Promote your business
with Google Business Profile

Google has a strong set of tools to promote every type of business. And even if you do not have a budget to run advertisements on the most popular search engine, there are still a couple of things you can do to promote your businesses. The only thing it will cost you is a little bit of time.

However, to be able to do the things described in this post, you have to have a Google Account as well as a Google Business Profile set up for your business.

Note: Depending on how you set up your Business Profile, some of the options mentioned might not be visible to you anymore.

And this is how you do it: First search for your business on google.com. Make sure that you are logged into your company’s Google account when you do this. You will then see a couple of options promoted to you in a box on the top of the results. You should go them all through and decide which ones are relevant for you.

1) Add business category

You might have done this when you set up your Business Profile. But if not, then you should define the type of category your company is in here. That way customers will find you when they look for a certain category and then will get a better idea of what your business actually does.

Once you have chosen a category, it will first have to be reviewed and approved by Google before it is visible by users.

2) Add photo

Upload a picture of your business. According to Google businesses with photos are more attractive and trustworthy for users. Choose a high quality picture that represents your business like your storefront, the interior, or maybe your friendly and welcoming team.

3) Complete your profile

If this option is shown to you, then that means that some details in your profile are still missing. Click and see what information you should still add.

4) Keep customers up to date

Here you can define your opening hours and days. It makes sense to review those every now and then to make sure your customers never arrive at the wrong time and end up in front of closed doors. Maybe businesses neglect this function after initially setting it up which can lead to loosing a lot of potential business.

5) Post an update

This is a very very powerful function in Google that can generate you a lot of interest and revenue if you use it wisely. Basically Google integrated a little bit of a social media feature here by allowing you to post regular updates about your business. The exciting thing about it is that users will see those posts right away when they look for your business on Google.

You have the chance to post about:

• An offer that you currently have for customers. That can be a discount for online or offline sales. You can add a picture or video and also define a time when that offer if valid
• An update (What’s New) from your company. Maybe you have some new interior, a new team member or something else exciting you think the world should know about. You can add a picture or video here as well.
• An event that you organize. Is there going to be live music or a book reading? Tell about it here and add a picture or video.
• A product that you want to promote. Do you have a new product line or something relevant for the season? Then highlight it here. You can post it together with a picture (no video).
• COVID-19 information. Currently you can also post information about Corona and how this influences e.g. your business hours, what people should pay attention to when they come visit you or similar.

6) Get your first review

Reviews on Google are very important and can make or break a business. You want to make sure that you have as many positive reviews as possible to receive a good overall score for your business. Scores are indicated by stars (1-5). The better your score is, the more customers will trust your business. Here you can copy the link to your review page and share it with your existing and happy customers. Ask them for a small favor to leave you a short positive review.

Maybe you can offer them a little discount as a thank you during their next purchase.

All those steps take little time and will enhance your visibility and trustworthiness online. Keep in mind that users will much rather go to a business whose profile is up to date, appealing and informative than a complete empty one.