For your business to remain competitive, you need to optimise your Google Business Profile.

If you do this, your business website will rank higher on Google, increasing its visibility to potential clients.

But despite being a powerful tool, most entrepreneurs still underutilise their Google Business Profile. This explains why most struggle to boost their search rankings.

So, what is the best step to take if you’re in such a dilemma? Here are five ways to optimise your Google Business Profile.

What is a Google Business Profile?

Google Business Profile is a tool entrepreneurs use to create a free profile to manage their online presence on Google Maps and Google Search. It’s also known as Google Business Listing, and you can place certain details about your business in the profile.

Your Google Business Profile gives you control over the information your potential customers find about your business after performing a Google search. This helps boost your website’s local SEO to better connect with consumers within your region.

How can you optimise your Google Business Profile?

Now that you understand what the Google Business Profile is, here are some tips on how to best optimise it:

1. Ask your clients to leave reviews

Google uses customer reviews to rank your Google Business Profile, and they do this by looking at three things:

• Number of reviews
• Appearance of appropriate keywords in a review
• Average star rating

Knowing this, you should try to convince your potential customers to leave their reviews on your Google Business Profile. Positive reviews on your profile, as shown by this case study from Eurisko, can boost your search engine ranking, increasing your visibility to your potential clients.

Here are some ideas that can help improve your Google Business reviews:

• Request a couple of your best clients to leave a review on your Google Business Profile
• Make a point of always asking your clients for a Google review after every interaction
• Always set aside time to reply to all your Google reviews, even the negative ones. Doing this makes your customers feel their feedback matters even when it’s a negative review, and you’ll do your best to rectify the issue.

You should ease the process of leaving reviews for your customers by adding a URL or a QR code in your receipts when making in-person sales. Adobe Express has the best QR code generator, which could streamline this process. Alternatively, you can send them a link with your post-appointment follow-up.

2. Complete all the sections

There are lots of sections on your Google Business Profile that you need to fill out to get an improved ranking on Google. Although this may appear obvious, you’ll be surprised to learn that many business owners don’t provide the necessary information in their Google Business Profiles.

Without filling out all the sections, your business won’t be listed high enough to attract potential customers’ attention.

Knowing this, here are the essential sections on your Google Business Profile you should not leave blank:

• Business name
• Website
• Phone
• Address
• Hours available.

Once you’re done, go ahead to the other sections, which need a lot more thought and time to complete, which are:

• Products and services
• Questions and answers
• Category and attributes
• Reviews.

Filling out all these sections will help you win the trust of potential customers. The information you enter in each section must also be factual and specific. If a product is still in development, don’t include it yet in the list of available products.

3. Add high-quality images and descriptive videos

You must give your customers an idea about your business profile. You can best achieve this goal by adding high-quality pictures of your products, services, exteriors, and interiors to your Google Business Profile. Doing this will also differentiate your business from your competitors.

Other techniques for optimising your Google Business Profile using photos include:

• Upload a new picture each week
• Never use pictures with special effects or stock photos
• Your company should be the thumbnail picture
• Geo-tag your photos to attract your local target audience better
• Use Google Street View to get 360° images.

You shouldn’t disregard the use of pictures because Google is advancing its image recognition. So, using the right pictures can boost your site’s traffic and drive more customers to your business.

4. Describe your business

You can also optimise your Google Business Profile by filling out the business description section. The best business description should explain why your target market should choose you and not your competitors.

You must do the following when writing the business description:

• Add keywords your target audience uses when locating your business
• Never add links
• Never repeat information already mentioned somewhere else on the Google Business Profile
• Don’t write more than 750 characters (spaces, numbers, letters, and punctuations).

5. Include keywords

You can also optimise your Google Business Profile by adding the right keywords in the business descriptions.

With the right choice of keywords, your Google Business Profile will rank higher on Google. The different places you should incorporate these keywords include:

• Products
• Services
• Business description
• Image file names.

With that said, avoid keyword stuffing, as this can negatively affect the ranking of your Google Business Profile. Instead, focus on relevant keywords.

A Google Business Profile is an invaluable asset for your company’s success, so be sure to use it correctly to drive your business revenue.

Hopefully you found some helpful tips in this article to optimise your Google Business Profile so you can increase your company’s exposure to potential customers.