Do I Need a “Google My Business” Page?

  • Increase your local search rankings
  • Show up on Google Maps
  • Radius of your business service area
  • Show that you are “Veteran-led”
  • Connect Google Ads to your profile
  • Location-based targeting

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve heard of Google — the #1 ranked search engine, with an estimated 1,800,000,000 unique monthly visitors. A staggering number, don’t you think? Indeed, that’s roughly 72% of the world’s market share in search. So, naturally, if you own a business or provide a service, you need to not only appear on Google…you need to be able to manage how your business shows up on Google.

That’s where Google My Business comes in.

Google My Business allows you to manage how your business appears on Google Search and Google Maps when people perform a local search. In addition to such items as your business name, hours, and location, Google My Business also offers free tools like 360 interactive Google Virtual Tours, ways to display photos associated with your business, products, and/or work culture, and ways to engage with your customers.

If you haven’t yet created a Google My Business profile, hop to it! It’s easy: https://www.google.com/business/

New Features from Google My Business in 2019

Never one to stand still for long, Google has made some additional changes to Google My Business we thought should know about.

Announce Your New Business

In November 2018, Google My Business augmented its existing online tools with an announcement feature for new businesses. What this means is that new, yet-to-be-opened businesses can now announce within Google Maps when their business will open its doors.

Why is this important? Essentially, if you are a new business, it enables you to begin building brand awareness and an online presence prior to opening. In the words of Allyson Wright of Google, this helps businesses “be ready for business on Day 1.” If you’re interested in this feature, visit the Google My Business Help Center.

40,000 searches are conducted on Google every second. 75% of internet users never scroll past the first page of search results. Google My Business enables your business to be found quickly.

Add or Edit Your Service Area

Another change to Google My Business involves what Google calls “service area.” The service area feature is designed to help businesses better define themselves online to local customers as either a business that visits or delivers services to customers at their location (but don’t serve customers at a business address) or as a business that both serves customers at a business address and deliver to customers. [Learn more about local service area settings here]

Need Help?

Try Googling your business name. Is your business showing up? If you are, great! If not, Mad Genius can help walk you through establishing your Google My Business profile. We were the first full-service advertising agency in the state of Mississippi to become a Google Partner. We assist businesses with auditing and improving their online presence in addition to a full range of digital advertising services, including: