What is Google my business

 What Is Google My Business & Why Do I Need it ?

What is Google My Business?

As mentioned, Google My Business is a tool that enables you to manage and optimize your Business Profile on Google—which is one of many important business directory listings. So to explain what Google My Business is and how it works, let’s first make sure we’re clear on what a Business Profile is.

Your Business Profile is Google’s term for your Google business listing. Business Profiles appear in Google Maps and in the local results of Google Search.

Business Profiles on Google Search look like this:

Business Profiles on Google Maps look like this:

 

And Business Profiles on mobile look like this:

Creating a Business Profile is the same thing as adding a place to Google Maps—which is something that anyone (including a random stranger or an automated listing generator) can do. All that Google requires is the business name, location, and category. Once Google confirms it is not a duplicate, they will create the Business Profile for that location. The Business Profile is then open to consumers to leave reviews, add photos, ask questions, and even answer questions. The Business Profile may also get populated with information that Google pulls in from across the web.

What this means is, a Business Profile can exist on its own, apart from a Google My Business account. And whether you created your own Business Profile or not, you don’t have the ability to manage the information it displays or the reviews it collects.

That is where Google My Business comes in. By creating a Google My Business account, you can access, customize, manage, and enhance your Business Profile on Google, all still for free, which we’ll get into next.

How to use Google My Business for local marketing

So we’ve established that Google My Business is not your Business Profile, but rather a tool by which you enhance your Business Profile to boost its visibility and effectiveness. Let’s cover the four core ways you can use this Google My Business to make your profile on Google listing a better local marketing tool.

1. Engage with consumers

There are a lot of ways consumers can interact with your Business Profile, and you use your Google My Business account to engage back with them. You can respond to reviews, answer questions, enable direct messaging, and set up associated alerts. You can even use Google My Business to publish posts to your Business Profile, much like you would with Facebook and other social media platforms.

Your Google My Business dashboard is where you can respond to reviews, publish posts, and answer questions asked on your Business Profile.

2. Highlight your business

A Business Profile alone contains limited information about your business. But through your Google My Business account dashboard, you can provide hours, a link to your website, products and pricing, attributes, and other details that make your business unique. You will also use your Google My Business to make edits and updates as needed.

A complete Business Profile offers a complete snapshot of your business, including its best features, right in the SERP.

3. Gain insights

You can use the Google My Business dashboard to gain key insights on your audience and local search performance. In the analytics tab of the platform, you can see the queries customers are using to find your Business Profile, whether they found you on Google Maps or Google Search, a breakdown of actions taken on your listing, and how your photos are performing compared to other profiles in your category. Note also that there are ways to track clicks from a Business Profile via UTM parameters and Google Analytics.

4. Perform local SEO

Just as Google has algorithms for ranking its ads and websites, it also has one for ranking Business Profiles. Through your Google My Business dashboard, you can incorporate keywords into your Business Profile and perform other optimizations to help it rank in local results, which we’re going to cover next.

Google My Business can help you optimize your Business Profile to show up in the coveted 3-Pack.

How to use Google My Business for SEO

Google Business Profiles are dynamic. Not only do they change form based on platform, but Google will also prioritize sections of your profile according to the term that was searched as well as the type of information most important to consumers in your category. Even better, Google will embolden keywords in the content of your profile that it thinks are relevant.

But there needs to be information to prioritize and keywords to embolden in your profile in the first place. Just as you (or your agency) would use a content management system like WordPress to optimize your website for search engines, Google My Business is used to optimize your profile and expand your reach. How do you use Google My Business for local SEO? Well, since optimizing for Google is essentially optimizing for searchers, it all comes down to the same three things: targeting, quality of information, and trust.

Target your information

To use Google My Business for SEO, make sure to incorporate relevant keywords into your Business Profile so you can tell Google what you’re trying to rank for. Use them in your “from the business” description, your responses to reviews, your answers to questions, and in the posts you publish. Make sure to incorporate them naturally just as you would with any other SEO strategy.

Include keywords in your description, editable through your Google My Business dashboard.

Maintain quality of information

The completeness and accuracy of your Business Profile impacts its rank, so make sure to provide the requested information in every section of your Google My Business dashboard. Especially important here is your contact information, special hours, and attributes.

Build trust

The final approach to using Google My Business for SEO appeals to the trust component of Google’s algorithm. Keep your information updated and accurate as your business evolves. Keep a steady stream of reviews coming in and respond to them. Also, signal to Google that you are active by regularly uploading photos and publishing posts to your Business Profile through Google My Business.

Reviews and responses appear on your Business Profile. Be sure to manage them through your Google My Business dashboard.

SEO is important for any business, but particularly for small businesses that can use local targeting to compete against large competitors on the SERP. Google is making local SEO even easier with its robust Business Profiles, so a Google My Business

 Accounting is essential for any business trying to maximize visibility in their local market.

Speaking of online visibility, how strong is yours? Find out in 90 seconds with the free LOCALiQ Website Grader!

How to sign up for Google My Business

A free tool that turns my Business Profile into a power marketer for my business? Where do I sign up?

To get a Google My Business account, go to google.com/business and click “Manage now,” which will take you through the steps of creating an account. Remember, a Google My Business Account does not automatically create a Business Profile—it gives you access to it and the ability to add more to it. So you’ll want to make sure you have an existing Business Profile to access.

Also remember that creating Google My Business account does not give you automatic access to your Business Profile. Once you create and are logged into your Google My Business account, you will then need to locate your separate Business Profile on Google Maps and then select the “Claim this business” or “Own this business?” link seen right on the profile. Once you complete that process, your Google My Business account will then be connected with your Business Profile and under your management.

Get started with Google My Business today

With a clear understanding of exactly what Google My Business is, how it works, and how to use it, you can now see that using this free tool isn’t just a good idea for local marketing but a must. Get your Google My Business account up and running now so your Business Profile can outshine your competitors and attract more customers on the world’s most popular search engine.

 How to Sell on Facebook Marketplace: Rules & Best Practices

Facebook Marketplace has become a ubiquitous online force, as one of the world’s largest businesses with billions of monthly active users.

In 2016, the company expanded into the world of ecommerce businesses, building out its eponymous platform Facebook Marketplace.

By leveraging the enormous customer base already present within Facebook, the company and platform reached immediate success, with more than a billion monthly visitors by 2021.

For both individual sellers and small businesses, Facebook Marketplace signifies a real opportunity. By knowing how to sell, what to sell and not sell, you can be empowered to take the challenge head-on

Why Facebook Marketplace?

Facebook is an essential tool for brands interested in selling their products to targeted audiences.

Previously only available as a peer-to-peer shopping marketplace, Facebook Marketplace has expanded to include merchant selling. As the retail world becomes increasingly omnichannel with more and more opportunities to sell in different places, Facebook Marketplace gives brands a chance to capitalize on the interactions already taking place on Facebook.

By 2021, more than a billion visitors each month will use Facebook Marketplace to browse, buy, or list items, allowing retailers to drive discovery and sales of key products in a place where their consumers are already shopping.

Things to Consider When Selling on Facebookmarketplace

Orders must be shipped within 3 days and received within 7 days.

After you sell an item on Facebookmarketplace, you have three business days from checkout to ship it using any carrier that has tracking services.

For sellers used to different delivery methods, you will want to readjust to ensure that your items arrive in a timely manner and that there aren't any issues. Your reputation as an online seller will suffer if anything does come up.

Not all ecommerce platforms sync with FacebookMarketplace.

Not every ecommerce business platform syncs up with Facebook. When reviewing whether or not your business wants to sell on FacebookMarketplace, ensure that they integrate with the platform. 

If it doesn’t, you could run into issues managing inventory counts or keeping listings up-to-date.

There will be lots of communication/messages from buyers.

As with any sales channel, on Facebook Marketplace you’ll receive questions from people who are interested in purchasing your product or from people who have already purchased and are organizing how they will receive the item.

You’ll want to quickly master your tone and communication templates for customers for pre- and post-purchase inquiries.

Customer service communications are an often-underused way to make your brand voice shine and genuinely delight customers.

The Benefits of Selling on Facebook Marketplace

Facebook Marketplace has grown as an alternative option for online sellers and buyers, even surpassing for some the traditional online markets of Amazon, Craigslist and eBay.

They accomplished this primarily because of two reasons:

Extended reach.

Facebook is a social media behemoth, with nearly 3 billion active monthly users on the platform. The Facebook app is also the platform on which users in the US spend the most time during the day.

With these numbers backing it, Facebook Marketplace has grown significantly in 6 years, with a billion monthly visitors of its own and a million monthly active Facebook Shops.

For sellers, there may be no better market available to reach the widest audience.

Personalized customer experience.

Like Facebook itself, Facebook Marketplace grew in popularity due to its customizability — especially for its customers.

Through the help of a smart algorithm, the platform surfaces products relevant to consumers and their search patterns, helping your business find the right customers.

This also helps to ensure that your product is being seen by the right audience, resulting in the increased likelihood that an interaction will lead to a purchase.

How to Sell on Facebook Marketplace

Selling on Facebookmarketplace is a relatively straightforward process. However, it is different for merchants versus individuals. Here, we’ll dive into both.

For individual sellers.

For first time individual sellers, the process should be streamlined. If you already have an active Facebook account, simply go to the left-hand side of your Facebook newsfeed and click on the FB Marketplace tab.

From there, click on the "Create new listing" tab.

Once you add a product photo, title, price and product description, you’re set and ready to sell.

For BigCommerce merchants.

Integrating the Facebook Marketplace into your BigCommerce store is easy and takes little time with the help of our Channel Manager.

Channel Manager allows you to discover, connect to and manage all sales channels available for your store and offers free BigCommerce-built integrations for Facebook Marketplace and Instagram.

To start, go to Channel Manager, click + Create Channel and then click Connect next to Meta.If you don’t already have a Facebook Page/Business Page for your store and/or a Meta Business Manager, you can create them now.

When you’re ready, click “Connect”. You will then be redirected to Facebook. On the subsequent few screens, you will be asked to:

• Connect your BigCommerce store to Meta.
• Select an existing catalog or create a new one.
• Select or create a new Ad Account,
• Select or create a new Meta Pixel.

Once complete, you’ll be returned to your BigCommerce control panel to finish setting up shipping options and payment method details for your Facebook Shop.

By connecting your BigCommerce store to Facebook, you’ll be able to create ads for your products that appear in Facebook users’ feeds and offer your products for sale onsite on Facebook via Shops and Marketplace.

Facebook Marketplace Rules

To learn more about Marketplace — including what kinds of products are allowed and prohibited — make sure to view the Facebook Marketplace Commerce Policies.

The Commerce Policies apply to Marketplace, buy and sell Facebook groups, page shops and Instagram Shopping.

What can be sold on Facebook Marketplace.

As long as you follow Facebook’s Commerce Policies, you can sell almost anything on Facebook Marketplace. According to Facebook, the top five most popular item categories are:

• Household items.
• Furniture.
• Baby and kids items.
• Women’s clothing and shoes.
• Automobiles, including cars, trucks and motorcycles.

What cannot be sold on Facebook Marketplace.

Facebook maintains a list of items not allowed to be sold on Marketplace. These items include:

• Digital products or subscriptions.
• Weapons, ammunition or explosives.
• Animals.
• Illegal, prescription or recreational drugs.
• Medical or healthcare products.
• Tobacco products and related paraphernalia.
• Ingestible supplements.
• Adult products and services.
• Real money gambling services.
• Real, virtual or fake currency.
• Misleading, deceptive, or offensive items.
• Recalled products.

You must sell a physical item.

Anything that isn’t a physical product for sale cannot be sold, such as:

• “In search of” posts.
• Lost and found posts.
• Jokes.
• News.

Services like housekeeping and event tickets are only available on the marketplace by coordinating with one of Facebook’s partners.

The description of the item must match the image.

The photos of your items that you upload must match the title and description that you give it. Although descriptions are not required, adding an honest one to your listing can help you to get more offers and gain more trust with potential buyers.

Additionally, Facebook Marketplace listings cannot show or describe a before and after picture to describe the benefits of a product.