In the past couple of days, I’ve been given a few questions about Google My Business.

More specifically, how to make your GMB listing as optimized as possible. Since the answers are so extensive and thorough, I’ve decided to answer these queries in a blog post instead of answering them directly.

Here we go!

1. Update your listing name.

This is a pretty easy fix, but it’s always the small things that count right? The page title needs to be updated so that when someone searches for “Brick House Solutions,” the page title shows up as such: Brick House Solutions. This way you’re sure Google knows what your business is and removes any confusion.

Just sign in to Google My Business, click on the Info & Photos tab, and update your page title.

2. Use the right category(s).

If someone just searched for the term “pizza” how do you think they’d like it if you came up as a result with “pizza restaurant” in your category line?

Especially if you’re not a pizza restaurant. They’ll be left wondering where this odd result came from and they may even get confused as to why Google presented them with a random result that doesn’t even come close to their search query.

So always use the right categories for your business.

When you sign in to Google My Business, click on the Info & Photos tab and make sure your category(s) are correct. Luckily, if you’ve selected the wrong categories before now, you’ll notice a red notification at the top of this section that will give you a prompt to either select or unselect these categories. So don’t worry if you’ve made mistakes in the past.

3. Clean up your category hierarchy.

Do you use categories for your business? Good! But are there too many or is it difficult to decide where to put which business? If so, it’s time to simplify and clean things up a bit. When someone searches for “Dog Grooming” you should be listed under this category.

But if you’re in the categories of “Pet Supplies,” “Animals & Pets,” and “Pet Services,” there’s a good chance Google won’t be able to figure out that Pet Services is what you do, which defeats the purpose. Make sure your category structure makes sense, is easy to read, and that you only have a max of 5-6 categories at most.

When you sign into Google My Business, click on the Edit or view all Categories button and see how many categories are listed under each category line. More than five? Then it’s time to trim down!

4. Optimize your photos with the right metadata.

What can you do to ensure that people will see your business and know what it is? You must give Google appropriate information about yourself through pictures! When you upload a photo, make sure there are keywords in the description such as “dog grooming” or “pizza restaurant.” This can be done with the Google My Business dashboard or by uploading them directly into Google+.

When you upload a photo to Google+, make sure that you add appropriate tags. For example, if I were taking photos of myself and my dog (who is adorable), I’d want to tag them with “dog” and “pizza.” This way, anyone who has “pizza” or “dogging” in their search query will see my photos!

Please consider taking an hour to go through and tag all of your photos. Your business will thank you later.

5. Make sure your hours of operation are correct.

Believe it or not, this one is a biggie. If someone searches for “pizza” and they’re presented with results that say “closed,” there’s a high likelihood that they’ll bounce right off of Google! And let’s be honest, you don’t want a potential customer to leave your website the second they land because you didn’t make sure your hours of operation were correct.

You can check and update your business hours directly in Google My Business by clicking on the Info & Photos tab, scrolling down to “Hours,” and then just click on the calendar icon that is in the top right corner of this section (next to where it says “Edit Hours”). If you’d rather just edit it directly from this page, then click on the pencil icon to the right of “Hours.”

You should probably even check these regularly and make sure they are correct. (I’m not saying that no one is going to ever work your business again but mistakes happen!)

6. Check your rating, reviews and responses.

This is an easy one to do right now. Google takes user feedback very seriously and those ratings can make or break your business online. You should make sure that the reviews you have are relevant (meaning no negative/bad ones from 2015 that haven’t been updated) and that they’re positive (8-10 stars.)

If you have any negative reviews at all, it’s worth reaching out to the user who left them and see if you can come up with a solution.

Google has done an excellent job of making sure that when a bad review is left that they show your response right below the comment so viewers know that Google has given you the opportunity to respond. This is a really great way of handling things!

This is all handled through Google My Business. If you’re logged in, click on “Responses” under the Main tab and then just scroll down until you see them.

7. Review your payment methods and online ordering formats.

If you take payments online, Google’s search results will also show your customer reviews. Check out TripAdvisor.com to see how this works and always strive for a high rating! You can review your payment methods through the Payments section of your merchant account.

Also make sure that if there are any errors in the way orders look when you’re on mobile, Google can read that easily. If there are any problems, make sure that they are fixed before your review is published!

Google My Business is a great way to draw people to your business, but if your listing is neglected or needs updating it won’t bring any traffic your way. Spending a few minutes occasionally checking your business on GMB and adding relevant information can go a long way to optimize your listing.

Join our free Facebook group to get help with the process. If you want more tips and tricks, be sure to subscribe to The Collective Scoop!

https://www.melaniediehl.com/

https://www.facebook.com/MelanieAndCoMarketingCollective

In just 3 years Google My Business has grown to touch over 1 billion consumers every month. That’s a lot of traffic! So what is Google My Business and why should you care?

Google My Business (GMB) gives people a place to add or claim their business on the web. This helps them show up in search results so that more people can hear about their business. In other words, if you have a website and/or want to be visible in local search results, Google My Business is probably something you should be using.

Here are the top reasons more businesses should claim their Google listing:

#1-It helps people find your website

A huge goal of GMB is to help people find businesses on the web, so make sure yours is one of them! If you’re not appearing in local search results, then you are missing out on potential customers and revenue.

#2- It helps people find your business location

GMB is also a great way to show up in Google Maps so that when people are searching for businesses near them, they’ll show up too!

#3-It makes it easier for customers to contact you

Customers ask a lot of questions before making a buying decision. They’ll often search to find out as much about a business as they can, and Google My Business is one way they can do this. By having accurate information on GMB, you’re providing great customer care before even speaking with them.

#4-It helps you stay up to date with Google

When you claim your GMB listing, Google will send you all sorts of helpful information about how and why people are searching for your business. This keeps you up-to-date on the latest search trends so that you can optimize your website and local search strategy as needed.

#5-It makes your website rank higher in organic search

Google wants to make it easy for people to find businesses online and that’s why they made Google My Business. By optimizing your GMB listing, you’ll be increasing the amount of traffic coming to your website organically. This will help your site show up higher in search results and get found by more people who are searching for you online.

#6-It helps you collect customer feedback and reviews

Another amazing benefit of GMB is that it gives customers a way to give great feedback about your business. With Google Local Guides, customers can review businesses as well as answer questions from other users or add tips on how to find your business. They can even take a picture of your business to add to their review.

#7-It helps you connect with others in your industry

By using Google My Business, you’re joining an online community and connecting with other businesses in your area. As more people use GMB, it’ll help you make new connections, share information, and spread the word about your business.

#8-It helps you connect with customers faster

With over 1 billion monthly active users on Google, it’s important to make sure that people can find your website fast! Having a GMB listing gives customers another way to get in contact with your business quickly and easily.

#9-It could improve your SEO

If you’re doing everything else right as it relates to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and want to kick things up a notch, claiming your GMB listing is a great way to boost your efforts. With that said, there are no guarantees; the powers of Google’s search algorithm are complex and in constant flux.

#10-It could improve your local rankings on Google Maps

You probably already know that if you have a website, it’s important to show up in the first few pages (1-3) of Google search results. Local businesses with a GMB listing can also show up in Search Results for their address, but they’ll also show up in Google Maps. If someone searches for businesses near them they are likely to see your business, driving more traffic and revenue to your website.

#11-It helps you create personalized marketing campaigns

With a GMB listing you can track who visits your website from search engine queries and other sources so that you can create personalized marketing campaigns and promotions for your customers. This is a great way to directly reach out to new leads and create relevant content that matches their interests. 

#12-It helps you get found on Google Search

In the past, if someone searched for a local business on Google, they would have to scroll through a list of businesses, usually with only 1 or 2  being visible at a time. Now, if someone searches for your business by name on Google Search you’ll show up as one of the businesses located closest to that address.

So there you go, 12 reasons your business should be on Google My Business. Join our free Facebook group to get help with the process. If you want more tips and tricks, be sure to subscribe to The Collective Scoop!

https://www.melaniediehl.com/

https://www.facebook.com/MelanieAndCoMarketingCollective

Ways to Come up with New Content Ideas for your Blog

One of the biggest problems many bloggers face when it comes to new content is figuring out what kind of posts to write. After you’ve written a batch of quality articles, you can’t just continue creating variations on the same topics. You need to regularly come up with new and interesting ideas. As I detail in my post about blogging tips to generate traffic, a big part of what determines whether your post is successful or not is how much unique content you’re providing.

So it’s important that you come up with new ideas for topics for every blog post. Here are some things I’ve found that are helpful in coming up with fresh ideas:

1. Visit other blogs in your niche.

One of the easiest ways to find new ideas is to look at other blogs that address similar subjects in your same area of expertise. What kinds of topics do they write about? Which ones get a lot of traffic? Do they all have something in common? If one post does really well how can you spin it in a different direction?

2. Take a trip to your local library or bookstore.

Every time I head over to the bookstore, I’m always checking out other blogs and books on writing so that I can come up with new ideas for my own blog. It’s easy to do this now that they’ve gone digital – just load up your E-reader or iPad and you can browse the shelves at your leisure.

A great book I picked up recently is The Ultimate Blog Post: 50 Ways to Increase Your Traffic by Emily Martha Sorensen, which has a lot of great information about writing posts that people want to read as well as fresh ideas for coming up with different content.

3. Make a list of all the topics you’ve ever written about on your blog and think about different ways to present them.

Go back through some of the posts you’ve already published and think about how you can redo them or add what you’ve learned since it was written. Often you will have new information or a change in perspective if some time has passed since you’ve written a piece.

4. Brainstorming

I have a notepad that’s just for blog post ideas, and when I get an idea in my head I’ll write it down so that it doesn’t go anywhere (and because I’m forgetful). From there, if the idea seems like something worth pursuing, I’ll further flesh it out and work on developing a full post.

My process is that I’ll fill up the notebook with lots of ideas, then cull through them periodically. Once I have 5-10 good ones (not all are gold), I’ll pick one to develop into a full blog post. The other ones get revisited at another time.

In my case, I think of myself as a general blogger, so I’ll work on topics that are relevant to a wide range of bloggers or online businesses. However, you may find that some are more applicable to your niche than others. If you’re not  there yet though, try and figure out why it’s not working for you and how you can apply it to the core of your content. You never know when a seemingly random idea that comes up might just be exactly what your audience is looking for!

5. Brainstorming, Part 2: Creative exercises to help generate ideas.

Another exercise is to think about the 5 people that you most want to reach with your content. How can you help them? What do they need? Narrow your list down to one and then develop a post around it.

6. Brainstorming, Part 3: Improve your brainstorming skills by observing how others come up with ideas.

I picked up this little gem of advice in an interview with Derek Halpern, Founder of Social Triggers. I think it’s really insightful although I’m not sure if he invented the concept or got it from somewhere else. Here’s what he had to say:

“I learned this trick recently that has worked very well for me. Each time I have a new idea — whether it’s for a blog post or an article or a book, whatever it is — instead of going straight to writing I’ll first just create a mind map. A mind map is basically just a diagram with all your thoughts connected by lines. You write down your ideas and the connections between them. What this does is it helps you flesh out your ideas and gives you a sense of structure. It makes it much faster to write later because you’re not trying to figure out the best way to say something – that part is already done.”

“When I’m doing this, I actually just use a blank sheet of paper and start writing down all my ideas, and then I just connect them with lines. It’s pretty quick for me to do a mind map, and it’s saved me a ton of time on my writing.”

7. Think about how you can give value to your readers in the post.

I think this is one of the most important things that people forget about when they’re writing. When you think about your readers, what are their needs? What problems do they have? What’s the one thing that they’re looking for from you that will help them achieve something or make a process easier?

Solve a problem for them, offer inspiration, or perhaps just give them some motivation.

Online readers are looking for engaging content, but it can be a challenge to generate fresh, new ideas for blog articles. You can come up with new topics by checking out what is already out there, keeping a running list of ideas, or participating in creative writing exercises. If you keep your reader in mind you will be able to create highly trafficked blog posts.

Holiday Season Already?

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With August now upon us, we enter into the last month of summer. This may be the last chance to take advantage of the beautiful outdoor weather before Fall. If you’re looking for ideas on how to end the summer season with a bang, these tips should help make your business a hot spot in August.