Google My Business - Dmarketingacademy

Google Business Profile is the best tool for listing your business information to the right people at the right time.

A study said that 93% of consumers use Google Maps to find a business. So, you should create a business profile in GBP, to increase local visibility and reach out to the high intent audience.

Some people ask, “After setting up everything perfectly for a Google Business Profile, why isn’t my business showing up on Google?”. This could happen due to many reasons. But as a result of this, your business may lose your potential customers. Keep reading this article to uncover the common issues causing this and ways to fix it.

Your Google Business Profile Is Not Verified

When you create a profile or claim it from the existing one it needs to be verified by Google, until it won’t rank. This is still important because Google checks the accuracy of the account through this process.

To check whether your profile gets verified, simply search your business name and location in Google. If your profile is verified, your business will be shown on the right side of Google. If there is an option of ”Own this business?”, then your listing is not verified.

Several methods are available to verify your business by phone, email ID, postcard, or Google video verification. These methods depend on business category, public info, volumes, support hours, and region. Under this process, it takes 7 days to verify and approve your profile.

How to fix it?

This is fixed by getting verified by Google. This is done by the following steps,

Go to your GBP account listing page and click “Verify”
You need to give the proper business information and select the verification method.
If you select the postcard, it takes up to 14 days to arrive.
Once you receive your postcard, there is a 5-digit code, enter it in the section “Enter verification code” and click “Verify”.
After this, your account gets verified.

During this verification keep the core business information the same. You need to keep your address, and other details as correct. If you have more than one location, every location needs to be verified. You may need to verify again if any information has changed.

Your Business Account Is Suspended or Disabled

One of the reasons for your business profile not appearing in Google is your business profile may get suspended or disabled. Violating Google guidelines results in penalizing your profile and making it not appear in the SERP anymore.

There are 2 types of suspension:

Soft Suspension: This is common and temporary. Once the issue is fixed, and reverified, your profile appears on the SERP.

Hard Suspension: This is a rare and permanent suspension. This happens in high violation of Google’s guidelines. In this suspension, your account details get deleted including images.

Some of the things that may cause the suspensions,

Multiple listings for the same business.
Keyword stuffing in your profile.
Your business details are inconsistent. across the web(NAP)
If you are using shared office space.
Having an address that customers can’t visit.

How to fix it?

The best way to deal with this issue is to give correct information about your business NAP, open hours, etc. Follow Google’s guidelines to improve your business profile quality. Regularly check and ensure your profile meets guidelines.

If it still does not appear on Google’s SERP after doing these corrections, kindly check the Google guidelines or contact them.

Your Business Listing Has Incorrect or Inconsistent Information

Google discovers and ranks your business based on information such as name, address, phone number, category, and description in your profile.

They should be correct, complete, and consistent all over the web. If it is not, this may be a reason for your profile not ranking for the specific queries.

This happens when anything changes recently such as physical location, getting a new phone number, or renaming your business name but forgetting to update.

Google always prefers to give updated information to their users. If people find that the content is not updated they may report you, which leads to the suspension of your profile and won’t you rank again.

How to fix it?

Ensure your business information is consistent in all directories, apps, and listings. And if any changes happen update it as soon as possible. Tools like Moz Local help to change it.
Check if any of the following issues exist: The listing address was not entered, the changed business address was not updated, or the workspace was shared with someone.
Make sure your profile is re-verified and if any notification has been received from Google after you make the changes.
Be careful to update basic pieces of information like address, phone number, and website URL, if any changes happen. It requires re-verification and takes 3 days for Google to show the updated address.

Your Business Has a Limited Online Presence

If the business does not have enough online presence, that may be a reason for not showing on Google Maps.

Why does it still matter? Google prefers to rank a business based on 3 factors: Relevance, Distance, and Prominence. From these 3 prominence is about how much your business is known for a particular product or service.

It is all about providing fresh, and qualified information. This is what Google tries to give to its users. If you don’t have these, Google will outdate your site.

How to fix it?

To improve your online presence follow up the guidelines below,

Add high-quality photos and post about any updates or announcements related to your business.
Show them that you value your customers by responding to your positive and negative reviews.
Regularize your content publishing on your site to increase the online presence.
Listing your business on other authoritative third-party sites to increase engagement and visibility.
Improve your activities on your social media such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Add interactive features like booking, calling, messaging, etc. to increase user engagement.

If Your Business Profile Has Irrelevant Keywords

Another answer for why your business is not showing on Google is you are not targeting the right keywords. Keywords are the words or phrases used by the users to search for the products or services in Google.

For example, if I want to go to a restaurant then I search for the terms “restaurant near me”, “Chinese restaurants”, “rooftop restaurant” etc. If your profile doesn’t have the right keywords your customers and Google won’t find and understand your business. Targeting the wrong keywords leads you not reaching your right intent audience

Another issue is adding too many keywords, which may be considered a manipulation of the algorithms. So it may lead to low search results or suspend your business profile.

How to fix it?

Find out the right keywords by analyzing your competitors, think as your customers about how they reach you, and use free tools like Google Trends and Google Ads Keyword Planner.
Add keywords to your Google Business Profile’s different sections such as Business Categories, descriptions, attributes, posts, etc. But always step out from the keyword stuffing.
Always monitor your GSC to ensure your keywords are the right ones to reach out to your audience. Target the keywords with high volume and low competition.

If You Don’t Have Many Google Reviews

If we want to buy a product from an unknown brand or business, what is our immediate step? It’s to check the reviews of other people. Reviews are the most important factor to influence the decision of the buyer.

It’s like social proof about your product and it shows how you handle your customers. Particularly it is one of the factors to rank on Google’s map. These reviews simply convey to Google, that you can offer what your customers want.
Businesses waste their time creating fake reviews to manipulate Google.

However, nowadays Google become too smart to find these unethical activities. Use of these fake reviews is a violation of Google’s terms of service, this may lower your search result or suspend your account.

How to fix it?

The review-collecting process will take time and need a little patience to get genuine reviews from your customers. And focus on quality over quantity of the review.

Here, are the effective ways to collect your genuine reviews.

Send a direct link for the review form to the customers after purchasing the product or completing your service.
Timing is more important. So you can use any software to get the reviews on time.
Add a review page link to your website to get more reviews.
Once you have received the review from your customers, take enough time to respond to them(positive and negative).

Your Business Profile Doesn’t Have Category Tags

Category tags of the business profile are one of the ways to rank on Google Maps. It helps to tell about your business. If you fail to provide categories or give any inappropriate category, that is one of the answers to why is my business not show on Google Maps.

This section has 2 categories the primary and secondary categories. Google lets you add one primary and 9 secondary categories. Give more information about your business, leads to rank your business.

How to fix it?

Most people are confused about selecting categories. Choose the primary category tag that will accurately describe your whole and specific business. The secondary categories will describe your additional product or service.

For example,

Primary Category: Digital Marketing Agency

Secondary Categories:

SEO Services, Web Designing, Social Media Marketing, PPC, and Content Marketing.

Best tips to choose categories:

Choose your category based on search volume, competitor ranking, and be specific.
Analyze your competitor’s business listing for more ideas.
Avoid using irrelevant categories for the namesake.
And Update your category regularly.

Highly Competitive Local Market

Still your business not showing on Google Maps, then another influencing reason is your business may be highly competitive in the local market. This type of situation may frustrate you, but be patient and work in a smart way to push your site to the top result.

How to fix it?

Here we mention a few ways to beat your competitors:

Be specific with your targeted audience, this helps to target specific keywords and make useful content.
The next step is to create quality and helpful content like blogs and videos for them.
Leverage your social media presence by targeting the right platform for your audience and creating engaged content with consistency.
Make sure your website is well-optimized for mobile and loaded quickly.

Your Website’s Domain Needs Better SEO Optimization

The final important factor for ranking your business is to optimize your profile. This increases the chance to rank on Google Search and Map.

Optimizing your profile by,

Add photos and images
Publish post regularly
Use ‘Google Search Console’ to get the data for which queries help you to reach the audience and regularly analyze your performance.

GMB (Google My Business) is the Best way for Local Businesses who can’t afford to Build a Website but looks for a web presence. By submitting Details like Keywords, Working Hours, Photos in Google Business Profile you can increase the chance of getting Local Businesses.

Steps to Change your Business hours on Google Business Profile

Sign in to your Google My Business Account

To Change the Business Hours First Sign in to your GMB Account.

Click on “Edit Profile” in your GMB Account

Once you Signed in to your Account, You can see your Business on Google. Then Click on “Edit Profile”

Go to the “Hours” Section in your Business Information

Once you Get into your Profile, You can see the Business Information which is About, Contact, Location & Hours.

Change the Opening Hours & Special Hours

In Hours Section You can Change the Opening Hours, as well as you can add Special hours.

Once you Changed it, Your new business hours will be updated on Google Maps and other Google services within 24 hours.

If your business targets the local audience, then you must have the Google Business Profile(formerly known as Google My Business). It is a free tool that helps owners create their business profiles to appear on local search and map results.

Properly optimizing your Google Business Profile helps to reach the highly intent audience and have a great chance to drive them as leads. In this process, most people are stuck on “how to add keywords to a Google business profile?”. Here we cover all the details about adding keywords with expert tips. Let’s get into the topic.

Start with your Google Business profile

The first step for adding keywords to your Google Business Profile is to have an account. To create your Google Business Profile,

Log in with your Google account and go to the Google Business Profile.
Click “Manage Now” and fill out the details of the business name, type, category, region, and phone number.
After your business gets verified, you’ll see the menu to edit your business profile further.

Also Know About : How to Change Business Hours on Google

Here we list out the places for adding keywords in your Google Business Profile.

Include Keywords as Business Categories

The easiest way to add keywords in GBP is in the business category. Ensure your keywords describe what your business doing. This is crucial for improving your online visibility and reaching the right audience.

You should add a minimum of one category. Adding more relevant keywords helps to appear on more searches. This lets your audience find your business by different search terms.

To do this click on the “Edit profile”, go to the business category, and add your category as well as keywords in this section.

You can select only the available listed categories. Here, add your appropriate business in the primary category and related keywords in the additional category.

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Use Keywords in Your Business Description

The business description is the next valuable place to add your keywords to the Google Business Profile. It is the place to share valuable information about your business, product, service, and brand with your audiences.

You can be informed about what you do, what you offer, who you serve, and your service area, etc. So write it with your keywords, make sure it sounds natural for the audience, and don’t write it only for Google’s algorithm. The limitation for the words is 750.

Here is an example of adding keywords to the business description. They are using the keywords of the services they offer like Local SEO, Social Marketing, Google Ads, etc. You can edit it below the business category section.

Add Keywords to Your Product/ service section

In the Google Business Profile, you have the option to give more information about your product/service in the listing section. In the product/service description section, you have the opportunity to add the relevant keywords. This increases the chances of appearing your business for that particular keyword.

To edit this go to the “Edit product” page. Update your product name and description with the targeted keywords.

Optimize Business Attributes with Keywords

Business attributes are the labels used to describe the specific services, amenities, and features offered by the businesses to their audiences.

This is the best place to add your keywords. “Free Wifi”, “Women Owned”, and “Take out” are a few examples of common business attributes. Try to add many keywords in the attributes as much as you can. This helps to improve the searchability.

Here is the best example of the attributes for a Google Business Profile. These relevant attributes have a chance to appear for the specific search result when audiences search for “restaurants with takeout” rather than “restaurants”.

Revisiting and checking the services mentioned in your profile every month, as there are any changes to what you offer. If you do not offer that facility or benefit remove it to avoid miscommunication.

Share GBP Post with Keywords

Google Business Profile Posts are updates like announcements, offers, events, and new or popular items for your customers within 1000-1500 words. You can include texts, photos, and videos. Also in this post section, you can add the keywords naturally.

After 7 days the posts are expired and get archived. Posting regularly helps to engage and update your local audience about what you provide. So you should publish at least one post per week with valuable information to your audience. To add this,

Click the “Add update”
Choose your post type
Fill and update your content and image

Below is an example for this update page. You can even add images to grab the attention of your audience.

Respond to Reviews with Keywords

Whenever people decide to consume your product or service, first they check your review section. Why is this still a matter? 72% of the consumers make their decision after reading the positive reviews. Reviews of your customers and the response to their queries have the power to influence their decisions.

It will boost your customer’s satisfaction and experience if they know that you pay attention to their queries and reviews. And it will be a great source to convince your new customers.

So this is the next place to add your keywords to Google Business Profile. But make sure to keep your response naturally without the keyword stuffing.

Example for adding the targeted keywords:

Here they mention the “ice cream” and “toppings for ice cream” used in this review. Remember that you can’t control the negative reviews but there is a chance to show you still care about their opinion. Edit it in the “ read review section”

Improve your main website with keywords

When you target the local audience, it always best to present your business to them is the best practice. This will happen by creating a website and showing what you are offering. Most business owners are hesitating to create their website for 2 reasons.

It may require a sum amount of money
Or it’s hard to create by themselves.

But you can create a mobile-optimized website by Google Business Profile. It’s a single-page site builder for small businesses.

Once after update your details in GBP, it will automatically get your information and images for the site. Whenever changes are made to your profile, they also take place on your site. Further, you can optimize the theme and text of the site.

Optimize your site by adding your relevant keywords in the important places (like H1, meta description, etc) of the main site. This helps you to improve your visibility and ranking in search results. This option only be visible if you don’t have the website.

How to find keywords for Google business profile

We are filled with the knowledge of adding keywords to the business profile. But choosing the right keyword is the most important part of initiating this process.

Why is important to know the keywords?

Whenever people search on Google, it offers the results to local SEO based on 3 factors: relevancy, prominence, and distance. So, choosing and adding the right keywords based on these factors in your profile is important to increase your visibility.

Below are the ways to find your targeted keywords:

Identify via competitive analysis

If you don’t know how to find the right keywords, then start with your competitors. Check the top competitors in your niche, and find what keywords they are ranking as well as not ranking.

To find this use a tool like Semrush or Ahrefs. Add those keywords and attributes in your primary places of Google Business Profile to outrank them.

Generate ideas from a seed keyword

One of the ways to find the related keywords is from the seed keyword. Seed keywords are broad categories to specify your niche. Here is the best example to generate your ideas. When we search for “SEO agency” it gives the result with many keywords.

When you have the related keywords, it improves your business appearance in SERPS. Be conscious of avoiding non-relevant keywords. Because the audiences from those keywords are to be converted as lead. From there choose a keyword with low KD and high volume.

Find keywords from SERP

The easiest method to find the relevant keyword is from Google auto-populate and people also search. For example, if you search for “bakery near me”, you can see the keywords like “bakery near me cookies”, “bakery near me bread” etc.

Strategies for Google Business Profile Optimization

Apart from adding keywords, here we give suggestions on boosting your clicks further.

Verify NAP Consistency: NAP is known as Name, Address, and Phone Number. This is most important in Google Business Profile. This helps the audience to find and understand your business. So keep it valid and consistent in all business directories. To update your information go to the “Edit profile” and save your details.
Improve Your Listing with images: This will help you stand out from the competitors. This attracts and encourages the customer to visit or know about your business. You can add a logo, product image, cover photo, etc in your profile’s “Add photo” option.
Focus on User Satisfaction: This is the priority in gaining the local audience. To create it add your additional information such as opening time, privileges, etc, and update the information if any changes happen. Handling your customer review is one of the parts of it.
Use relevant Keywords: Be sure to add relevant keywords within a limited number. If you miss the relevancy and natural language, your content won’t be sensible to your users.

Steps to Add manager to your Google My Business account

Sign In to your GMB Account

To start the process of adding a manager to your GMB account, first you need to sign in.

Click the “THREE DOTS” Option in your Profile

After signing into your account, Click on the Three Dots on your profile.

Click the Business Profile Settings

After clicking the three dots you can see the set of options in the opened tab. Click the “Business profile settings” on it.

Click on the “People and Access” tab

Once you get into the business profile settings you could see the option to give access to people. Click on the “People and Access” tab.

Submit the Email id to share the Manager Access

After getting into the manager access, Submit the Email id and select the access Limit as “owner or manager” and click invite.

Wait for the Invitation to Accept

Once you Invite them for the access of your GMB Account, you need to wait for them to accept the invitation. Once the invitation is accepted the process will end.

Also Know About : How to Change Business Hours on Google

Google My Business photos allow businesses to showcase their storefront, products, services, and team members on Google Search and Maps. Getting your photos approved helps customers find accurate visual representations of your business.

However, Google has strict guidelines for My Business photos. If your photos don’t meet the requirements, they may get rejected.

Reasons for Google may not approve your photos

Poor Quality/Resolution

Google requires photos to be high-resolution with good lighting and no blurriness. Low-quality, grainy, or blurry photos will likely get rejected. Retake photos using a digital camera or smartphone camera in bright, natural lighting. Avoid using old, recycled photos and ensure the resolution is at least 720p.

Irrelevant Content

Photos must be relevant to your business and its offerings. Random stock photos, clipart, or photos of products/services you don’t offer will get rejected. Only upload photos showing your actual storefront, staff, products/services, and business interior. Ensure photos accurately represent your brand.

Trademarked Products/Logos

Photos containing trademarked products, brand names, logos you don’t own rights to will likely be rejected. Avoid showcasing other brands’ products and logos unless you have explicit permission. Stick to photos of your own offerings.

Inappropriate/Offensive Content

Google prohibits photos with offensive, violent, or inappropriate content. Don’t upload any photos with questionable content. Keep photos professional and relevant to portray your business accurately.

Also Know About : How to Add Keywords to Google My Business in 2023

Text-Heavy Images

Avoid images overlaid with excessive text, promotions, or contact info. These appear spammy to Google. Move any text or calls-to-action to the photo caption instead.

Duplicate Photos

Repetitive photos of the exact same products or storefront will get rejected. Provide a variety of unique photos showcasing different offerings, angles, interiors, and team members.

By understanding Google’s guidelines, carefully selecting high-quality, relevant photos, and avoiding duplicate or inappropriate content, you can get your My Business photos approved successfully. Pay attention to any rejection reasons and fix the photos accordingly. With optimized visual content, you can make your business stand out on Google.

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How to Fix your Google my Business Photos not Approved

Having your images rejected on Google My Business can be frustrating. However, with some tips and tricks, you can resubmit your photos and get them approved. Here are some steps to take:

Review Google’s Image Guidelines

Start by carefully reviewing Google’s image policy and guidelines. Make sure you understand the reasons they reject images – poor quality, watermarks, irrelevant content, etc. Knowing the rules will help your new uploads comply.

Check Image Resolution and Size

One main reason images get rejected is low resolution. Google requires images be at least 720px tall or wide. Using a high-quality camera or smartphone, retake photos at the largest resolution or image size possible. Resize images to meet the minimum of 720px if needed.

Improve Image Quality and Lighting

Grainy, dark, or blurry photos often get rejected. Use photo editing software to fix brightness, contrast, blurriness, and image quality issues. Make sure the subject is clean, in focus, and there is sufficient lighting.

Remove Watermarks and Text

Watermarks, logos, and excessive text overlayed on images make them appear spammy. Use photo editing tools to remove any overlays and watermarks. Only include relevant, minimal text in the caption if needed.

Pick Relevant, Useful Images

Only upload photos related to your business service, products, storefront, staff, etc. Remove any generic stock photos or images not useful for customers. Showcase your offerings accurately.

Highlight Your Business Uniquely

Upload a variety of images that best represent your business. Include different angles, interiors, products, and team members. Pick images that set you apart from competitors.

Delete Near-Duplicate Images

Too many similar images of the same products or space can appear repetitive. Eliminate near-duplicate looking photos. Showcase a range of visuals for a complete view.

Follow Up on Rejected Images

If your new uploads get rejected again, follow up with Google support to understand the exact reason. Their feedback can help troubleshoot further.

With optimized, high-quality images that follow Google’s policies, you can get your photos approved on Google My Business. Unique, useful visuals will make your business stand out.