Home Care Local SEO & Google My Business

The fact is, your Google My Business (GMB) listing is much more impact on your business than your website nowadays. The reason for this drastic change has to do with Google moving quickly to cater to their growing segment – mobile users. Google and other search engines are quickly and surely moving to a mobile-first index system. No matter the website or not, the results from the Google Knowledge Panel results are changing into a completely mobile-based site. If you are wondering what the Knowledge Panel in Google My Business is, it’s the compact box containing information that appears directly to the right of the search engine results. Through this box, users are able to learn more about the business and find out contact information for the home care businesses without having to click on the website or research further using the search engine. As you can probably tell, getting listed on the Knowledge Panel can be crucial to driving traffic. However, getting your business to show up on it, you must have an updated Google My Business listing with accurate and relevant information. 

Importance Of Google My Business

The truth is, 4 out of every 5 consumers utilize the search engines in order to find local businesses. Despite this fact, many small businesses haven’t even claimed their local business listing according to Search Engine Land. As you can tell, this is a huge missed opportunity. Thus, it is crucial to ensure you are claiming your home business’ listing on the Google My Business directory. Not only is it entirely free, but it can give you the type of exposure that will allow you to boost traffic and awareness. When done properly, you will be able to get your business showing up prominently within Google’s local 3-pack. This is where the top 3 local businesses show up when you conduct a search. Not only are the rankings showcasing fewer listings than it previously did, but it is completely redesigned for mobile optimization. Thus, it can increase the competition, even more, to get your business seen.

It is also a good idea to get as many reviews as possible. Take a look below and you will see just how important reviews can be to generating business according to Moz:

• 97 percent of consumers use and read reviews for local businesses
• 85 percent of consumers trust reviews that they read online as much as they do personal recommendations
• 73 percent of consumers said positive reviews helped encourage them to trust a local business more
• 49 percent of consumers look for 4 star or better ratings
• 30 percent of consumers say the speed of responses to negative feedback help them choose whether or not to frequent a business
• 68 percent of consumers left a review when asked to do so

There are so many different reasons you should consider your GMB listing to be more crucial to your success than your business’ website. Below, we will discuss some key takeaways

Your GMB listing is easily the first point of contact with a prospective customer. A lot of them won’t even venture further to your website.
Without a GMB profile, you are going to be missing out on prospective customers and they will instead go to your competition.
Having an established and well laid-out profile can make you look much more credible and trustworthy.
Your reputation depends on it. Having a good online reputation can dictate whether or not your business succeeds nowadays.
GMB listings are especially important when it comes to smaller mobile devices like phones as they are likely going to stick to the Knowledge Panel when searching for local businesses due to the smaller screen real estate.

As you can see, it is no wonder a lot of experts speculate that many businesses will become less dependent on their websites and their respective content in the future because of the changes to the search engines and the prominence of GMB listings.