The first thing you have to do is claim your Google My Business profile. Maybe you don’t know anything about this topic yet, but try typing the name of your business, the city and the province. This should turn up your Google My Business profile. It may turn up even if you didn’t even put it there. This exists because Google wants to aggregate all of the local businesses into its directory.
If you see a little tag that says, “Is this your business?” it means that it hasn’t been claimed.
It’s important to do this, so make sure you visit Google My Business and claim it. Make sure your NAP (name, address, and phone number) is accurate. Make sure the NAP on your website and profile match. Google wants to see these are the same.
Make sure you have the right category for your business in the GMB profile. Google has an extensive drop-down list, make sure you are as specific as possible.
In your Google My Business profile, make sure you are listing your hours of operations and if people can visit your business.
You have the opportunity to add lots of photos and videos, so take advantage! This is where people are going to see what you do, your products, and catch a glimpse of what your store or restaurant looks like.
You can also write a very thorough description of what you do, what you stand for, or anything that makes your local business unique. All this information will show up in your profile.
You want to make sure that the same information is on your website. In fact, you can actually embed a Google Map onto your website, and what a nice way to tell Google yes, this is exactly my business, this is my profile, here is my website.
Make sure that you’re doing that, and link your website to your Google My Business profile. All you have to do is log in at business.google.com, and then click on that View On The Map, and then you can share that, and they will give you a link that you can embed on your website. Make sure that you take advantage of this fundamental thing.
People are going and looking for businesses like yours, and increasingly, they’re relying on the results of Google My Business profiles.