How Google My Business Can Help Local Businesses Thrive

Updated February 2025: Google Business Profile remains as important as ever for your digital presence.

If it is verified and kept up to date, this simple-to-set-up profile has consistently been shown to help generate traffic, enquiries and bookings.

And what does it cost? Nothing but your time!

WHAT IS GOOGLE MY BUSINESS
Over the last decade, bricks and mortar businesses have learned to adapt and even thrive in the digital realm, and now fully value the importance of making themselves visible online. And tools such as Google My Business have played a huge role in doing so.

For those unfamiliar with what it’s about, Google My Business or GMB is basically a free tool offered by Google to help promote businesses through Google Searches and Map. You can imagine it as an online directory of local businesses the web’s biggest search engine pulls up whenever someone does a search.

(Sign up and verify your business here.)

Because Google is highly trusted, it’s easy to realize how a good GMB profile that’s on top of ranking can provide business with a great first impression from potential customers.

KEY COMPONENTS OF GMB
Google Knowledge Panel
It’s basically the highlighted snippet that appears at the top-right of search results when searched using desktop or near the top of the page on mobile when a search is triggered.

This is referred to as the knowledge panel because it displays key information such as your business address, hours of operation, phone number, website, link to products or services, reviews and other important information.

Google Local Pack
Also referred to as 3-pack, these are the three business listing results that appear under the map when a user runs a localized search.

For example, a local search for “Dentist Sydney” features these Dental Clinics within the area.

Google Maps
Google Maps is essentially a full-featured page extension of local businesses when a user clicks on ‘view all’ from the Local Pack SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) or from the Maps tab in Google’s dashboard. Both the local pack and Google Maps are intended to help people looking for directions as well as to discover businesses and locations.

HOW TO SETUP YOUR GOOGLE MY BUSINESS LISTING
Setting up your GMB account is a very straightforward and simple process that only takes a few minutes to complete.

Follow this step by step process to get started.

Or you can watch this video:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/muwk3gGqUZ4

HOW TO STAND OUT AND STAY ON TOP

To undrstand just how important search is to your business, a survey by BrightLocal showed that 80% of consumers use internet searches to find local businesses. That’s a business in your neighbourhood. And that’s eight in ten people, week in and week out.

That’s why the services of local marketing experts are in high demand (companies like ours). 

In the face of unrelenting competiton, how do you stand out? The answer is by staying up to date with how Google’s local ranking system works.

Consider these 3 main factors when optimising your profile:

• RELEVANCE
• DISTANCE
• PROMINENCE

RELEVANCE refers to how complete and accurate your business information is relevant to the searches.

Does your business profile have complete and accurate information, such as business name, category, address, and contact information?

NAP consistency (business name, address, phone number) is very important as well. This means you have to have similar information and formatting presented on your website along with your GMB listing. This signals Google and its algorithms that these two entities refer to just one business.

DISTANCE refers to how far your physical business location is from the registered location of the search. According to Google, if the user’s location isn’t specified, the distance is calculated based on what it knows about their location.

PROMINENCE: this is based from links, articles and directories Google has data about your business across the web. It also heavily relies on reviews and recommendations from previous customers.

As a business owner, it would be wise to maximize this by actually providing excellent service and asking satisfied customers for a review.

But don’t take our word for it. Here, from the source, is Google’s advice on local SEO. Remember that this isn’t a set-up-and-forget type of thing. It requires constantly improving and keeping your information up-to-date.

Go ahead and start amplifying your online presence with Google My Business (GMB) and feel free to chat with us if you need any help. Use the form in the link, or call (08) 8233 9433.