How to set up a Google Business Profile

Have you been told that you should have a Google Business Profile? They are especially handy for local businesses but they can benefit everyone and they are really easy to set up.

All you need is a gmail account and if you haven’t got a business account a personal gmail account is fine, or it’s easy to create a free account.

It will then take you through a series of questions such as the name of your business, a brief description, opening times, website address (important!) and your address. If it’s not a physical address that you have (i.e. you run your business online) then you can add an area you cover. 

I know for a lot of us online entrepreneurs we can work anywhere, but using a physical location will increase your views. When I moved to my office and put in an address, over the next few months my views on my Google profile dramatically increased. The reasoning behind this is when people are typing in things on their phone such as ‘website designer near me’ Google knows where I am and shows me in the listings. But even if you cover an area such as South Wales and put that in it will still increase your views.

You can also add photos, if you have any, but once you have completed the basic infomation and submitted it Google will then send you a postcard to your actual address. This postcard will have. acode on it so that you can verify that you are a real business and you are where you say you are. Make sure the information is correct as many people have their profiles removed as the details don’t match, as they also use other ways of checking.

Once your profile has been verified you will gain access to other information you can fill in and it’s advisable that you fill in as much as possible, especially in the description and services so that you will show up for those words when people serach for them in Google in your area.

Google reviews is also an addition to your profile and once set up people can leave you reviews. Obvioulsy as Google is showing your business profile  in the search engine listings, it’s also a good place for reviews to show up with it so that potential clients don’t have to go searching for them. 

You can also use widgets on your website to showcase your Google reviews and it’s connected to Google so they automatically update. I use Elf Widget for mine, which is free up to 200 views a month but they also have low cost plans for more views. When you are close to your view limit they will email you and if you don’t upgrade the widget will just disappear off your site until it rolls over to the next months allowance.

The really cool thing is that once the widget is on your website you can direct people to the review section to add their review and it will then add it to your Google profile. The reason it’s cool is you can then redirect people who are going to write your reviews to your website, thus increasing your website traffic and pushing you up the rankings in Google. 

People can also then find you on google maps and you can use the Google Map API to add maps to your website, if you have a physical location you want to direct people to. I also search a lot what’s in an area so you would come up in those searches as well.

If you need help with any of this then feel free to book in an hourly support bundle, which you can use for done for you work and training.