As people are increasingly relying on Google to find the answers to their most urgent questions, the search engine is tremendously influencing how users discover products and services in their area. You may not even be aware that Google My Business (GMB) is a free and intuitive marketing tool for businesses to manage their online presence across Google. If you operate a business, you can leverage your Google My Business profile to enhance your business’s online visibility.

Let’s talk more about why your Google My Business profile matters, and why you need a trusted google my business marketing agency to partner with you.

Google My Business is Cost-Effective

As was mentioned already, GMB is a free business listing on Google, the biggest search engine on the internet, putting your business in front of many prospective customers. Like GMB, there are many other prominent directories online for various industries. However, these listings are charged services, whether it’s a monthly fixed rate or yearly rate.

Your GMB listing allows your potential customers to quickly know your hours of operation, phone number, website and directions with a click of a button—all free of cost to you. Your free GMB profile also gives customers vital statistics about your business like your busiest hours and review ratings, etc. If you are a new business or your budget is limited, every dollar counts. And access to such a valuable resource for free lets you channel your resources elsewhere.

Visibility on Google Search & Maps

Another valuable benefit of your profile on Google My Business is the prime real estate it gets to take up in search results. The two places GMB profiles appear are Google’s Local “3-pack” and Google Maps results. When you search on Google, the first three listings are basically reserved for Google Adwords advertisements, called “paid search”. Then, you’ll see a map with 3 local results highlighted (thus the term “3-pack”). Then the “organic” results are displayed.

The Local 3-pack was originally a list of seven to ten results. The intention of changing to three was to better serve mobile users who are increasingly looking for results which are close by on a small screen. The Local 3-pack occupies a valuable, and highly visible space on the search results page of the search engine. The information appearing about your business or organization in the 3-pack is your Google My Business listing.

Perform Local SEO

Just as Google has algorithms to rank its ads and websites, it also has an algorithm to rank Business Profiles. By using your Google My Business dashboard, you can include keywords into your Business Profile and do other optimizations by using services of a reputed google my business marketing agency to help it rank in local results.

The Sum Up

Google My Business has a long list of benefits apart from those mentioned above. It allows your business to get more visibility, trust, and traffic. However, you need to partner with a professional marketing agency to make the most of Google My Business.