All businesses are looking for more customers. It doesn’t matter if it is a multi-billion, dollar company or the shop around the corner. Large businesses spend a fortune on marketing and employ marketing consultancies to help them attract prospects through brand building, direct marketing campaigns and online lead generation. Small and medium businesses in your area don’t have that same luxury, but they face the same challenge. The formula for business stays the same, irrespective of the market or size.

Sales in all businesses are a product of the number of prospects that they have and how well they can “convert” or sell to them.

Google My Business is a Free tool that allows you to promote your Business Profile and Business website on the Google platform as well as on Maps. With your Google My Business account correctly setup, you can see and connect with your customers, post updates to your Business Profile and see how customers are interacting with your business on the Google platform. Google My Business’ Business Profile encompasses what was once known as Google Places for Business, Google Listings and Google+ Business Pages. 

Google My Business is found at https://www.google.com.au/business/sign-up/ allows business owners to edit the content of their existing listing, or to add a brand new listing to Google's My Business database. By ensuring that basic information is up to date and providing additional details, like photos, hours of operation, any special offers or coupons, business owners can stand out on the map to make it easy for customers to choose you.

If you have just 10 minutes and can do just one activity that will bring you the most customers and attention for zero cost, claiming your Google My Business Account is that one thing you should do and you should do it Immediately.

Whether you are a local or international business, online or offline, wanting to publicize or to conceal your physical address, you need to optimize Google My Business Account.

Some quick statistics to get you started:

 - 43% of all Google searches are local or location based

 - Over 50% of mobile searches are local or location based

Now to explain: local or location based searches are searches when either you enter the location directly into the search parameters (search for "restaurant in Manly Qld") or when you are in a location and Google gives you search results based on your GPS coordinates (you are in Brisbane Australia and run a search for "restaurants").

When does your location matter? 

Any time a person is trying to find a product or service close to where they are or based on its proximity to a location. For example, an Italian restaurant in a certain town, a hair salon in their neighborhood, the nearest locksmith, a plumber that services their area...

For location-­‐relevant businesses these types of searches are the most important queries that you can hope to win. These queries aren't you trying to beat your nationwide or global position for search engine rankings but instead are highly local-­‐based and often immediate in their conversion – maybe from a query to a ‘phone call or physical customer at your location. In some industries (such as restaurants) this conversion percentage has been found (for smartphone users) to equal 30% immediate conversions and 63% conversions within an hour – with a huge 90% eventually resulting in a sale.

I’ll repeat that, 30% of conversions immediately and 63% of conversions within an hour.

These aren't window shoppers: these are people who are immediately converting to become customers and treat them right they can become customers for life.

If a consumer is not finding your business when they search, they are moving on and you have a problem! Your competitors are getting your customers and your profits and if they do their job right they will not come to you any time soon.

Guess what they're using to conduct these local searches? Google Map on iOS (Apple) or Google Android phones.

Guess where the top results come from? Google My Business information.

There is a lot more to it, than just entering a physical address, however that is a good start. For local businesses, 80% of custom comes from people who live within 10 km of your business .

With the decline of traditional advertising to bring in new clients and buyers, you can gain more exposure with an optimized Google My Business page.

By claiming and optimizing your Google My Business page, you’ll allow customers to find you on the go, faster and easier.

Get ahead of more than 90% of businesses by putting your business on Google maps with an optimized page experience. The good news is that less than 10% of Google My Business pages have been optimized.

Most business owners do not know that Google has a Google My Business page ready for every business. Those that do know have not filled out the data correctly to be found by searchers looking for a particular local service.

Today, being found online is critical for creating increased sales for your business and one of the first ways you can achieve it is through an optimized Google My Business listing.

Your goal is to become the top Google My Business listing, the top website and the most authoritative local business in your area of expertise, or “niche”. By having the most unique and helpful content on page one of the search results, you dominate your competition. In the process you increasingly become highly visible for keywords that matter and generate revenue on demand for your business.

If you need help optimizing or setting up your Google My Business account, then give us a call and we can show you how to do it.