If you have been following along on social media, you know I attended the Local U Advanced Conference in Santa Monica last week.  There is so much information that gets pushed at you in a short period of time, it is sometimes difficult to organize it and make it digestible for the normal person that doesn’t think about search every day. Many of these tactics and tools are advanced and wouldn’t necessarily come into play with people outside of the industry, whereas some are basic and simple tactics you can add to your day to day activities in the office that can move the needle a bit. This post is meant to give a few subtle GMB tips that you may not be aware of.

Beyond the Basics of GMB

You Can Be Found Full Length GMBIf you aren’t posting regularly already, then you haven’t been paying much attention the past year.  Things like posting and answering questions are the basics and won’t be discussed here, but can be found in our Google My Business Category page. I have done posts on most of these topics including how to’s with claiming your GMB and posting, etc. We wanted to dive into a few advanced tactics that help your business that you may have skipped over.

  • Appointment URL: Any information you can provide on your GMB listing can help you better show up in search. Fill out all the information that is available if you can. Simple things like including an appointment URL on top of your website URL have proven to improve conversion rates to that appointment form.  This is such a simple addition to make to your listing at one time, and if that 2-minute activity even gets you one extra conversion per year it was worth the effort. Get yourself an appointment URL.
  • Near Me Searches: With the increase in near me searhes, studies have shown your GMB placement for near me local searches increases if you have “near me” text on your site. It appears even mentioning that you are conveniently located near [Insert Key Locations Here] can improve your placement for these local searches.
  • Your Brand Advertisements: If you Google your brand name, do you see competitors advertising above you? On mobile, this will be the first thing people see. It is worthwhile to dabble in Google Ads a bit, if only for your own brand name. Since you are the brand, you should have a higher quality score and therefore a higher ad placement for brand placement that can put you above these competitors. If there is nobody advertising here, you may not need this, but it is worth getting back up top if someone is trying to take your traffic. Lesser known brand searches typically aren’t very expensive to advertise for.
  • Video GMB Posts: You should be posting already, but it is now possible to add video posts, which tend to grab the eye even more. Sprinkle in a video post and use Google Tag Manager to see if this improves your traffic on these posts.  It is worth trying. Videos must be under 30 seconds and 100 MB, but you can add quick how to or brand videos in under 30 seconds and they tend to draw the eye.

GMB Posts with Video

GMB is a Key Part of Local Search

Google has made GMB an increasingly important part of local search and you need to stay on top of it for your business. Keep asking for reviews and stay up to date with the latest offerings. For example, did you know that Google defaults your GMB listing to allow you to be called for automated Google robo-calls? This may be fine with you, but if not, you should check it out. You should Google your brand at least once a week and make sure you aren’t missing any questions from the general public or negative reviews you have missed. Stay interactive. The more you are there interacting with your potential customers, the more you are rewarded. Any question that is asked of your business is a warm lead and also a new opportunity for content on both your GMB and your website. GMB traffic and activity is an important metric that isn’t necessarily captured by your analytics, so you need to be aware of and establish metrics to work with here as well.

We help businesses manage their GMB local presence all the time with review tools, Q&A monitoring, and general GMB upkeep. If you want to make sure you are ahead of the game and standing out from your competitors, give us a call.