Claim Your Business on Google

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- [Presenter] Is your business easy to find through a Google search?

With 46% of searches having local intent and 77% of consumers using Google Maps when searching for local businesses.

It's important to focus on factors that Google will be using in their ranking algorithm.

One of the steps you can take is to claim your business on Google.

Let's look at the reasons why as a small business owner, you should claim your business on Google and using an example show you the process.

In addition to improving your business's presence in local search results, claiming your business provides a level of credibility to your business, improves the online visibility of your business and allows you to respond to reviews that individuals may post about your business on Google.

The process for claiming your business on Google is straight forward and involves six steps shown here.

The remainder of this video will show the process using a real business.

The business I will use to illustrate the claiming process, this Loop Software, a business located in State College Pennsylvania.

As a disclaimer, I am able to claim this business since my husband is co-owner.

Shown are the Google search results for Loop Software prior to claiming the business on Google.

It appears at the top of the search results due to my inclusion of the location State College in my search terms.

keep this search result in mind to compare to the results following my claiming of the business on Google.

The first step to claiming your business is to sign into your Google account.

If you do not have a Google account, you'll first need to create one.

After signing into your Google account, choose the My Business app as shown on the left.

This will direct you to the screen shown on the right where you will click the Manage Now button.

On the next screen, you'll see you can search for your business within Google's pre-populated business listings.

Google utilizes public records to show businesses on their mapping application.

If your business is in their records, simply choose it from the list that appears when you type in your business name.

My demonstration business was not in Google's listings, so I will need to create it by first providing the name of the business and agreeing to Google's terms of service and privacy policy.

You will then be asked to categorize your business, choose the category that most closely aligns from the options available.

The fourth step in the process is to add your business location.

If you have a storefront or location where customers can visit, choose yes as instructed or choose no, if your business is not open to customers or visitors.

If you chose yes, you'll then be asked to enter your address.

If your firm has a business address different from your firm stores address, make sure to use the store's address since the address provided here is what Google will map.

If your business provides services to customers where you travel to their location, such as landscaping, product or order delivery or custom field work for example, you'll want to choose yes to this next question about serving customers outside of the location you just entered.

If you've chosen to indicate that you serve customers outside of the address provided, you'll then add the city or towns by typing them in or selecting from the suggestions provided.

It's important to understand that this step is asking you to indicate coverage areas, not in an additional storefront or single address location that your business may operate from.

If you happen to have a second storefront or location where customers can come to you, you'll be able to add that information to your business profile through your My Business dashboard following verification.

Finally, add your business's phone number and website.

The final step and the process of claiming your business on Google is to verify your listing.

The two options available to me were to verify by phone or mailed postcard.

Google also provides for verification by email to select businesses so that may be an option for you.

I chose to verify by postcard since I did not have immediate access to the business phone and was willing to wait a few days.

Even though I had yet to complete the verification process, once I completed the verification step, I was provided access to the My Business dashboard.

While waiting on the verification postcard, I took the opportunity to provide additional details for the business.

One of the areas I could add detail to was business hours.

By filling out these additional information areas now, once the business is verified, this information would immediately be live on the Google business profile.

This is the verification postcard that was sent.

As you can see, completing the verification process simply requires logging into your Google account and entering the verification code from the postcard.

You'll also receive a confirmation email, alerting you that the verification process is complete and that your business now appears on Google search and maps.

Here's the result from claiming my business on Google using the same search terms as I did prior to claiming.

You can see that Google search results now include my business's profile with a map of its location to the right of the search results.

This enhanced search result not only improves presence of my business online but also provides this person searching with basic information about business contact information, business hours and possible reviews without going further thereby improving their search experience.

And finally, on Google Maps, my business is now listed with a pin at its location.

If you claim your business on Google, ensure that you follow best practices to get the most benefit from your profile.

First, ensure that you are maintaining current and accurate business information such as hours of operation, phone number, website and so forth.

It can be easy to forget to update this information when you make changes but by not doing so, you damage the credibility of your business as consumers will be unsure as to the accuracy of information they find for you.

Add content such as photos and video to your business profile to allow viewers to get a sense of your business and the products they will find or the experience they will have when visiting.

Finally, respond as appropriate to any reviews that are left on your business.

Consumers are more likely to visit and purchase from businesses that are responsive even to negative reviews.

As a recap, here are the six steps that we went through to claim a business on Google.

Now that you've seen the process go out and claim yours.