Google My Business: BIG UPDATES

There is no doubt that, in the realm of internet marketing, Google is King. Despite this fact, many business owners and marketers struggle with The King and end up with their business looking like the Court Jester.

At the recent Local Search Association meeting, LSA19, held in Dana Point, California, engineers and trainers from Google’s Google My Business team made it clear that GMB is where Google is putting emphasis in terms of local visibility. Mastering this property is a powerful way of controlling a large portion of your company’s online identity.

Over time, your company’s Google presence has been through many iterations. Several years ago, Google created “Google My Business” as the main business listing for each company, for free, within its directory. Your GMB page now touches all things Google, such as search listings and maps, plus information such as driving directions, hours, phone numbers, and more. With the advent of the Google Home voice assistants, your GMB page now powers the voice search results as well, and the list goes on and on.

The bottom line is that, in order to drive more traffic to your site, your phone, and to your business, you will have to master Google My Business – and keep up to date with the latest changes. Keeping up with GMB’s updates will ensure relevance and prominence within searches.

Recently, GMB has rolled out a few such changes to be aware of so that you can rise to the top of the local search pack!

Boosted Visibility of Business Offers

Google announced a new feature in Google Posts that can display multiple offers from your business. These offers will now show up in a dedicated space within your local panel.

While you may be familiar with the idea of offers postings, as they have been around for some time, these offers will now be given more visibility in Google My Business profiles.

This bump in real estate on your Google My Business profile is a great excuse to seize the opportunity and promote your business, with promotions or specials, even events. Make sure that your offers are posted and that they are kept updated. Using well-written copy and attractive graphics, you can create enticing offers to attract new business. High quality imagery will help create a great first impression.

Updated Google Q&A Feature

The FAQ section of Google My Business profiles has been around for some time, as well. While the intended purpose of this feature was to promote clarity about businesses, there has been quite a bit of controversy surrounding the new feature. As responses can be generated by any Google user, many business owners and marketers were initially concerned about whether others (including competitors) would either purposefully or inadvertently spread false information.

To help businesses get the real company information out there, Google recently launched a new Q&A section with its latest version of Google My Business. This means that businesses can create pre-answered FAQs with Google Q&A. It is now simpler for business owners to monitor and answer the questions asked about their business, as well. No longer will you need to visit each location’s Knowledge Base on Google to answer every single question, and new API access will allow you to use a variety of platforms to update your company’s information.

Regardless of whether you have taken measures to understand Google My Business in the past, now is the time to capitalize on these new changes and ensure that your Google My Business profile is attractive to prospective customers or clients, and that you are maximizing opportunities to help people find you. OMG National can help you become more prominent and rise to the top of Google as part of our Partner Program.

To learn more about our Partner Program, and what OMG National can do for you to help you conquer Google My Business, click here, or reach out to the OMG National team today!

By: Kristin Matheny

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