And the 3 Most Important Things to Do if You’re Not GMB-ing
Google unveiled new features and some improvements to Google My Business on Aug. 9 that give you more control and more information on the how and where of potential customers searching for your business.
As a Google City Partner in the Get Your Business Online program, we at New Plains Media are ready to provide FREE assistance with your Google My Business (GMB) page. If you have ANY questions about the update below, don’t be shy … just ask.
“The average, well-maintained Google My Business listing gets five times more views than listings which haven’t been claimed by their owners,” Google reported in its announcement.
Google Insights – Some things new and one thing old
If you’ve been following this email newsletter or you’re one of our clients, you already know that we painstakingly track Google Insights, the key metrics for your GMB page. Google insights is to your GMB what Google analytics is to your website.
On the last day of every month we screen capture your Google Insights for the previous 30 days and summarize those findings in a report emailed to you by the 10th of the month.
And you may also know that your GMB page is really your first home page (in the Zero Moment of Truth) – often the first search result Google shows for your business. It likely drives more phone calls to your business than any other source and it’s a significant driver of visits to your website.
Google Insights give you an inside look at how people find your business listing on the web and, more importantly, what they do once they find your GMB page.
New: Google Search Views Broken Out
Logging into Google My Business to see your Google Insights will not only allow you to see the customary total number of views for your GMB page, but now the data once found in a single graphic has been broken down into five individual sections. You’ll be presented with a summary breakdown of how many searches are coming from Google Search as opposed to Maps. Views on Google+ are no longer reported here.
Old: Discovery but not Details
Also new on the Insights platform is the quick-glance ability to see how they are finding you. Now you can see who saw your GMB page after searching for it directly (a search for “Nellie’s Ice Cream” or Direct Views) as opposed to those who discovered your business while looking for a broader category (a search for “ice cream in Omaha” or Discovery Views). In GMB’s first incarnation you could also see what those discovery terms were, but not in this new version.
New: Phone tracking by time of day
In terms of tracking phone calls, a drop-down menu now offers a deeper dive into day-of-week and time-of-day tracking. They’ve also tweaked the window of activity formats, replacing the 7-30-90-day views with one that tracks last week, the last four weeks or the last 12 weeks.
App Me Baby One More Time
Also announced was the introduction of a new app to manage your GMB page from your mobile device. The Google My Business app is now available on iOS as well as Android. You can better manage your business on the go with the app that connects you to the new, unified interface that enables those with Google Maps listings to manage their businesses. The app features include:
- Edit the business listing by changing hours, description and so on
- View managers of the page but not manage them
- Post to Google+
- Add photos and update cover and profile photos
- View local insights & analytics
- Change business pages and accounts
Google My Business – So What?
So what’s the takeaway here? The bottom line is that when Google acts, people must listen. Did you know that:
- Google owns almost two-thirds of the search engine market share in the U.S., according to Statista, and 90% globally?
- 93% of online experiences begin in a search engine according to research by Advanced Web Research?
3 Steps to Google My Business
Understanding these stats is one thing. Acting on them is another. Here are the three most important things you can do with this new information.
- Create a Google account tied to an email you control through your business, preferably one with @[YourDomainName].com, where Your DomainName.com is your website address (so it could also be a “.org” or “.edu”).
- Claim your Google My Business page using this account. Click on the green “Check My Business” button at there top, right-hand corner of GYBO.com. Be sure the graphic says “Let’s Get [Your City] on the Map” in the top, left-hand corner. Hover near the lower right corner of that graphic to change your city to the correct one.
- In order to see your Google Insights, you will need to verify your GMB page. We can do that for your instantly as a Google City Partner, thereby avoiding the hassles of navigating the often cumbersome and confusing verification processes that involve a phone call, a postcard confirmation, or placing a code on your website. Just reply to this email with your business name and the email tied to the google account you used to claim the GMB page.
As we often do, we can give a lot of credit to Mike Blumenthal and his post announcing the change.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions … and thanks for reading!
