Are you monitoring your Google My Business listing to ensure the accuracy of information?
Failure to monitor the information about your business showing in a Google search can create a bad user experience for your prospective customers.
Below are the five most common Google My Business (GMB) mistakes that business owners make and how to avoid them. They are all easily corrected.
1. Unclaimed Listings
When you do not claim your GMB listing, there’s a question of how you are going to manage it. You will be able to suggest edits on your address, phone number, website URL, and hours. Uploading photos will be possible, but it will be from a customer and not the owner of the business.
However, you won’t be able to reply to reviews by customers and the Google My Business team won’t assist with your concerns while the listing is unverified – which means that you will also not be able to use or create Google Posts.
If you do not claim your listing and it’s left dormant long enough, a user can suggest an edit that the listing does not exist and it’s likely that Google will accept that edit and delete the listing. When your listing is unclaimed, there’s a risk of another company coming in and either claiming you’re listing or editing your information and adding their telephone number, website and other information. As a result of not claiming your listing, Google will not be able to alert you that the information has been changed and your business can be damaged.
The easiest way to claim your GMB listing is from the Knowledge Panel. Click on “Own This Business” and be sure to follow the steps provided.
2. Closed Businesses
If your business shuts down, please be sure to mark your business as permanently closed. It is understood that you may no longer need the listing, but failure to mark your business as permanently closed presents a bad user experience. If a potential customer tries to visit you and finds out that you are closed, they will most likely become upset when they discover that they wasted their time. In your Google My Business dashboard, Google filters out closed GMB listings to stop them from coming up in the map pack.
3. Missing Information
If your GMB listing has been set up and you have not checked on it in a while, there’s a slight chance that your listing is missing vital information. Most of the common missing pieces of vital information are hours, website URLs, and phone numbers. It will be difficult for your customers to know when you are open or how to contact you if this information is missing. Potential customers will eventually go to your competitor if they are unable to reach you and no business wants to lose potential customers to their competition.
Log into your GMB account and ensure that all of your information is listed and correct.
4. Incorrect Information
Not having correct information is worse than not displaying any information. In a situation whereby you do not update your hours and potential customers arrive at your location only to find out that you are closed, that will really upset them.
For example, I had to take my car all the way to a shop once just to get sent back because they were closed. I checked the hours of the business I was going to, and they were closed when they were supposed to be open. I left a negative review for them, went to patronize their competitor, and gave them a positive review; this is how it works.
5. Map Pins
Map pins are often overlooked, and most times are in the wrong place. I have found map pins at the end of a shopping center, in the middle of a parking lot, or in the street; this doesn’t help potential customers. GPS programs are being used by more and more people, and they want to be directed to the right spot. If they can’t find your location, they may just assume that your business is closed and go elsewhere.
For an evaluation of your current listing, schedule a call to discuss how we can help.