Google My Business: Register, Verify and Boost SEO (2024)

Google My Business has become an indispensable tool to promote your business online or make your brand name or company visible.

The Potential to succeed with Google My Business

The enormous penetration of the mobile phone and the Internet at a global level and the growing tendency of people to search the web for the services and products close to their location have created in business the need to position relevant web pages to local audiences.


Unfortunately, many businesses in my home country, Cameroon, and many parts of Africa, such as Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, etc., are yet to place their listings on this service.

Google My Business is a great way to attract customers. In fact, statistics compiled by HubSpot indicate that 88% of consumers who perform a local search on their Smartphone visit or call a store within a day, and 46% of all Google searches inquire about local information. And in this task of optimizing the local SEO of your website, Google My Business is essential.

What is Google My Business, and how does it help local SEO?

If you ask Google itself what Google My Business is, it will reply that it is "a free and easy-to-use tool with which companies and organizations can manage their online presence in Google products, such as Search and Maps. Verify and change your company information so that customers can find you and tell them the story of your business."


It is vital in positioning for local searches because, in your listing, you must enter the business's exact location, among other data, such as the sector to which it belongs and the hours of operation. 

When a customer makes a query, Google will use the device's geolocation system to find out their location and, based on this, provide them with relevant search results depending on where they are.

In this sense, learning to register on Google My Business and optimizing it is critical for all local businesses.

How to register for Google My Business?

To enter the platform, you must go to  Google My Business and click on the "Sign in" button on the screen's upper right side. 

For this, you have to have a Gmail account, which is the one that allows you to access the multiple products and services of the Internet giant; If you do not have it, you can do it in less than 5 minutes at this link.


You already know how to register your business listing on Google My Business. After doing so, you must register your business email and business name. Once this is done, you can successfully create a tab on the platform.

After this procedure, you register the address of your company or company, and most likely, the platform will ask you to place a marker on a map to indicate the business's location. If you don't have a real point, you can include the service area you mainly operate.

Finally, you enter the data related to the business category, the phone number, and the website URL. With this, you will have created an account in Google My Business, which, once verified, you can start using whenever you want.

How to verify Google My Business?

Beyond knowing what Google My Business is and how to create a listing, you should remember that verification is the procedure by which your business's information in Google is certified correctly.


  • To do it, click on the "Mail" option in the upper left part of the page, and enter the person's name to whom the verification postcard should be addressed (it is the method Google uses most to carry out this procedure).
  • Then you click the "Send a postcard" button.
  • Ready, you know how to verify Google My Business! Once you receive the postcard, enter the platform and the verification code. You can immediately manage the account, add photos, respond to reviews, and change the page's information.


As additional information on verifying Google My Business, keep in mind that in some cases, the platform allows you to check the company through other means, such as a phone call, text message, email, or Google Search Console. If you see one of those methods, don't hesitate to use it.

How to Optimize and Promote Your Business on Google My Business?

Indeed, now that you know how to enter the platform, you must be wondering how to position your Google My Business in search engines. These techniques will make you realize the enormous advantages and benefits of registering for Google My Business.

Here are the steps to follow:

  1. Make sure the data is complete and up-to-date. 
  2. Consistency with other platforms 
  3. Quality content
  4. Respond to reviews promptly.
  5. Pay attention to the statistics in Google My Business.
Let me elaborate on these strategies:

1. Make sure the data is complete and up-to-date 

It is the key to optimizing Google My Business because it provides the algorithm with factual information on which to classify the search results. If this can determine, for example, that your bakery that offers french bread is located precisely at X point, it likely ranks it for the search results of someone who consults "french bread near me" and is two blocks from her.

2. Consistency with other platforms 

Make the name of your business, address, telephone, and offer of services and products exactly match those provided on other platforms, including your website, social networks, and local directories.

3. Quality content

Beyond knowing how to position Google My Business, you should keep in mind that Google highly values: the quality of the content published by users. 

That is why the presentation text must be as complete as possible, with a full, unique description, with short paragraphs, including business or location-based keywords. For example, "Hotel in Douala, Cameroon," and "Restaurant in Nairobi, Kenya."

It is also essential that you include relevant links to the business website.
Besides, you have to include a profile image/company logo and a high-resolution cover. And take the time to add photos and videos of the business, both internally and externally. 

Doing so gives you a better chance of capturing potential customers' attention and influencing their decisions.

4. Respond to reviews on time

High-quality, positive reviews increase customer confidence and influence your business's positioning and visibility in local search results. 

Therefore, you should encourage your satisfied customers to leave their valuable comments and respond immediately and cordially to any reviews they make, including negative ones.

5. Pay attention to the statistics in Google My Business

In this section, Google informs you of your tab's performance in a certain period. Check them continuously and, based on this, improve the record.

Miscellaneous Strategies to Improve Your Business Presence online and SEO

The previous strategies on how to position Google My Business are most effective, but you can complement them with the following technical optimization maneuvers:

  • Data Marking with schema.org - This is key to making your site speak the same language as Google's algorithm. Among what you can do with these schemes is add to your business's search results, geographic information, star rating, and events.
  • Optimize the meta tag: the brand should appear in each page's titles, where it is recommended that you include terms related to your location.

Conclusion

Now that you know the basics of optimizing Google My Business and start working on it and your local SEO strategy, you will see how customer calls and visits the real point will increase. If you do not own a business blog yet, this should give you enough reasons to do so.

Temo Group

Temo Group Writes About the Latest Tech, Business, Health, Education, Insurance, Law, Guides, Loans, and Reviews.

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