How do you become better found locally?

Often, people look up companies on Google. Then, of course, as a business, you want to appear at the top of the search results. When people search for a butcher in Kapellen, and you are a butcher in Kapellen, the idea is that you should show up as one of the first search results. This way, people can always go to the store closest to them. So for this, you need to make sure your company’s location is on Google. The category also matters, of course. Because Google knows you belong to a certain category, such as butcher, your business is shown to people who search butchers in your area.

Google My Business

Google My Business provides people with instant information about a company when they search for it. Thus, they get to see the information below:

• Photos
• The location in Google Maps
• Reviews and an accompanying score
• A business category
• The address
• The opening hours
• The phone number
• The website

You can change this information as a company very easily and quickly. This way you will always stay up to date. This is for example for when you suddenly take a day off or when you open an hour later for a few days. So then you can easily adjust this in Google My Business.

Verify

You must always enter a verification code. With many websites/accounts, you get these sent to you via email. Google My Business is an exception to this. Google will arrange to send you a letter through the mail. The letter you are sent contains a code. With this code, you can verify your business on Google My Business. So you should definitely provide your real address. That’s how Google knows it’s not fake. In exceptional cases, you can also receive this code via text message or phone call. Through a letter or text message, Google My Business knows that the address is definitely correct, or that the phone number is correct.

Reviews

In a previous blog, you can read how important reviews are. That’s why it’s good that customers can read reviews right away when they look up a company. This may be the deciding factor in whether to buy/visit the product or not. Every business that can be found on Google My Business has a score. You can see this by the number of couples the company has. This number of stars is based on the average of the number of stars given by customers.