Why Google My Business is Now More Important than your Website!

Why Google My Business is Now More Important than Your Website!

Welcome to episode 33 of The Determined Mom Show.  I am your host, Amanda Tento. Today, we will talk about why Google My Business is more important than your website. So first, let’s start with what is Google My Business. 

So Google My Business is a free listing that Google offers to business owners that serve clients locally. So how do you know if you’re the right candidate for a Google My Business page? If you serve clients in a local capacity in any way, you will qualify. For example, my business qualifies because I have meetings with clients.

I do serve local clients. So even though I don’t have a physical location for my office that I serve clients out of, what happens is I go to coffee shops, I go to meeting spaces, and I also go to their offices. That would qualify me to have a Google My Business page, as long as I have some local presence in my area.

So if you are, let’s say a virtual assistant, and as long as you have local clients and you’re willing to serve those local clients and meet with them in person and do things in real life, you qualify. So that would be the qualification for a Google Business Profile.

So it’s important that whatever you’re doing right now if you can claim your Google My Business, do it right now. If you’re doing something else like running, walking, doing dishes, whatever you’re doing, do it. As soon as you get back to your desk, as long as you qualify, could you do it today? The sooner you do it, the more traction you’ll get and the more phone calls, website visits, and everything you’ll get from people that are actually searching for you.

So another reason why it is more important than your website is that it houses your reviews at a glance. It also houses your phone number, clickable phone number clickable directions. If you do have a brick and mortar, it also has the potential to get you so much more traffic than your website ever could.

So I have a recent case study of a customer who followed one of my pieces of training. She went from number nine on the Google My Business listings, which meant that the only way people would find her Google My Business is if they clicked more results and she went from number nine to number one in about six weeks. 

So just by following all of the steps I’ve given her and optimizing everything on her profile, she could pull that off. Now, another client went from zero, meaning she just created her Google My Business listing, to number three. She did tell me that she went on vacation, and she stopped posting to her profile, and she dropped in the ranks out of number three. So this is why I also would say Google My Business is more important than Facebook and Instagram. 

I would love to see more business owners putting effort into optimizing, managing, and maintaining their Google My Business listing and treating it like social media in 2022 and beyond. It is going to take you so far, and it’s going to give you that extra layer of leads that you need in your business. 

Now I’m not saying that you don’t need your website. Google My Business is more important than your website. It can bring you more leads, give customers the information they’re looking for at that moment, and direct them to your website. So that could change at any moment as Google changes everything all the time, but I see value in them.

Having the listings of Google My Business businesses at the top of their search results, they know that the ones they’re displaying will only be people constantly updating their profiles. They’re only going to be businesses that fit the criteria that they have of people who care about their business. They want to update their listings and ensure that all of their information is accurate for the public. So those are the people that are showing up at the top, and that is why it’s best for you to maximize the opportunity to take advantage of this free tool now. Thank you all for reading and enjoy your week.