Melissa Hartley has been with Spot On Solutions for three years and is currently a Senior Account Manager. She’s also an expert in Google My Business (GMB) and has helped several clients set up successful online profiles.
So what exactly is GMB? It’s a free and easy-to-use tool for businesses, organizations, and companies to manage their online presence across various platforms on Google. Or as Hartley puts it, it’s essentially like a “yellow pages” for Google search.
“So if you’re a carpet cleaner, and somebody searches for carpet cleaning, then Google My Business profiles of various local carpet cleaners will come up,” Hartley said. “Basically, it’s just a little spot on Google, where you can say, ‘hey, this is my business, this is when I’m open, these are the services I have.’”
Get More Reviews
The convenience of GMB is that all your business’s information is available to customers in one place, including reviews.
“It’s a place where customers can really get to know you,” Hartley said. “If you’re doing a good job getting reviews on your listing, then that is an opportunity for new customers to decide if they want to work with you. So having positive reviews on there is a really helpful tool.”
Positive reviews are always ideal, so it’s no wonder when business owners feel a twinge of anxiety or even anger when a bad review comes through.
“I know a lot of clients will get a little scared when they get a bad review for the first time. As long as it’s not a trend and you’re not consistently getting bad reviews, it’s not going to hurt you that much.”
That’s why it’s important to always ask customers to leave reviews so you can start building up that number. If a bad review comes in, it won’t make much of a difference to your overall rating. At SOS, we have tools that can help you manage and easily request reviews.
Another important reminder that people tend to overlook is that a bad review is an opportunity to show customers your company’s value.
“By responding to bad reviews, you can build up some really good customer rapport. You can show people that you are easy to work with and that you’re accommodating,” Hartley said. “So don’t be afraid of those one, two or five bad reviews because you can turn them around and use them as an opportunity to show people that you’re a good company to work with.”
Optimizing Your GMB Listing
If you’re a business owner with a million things on your plate, we get that you may not have the time to track, let alone manage your own GMB listing. At SOS, we can consistently optimize your listing for you so it’s always achieving peak performance.
In addition to optimization, we can also create posts under your listing twice a month.
“It’s very similar to Facebook posting. when somebody sees your listing they will see your posts and can scroll through different ones,” Hartley said. “The great thing about posting is it gives you another opportunity to add keywords to your listing. By adding keywords, you’re going to show up for different searches.”
What is a Google Guaranteed Ad?
A Google Guaranteed Ad, or Local Services Ad is a feature of GMB that helps potential customers gain confidence in your business.
“When you get all set up with a Google Guaranteed, one of the really big benefits is that your reviews, your review count, and your rating will show up on that ad,” Hartley said. “So it’s super important that you stand out from the rest of your competitors and get as many good reviews as you can.”
If you don’t have a GMB listing yet, or wish someone can help post and optimize your accounts, get in touch with the experts at SOS today! We give each account individualized attention and will help your business get found online.
