful in bringing customers and split them in an excel sheet with multiple service locations.

As shown in the below Image:

Now if you are done with this, then Congratulations!!

You can now identify the best and popular keywords that are getting searched online in your locally targeted areas by your potential customers.

How to Perform Keywords Grouping for GBM Listing?

Once you have understood how to select the targeted keywords for your Google My Business listing, the second step comes of grouping the keywords.

What is Keywords Grouping? Keywords grouping is a systematic way of identification and separation of the similar words from the group of keywords in order to identify the best suitable and unique group of words to use in an SEO campaign.

Source: What is Keywords Grouping in SEO?

So here, we are already done with the keywords identification as shown in the above image and now we are going to separate similar terms to create a final list of keywords to use in Google My Business listing.

So what I did?

1. I removed the repetitive terms
2. Used each Location Name Single Time
3. I tried to use the product name (Computer/Laptop) multiple times because they are the main search terms that will help in reflecting the Google My Business listing on top of Listing Search.

And the final outcome we got is:

How To Implement The SEO Optimized Title In GBM Listing?

Now, once you are done with the grouping, open your Google My Business listing dashboard and follow the below steps:

1. Go to: https://business.google.com
2. Log in with your associated Gmail ID and Password
3. Click the Location Name You want to edit.
4. From the left-hand side widget, click in “INFO” text

After clicking on Info, you will get a “Pencil” marked in the image section below

Key Note: In the title of Google My Business listing there is a limit of 300 characters including space which you can utilize to put your brand name along with the services you provide and for better targeting the location names that you deal in.

Also, it is a very sensitive area to work with because overdoing here with the keywords can suspend your listing.

Here, in the title of Infinity Computers, I first mentioned the brand name (Because it matters the most) and then the keywords which we finalized after Keywords Grouping.

How to Add SEO Optimized Images in Google My Business Listing?

Adding images to any Google my business listing is something you should never avoid.

But, uploading images straightway after clicking it with your mobile camera or digital camera is not just enough.

So what should you do??

Well, first RENAME your images with the service/product names it has and make sure the location name is also available as the Image name.

For example:

Now they are ready to get upload.

Tip: If you want to can add contact numbers and email ids in the image so your potential customers can call you after seeing them.

This practice will boost up your image presence in the Google Image section and may lead to higher Google My Business Listing visibility.

How to Update Basic Business Details (Contact Numbers, Business Descriptions, Business Labels, Store Code, etc.)

In every GBM listing dashboard, there are multiple options available for the users which help business owners to display the key details so users can easily reach out to them.

To update those details you can just click on the “INFO” available in the left-hand side widget.

Here, below are the stuff that is very important to fill in GBM listing which helps in enhancing the GMB knowledge graph.

1. Contact Numbers
2. Business Hours
3. Add Your Website URL, if available
4. Mark Highlights and Attributes that are applicable
5. Give your GBM listing a Store Code. (ABC001) ABC can be any business name and store code 001, 002, 003, and so on.
6. Business Descriptions: This can be of max 750 characters with spaces. So make sure to utilize it properly with keywords placements as shown in the below image.
7. Business Opening Date
8. Enter Business Location Labels: This is another very important place in which you can put your location-based keywords. Every GBM listing label options allow maximum of 10 Labels with 50 Characters of words including spaces.

How to Select Preferred Business Category/Categories in Google My Business Listing?

Selecting the most accurate business categories is very important because to appear on the business category related search phrases.

So, as per the keywords we figured out for Infinity Computers, it goes well with all those business categories available in the image below.

Like the same way, you can search for your business-related categories and make sure to select the most relevant ones only because let’s suppose if did choose “Computer Club” which is available in the GMB business category selection, the rankings for this Business might have taken a wrong route to appear in the Search Results.

How to Select Business Services List in Google My Business?

Now, once you are done with the business categories selection, follow below steps to select all related services that come under your selected categories:

1. Log in to Google My Business dashboard
2. On the left-hand side widget, find “Services” text

There you will get a list of all related services to fall under the main category you selected for your business. Now you can further select the relevant sub-categories of your business services as shared in the below image.

How to Add Products in Google My Business Listing?

Adding products to your Google My Business listing not only helps it in getting enhanced but it will also help Local Search Algorithms to do their job more efficiently for your Business listing.

To add products on your GMB listing follow the below steps:

1. Log in to Google My Business Dashboard
2. Scroll down a bit and click on “PRODUCTS” available on the left side hand widget
3. After the Product Section open, click on “ADD PRODUCT” Blue color button
4. A popup will appear to fill the details of your products
   1. Upload Product Image
   2. Enter Product Title
   3. Select Product Category, You can Create Categories after clicking on Create a New Category.
   4. Put the Product Price in “Fixed” or “Price Range” whichever is suitable.
   5. Add Product Description
   6. Choose, the most preferred Call to Action Button: “Order Online”, “Buy”, “Learn More”, “Get Offer”.
   7. Click on “Save”

Once updated and after adding multiple products you can see them coming like this in the Live Google My Business Listing:

How to Add Posts and Latest Business Updates in Google My Business Listing?

That’s another very important factor when it comes to optimizing the Google My Business local listing in order to make it rank higher and to expect calls.

The Posts option in GMB listing is basically used to share;

1. the latest updates,
2. business notifications,
3. business achievements,
4. latest offers,
5. events and you can even add products from here.

It doesn’t end here… once you are done with this extensive Google My Business Listing Optimization Process of 9 Steps I shared above, you can itself see the difference within the 2 months after optimization.

And for this local business what I got in just a month after optimizing is shared in the below “1 Month Before” and 1 Month After” image:

I hope you like the post, try and implement it and share your experience of the results you will get from these 9 Secrets of Google My Business Listing Optimization.