As a local business owner, setting up a Google My Business listing should be a crucial part of your online marketing strategy. Why? Because a it is the quickest route to be found in Google search results and Google Maps, which is where most of your customers will be be searching and B the most cost effective way since Google My Business is free, which is ideal if you're just starting out. In this tutorial, I'm going to show you how to set up a Google My Business Listing step by step, and I will also include my personal optimization tips along the way so you have the best chances of being discovered by prospective customers in Google in 2021. If you're ready, let's get started. Head over to Google.com. In the top right hand side corner, click on the Sign In button. You will be asked to sign in using a Google account. If you don't have a Google account, just click on Create an account, choose the to Manage My Business option and start filling in your details, including your first name and last name. Choose a username.
I tend to use the business name here if possible, and the password. Then click on Next. Add a phone number recovery, email address, date of birth and gender, then click on Next. You will be asked to verify your phone number via a code you will receive by text message. Enter the code, then click on Verify. You can skip the next step. Choose your preferred personalisation settings. I recommend the Express option here, then click on Next. On the next screen, scroll down to the bottom of the page, then click on Confirm. Do the same on the Privacy Policy page and click on I agree you will be redirected to a screen confirming your account is all set up and you can now create your free business profile. Just click on Continue, which will take you to the start of setting up a Google My Business listing. If you already have a Google account which you are happy to use for your business, just log in to Google using your Gmail address and head over to Google.com Business. Then click on the Manage button on the top right hand side window, which will also take you to the start of setting up a Google My Business listing. The first step of the process start by entering your business name to check if a Google listing already exists for it. If it does, it should be suggested as part of the Autocomplete function and you should select it. This will prevent creating and duplicating an existing listing, which could be detrimental later on. For the sake of this tutorial, I'll use the example of a fictitious plumbing business called Plumbing Stream so you can see the process from start to finish.
On the next step, you'll need to confirm the name of your business. According to Google's Policy, your name should reflect your business's real world name and you shouldn't add additional details like address area, business hours, etc. So in this example, I could easily add London Twenty four Seven to my name. This would help my listing rank higher in Google Maps and Google Search, but it goes against Google's guidelines and your listing could be banned, so I wouldn't recommend it. Once you've confirmed your business name, just click on Next. During this next step, you'll need to choose a category that best matches your business's primary activity. This is a very important field as it will have a significant impact on the keywords your listing ranks for in Google Search and Google Maps results. I will cover categories in a bit more depth in a minute, but for now I'll go with the obvious choice for my fictitious business, Plumber and click on Next. You will then be asked if you want to add a physical location customers can visit like a store or an office, so if you run a business such as a beauty salon, a restaurant or a retail store where people come to you, you need to Select yes and fill in your business address details. It will then get displayed on your listing and in the form of a red Pin on Google Maps showing where your business is. If you are more of a service area type of business that delivers goods and services to your customers, such as a plumber, an electrician, or simply work from home and don't want people to know your exact address, you will want to choose the no option, which is what I'm going to pick now. Then click on Next. At this stage, you'll be given the option to specify the areas you're able to serve your customers.
This will help visitors understand how far you are willing to go to deliver your services or products. It will be displayed on your listing panel in the form of an area coverage, as opposed to a red Pin. You can specify countries, cities, regions and postcodes, but please note it will not help your listing rank in those areas, so there is no need to add areas unnecessarily. It will just help Google put the right area map on your listing. Once you're done, click on Next. You'll then be asked to specify the region where your business is based. Just use the dropdown and scroll to find the appropriate country, then click Next. This next step is all about adding information that will display on your panel so customers can get in touch with you. You have the option to add a phone number as well as a website address. I recommend you add both. If you don't have a website, you can select the Get a free website based on your info option and Google will automatically create a web page for you. I won't cover this here and instead use the Website address field, which is a much better option. Once you're done, just click on Next.
You'll then be given the option to receive updates and recommendations for your business on Google. I'll choose yes here as it can be helpful, but obviously the choice is yours. Click on Next. We're almost there. We just need to finish completing our basic listing. Just click on the Finish button, which will take you to the verification process. You now need to enter the physical mailing address of your business, as Google will send you a postcard like this one, which includes a code to verify your listing. Once you're done, click on Next. Here you can choose how to verify a business. Most of you will be given the option to verify your business only by mail and no other options will be available. You can choose to verify your listing later, but I suggest you verify your business as soon as you can, so add the contact name you want to appear on a postcard, which should take up to four days to be delivered, then click on Mail. You'll be redirected to a screen confirming the card is on its way. Congratulations. Your basic listing has now created, but you don't want just a basic listing. You want to provide as much information as possible about your business to your visitors, so click on Continue. Depending on the business category you have chosen, Google will add services to your listing by default. In this example, I can see a selection of related services such as Find and Repair, Leak or Repair Full Set, which will automatically be added to my listing. You can remove each service by clicking on it. You can show more or remove them all and even add your very own if you feel none of the suggestions are suitable. Once you're done, click on Save. This next step is very straightforward. Just add your opening and closing hours, then click on Save. The following step allows you to provide a short description of your business.
If you don't know what to write in here, think of it as an About US page on your website. The first few lines will appear at the bottom of your listing. No need to stuff your description with search terms you want to rank for as it has zero influence on Google search results. Once you're done, just click on Save. Next step is to add photos that illustrate the service you provide, or better, even the work you've done with existing customers. It's important to have pictures because a lot of prospective customers will decide to do business with you based purely on those images. Use genuine images and not something you have downloaded from the Internet. Google doesn't like stock images, and neither will your visitors. Once you're done, click on Next. You'll then be offered a voucher you can use for some free advertising on Google Ads. Let's skip this page for now. Time to add the final touches to your profile and make another few updates so you can maximize your chances of being found by new customers. Click on Continue. This will take you to your Google My Business Dashboard. From the dashboard you can see you've already completed 80% of your Google My Business Listing profile and that it's spending verification. This is also the area Google uses to convey various messages regarding your Google listing, such as creating posts, claiming your free advertising credits, etc. I won't cover this today as it would take too long. Instead, I'm going to run through a couple of more options you must add before your listing is verified, so you can hit the ground running. From the left hand side menu, click on the Info link. This is where all the information you filled in during the creation process of your listing are stored. You can see your business name, the category you've chosen, the areas you serve, your opening and closing time, the services you provide, et cetera, and you can modify them all. Click on the pencil next to category. You should see the primary category you picked during the initial listing setup here. I strongly recommend you add secondary categories that are related to your business as they will increase your chances of being found in Google for relevant search terms. Let's say my Plumber also provides air conditioning services, for example, but it's not his main activity. I can add it as a second category here that should help my Plumber being found for air conditioning related keywords. In Google search results, you can add up to nine categories, scroll down and add relevant attributes to your listing here. The options will depend on the type of business you run. This is particularly useful if you want to inform your customers about the COVID, health and safety measures you have in place, for instance, or if you have wheelchair access. Final Touch Click on the Add Photos link. You should see the photos you uploaded earlier on your listing. What you also want to do here is add a logo and a cover photo. The cover photo will appear here on your listing while the logo is displayed right there. The recommended cover photo size is 1024 pixels by 576 pixels. Your logo should be square and I recommend you make it at least 720 pixels by 720 pixels. So let's go ahead and add an image for both of these pictures separately. Once you've finished adding the images, click on the Home button on the left hand side menu. Although your profile still shows it's only 80% complete. If you reload your page, you'll find the message is no longer there, which means your profile is actually 100% complete. In just a few days, you will receive the postcards containing the code you'll need to use to verify your listing. Log into your Google My Business panel. In the Pending verification box, click on Enter Verification code, then enter the code and click on Verify. After this, your Google listing will be live on Google. Setting up a Google My Business Listing is a massive step in the right direction to get more customers through your doors but online competition is fierce so don't expect to see your listing at the top of search results as soon as it goes live
