Google My Business (GMB) Is the Heart of Local. Optimizing It Is Your First BIG Step to Local SEO Success

Misinformation will not only frustrate potential customers; it will result in Google losing trust in your business - which usually means a drop in rankings and visibility. Milestone Local ensures that your GMB local citations are consistent across all your locations and channels that have your listing. However, optimization of your GMB account does not stop with UNAP consistency. While it is important, the steps to follow will truly improve the visibility of your business on search.

You'd want to be the relevant answer for a query online and adding multiple services and categories to your business profile will ensure that your business matches customer intent.

You'd need to optimize your account to attract users and prompt clicks. Adding your business description and amenities improves the scope of the relevance of your business for searches, and images and videos prompt clicks, as you're giving potential customers a clear picture of your services and products.

Milestone Reviews will bring in efficiency in your review and reputation management. Having an effective review management tool will improve your engagement and trust not only in customers but in the search engine, ensuring that your business is regarded as prominent.

Using Milestone FAQ Manager, your business can manage its GMB Q&As and reply real-time. In addition, you can use the Q&As and submit voice actions to be picked by voice assistants for similar queries.

Milestone's FAQ Manager will give your business the possibility of publishing Google Posts to select business locations to boost engagement with your audience.

Milestone's FAQ Manager will give your business the possibility of publishing Google Posts to select business locations to boost engagement with your audience.

One of the many reasons why GMB is essential for local businesses is that each location is verified by Google and this builds trust with users as the details are deemed legit and accurate. Google rolled out the bulk verification feature to save multi-location businesses the trouble of verifying each location one by one. Businesses with 10 or more locations are eligible for the bulk verification feature.

Google's latest GMB update is the Guaranteed Badge that businesses can purchase for $50 a month or $600 annually. The eligibility rules are the same and businesses will show up as a ‘Google Guaranteed' result to offer confidence for users viewing advertised businesses and in addition, it adds a certification for businesses to be featured as voice answers on their voice assistant Google Home.