Google My Business – The World Wants Your Virtual Business Card

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Google My Business - How to Set Up?

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Your business cards, document folders and even the branded pens from your company are beautiful, but it’s time to retire them to the “analogue” drawer. In a world dominated by the internet and online shopping, a Google My Business account and a virtual business card is one of the most important promotional tools you can have — plus it’s free! 72% of your clients confirm — it’s worth showing up here!

Do you need coffee filters? Looking for shoes for the fall, or someone who will repair last year’s for you? It doesn’t really matter which. Before you start feverishly running around in search of what you need, chances are you’ll probably take a look online first. You’ll type your query into Google’s search form. How can we be so sure? Statistics don’t lie! 

According to a report prepared in June 2021 by statista.com, Google is the unquestioned global leader in search engine popularity. A 92.47% market share speaks for itself, right? 

Google is where we’ll look for all those burning questions keeping us up at night: 

• How do you use a safety mask? 

• How to make a Christmas present tag or an Easter card? 

• How do you set up online banking? 

…and so many, many more — including, of course, questions about products and services. 

Are you a business? If so, this is the moment when the light bulb should turn on above your head. Can you connect the dots? Link your business activities with Google. Promote yourself and gain new clients every day, without investing significant time or money. 

What is Google My Business? 

Google My Business - Verseo Profile
Verseo’s GMB card

It’s a free profile of your company which contains all the most important information about your business presence.

Your virtual business card contains: 

  • Your business name 
  • Opening hours 
  • Business address 
  • Contact info 
  • Business reviews
  • Comments 
  • Photos 
  • Accepted payment methods

This information is displayed in the Google search engine (organic results) as well as in Google Maps. This means that a potential customer can easily (and at light speed) find the optimal way to get to you. Google’s advanced algorithms guarantee a precise match with search phrases, taking the user’s location into account and showing him local search results. Their chances of getting to know you and your product better just increased significantly…

Did you know that… 

88% of people use Google Maps to find companies’ addresses. Almost 78% of them will visit a store that same day, and 28% will buy the product they were after

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What should a Google virtual business card look like? 

First and foremost, it’s a collection of basic information about your business. You should seek to maximize all the possibilities for promotion this free tool gives you. You can use it to get a higher rank in Google search results, and generate interest among potential customers. When optimizing your Google business card pay attention to: 

Opinions — perception is reality! After every successful transaction, ask for a recommendation. Five stars and a few kind words is enough to encourage potential clients to get to know your business better. 

Key phrases — words that hold power within your industry. Use them in colorful descriptions, posts and comments. 

Posts — consistent, interesting and filled with valuable information. What should you write about? Your products, for one, or what sets you apart from your competition. Organizing an event? Gearing up for a hot sale in your e-store? Your audience needs to know about this!

Images — good quality images consistent with your brand’s style will attract clients. Remember to include your logo! Think about adding images of your company’s office or space. Google claims that business cards with photos and virtual walkthroughs attract twice as much attention!

Google My Business — who’s in charge here? 

The basic details that appear in your virtual business card should always be up-to-date. Did your store change its opening hours? Inform your customers! 

Before you open up a new location the Google algorithm may automatically make the modification for you, but it’s a good idea to check your Google My Business profile regularly and manage any changes being made, or make them yourself. This way, potential clients will always have the most current information about your business.

Editing is done from your Google account. If you are not the account owner (say, a former employee is the person with the password), ask for the login credentials. You can get them either from the previous account admin, or through repeating the verification process and giving yourself owner or manager access. If the verification is successful, you will regain control of your profile. You will then be able to edit it, promote your company and reach clients.

Setting up Google My Business account and profile

  1. Log in to Google Business Profile Manager: www.google.com/business 
  2. Enter your business’ name and address. 
  3. You will receive a postcard with the verification code at the address you specify. 
  4. Choose your business category and fill in your contact details. 
  5. Wait for the card from Google. 
  6. After receiving the verification, postcard, verify your business by entering the code in your Google Business account.

It’s worth pointing out that sometimes quick verification using another verification method, e.g. by phone or via text is possible. The method most often used, however, is a postcard with a code sent by mail. In this case, you’ll need to be patient!

Your opinion is important to us…

A happy customer is likely to not just come back, but to encourage others to make a purchase! What’s the moral of this story? This is the kind of customer you need to woo, and his opinion doubly so. This opinion will impact:

  • Google search result rankings 
  • Trust from other customers
  • Website traffic
  • Support of the purchase decision

According to intle.pl:

In Poland, as many as 78% of clients check a store’s opinions before deciding to make a purchase.

70% of internet users confirm that they trust the opinions of other users.

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What does this mean in practice? That before anyone decides to put your product in their virtual basket or set foot in your physical store, they will most likely read some opinions online. This is why you must always strive for reviews that confirm the quality of your offer and professionalism of your service. 

How do you deal with negative reviews? Don’t remove them! The best thing to do is to respond — politely and constructively. If you made a mistake, apologize. You should also offer some kind of direct contact and take action to hopeful

–> Digital Marketing – How to Start Online Marketing Activities? – read the article!

A better rating means a higher position in search results There’s (at least) one more reason to collect positive reviews, besides your sales and image. They will inevitably increase traffic to your site. Published comments can also be picked up by web crawlers, and that will definitely have a positive effect on your SEO.

“Any business with a physical address should have a Google My Business profile. While the possibilities depend on the industry they are in, it’s always an additional source of traffic that, if optimized correctly, will generate conversion.”

Maciej Czyż Senior SEO Specialist, Verseo

Take a look at some statistics — important data

Google My Business - business dashboard

In the Google My Business admin panel you will find a “Statistics” tab. Treat it like your favourite, if you take analyzing user interaction with your virtual business card seriously. What do you gain? First of all, priceless information about the behaviour of your customers and anyone interested in your offer. 

What data should you keep an eye on, and why? For one, keep track of how many people found your company online, and through what type of searches (direct, indirect, by brand). You will be able to profile your customers, which lets you better tailor your communication. 

Stats also cover search terms that people use to find you. Including them in your posts and descriptions will improve your positioning.

Google My Business statistics 

Be sure to always check the following: 

  • How customers find your business card 
  • Search terms 
  • How clients find your business in Google 
  • Customer behaviour 
  • Route queries 
  • Phone calls 
  • Photos 
  • What your business is known for 
  • How customers find your business profile

There’s no doubt – Google Business Profiles simply pay off if managed properly.

This is a chapter from Adbook 2022 – the ultimate Digital Marketing Guide from Verseo. Check the full Guide in Verseo Academy!

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SEO Auditing – Check Your Visibility Online!

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SEO Audit - increase website's position in search engine results pages

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Thanks to SEO auditing we can find out at what stage in the positioning process our site currently is and establish a roadmap for further activity — in terms of both time and budget. Why, you ask? For better visibility and to spread our wings, so to speak. Obviously!

The positioning of websites is probably the best-known marketing activity on the internet. In terms of awareness of its existence, only social media advertising comes close. At the same time, the mere recognizability of SEO has little impact on familiarity with its techniques and methodologies. The average marketer may want to have their website rank higher in Google, but has no idea how much work is involved, nor how many factors influence the final outcome.

SEO Audit – What Is It?

There are roughly 300 ranking factors alone, which influence the position or rank of a website in search results for a specific phrase. Additionally, each industry has its own specific quirks and nature, its own unique clientele, certain ways in which the competition behaves, budgetary constraints, and even the intention behind its audience’s online searches — all this gives us an enormous amount of potential to make a mistake along the way. And then, on a white horse… the SEO audit arrives!

SEO Audit - get higher in search engine results
SEO Audit – get high in search engine results

When should you decide on a SEO site audit?

In a company’s life cycle, auditing happens at several strategic points in time. Same with SEO site audits. A few moments are particularly suited for one:

A site launch of redesign

Especially one that involves a change in functionality — a site change or revamp often causes a disturbance in a brand’s visibility, especially if it is not conducted under the watchful eye of a specialist. Changes in URLs, site layout, changes or reductions in content… an experienced eye can make sense of the chaos and indicate areas that could potentially interfere with ranking. In case of a site launch (and not just a launch from scratch; refreshing a site or relaunching it with a new CMS also counts), it’s a good idea to hand it over to a SEO specialist before the public can access it. An evaluation of the solutions involved and implementing any modifications during the site development process will make not only the positioner’s job easier, but also the developer’s.

A sudden drop in visibility and a lack of search engine traffic

When a dramatic change like this occurs, it is absolutely necessary to determine its cause(s). So long as these fluctuations aren’t caused by a change in the algorithm for that industry, which is easier to detect (such as the well-publicized changes in the medical branch which destabilized traffic on even the biggest health-related sites), issues affecting a single domain will require a more thorough analysis and observation.

Unsatisfactory results from previously completed work

Or the desire to check the work of an agency of freelancer — another reason for conducting an audit is often the lingering question “are we sure we can’t do better?” There’s nothing unusual there. Positioning is a long-term process, but it’s human nature that we can get impatient after just a few months.

If a few months have passed since work began, this is a perfect time to verify if things are headed in the right direction, and if our chosen strategy is likely to succeed. From a technical SEO point of view, the first problems to tackle should be ones that can be remedied by making changes to the site itself.

Working with content or backlinking requires a long-term perspective, but technical SEO issues can be diagnosed and optimized beforehand. If work has been ongoing for four months, and nothing much has happened, it might be a good time to say: “Let’s check this out!”. Of course, in some cases it could be 6 months without seeing any results from what our SEO agency or freelancer is doing. At that point, it’s worth conducting an audit in order to learn how certain tasks have been completed and, in fact, whether they have been completed at all.

It could turn out that your SEO partner is incompetent, at which point its best to say goodbye as quickly as possible. Other times, an audit is conducted even if the SEO specialist’s work is satisfactory, and provides a fresh, external perspective. An external audit is sent to your agency or freelancer along with a request to implement or comply with its contents, with the intent not to undermine the authority of the SEO positioner but for the good of the project.

A comprehensive review of all these activities, performed at a strategic moment by an independent observer is an excellent basis for planning further work. Thanks to the information in an audit, the planning of subsequent tasks, budgets and timelines will be much easier.

ATTENTION: SEO audits as a tool for intercepting clients

Many companies out there use SEO audits as a tool for taking over someone else’s clients. What this means in practice is that they start the audit with the thesis that “things are bad” and then attempt to prove it. There are many techniques. You can exaggerate issues that have a marginal meaning when it comes to increasing visibility. You can also cherry pick only those elements to be audited that do in fact need to changed, thus building a catastrophic narrative. It can also happen that that the person conducting the audit is unfamiliar with your SEO strategy.

This is why you must always remember: When commissioning or analyzing a SEO audit, don’t be steered by your emotions. If a business is conducting your SEO audit and want to verify their work, consult the audit findings with your own specialist. There is nothing wrong with this, and your current SEO partner may also gain valuable knowledge from the audit.

SEO Audit - on page seo and off page SEO
SEO Audit – on page seo and off page SEO

How much does a SEO audit cost?

The cost of a SEO site audit depends, of course, on the scope of the work. The more extensive the information we seek, and the larger our site is, naturally, the more work and analysis is involved.

A basic site audit costs in the neighbourhood of €250. An audit like this should contain the most important information about how well prepared our site is for the SEO process. It takes into account key factors in terms of technical optimization of the site, as well as its content and backlink profile.

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An enhanced SEO audit comes in at around €450-500. This option combines the basic audit with detailed information about links and an evaluation of the potential effectiveness of your keywords/phrases. An This type of audit will not only tell you what stage you are at in the process, but will also point to strategies to use in deciding your site’s future trajectory.

An advanced and exhaustive audit will run upwards of €500. This deluxe version includes everything that is in the two lower tiers, adding detailed analyses of the competition, keywords, visibility, keyword potential and a list of recommendations for changes to the site.

What a SEO audit entails

Below is a quick explanation what actually goes into a SEO audit. 🙂

Meta tag analysis

An evaluation of the elements contained in the section of a page that show up in Google’s search results. Correctly set up TITLE tag and META DESCRIPTION tag will set up precisely chosen keywords and entice users to visit your site. An audit will also contain information about whether these elements are saturated with keywords or not, whether the keywords are the correct length and appear throughout the domain. Duplicates will also be indicated.

Meta descriptions do not affect SEO directly. However, done properly, they attract users and increase organic traffic that can be appreciated by search engines.

Elimination of duplicate content

The audit will also indicate every instance of duplicated pages, whether they are unredirected http and https variants, copies in subdomains or duplicates created during site development that are now being picked up by web crawlers.

Page content analysis

Extensive analysis of your content to gauge its effectiveness – how useful it is to users, how many keywords and phrases it contains, and a comparison against the competition.

<head> section analysis

Beyond the TITLE & META DESCRIPTION tags, contains other important elements for SEO – META ROBOTS or canonical links, for example.

Evaluation of correct subpage structure

Verification of access to pages, ease of use and finding information as well as internal linking — elements that are important not only for web crawlers, but also for the comfort of your users.

Verification of code on all sub-pages

Finding errors in code, improper use of HTML or CSS elements, JS bugs that can slower site speed, impede page loads or limit their functionality.

Analysis of a page’s indexability

An evaluation of exclusions and restrictions for web crawlers that could prevent data gathering.

Analysis of mobile functionality

Not just an evaluation of a page’s responsiveness, but whether site speed and functionality allow it to function correctly on the smaller screens of mobile devices, and with slower internet connections.

Speed measurement

Page rendering speed also affects the desktop version of your site; these tests allow you to identify elements that slow down page loading and to find solutions to eliminate these problems with site speed.

Google Search Console analysis

Data gathered in the Google Search Console lets you assess the status of your site in the Google index. Auditing older domains without a GSC analysis will be incomplete — the console provides detailed data on indexing by crawlers, which is how Google really sees sites and any errors it encounters.

Conducted similarly to GSC analysis, in the case of a domain with a history. This analysis will determine which pages contain links to your domain, which and what kind of pages they are.

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A more detailed evaluation of backlinks lets you determine the dominant sources of links to your domain and an assessment of their value. It also includes broken links analysis.

Detailed analysis of keyword potential

An evaluation of the keywords you have selected, based on the number of searches, clickability as well as Google search trends for your particular industry. The analysis is conducted with the usage of various advanced keyword research tools.

Substantive content analysis

In the expanded audit, we also provide information about whether your page contains essential data that allows users to easily find key information they are looking for. We will indicate any deficiencies in descriptions of products or services, as well as any necessary additions of technical data.

SEO Audit - check site's seo performance

Crawl Budget

Important for larger sites, this element provides information about how many pages in a given domain can be crawled by Google’s bots.

Detailed analysis of the competition

What do they do better that results in them being ranked higher or being more visible? Analyzing your competition lets you observe solutions that are effective for your particular industry.

Detailed site visibility analysis

In the course of an audit, a comprehensive assessment of your site’s visibility is conducted, which requires the use of several independent tools. An analysis of the resultant data gives a complete overview of your pages’ visibility.

Suggested changes

The expanded audit also includes a set of guidelines dedicated to your domain designed to improve your pages’ Google ranking. These suggestions pertain to all of the elements mentioned above — choosing keywords and phrases, distributing them throughout the page, the amount and quality of text, your site’s loading times. The audit also includes suggestions for places that will allow you to diversify your backlinks sources, as well as places to link to that are key to your particular industry.

BEWARE: Automatic and free SEO audits

A free or automatic SEO audit will NOT give you the same results as a paid audit. In order for free audits to be free, they use a generator which only requires your site’s URL. The document it will generate can be sent to anyone interested in the results. It’s quick, problem-free and free. So, what’s the catch?

These audits are heavily standardized. They don’t take into account any of the specificities of a given site — for example, an architect ir interior designer’s portfolio page can be assessed as “too graphics heavy” because of the imagery contained on the site. Neither do they take into account the technologies used to create the site and their limitations. It would more correct and fair to state that automated audits primarily evaluate your homepage and not the entire site. This is visible from meta tag analysis, which only refers to the start page.

Free audits are also often used to bait clients… that means you! You receive a few “free” pages full of colorful charts and text and feel obliged to pay for further services. Nu-uh! Remember that this really didn’t take them all day, and that there is a long road between saying “thank you” and possibly hiring this company for any potential work. 🙂

You can try our advanced automatic auditor for free here: Verseo SEO Audit tool. It provides you with basic information and can be a good start to technical SEO audit conducted by… a human.

To know is better than not to know

SEO audits are crucial to understand what can be improved on a website when it comes to visibility in search engines and subsequently increased organic traffic in Google Analytics.

That can be a small step for experienced specialist and one giant leap for a website. Get a free quote and let Verseo skyrocket your website traffic from organic search!

This is a chapter from Adbook 2022 – the ultimate Digital Marketing Guide from Verseo. Check the full Guide in Verseo Academy!

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Good SEO – What Does It Mean?

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Good SEO - visualization

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Google and other search engines after entering certain keywords in a fraction of a second can show even 100 million results. It’s both a blessing and a curse. What does it mean? In short: to improve your site rank and get to TOP10 with such competition, you must put a lot of emphasis on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) activities and link building – in a nutshell, to compete in such a saturated market, you should have really good SEO. But what exactly is “good SEO”? 

Google’s “pole position” is taken by the ones who mastered the most important ranking factors in their SEO strategy. These factors play a key role as they have a direct impact on the positions in the search engine results page. In this article, we will look at the some seo best practices and activities that Google values the most. What to do?

  • A good SEO strategy should take into account the most important Google ranking factors – including keyword selection and technical aspects, such as Core Web Vitals.
  • It’s good to know how search engines work. This process is divided into three stages: search, index, and ranking.
  • Good SEO mostly consists of selected keywords, quality content, a properly optimized website and proper link building.

How do search engines work?

If you want your content to appear in search results, it must first be made visible to search engines. Therefore, to achieve good SEO, it’s important to understand how search engines work and what they take into account.

Crawling

At this stage, Google bots search for content by visiting websites and analyzing the entire content of the page. They take into account, among others, its layout and user-friendliness, ads, texts, images, keywords and links. It is an ongoing process – bots (sometimes called web crawlers) work all the time to keep the database up-to-date.

Indexing

Indexing can be described as an actual analysis of the content. All the data collected by the bots is sorted and placed in huge databases that are constantly updated by re-indexing the websites.

Ranking

The stage at which the content is chosen to be shown in response to a specific keyword that was typed into the search engine. Each time a keyphrase is entered, the search engine displays the results that are, or at least should be, most relevant. Responsible for these mechanics are advanced algorithms that together are called an all-mighty Google algorithm – one to rule them all. Google algorithm takes into account over 200 factors while setting the ranking.

At this point, it should be added that users’ choices matter. The user selects an item from the list of search results, and this action, together with subsequent activity, affects the algorithms.

How to get to the top in search engine rankings?

What actions can you take to get your website well-rated by robots and appear high in search results? What to do to have “good SEO”? Here are some tips:

Keyword research and creating a list of keywords

It is worth taking the time to analyze how your potential customers search the Internet for products or services similar to those offered by you. To attract traffic from search engines, you need to include in your content and link the keywords people are looking for. Keywords and SEO are closely related, so make a list of keywords that match what you are searching for on the web. Proper keyword selection can make search traffic evolve into sales. How to do keyword research? Here are some things to start with:

Identify the problems and the needs of your audience – the goal of SEO is to attract organic traffic to your website by showing users that you have the solution they are looking for. However, to do this, obviously, you first need to know what exactly they need. Find out what your audience’s problems are, and then use keywords related to the topics in your texts. 

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Be an industry expert – and prove it with your content. If you’re selling a product or service, you need to know what you’re offering. Read the specifications of your products in detail, and use professional, specialized vocabulary. Good knowledge of the topic not only helps with SEO but also makes you an authority – in other words, a better source of information for consumers who come to you for help and information.

Check your business rivals – your competitors can prove to be a valuable source of information when it comes to keywords that are relevant to your industry. Audit their websites and find some keywords.

Use low competitive phrases – popular keywords used by everyone will most likely not help you. Focus on keywords that are less competitive and you will increase the chance of getting a higher ranking. You can find more about such keywords in another article on Verseo Blog: Long Tail Keywords – That Are They?

Track trends – seasonal trends can make a big difference to your keyword selection strategies. If you have a product or service that is seasonal (or you can sell it as seasonal) use keywords like “Christmas sweater”, “winter ski jacket”, “spring 2022 fashionable coats” etc.

Don’t be afraid of SEO tools – There are tons of tools specifically designed to analyze SEO activities that will help you do your keyword research. Thanks to them you will find out what works and what does not. Check the list of free tools here and choose your favourite keyword research tool.

Aim for good SEO!

Use your keywords!

Once you have done your research and have prepared a list of keywords, the next step is to publish them on the website to improve their visibility in the search engine – to make the most of their potential. What do we advise?

Give every subpage a unique title – each URL shoutheirld have its unique title, which responds to users’ inquiries in the most natural way. Therefore, keywords should appear in the title.

Create a page description (meta descriptions) – add keywords to the descriptions and the search engine will automatically bold them in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) so that users can easily find what interests them by scanning the text. Note: meta description does not influence SEO itself, but acquires search traffic via purely human curiosity.

Set friendly URL addresses – each subpage has its URL. It is a good idea to include keywords in the addresses, as the automatically generated URL in many CMS systems will not be readable by users, nor will it be appreciated by Google crawlers.

Use headers (H1- H6) – with headers the information provided in the website content will be easier to comprehend both for users and search engines. There are 6 levels of headings, the most important title tag is H1.

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Set alt description in image attributes – keywords in files data, consistent with what they present, will make your website better positioned in Google images section. Alt attribute is also very useful for visually impaired people – the user can hear the description using the voice generator.

Use internal linking – thanks to internal linking, Google crawlers move between subpages, and the greater the number of internal links to a given subpage, the stronger the signal for the crawlers.

Fill the content on the page with keywords. But be careful – this process should be done skillfully. Overfilling the content sometimes makes it very hard to read, and users will simply enter and within a second leave your website. You want to attract and maintain attention, therefore you have to respect your users – give them the content they deserve and don’t take shortcuts. Therefore, it is worth reaching for synonyms and other variations of a given phrase.

Search engine optimization of the website

A keyword analysis is one of the foundations of SEO, but Google’s algorithm analyses much more than just keywords. Many of the 200 ranking factors focus on the technical aspects of websites. What should you take care of? Here are some suggestions:

Improve website navigation – navigation should be as intuitive and easy as possible. Good navigation will not only satisfy users but can also help crawlers in finding and indexing subpages.

Beware of error 404 – all the effort and hard work to attract organic traffic to your website can be wasted if users receive a 404 error after clicking on the link. Creating redirects for 404 links is a must, because not only can you lose a potential customer, but also make it difficult for crawlers to index your page.

Don’t underestimate mobile traffic – your website has to be displayed correctly on mobile devices. After the introduction of Google mobile indexing a few years ago, the lack of responsiveness will negatively affect the position of your website in the search results.

Reduce the loading time – more than half of users leave a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load (and this “waiting period” is getting shorter and shorter every month). Thus, page loading time affects conversion. You can improve the page speed by:

  • compression of photos and other images,
  • reducing the size of files with the website code,
  • uninstalling unnecessary plugins,
  • checking the hosting performance,
  • minimizing the number of redirects,
  • implementing the Gzip compression on the website,

Write relevant content – your articles, product descriptions and other pieces of content, even every single blog post have to be valuable. Quality content extends the time spent on the website, lowers the bounce rate and provides useful information for users. Remember – only unique texts, no duplicate content. All this is appreciated by Google crawlers and of course the search engine algorithms.

Search Engine Optimization Champion

Good SEO – summary

What influences good SEO? As we can see above – many factors, but good SEO is primarily based on properly selected and used keywords, creating quality content and a properly optimized website. However, the details are changing almost daily. We recommend watching the updates to the guidelines from Google to stay up to date with what the search engine algorithms appreciate the most.

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