How to Add and Claim Google My Business Profile | Vicinus.ai

Creating and claiming your Google My Business profile is one of the most important parts of developing your local SEO strategy. 

Setting up a basic profile is a great way to start. After this, you can monitor and improve your GMB performance with Vicinus. 

For more information, please check out our website here. 

Why Should I Have a Google My Business Profile?

As suggested above, having a Google My Business profile is a great way to get your business found in local searches. Even a basic profile can be crucial to your local SEO strategy. 

Some research suggests that:

‘50% of consumers visit a store or business the day of performing a local search, such as ‘dry cleaners near me’, and that 80% of consumers lose trust in local businesses if they see incorrect or inconsistent contact details or business names online’

This means that having a profile set up will help your business get found. However, this also means that making sure that your Google My Business profile is set up with consistent and accurate information is also important too.

So, How Do I Set Up my Google My Business Profile?

Step 1: Create a Google Account

This is the very first step you must take before creating your Google My Business profile.

If you already have a Google account (one which you are willing to attach to your GMB profile), you can just log in to it at this stage.

Step 2: Head to Google’s Business Page

For the next step, head on over to google.com/business and click ‘Manage Now’. This will take you to your Google My Business Profile Page. 

Step 3: Enter Your Business Name

Make sure that you are using your most recent business name- the one which appears on your website or is used in different listings online. This will help your business to be verified by Google and keep up the consistency of your business online too. 

If you have the same name as another business in your region, utilising the autocomplete function will suggest the names of these businesses for you. 

This tool will also help you to avoid duplicate listings (as your business name will already be listed here). 

Step 4: Enter Your Business Address

This step should only be completed if your business engages in face-to-face business. These are usually businesses like stores and other establishments that sell or conduct business from a physical location.

If your business doesn’t have a physical location, you can work with the Service Area Business feature.

These are usually businesses that deliver goods and/or services to customers. Tick the SAB box in order to get these features. 

This will allow you to choose from two different features:

• Receive customers at your business address, enter your address here, tick the box and click ‘Next’.
• If you don’t have any premises where customers can visit you, leave the address field blank, tick the box and then tick the ‘Hide my address (it’s not a store)’ box. 

Step 5: Choose Service Areas (Only if you are a SAB)

This step should only be completed if you have chosen the SAB option in step 4.

Choosing the specific areas you serve will help Google to accurately show your business in searches related to those geographic areas. 

It is recommended to add as many locations as you can (and that your business serves) in order to get the most out of this feature.

Step 6: Choose A Business Category

This step is one of the most important when creating your Google My Business profile. This is because your business category influences the search terms that your business appears in Google for. However, it also influences how your business appears in GMB too. 

For instance, for restaurants, GMB will give your business the option of including your menus. However, for a beauty salon, GMB will give your business the option of booking appointments.

Step 7: Add Updated Contact Number and Website URL

Although adding these sections is not compulsory in GMB, it is strongly recommended to utilise these sections. 

If you choose to add your contact number, not only will it allow your customers to easily contact you, but it will also allow GMB functionalities like call tracking to be used. 

You can add your website URL here too. However, if you don’t already have a website, Google will give you the option to create one here as well. 

Step 8: Verify Your Google My Business Profile

In order to verify your GMB profile, you have three options to choose from:

• Postcard Verification: This will be sent to the address you have provided on your GMB profile and you simply add the code to your account to verify your business. 
• Phone Verification: This feature is only available to some businesses. This means that if it doesn’t show up in your verification process, your business is unfortunately not available for this feature. Again, this verification process is simply entering a code that you receive on your phone to your GMB profile. 
• Email Verification: Again, this is only available to some businesses (just like phone verification). Simply enter the code you receive via email into your GMB profile. 

Other Forms of Verification: 

• Instant verification: Only if your business is verified previously with Google Search Console.
• Bulk verification: This is for businesses managing ten or more GMB profiles. 

Find out more about both of these options here.

What’s Next?

Time to optimise your business listing with Vicinus!

Vicinus is an AI-powered hyperlocal marketing tool that will enhance your local presence online. 

The Vicinus platform features real-time management and creation of business listings across multiple platforms, insights into performance, building and monitoring online reputation, and more.

For full local optimization, Vicinus also assists in creating SEO-friendly location pages for each of your business locations.

For more information, check out our website or contact us below!