Everyone has heard of Google and you’re probably not surprised to learn that it’s the world’s most visited website! It currently holds more than 92% of the search engine share- it’s seemingly unstoppable!

So if you’re making sure your SEO is getting your business seen in searches it makes sense to go one step further and take advantage of Google Business Profile.
 
What is Google Business Profile?
Google Business Profile (previously known as Google My Business) is a free business listing provided by Google. The listing lets you include all your important business contact details and photos and is a brilliant way to boost your business discoverability. It’s only available to businesses that have customer contact, so you’ll have to stick to other tools and analytics if your business is online-only.
 
It’s really beneficial to your business to create a Google Business Profile as once you’re up and running your listing can appear in any of the Google Services from Google Search, Google Maps and Google Shopping.
 
How Can Google Reviews Impact Your Website?
Customer reviews are great for your business- they give you valuable insights into your customer and their journey, build trust and credibility and give you great content to use in your social media marketing to boot! Obviously the difference with Google reviews as opposed to say reviews on your business Facebook page is that they’re there for everyone to see- this might seem scary especially as you can’t pick and choose which reviews to share but the combination of star rating and written detail really help your potential customers make an informed choice.
 
Negative Review? Don’t panic!
Criticism or negative reviews can be hard to handle but don’t let that put you off creating your Google Business Profile. It’s important to respond to your reviews, positive or negative, as this has been found to affect how your business comes across to customers. A survey carried out by Google and Ipsos Connect found that businesses that respond to reviews are viewed as being more trustworthy than those that don’t so it’s well worth taking the time to reply.
 
Be sure to respond in a timely manner and remain true to your brand voice and image. If a review is negative you should respond honestly and always offer an apology where it is necessary. Criticism is a great learning tool so use it to help improve the weak points in your business.
 
If you get a review that is inappropriate then you can get it removed by reporting it to Google.
 
Top tips for optimising your Google Business Profile

• Keep your business details up to date i.e contact details, business hours etc
• Verify your business
• Complete all elements of your profile and add real photos of your business location etc
• If you sell products be sure to add them to your listing
  
• Make use of the free Google marketing tools
  
• Include relevant keywords in your profile
• Ask your customers to share their questions and reviews
  

 
 
Need help with your Google My Business listing? Want help improving your existing profile?  Book a Health Check for first aid assistance.

What is SEO?
In simple terms Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is anything we do to improve the ranking of our website on search engine results. So that's everything from your website design to your content.

• Metadata - Website metadata such as page titles, content descriptions etc... all help to ensure search engines receive important information about the content of each page of your website. This must be relevant for your website to come up in search results.
• Alt tags - Alt tags provide text information for images to allow search engines such as Google to read the information and include the images on the search engine rankings.
• Internal links - Another essential for SEO, internal links help search engines navigate your website. Good internal links will lead search engines and visitors to your most important pages.
• External links - If another website has a link on their page that takes the user to your website then this is what’s known as an external link. This is a great way to improve your website's rankings; your designer will utilise all marketing strategies to help build external links to your website.
• Blogs - Any blogs you write also help to boost your website's ranking. Content needs to be relevant; mobile friendly to ensure you reach all your customers, and regularly updated.
• Mobile friendly website - Over 50% of internet browsing takes place on a mobile device so to really make sure your website is reaching a wide audience you need to ensure it is optimised for mobile devices.
• Domain age - When it comes to SEO it really makes a difference how old your website is so choose your domain name carefully, you want it to last!
• Content - In order to boost your rankings your content needs to be unique and relevant.
• Social interaction - Engaging with your audience will vastly improve your search engine rankings. Consider creating new campaigns to promote and share on social media; post engaging content on social media; be conversational but most importantly be yourself!
• Use power words - Words that draw your audience in and direct them to your site are a great way to improve your SEO. Some examples of power words include: Insane, Best, Scientifically, Fast, Effective. All these examples have an emotional draw that encourages the audience to click for more.

 
How to prepare content that is SEO ready for your website
In order for your website content to improve your SEO it’s essential you have relevant keywords and key phrases:

• Make a list of key phrases that focus on your products and services - do your research to ensure you don’t miss any great keywords.
• Make sure you use web resolution image files (lower resolution than you would use for print).
• Make sure you structure your content - think Introduction, Main Body and Conclusion. Write it in a way that reflects your personality to really engage your audience.
• Call To Action (CTA) - always end any content with a great Call To Action, whether that’s as simple as a ‘Buy Now’ button or a more subtle question you ask your audience to keep them interested.
• Word count - some SEO experts say 1000 or 2000, some are more, some are less; content around 300-500 words is not too much that it puts the reader off but enough to keep their interest and keep them coming back for more.

 
Most importantly, seek out a good web developer and marketeer and discuss your needs with them. It’s low cost with the potential to boost your business and it’s an essential way of keeping ahead of your competitors.
 
Got any burning SEO questions relevant to your existing website? Drop your questions below, we are happy to help.

According to Google there are only 3 things that it asks for in having a google friendly site:

1. Give visitors the information they're looking for.
2. Make sure that other sites link to yours.
3. Make your site easily accessible.

The full information article can be found here: Steps to a Google-friendly site >

Here are 10 more things you can do to help your website get indexed by Google and get found in Googles organic search engine listings.

1. Create unique, accurate page titles.
2. Make use of the ‘description’ meta tag.
3. Offer quality content and services.
4. Use easy to understand URL’s that use words.
5. Create two sitemaps one for users and one for search engines.
6. Use suitable anchor text to convey what content it is linked to.
7. Ensure your images are web optimised for faster viewing.
8. Make your website easy to navigate.
9. Make your website mobile friendly.
10. Promote your website in the right way using backlinks, social media and good quality communities.

Have a new website? Or have you recently made changes to your website? You can let Google know... and it with index your website pages by submitting your website URL here: Submit URL to Google >