With the growing importance of the Google My Business (GMB) listing and Google committing even more to making Google My Business an important part of local business, it is important for any business to claim or gain control of their listing, so they can control the information that is presented and better interact with customers. With all of the added features in the past year and more to come, you need to provide as much information as possible about your business within the GMB. The information you provide helps signal to Google about your offerings and potentially enhance your listings rankings for specific service offerings.

The process can change a bit over time, such as methodology to verify your business, etc. However, the basics hold true that you need to have a Google account and go to business.google.com to get started.  You can then follow the basic steps from there to either create your business or claim the listing that already exists, depending on your situation.

Advantages of Owning Your Google My Business Listing

Owning your Google My Business listing gives you control of a number of things that users can alter or change if you don’t control it.  Below is a list of things you can do by owning your listing. All of which can have a bearing on your positioning.

  • Write your Business Description
  • Write your business service descriptions
  • Correct and monitor your Name, Address, Phone, and other basic business info
    • Users can suggest edits that can be accepted if you don’t reject them
    • Consistent Name, Address, and Phone (NAP) is important to search engines understanding your business as an entity
  • Provide your own images and videos (Google can associate images with your business that if finds online)
  • Provide Posts (Helps signal to Google areas of expertise and also get website pages indexed quickly)
    • Posts expire after 7 days and active posts have been proven to increase activity on your GMB page.
  • Provide owner answers to user-supplied questions
    • Anyone can ask questions on your GMB page, and even scarier, anyone can answer them.
  • Provide seeded owner Questions as an FAQ about your business
  • Provide answers to user reviews from the owner
  • More to come I’m sure

Basically, if you don’t own your GMB listing, you better claim it ASAP. If you want help monitoring and managing your GMB properly, we offer it as a standalone service or included as part of a more aggressive SEO plan.

Summary
How to Claim Your Google My Business Listing (Spring 2018)
Article Name
How to Claim Your Google My Business Listing (Spring 2018)
Google Certified Partner and SEM Specialist
With the growing importance of the Google My Business (GMB) listing and Google committing even more to making GMB an important part of local business, it is important for any business to claim or gain control of their listing.
Jeremy Skillings
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