If you want to grow your business with local customers, Google Business profile is easily the best tool out there. But just having a GBP is not enough, you are still in competition with other businesses in your area, and if you get things wrong, it can put them ahead of you.
Here are the 14 most common mistakes businesses make when managing their GBP.
Common Google Business Profile Mistakes to Avoid
By following this list of mistakes to avoid, you can have a high-performing GBP that delivers the constant flow of local customers that your business needs for sustainable growth.
1. Having Unclaimed Listings
In most cases, if you manage or own a business, you set up your own Profile listing with Google. However, many businesses have listings created by others or by Google themselves through Google Maps.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that is all you need. If you don’t claim ownership of a listing, you cannot edit it, add content, respond to reviews or receive direct messages from that profile, essentially making it worthless in terms of promoting your business. If there are profiles for your business, claim them, take possession and use them to grow your business.
2. Having an Incomplete Profile
Google wants each profile to have everything a customer needs to know about your business in one place. It is good for their users and makes it easier to verify the business and its legitimacy. An incomplete profile might be missing crucial information such as business hours or service areas that just make it harder for their users to find the service they are looking for.
As a result, Google will penalize any incomplete profiles, placing them much lower in search results, so that most users never see that profile listing. Always fill out every piece of information in the profile, so that visitors have all the details they may want.
3. Incorrect or Incomplete Business Information
When creating your Google Business Profile, you are trying to build trust with two different groups. First, you want potential customers who visit your profile to see you are a legitimate business they can trust with their needs, and secondly, you need Google to trust you will provide a quality service to their users because that is what gets you high in the search rankings.
If your business information is incorrect or incomplete, that creates doubt and destroys trust, from visitors and Google itself. If there are any doubts about your business, Google will not promote your listing, and it will sit low in the results, reducing any traffic it might generate.
4. Ignoring Customer Reviews
Customer reviews are a great feature of Google Business Profile, putting them right where visitors can see them. Whether good or bad, potential customers can see what others say about your service, and make choices based on that.
But you need to manage those reviews. Engage with customers, a simple thank you for good reviews shows professionalism and care, and with the right response, even a bad review can be a positive. Leaving a bad review with no response lets people think that is what your service is, and it will damage your reputation and drive customers away. A bad review followed by a response that seeks to find a solution to keep the customer happy and a successful conclusion, however, builds trust, as it shows you will deal with problems professionally.
5. Choosing Incorrect Categories
Which category you select for your business dictates the type of searches that your profile will appear in. It can be tempting to pick something that will get a lot of searches, but if those searches are not relevant to your business, it can have a significant negative impact.
First, if your business appears in results for searches that are not relevant, you just annoy the people clicking on your listing, as you cannot solve whatever problem they have. But it also harms Google, who will see what the problem is and lower your ranking as a result. Always choose categories that are relevant to your business.
6. Ignoring Photo and Video
Did you know over half of all internet traffic is video streaming? We all love videos and photos, and so do your potential customers. People engage with that kind of content, and Google knows this too. Regular photo and video content added to your profile boosts your ranking as a result.
Ignoring photo and video content just puts you at a disadvantage, with lower Google rankings and less customer engagement than profiles that make use of this type of content.
7. Having a Spammy Business Name
Google is always looking to present the best solutions to their user’s search queries, and that means understanding the businesses they put at the top of search results. If your business has a misleading or spammy name, it can ruin credibility and lower trust in your offer as well as Google itself.
Business names like this will never rank highly in relevant searches, so always choose a name that reflects the service or products you offer, avoiding keyword stuffing and unnecessary location phrases that are also against Google’s terms for using GBP.
8. Having Outdated Information
Trust is crucial for people to become customers, and to continue using Google for their searches. If your profile directs visitors to the wrong location, or offers services you no longer provide, even if it shows the wrong telephone number, then that can damage trust.
If Google identifies outdated information it will penalize your ranking in the search results, so if anything about your business changes, from the hours you are open to the phone number or services on offer, you must update your profile immediately.
9. Having Low-Quality Photos
Photos are a great option for content on your profile, they give a real connection with visitors and help build credibility and trust. However, like everything else that is promoting your business, they need to be quality images to have that effect.
If you use low-resolution or poor-quality photos to represent your business, it again harms your credibility, appearing unprofessional and even to some, deceptive, as if you are hiding something. Both of these are bad news for any business, so stick with good-quality photos that are sharp and clear when viewed on any screen.
10. Having Inconsistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone)
Your name, address and phone number are the most important points of information that customers want from your Google Business Profile. They must be accurate if your profile is to help you gain new customers, which is why Google checks your details against your website, directory listings and other platforms where your business details are published.
Consistency is essential because if there is different information on different platforms, customers can be confused, not knowing which is right. Importantly, Google sees this as a problem of trust and will reduce your ranking in searches while these inconsistencies remain.
11. Having Duplicate Listings
If one Google Business Profile is a good thing, more should be better, right? Unfortunately, not. More than one listing can be confusing for potential customers, especially if those listings have different information, which is the right one?
Just as importantly, Google sees them differently, and by competing against yourself, you can find that you end up lower in the rankings than you would be with a single profile. Additionally, the time it takes to manage multiple profiles means it is unlikely to ever be effective for you.
12. Not Utilizing Google Posts
One of the things that Google Business Profile is so good at is audience engagement. In fact, this is one of the things that Google rewards you for by putting your listing higher in the rankings. Yet many businesses fail to make full use of one of the best engagement tools the platform has, Google Posts.
Your Google Posts appear right inside your profile, and you can use that to build engagement. Posts about updates to business hours or holidays, useful information about products or services you offer, sales notices and so much more. Each of these keeps your audience engaged and ensures they will return for more. This benefits Google too, and you will be rewarded with higher rankings. Don’t ignore Google Posts, make regular posts part of your profile management.
13. Lack of Q+A Engagement
The Q+A section is another great tool for building a connection with your audience. The idea is that visitors can leave questions about your service or business, and you provide answers, eventually building a database of information for future visitors.
As with all engagement Google rewards this with higher rankings, however, you have to be prompt with your responses. Not only will Google not increase your ranking if you leave questions unanswered for days or weeks, but it gives the impression that the business has been abandoned and will put other visitors off too.
14. Ignoring Google Business Profile Insights
With any digital marketing, the more information you have, the more accurate the decisions you make. Google Business Profile Insights can be accessed for your GBP account dashboard, and provide a wealth of information about your profile, including:
- How many phone enquiries
- How users found your profile
- Number of bookings
- Number of email clicks
- Reviews
- Searches your listing appeared in
- Total website visits
- Total number of views
- What device users were using
With this information, you can have a much better understanding of where you are succeeding, and where there is still work to do with your profile. Without insights, you are making changes blindly, just hoping for a better outcome. With insights, you can target changes where they are needed.
Conclusion
Like all tools, your Google Business profile is only as good as the people using it. Get it right, and your business will benefit from a steady flow of new local customers, increased visibility and more. However, small mistakes can reduce that visibility and slow down the influx of new customers too.
Take the time to understand those common mistakes, and what to do instead, and your GBP will help you reach any business goal you may have. If you need guidance on any aspect of your Google Business Profile, just get in touch with our expert GBP team at Grid Rankers.
Highly experienced and committed to your success, we are the professional solution that gets the results you need while you focus on your business. Talk to us today to start your journey to Google Business profile success.