Why it's important to list your business on Google

Improving your visibility on Google: what you need to know

93% of consumers do research on the Internet before planning a purchase (Tiendi & Nielsen study). A figure that makes you dizzy!

A typical consumer may watch a video, look at a buying guide, read a product description or watch a tutorial... There are many ways to prepare for an online purchase.

This is why it is important for all companies to be visible on search engines like Bing, DuckDuckGo and especially on Google, the most used search engine.

However, with Google in particular, things are a bit more complex. It is not just a directory that lists all the companies in a given field of activity.

No.

When your website is listed on this search engine, the ranking is done according to several complex criteria. Just because you have a website that describes your business doesn't mean that you will achieve a good ranking on Google.

Moreover, let's say that your ideal customer searches for your business and your city on Google... If you want to be sure that people visit your website, it is essential that you are ranked among the top search results.

The second page of results is hardly ever seen. The proof: the first page of Google results alone generates more than 90% of clicks from Internet users!

Taking care of your web presence, whether you already have a website or not, is essential. It's simply the best way to attract your customers and prospects.

‍

So how do I get my company to appear on Google?

Business owners nowadays can choose among a few different options to create strong visibility on search engines.

Shop owners can make use of social networks, register on company directories, create advertisements, improve the organic listing of their website or even have their business registered in Google Maps.

All of these techniques are tools to get your business listed on Google. Keep in mind, they are often even more effective when integrated into a broader digital strategy for developing your online presence. For instance, a key ingredient of a successful digital strategy is a dedicated personal website.

‍

Referencing your company on Google: what are your options?

Make your company appear on Google with Google my Business

Google does a good job at allowing all kinds of businesses to be listed on its engines! It's simple, the easiest way to get visibility on search engines is to use the Google My Business tool.

Once you are registered, this form will summarize all the main information about your company: its address, phone number, services, website, news and customer reviews. Thanks to this tool, your business will also be referenced on Google Maps so that your prospects can locate and visit your business very easily.

Google My Business is very flexible. You don't necessarily need to have your own website to have a Google My Business listing, Moreover, you can freely decide which information you want to share: you can, for example, publish your address but not your phone number.

It is advisable to make use of all the options provided by Google My Business, to make your business profile stand out when your prospects search for a term related to your business. For instance "garage Tours".

Here is how to optimize the display of your business on search engines with Google My Business :

1. Fill in all the requested information (opening hours, address, categories, website, description, nearby parking, etc)
2. In the "description provided by the business" section, be precise and use keywords that accurately describe your activity
3. Add photos of your business and your products or services: team photos, your logo, etc.
4. Write regular updates in the "Posts" section: these are news items that will be visible on your profile. You can talk about company news or a new product for example. Companies that regularly publish content are more likely to appear in local search results.
5. If you sell products, you can advertise them in the "Products" category. This also works for services.
6. Remember to collect reviews from your customers and respond to all these reviews quickly.
   

‍

Optimize your natural search engine ranking

The natural indexing or SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is another way to improve your visibility on Google. This is typically done by producing interesting and engaging content on your website that naturally attracts visitors.

Keep in mind that it may take several months to see the fruits of your labor and that writing content is usually not even enough. In most cases, you'll need a real SEO strategy to optimize your natural search engine ranking. If you want to improve your SEO, you will have to work on all the following points:

• The technical optimization of the site: you must ensure that it is designed to meet the requirements of Google's algorithms. You must also ask yourself the following questions: is it easy for a robot to move around and index pages regularly? Is the site fast to load and well optimized for mobile display?
• The popularity of the site: do other popular sites link to the pages of your website? This gives Google a guarantee that you have a high-quality and "popular" site.
• User experience: are visitors lost on your site or do they want to stay there for a long time? What is the bounce rate on each page?
• The content of the site: are the pages of your site written in a way that fits the demands of the search engine? Do the pages answer your prospects' questions? Have you taken the time to fill in the meta titles and descriptions of each page?

‍

Paid solutions to improve your visibility on Google

Finally, you can reference your company on Google through paid visibility tools like Google Ads.

These tools allow you to create digital advertisements that will put your website or your products among the first search engine results on selected queries. This technique is called paid SEA (SEA for Search Engine Advertising).

To create an advertising campaigns, you must invest a certain amount of money on keywords related to your business. For example "hair salon munich east".

You can also create dedicated campaigns to promote products on Google shopping. These campaigns allow e-merchants to make their products known to a large number of people.

Still not sure how you want to reference your business on Google? At Qart, we gladly help you find a solution that fit your needs. Contact us for more information!