Shares of digital marketing There are many ways to boost the online presence and visibility of our Madrid-based business, but among them, local SEO is one of the most essential. And a key role in this is played by the Google My Business listing, a great ally for the search engine optimization of our brand in the Madrid metropolitan area.
As a prime example of comprehensive information that is instantly filtered by location and the type of device used, Google helps local businesses increase their digital presence right in front of its most engaged users. General and specific information about the company is just a few clicks away. This feature demonstrates its importance and prominence through its constant evolution since it first appeared under the name Google Places.
Let's take a closer look at how my company's Google My Business listing can help with search engine optimization for our business in Madrid.
Explaining What a Google My Business Listing Is
That constant evolution we've been talking about led to the transition from Google Places to the current Google My Business listing. Google implemented improvements to its algorithm And this update enabled a seamless integration between our company's business information and its physical location on Google Maps. That's when the wonderful the phenomenon of geolocation and proximity marketing.
In a city like Madrid, its importance is even greater than in other smaller locations, because Most of the time, users look for a service within their usual area of activity for greater convenience and to make the most of your time. That’s when having strong search engine optimization—specifically, local, geotargeted SEO—makes all the difference compared to the competition and allows us to attract customers in our area.
It’s important to note that only businesses that operate physically—that is, those with a storefront, offices, warehouse, or similar facility—can apply for and set up their Google My Business listing. In order to appear geolocated on Google Maps, Google itself requires this as a mandatory step to provide users with a specific location where they can go to shop or pick up products, hire services, or request information.
Google My Business Listing Definition
We can say that the Google My Business listing is the Google tool which serves as Letter of Introduction for Our Business in Madrid and anywhere in the world. It allows us to provide all the essential information about our brand—including our products, services, and other key details for users—to make it easier for them to contact us.
When a user searches for us on Google using our company name, if we have an active Google My Business listing (it doesn’t need to be 100% optimized), it will appear as an overlay on the right side of your computer or tablet screen, next to the search results, or on a mobile device, right below the ads for that business category (if any).
But there’s also the possibility (it’s up to Google whether or not to do so, even if we’ve optimized our listing perfectly) that if a user doesn’t know us and is simply searching for our main service because they need it, our business’s Google My Business listing Get Google to feature us in the SERPs ahead of our competitors, significantly increasing the chances that the user will click on our information and end up contacting us in some way.
A business's Google My Business listing It directly addresses the clear need of Internet users to contact a company that provides the product and/or service you're looking for. That's why it's essential to clearly and precisely list all of our company's contact information, to make it easy for our audience to get in touch with us.
How Does the Profile Affect My Website's Search Engine Ranking?
Since it is a Google tool designed to help users with their search queries on Google Search, Google Images, and Google Maps, proper and thorough optimization of your Google My Business listing will highlight your business’s organic features across all of these platforms. It will enhance our SEO.
But it's not just because we already have the listing that our company will be better positioned; rather, We should work on the options regularly that it makes available to us. Such as:
- Reviews
User reviews are used to raise the profile of our brand And the more and better reviews we have, the sooner Google will feature us in search results for our services/products.
- Pictures of Our Business
Many users view the images provided in the business listing as a necessary step in making a decision regarding their search intent. The more views those images get, Google will highlight them. Of course, they must be good, high-quality photos that are well-composed and accurately represent our business in Madrid. It has been proven that they substantially influence users' decision-making.
- The company's various locations
If our company has multiple locations in different places, we can add them to our Google My Business listing, We'll have different cards, one for each location, where we can include the same or different information. Each listing will appear locally to users near those locations.
- Products and Services
It is important to include all of our products and services, along with their descriptions and prices, which Google prominently displays on the listing page.
- Publications
Google asks us to do interesting articles for our audience, such as information related to our products, services, or industry. It also highlights most of this information in the listing when it appears in the SERPs.
- Website
On the Google My Business listing, we have the the ability to create a website just in case we didn't have a corporate one. It's very easy to do, since the tool provides you with different templates and blocks that you can drag and drop. As a Google product, It positions itself very well and quickly.
Request for the business listing and key features for my business in Madrid
If we are certain that our company does not already have a Google My Business listing (in which case We would have to request that form (as business owners), requesting the form is as simple as following these easy steps:
- Enter the company name (choose a final name because, although you can change it later, you'll have to meet a series of requirements to do so)
- Introducing the company's management
- Contact Person
- Geographic location (Madrid)
The tool then checks whether or not there is already a record associated with this corporate data, and if there isn't one, it send a code by mail so that the owner can enter and verify it. At that point, our business's Google My Business listing in Madrid will be activated.
The code takes about 15 days It may take some time for the listing to appear at the business address we've provided, but as soon as we start the listing application process, we can begin optimizing it and adding all the information we deem necessary. However, this information won't be available or visible on Google until the listing is verified by entering the code.
Claim a token
If we find that our business already has a Google My Business listing that has been created and linked to it, and we don't know who created it, We can claim it and take charge of managing it. There are several reasons why a listing might already exist, such as Google having created it automatically. It does so by those businesses about which you can find enough information in directories and on other websites. These are listings with limited information, and Google tries to link them to their actual owners by asking the question below the contact information: “Are you the owner of this business?”.
By clicking on the question, you can begin the process of claiming the listing. Basically, Google will try to verify that you are the business owner through various validation methods. It’s very likely that you’ll need to upload a document proving ownership.
More features
We've already discussed some of the main features offered by the Google My Business listing to promote the website of our business in Madrid, such as reviews, posts, or creating a website through the business listing. Not only to boost the search engine optimization, but rather the comprehensive visibility of the brand, its products, services, informational content, and other information that can enable a user to find us and/or hire the company's services.
Other features to keep in mind—especially the first one we mentioned—are the following:
Up-to-date and consistent information
By "consistent," we mean that The data must be the same and in the same format than the information that appears on other digital platforms used by our business. For example, if our company is listed in the Madrid Yellow Pages, the information cannot differ from what is shown on our Google listing. The more consistent the information we provide to Google about ourselves, the better it will be able to identify and interpret our business in response to users’ online searches.
Key information to provide:
- Company Name
- Business Address
- Contact phone number(s)
- Schedules (remember to update the schedules when holidays or special periods requiring changes arise)
- Website
- Company History
Performance Statistics
The Google My Business listing offers us automatic statistics on user interaction on the Internet using the information we have in the file. For example, we'll be able to find out:
- The number of times our corporate information has been published online as a result of user searches, whether direct, indirect, or by brand.
- Number of visits to our Google My Business listing
- Number of visits to our business on Google Maps
- Number of visits to our corporate website
- Number of requests for directions to the physical store
- Number of phone calls
- Number of views of the images uploaded to the listing
This is very important information for understanding how well—or poorly—the business is performing in search engine optimization, based on the number of visits and the volume of traffic received by our Google My Business listing.
Text Messages
This is a new feature that allows mobile device users to send a direct message to the company, which simplifies and streamlines the business-customer relationship in near real time. We need to list our business on Google My Business, and there’s one requirement: as business owners and managers, we must respond within 24 hours if we don’t want Google to suspend our listing.
Integration with Other Google Products
We have the opportunity to Link your Google My Business listing to other Google products that our business is active on platforms like Google Ads or Google Merchant Center. Regarding Google’s advertising tool, thanks to the business location we’ve registered on Google My Business, we can set up proximity bids in Google Ads so that our ads appear to users who are within a certain distance of our physical location. This is a fantastic feature, especially for local businesses.
Conclusions
Improve the search engine optimization of our business certainly involves the Google My Business listing. It may be the first impression a user gets when searching online, even before the company's website. But it's not enough just to have it listed, We need to optimize it and invest time in it to take full advantage of all its features in order to attract more traffic and enhance the brand's image.
It would be a huge mistake to fail to take advantage of a tool that Google itself offers us and that is intrinsically linked to our business's online visibility.