Web Podcast - Episode 38: Use Google My Business

Read the transcription of this podcast:

Hey there, hope you're having a great day and it's Episode 38. Today we're talking about getting your business on Google.

So when I say getting on Google, most people think it's getting a website listed on Google, which is definitely one thing you want to do. But in this episode, I'm talking about using another side of Google to get your business up in the search results and I've probably mentioned it before and other podcast but I haven't really gone into much detail about it but it's basically using Google My Business. You've probably been on Google before and you've been looking for something like a takeaway shop or your local gas station or a place to go, get your lawn mower fixed, whatever it might be and when you've searched that keyword, lawn mower repair shops, you usually find on your search results, different locations or different places come up that can do the job but you'll see them a little bit more different than a standard Google result, which is a bit of text with a link. You'll find that it has a map on it, a phone number, opening hours and you've probably noticed that and you thought, How the hell do I get on there. That's where Google My Business comes into place. So you can set yourself up a Google My Business Page and basically what you've got to do, there's a sort of a three step process. First of all, you set up the page, you put your business details in, your industry, put your information in, then you get sent, Step Two, a verification code and that goes to your address. So you've got to put your address on there and they can send you a code to verify your business is actually operational at the editor so you're not lying and just putting fake pages up. And then Third, once you get that you just click Verify on the website, put a code in that Google basically posts you in the mail and you're done. The Google postcard that comes in the mail does sometimes look a bit spammy, it does look a bit like junk mail, don't throw it away, open it up first and check, it's not going to kill you, it's not like an email virus but open it up and check so you've got that code and then you type it in and a way you go.

The problem with Google My Business page is they take a while to get going because once you've requested the verification code, so you've done Step One, you're waiting for the code to come in the mail. You've actually got to wait a good week or two, usually before you get anything in the mail. So if you're gonna get something set up, you may as well get it set up now, if you don't have it already because you're going to be waiting a few weeks anyway to get that code in the mail. Some people say to me, Oh, Matt, I don't want people to know where I live, because maybe they're doing something illegal or not. People don't want their private address, their home address, for example, listed on their business page, if we're retailers or we've got an office then sure we're happy with that but if we're a physical address, and it's our home, we don't want it showing up. So you can click a button in Google My Business that basically says, Please hide my address or I don't serve people at my location, I think it says, which means you'll serve people at their location so you don't have people come to your home, for example, you have you go and serve them at their address, you might be a mobile business. So you can take that, so you can rest assured and don't have to worry about your address being publicly shown on Google, what happens is your listing comes up as a result without an address on it, it just saids like Pukekohe, for example, where I live in South Auckland. It'll say Pukekohe, it'll say Melbourne, or different suburbs in Melbourne, it'll say London or different suburbs, you know what I mean? So you don't have to have your address on it. It'll just say roughly where you are, someone searches a service that you offer in that area, then you will come up but it won't show you a specific address, it'll show you a phone number, it'll show your opening hours, it'll show your reviews, it'll show your map, but it just won't show an actual pinpoint location of your address so that's another thing to make sure you remember, you may as well set one up because people always don't set one up because they're worried about that. But you don't worry about it, because you can hide it.

Another tip for you guys is when you make a Google Business listing, you can put your company name in and it's basically the title that comes up on the Google search so your company name is usually the biggest, biggest headline, the biggest sort of title that comes up on that page. In there, feel free to squeeze in a little bit more information, let's say you've got a, I won't say a lawn mowing business. But let's say you've got a cleaning business and your business name perhaps is just your surname, for example and it doesn't have cleaning in it, Like, say mine, I'm a cleaning company and I'm called Reid or I'm a cleaning company and I'm called Doe or ABC 123, whatever it might be, people don't know that you're a cleaning company, if that makes sense. Like, obviously, we all know all the car companies, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, whatever i might be, we already know generically that that's a car brand. But when it's your own business and people don't know about you, they don't know without seeing that word, that keyword like cleaning or repairs or car maintenance in that headline, they might not sort of see in, to pay attention to you Google My Business link. So in short, guys, what I'm saying is just put the type of service you offer alongside your company name, so Doe - Cleaning Services, or Reid - Cleaning Services. Now, when you set up a business, you should really include that, Like, if I was going to set up a cleaning company, I'd call it, Reid Cleaning Company, for example. But some people just have a basic name, that doesn't include the actual service they do, it doesn't say what they are, so include that if you don't have that in your business name by default, that way, you'll also get a little bit more potential to show up on those searches.

Another Final thing, guys, you need to get reviews on there, you'll see a lot of pages that show up higher up the list always have more reviews. So over the years, I've had clients set them up and I've told them and I'm telling you now to basically once you've got that page up, people can leave reviews, so you need to get the link for people to give you a review and basically email it to your database and say, Hey, look, i'm just looking for some feedback or some references, please, can you click this link and give me a positive review on Google. You obviously want the positive reviews, you don't want the negative ones, because that's definitely not the way to go. But hopefully, you guys all do well at what you do. So you'll have a lot of positive feedback, but get people listing reviews on their, if you can get 20 or 30 positive five star, four-five star reviews, you're going to look really good compared to the other people in that page, if they haven't done the same thing, that makes sense, doesn't it? People trust other people's reviews nearly as much as they would their own family and friends so it's very important you do that.

Anyway guys, if you want to set a Google Business page up all you have to do is go to business.google.com or just Google it, just Google Google My Business and you'll be able to find out how to set your own page up and I might be able to tell you how to set up it up as it's really straightforward, you just need a Google account I believe. Anyway Guys, that's Matt from the RAZOR Web Design Wire Podcast and I hope to see you guys business listings on Google, Cheers.