Is Google Business Profile Working for Business?

Why you may feel Google Business Profile is not working for your or is a waste of time.

It does take a bit of time to set up and then maintain. As a small and/or local business owner, you’re probably already wearing many hats, and “Google business profile manager” is another hat that you probably don’t want to wear. I understand more than you know!
Set up is really not that hard but it does require verification that your business has an address (which doesn’t have to be listed on the actual online Google Business Profile!) and that can take up to two weeks. It also included a physical postcard mailed to you with a code. As a small business owner, in those two weeks of waiting for a code from Google, so much can happen that setting up Google Business Profile gets pushed down your priority list.
Once you have verified that you are indeed a local business, it’s not filling in all the information for your Google Business Profile. Again, that takes time which as a small and/or local business owner, always is in short supply.
As you’re filling in your profile you want to ensure your profile is optimized. What does that mean? Not really that complicated but it does take a bit of time. “Optimizing” in this case just means when you’re filling in the descriptions for your business, products, services, etc you write in such a way that you’re using words or search terms that your potential customer, or target audience, will be searching for. This may take a bit of research which is “time”. (Time! The one thing there never seems to be enough of as a business owner!)
Some businesses get through all this and they are still not seeing results. This could be for many reasons. Google Business Profile allows you to post content regularly. This can be articles, pictures, videos, etc. Google Business Profile allows you to have reviews of your business posted up. Now, these have to be done by the customer themselves, but Google Business Profile provides a link for you to send to customers requesting a review. If you haven’t made updates to your Google Business Profile since you set it up 2 years ago, things may have changed. Your Google Business Profile may not still be optimized. Your target audience may be searching for what you use with different terms. Not maintaining some activity on your Google Business Profile can indirectly push you down in visibility as other local businesses offering the same service as yours that are more active with their Google Business Profile will be making these continuous updates and revisions making them more “visible” to Google. (Activity and optimization create visibility for the search engine, Google in this case.)

There are no guarantees when it comes to the Internet or marketing. However, doing nothing is a sure way not to get noticed and not to increase business. “Word of mouth” is a common marketing tactic for many small businesses. If that works for you, great. However, if you don’t have the luxury of knowing anyone or many people, or you want to speed up your interest in your local business, Google Business Profile is a great way.

You’re probably saying to yourself, “I get all my business through my Facebook page” (or Instagram, or whatever other social media platform you’re using) That’s great! If that’s working, don’t stop doing it. In many ways, you’re using the “word of mouth” tactic but with a subset of the online world, that subset that is on Facebook or Instagram or TikTok or whatever other social media platform you’re gaining traction on. Think of your Google Business Profile as your “social profile on Google”. The amount of work and effort your put into your Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok profile initially to gain that traction, will be needed for Google Business Profile as well. With Google Business Profile the subset of the online world using Google is much larger than on Facebook, Instagram, or any other social media platform.

A few interesting numbers for you:

Google is visited 89.3 billion times per month.
Facebook has 2.93 billion active users per month.
YouTube has 2.6 billion active users per month

If you feel you’ve figured out how to get your business working for you on Facebook, That’s great. Think about all the effort and work you put into figuring it out. At least that amount of work and effort will be needed to figure out how to get your business working for you on Google! You’re probably thinking, why should I waste my time when I’m doing fine, if not great, just on Facebook? That’s a good question. I can provide a few reasons why time spent trying to get your business working for you on Google would be worthwhile:

There are many more people using Google than Facebook. In some cases, there are people who use Google but never use social media. Some of these people will be in your target audience.
If you want to grow your business, this is a great place to do it. While it may take time, starting now is better than starting later. The work you put into gaining visibility within Facebook or any other social media platform will not go to waste.
As a local business, it’s more likely that someone searching for say, pizza, will search through Google or Google Maps and the search results will include everything not just Facebook profiles. Having a Google Business Profile will help you show up in say the Google map pack for these types of searches. Your business’ Facebook profile will not likely be on the top of the search engine results in this case, or in the Google map pack!

How I see Google Business Profile, is it’s like a shop’s digital signage. Unfortunately, unlike the physical world, there are no fixed addresses so someone else can come along with their digital signage and end up on top of you. Not because they’re better but because they are putting in the time and effort to get noticed by both the search engine and the searcher digitally.

I’m here to help work on getting your digital sign-up and noticed.

Just like with any new store, even being on the main street and having a sandwich board out front, there is still no guarantee it’ll bring in all the business you want, but it will help. Sometimes you have to change up what’s written on the sandwich board keeping your message fresh yet consistent. That’s where I can help.

References:

The Rising Significance of Google Business Profile Optimization in 2023, June 2023, LinkedIn, URL: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rising-significance-google-business-profile-optimization-2023/
Google Business Profile: Boost Your Visibility in 2023, Wise Stamp, URL: https://www.wisestamp.com/blog/google-business-profile/
4 Top Reasons Your Google Business Profile Information Keeps Updating, Sherry Bonelli, April 2022, Search Engine Journal, URL: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-business-profile-info-sources/446399/#close
Top Three Benefits of Google Business Profile (Formerly Google My Business), Charley Vail, Digital Third Coast, URL: https://www.digitalthirdcoast.com/blog/primary-benefits-of-google-business-profile-formerly-google-my-business
Top Three Benefits of Google Business Profile (Formerly Google My Business), October 2021, Bluehost, URL: https://www.bluehost.com/blog/benefits-of-google-my-business/
10 GOOGLE SEARCH STATISTICS YOU NEED TO KNOW IN 2023 [INFOGRAPHIC], Maryam Mohsin, January 2023, Oberlo, URL: https://www.oberlo.com/blog/google-search-statistics
YOUTUBE USERS STATISTICS 2023, August 2023, Global Media Insight, URL: https://www.globalmediainsight.com/blog/youtube-users-statistics/
Most popular social networks worldwide as of January 2023, ranked by number of monthly active users, February 2023, statista, URL: https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/
Facebook Statistics, The Social Shepherd, URL: https://thesocialshepherd.com/blog/facebook-statistics

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Lani Haque

I enjoy learning and sharing that knowledge.Sharing has been in many forms over the years, as a teaching assistant, university lecturer, Pilates instructor, math tutor and just sharing with friends and family.Throughout, summarizing what I have learnt in words has always been there and continues to through blog posts, articles, video and the ever growing forms of content out there!