In today's post, I'd like to discuss creating a Google My Business profile, which means listing your business on Google Maps. This is essential if you want your business to appear in Google's local search results (marked in red in the photo).
Local results depend on the location of the person asking a question using Google. For example, the image above shows the search results for "restaurants." Since I'm in Poznań at the time of writing, the results mainly cover that city. If we were to enter the phrase "restaurants Warsaw," the local results would show restaurants from the capital.
Creating a Google My Business profile step by step
To create a company profile, we must have a Google account.
- Go to www.google.pl/mojafirma and log in (by clicking "Log in" at the top of the page).
- We will be transferred to a window in which we will be able to create a page,
so we click the "Create page" button. - The next window gives us options to choose the type of business we run. We can choose from: "Services provided at a given location" (e.g., shop, restaurant), "Services provided in a certain area" (e.g., plumber, electrician, or pizza delivery), and "Brand" (e.g., producer or band).
- Once you've selected your business type, a Google map will appear. In the box in the upper left corner of the screen, enter your city and company name and click the magnifying glass icon.
- Google will zoom in on the location and check if the business is already listed. Then click "You don't see your business here."
so that we can provide information about our business (company name, address, and category). The form also includes the option "I deliver products and provide services to clients,"
If you provide this type of service, please select this option. In this case, after clicking "Next," you will be asked to provide additional information about the city and area of our operations (radius in kilometers). - After clicking "Next," Google will re-verify your business, showing you similar businesses in the area and asking if any of the selected businesses are actually yours. Click the final option, "You don't see your business here."
- After completing the above steps, the information we entered about our business will appear. At this stage, we must indicate that we are authorized to manage the company.
- Now it's time to verify our location. Google will inform us that a postcard will be sent to the information we provided with a verification code, which we'll need to enter to receive full account modification options. The waiting time for a postcard is a maximum of 2 weeks.
Editing and completing your company profile
We now have our unique verification code, and our company's location has appeared on Google Maps... but something's missing. To complete the remaining information and enhance our Google Map profile, we go to our My Business profile. If we're currently logged into our Google account, we can easily access the My Business tab by clicking the icon with nine squares (Services) next to our profile name (top right corner of the screen).
(The rest of the article can be found below the form)
Please note that many things still need to be completed – so let's get started!
Click the red [badge style=”red”]“Edit”[/badge] button. This will take you to a window that allows you to edit all the information contained in the map.
Each field can be clicked to edit.
It is important to complete all information so that the bar at the top shows 100%.
At any point during the editing process, you can hover your cursor over the field with the percentage bar to see what you haven't done yet. It's important to remember that some changes, such as adding photos, aren't updated on the map immediately. They may take a while to display.
- Contact Information Here you should add the phone number and address of our Web page and email address.
Optionally, we can also add a mobile phone number. - Hours
We add our business opening hours. For example, if we're open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and on Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., we can use the "Add other hours" option to separate weekdays from Saturday. By entering 12:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m., we're indicating that our business operates 24 hours a day. - Photos in Maps and Search
In this tab, you can select photos from your computer that will appear on your map profile. It's a good idea to choose photos that best represent your company, what you do, and where you work. Remember that the first photo will appear every time your map profile is displayed, so it's important to choose the best possible photo.
You may need to wait a while for the photos on the map to update, please be patient! - About us
Here you should include brief information about our company's activities, what types of services we offer, etc. - Profile picture
The last thing Google requires on our profile is a profile photo.
Let's return to the My Business panel. The image below shows where you should click to access the profile photo selection option.
Please note that when selecting photos, they must be at least 250 pixels wide and 250 pixels high!
To appear in local search results for phrases related to your industry, it's crucial to have a large number of positive comments and a good average rating (indicated by a star rating of 1-5). However, remember that negative comments cannot be removed.
How to link two Google Plus accounts?
For some time now, I've been frequently asked what to do if I have a business account and a map account? How do I merge them, and why do I actually have two profiles?
The problem is that when creating the map itself, Google automatically creates an additional Google Plus account for us. So, if we previously had a Google Plus business account promoting our company, we end up with two. Merging them is a quick and easy process.
Log in to the profile with the map and go to the My Company page. Then, click on your profile picture in the upper right corner and select "Settings" for your profile.
You'll be redirected to a page with options specifically related to your Google Plus profile. Scroll down almost to the bottom to the "Profile" section. There, you'll find the "Link another page" option. (IMPORTANT: You must be logged in to the owner's account; only then will the "Link another page" option be visible.)
After clicking, we'll be able to add a page with our company profile. In other words, we do the following: we add our company profile account to the account with the map. However, once we accept and Google completes the process, the map will actually be added to our profile page. The "old" profile, meaning the one that previously contained the map, will be recognized by Google as a backup page. The question arises: What will happen to the posts and interested parties? Everything on the profile page (without the map) will remain unchanged, leaving us with only one page to edit.
Summary
The above article covers the following topics:
- the process of creating a company profile in Google My Business, including registration, data completion and verification,
- optimizing and supplementing the business card to increase the local visibility and credibility of the company,
- connecting your business card to your Google Plus company profile for better online visibility.
