When it comes to effective ways to market your business, free tools are always a big bonus to us small business owners.

And none are as useful and effective as Google My Business when it comes to driving traffic to your website and promoting your business to potential customers in your geographical area.

For those who don’t know, Google My Business allows businesses to manage how they appear on Google Search and Maps.

Seriously increase your business’s visibility in search results

On the first page of Google search results, above the organic and paid listings, there is a prominent panel showing a few local businesses matching your search. So, if you are a decorator in Spalding with a Google My Business account, your listing could appear in that panel when someone searches for “decorators in Spalding” – even if you do not appear in the first page of organic search results.

When potential customers are looking for local business they are highly likely to be interested in actually making a purchase or requiring a service, so you have a good chance of converting those leads to paying customers.

Google My Business lets you display useful information to customers

As well as giving you improved visibility in Google search results, GMB also allows you to include useful information such as the servies you provide, your location, phone number, website, hours of operation and pictures. This means potential customers have a whole host of information right in front of them to inform their decision whether to get in touch and do business with you.

Google My Business lets customers leave reviews

Customers can share their experiences of doing business with you easily on GMB and you can manage those reviews.

It’s always nice to receive good reviews from happy customers, but at least if you did have an unhappy customer leave a bad review you have the opportunity to turn a negative into a positive by responding to it in a professional manner.