Google My Business- Why and How to make an account

Google my business plays a vital role and an integral part of local SEO. It is necessary to keep the listing data accurate and up-to-date. It helps you appear in online search results when people are looking for services and products relevant to what you offer.

Why do you need a Google My Business account?

Do you wonder what the importance of the GBM account is?

Engage with customers

With your Google My Business account, you can keep your customers engaged and informed. It enables you to respond to reviews, set up alerts and notifications, and answer questions. Your Google My Business listing includes contact information, business hours, and other relevant details that customers are usually looking for. In an emergency situation like Covid-19, you can post updates about your business and working hours that will be helpful for the customers.

Enhance your business for Local SEO

Google My Business account helps you rank your business profile through a dashboard where you can incorporate keywords into your business profile for optimization that will increase its rank in Local search.

Gain Insights                       

It helps you to gain the key insights on your audience and local search performance through Google My Business dashboard. You can analytics such as the queries that customers are using to reach out to you, how your photos are performing, track clicks from Business Profile, and many others.

How to make Google My Business account?

Here we will cover a complete tutorial of how to make Google My Business account regardless of business size.

Step 1: Sign in to Google My Business

You need to sign up for Google My Business using a pre-existing Google account or create a new one. To sign in, go to www.google.com/business, and if you’re already signed it, proceed forward to the next step. However, keep in mind to sign up with your business email domain.

Step 2: Enter your business name

While entering your business name, you’ll see autocomplete function suggesting the business for you if it already exists. However, you can also use the drop-down menu to enter your business name.

Step 3: Add the address of your business location

In case your business delivers goods and have a physical location where the customers can visit, then you have to tick the box appearing at the bottom of the form and add a business address. If you don’t have any premises for your business, leave the address field blank and tick the “Hide my address (it’s not a store) box.

Step 4: Specify service areas

This step is only for the service area business that doesn’t have any physical address. In this step, you have to specify the areas that you serve so that Google can appear your services in searches in those areas. Make sure to enter regions, cities, or ZIP codes of those areas that your business serves.

Step 5: Choose your business category

In this step, you need to choose the category that fits your business, and it has a strong influence on your service or product appearance for the kinds of search terms.

Step 6: Add your contact information

Make sure to enter your business contact information such as phone number and website address where the customers can reach out to you.

Step 7: Finish and manage your listing

The last step before the verification process requires you to check the box “Yes” to receive updates and notifications and then click “Finish”.

How to verify Google My Business account?

Postcard Verification

It is the common and most recommended method of verification of your Google My Business account. A verification postcard will be sent to the address that you provided above (it can take up to a month to receive), and you need to enter the code in your Google My Business account to verify your business.

Phone & Email Verification

If your business is eligible for phone and email verification, you can choose based on what comfort you. For phone verification, you will receive a code on your phone number that you can auto-fill to verify your business. To verify using email, you will receive an email with the mentioned code that you need to enter to ensure verification of your business.