“Google My Business” offers a wealth of information to Google and local customers about your local presence. The details that you provide in your profile populate the highly visible knowledge panel appearing to the right-hand-side of the Google search results page.

Your Google My Business (GMB) listing is vitally crucial to Google’s local search feature and has become one of the defining factors in your local search success. Having a well-established Google My Business listing will determine the difference between having a thriving online presence and having a non-existent presence.

Let’s take a quick look at five easy steps to optimize your Google My Business listing

Step One: Claim Your GMB

Optimizing your “Google My Business” listing is only made possible by claiming and verifying your listing. You must include your company name, address, phone number, business hours, and forms of accepted payments in your “Google My Business” listing.

If you have not yet verified or claimed your listing, you must do so by visiting https://www.google.com/business. The verification process will enable you to create your GMB listing. During this process, Google will send you a unique PIN on a postcard. This PIN will establish your business’s physical location. This is Google’s way of ensuring that your business is legitimate.

Step Two: Categorize Your GMB

Categorizing your GMB will connect you to customers that are conducting a local search of the services that you offer. This will also help you to increase your chances of appearing at the top of Google’s first search results page, maximizing your SEO rankings.

Keep in mind that each category encompasses your business as a whole. Although your company may offer a wide range of services, you must choose a primary category to describe your overall business. You will be able to add other categories to describe your products and services more precisely.

Step Three: Business Description

Create an in-depth, comprehensive business description. This description must be brief, as you only have 750 characters to work with. Also, make sure that you use relevant keywords in your business description, as Google will be able to pick them up whenever someone searches for these keywords.

Step Four: Implement Images

There is no doubt that a picture is worth a thousand words. The photos that you implement within your GMB listing will say more about your business than any spoken or written word can.

Ensure that you’re loading high-quality images into your GMB to promote your sense of professionalism and legitimacy. The pictures that you choose will encourage visitors to take notice and intrigue into your business, thus enabling them to click on your website link to learn more.

Step Five: Establish Service Areas

Last but not least, you must establish which geographical areas where you provide your services. Include the city name and state where you are located, as well as other cities within the surrounding region.

 If you serve clients throughout the United States, that’s great! List those cities and states with a zip code to showcase your entire client base. Apply all of these service areas to your GMB listing so that Google can rank them all equally.