As a Google product, Google Business Profiles often show up in searches with local intent for branded and non-branded searches. This includes out-of-market searches performing queries for businesses or services in a city they are planning to visit. Claiming and directly managing your Google Business Profile is free and one of the best returns for efforts you can make towards improving your online presence as a local business (even if you serve customers internationally).

Whether you already manage your listing or have yet to claim it, the following items are just a selection of the ways you can leverage your profile to support your business’ local search presence.

Your business’ name, address and phone number (often referred to as “NAP”) are how customers find and contact you. By not claiming and directly managing your Google Business Profile, this data is frequently incorrect. If someone finds you in Google through a search for businesses similar to yours and tries to call you unsuccessfully because your number is wrong, for example, then they may choose another option.

Tip: When entering your business name to claim your profile, make sure you list your business name as it appears on your license. Adding keywords for the sake of trying to rank for a specific term is against Google’s Policies and Guidelines and may get your listing suspended.

Correct business listing example: “David’s Breakfast Nook”
Incorrect business listing example: “David’s – Best Breakfast in Las Vegas”

Your description is your opportunity to summarize your business in search and offers an opportunity to optimize for your products and services by including mentions of them in this copy. While incorporating some keyword mentions is recommended, you should avoid overly populating this copy with keywords solely for the purpose of trying to rank for them.

While only 250 characters of the 750 characters display by default, it is recommended to utilize the full allotment of space for your description.

Google Business Profile Q&As are a crowd-sourced FAQs section within your Google Business Profile. However, as the business owner you can also pre-populate questions and answers as the business. Doing so helps to ensure that your most frequently asked questions are proactively answered in an easy-to-access location directly from the search results page.

Moreso, Q&As help to populate something known as justifications. Justifications are supporting snippets of text from your reviews, business description or Q&As that help to reinforce the intent behind a search. For example, if you search for “hotels with free WIFI” and your Q&As have a question and answer confirming that you do offer this amenity, it may show up in a pulled snippet of text. This helps to justify your result for this query and reinforces trust in the searcher that your business is a relevant option for them to click on and explore.

In addition to helping to gain trust from potential customers, reviews can have a direct impact on your ability to rank in local search for specific queries. Searches with “best” or “top” modifiers often trigger a filter in Google to only initially display options that are above a certain aggregate rating threshold – typically 4.0 or above.

Similar to Q&As, content from reviews is often curated for populating justifications.

Tip: Review Management Tools, such as GatherUp, can help in requesting feedback from your customers and responding to reviews efficiently and effectively.

As the business and profile owner, adding a strong selection of high quality images of your business can help to give potential customers an idea of what to experience during their visit.

Similar to Q&As, customers can add their own photos to your Google Business Profile. This is a great way to have a diverse selection of imagery with multiple vantage points, but pre-populating your own images will help to ensure that you showcase your business they way you intend it to be seen by your audience.

If your business has multiple locations, dedicated locations pages can help to provide more insight into features and/or experiences that may be unique to that location. Linking to these pages as opposed to your primary domain in your Google Business Profile can also provide location owners or managers with more flexibility for marketing their specific location.

Dedicated menus and amenities as well as integrated content showcasing nearby things to do or points of interest can go a long way to helping potential customers choose your business over another that may not have these more locally tailored experiences on their sites or other marketing channels.

In addition to offering localized experiences in the way of region-specific landing pages on your site, dedicated content in the way of maps, guides or blogs can help to grow your awareness in local search.

As a hospitality business, you are seen as an authority in the community you serve in. Your unique perspective on the most unique and memorable experiences for travelers can help to reinforce your brand as this authority and help you rank up for a wide selection of searches that your potential customers are performing when planning out their trip.

Marriott Bonvoy Traveller is an excellent example where an international brand has curated content showcasing localized experiences in many of the markets they serve. This content goes a long way in building trust for travelers by promoting Marriott as more than just a hotel chain, but a full scale operator of tailored travel experiences.

Regardless of the size of your brand, if you serve customers in a local capacity, local SEO can provide many benefits for marketing your business. From micro-moments for travelers doing last-minute planning upon arrival to international audiences seeking out options and experiences in advance, leveraging the platforms and strategies above can make a big difference when it comes to boosting your engagement.