The number of people searching online for products “near me” is at an all-time high and continues growing every year. In fact, 97% of people have searched for a local business, and 88% of local business searches performed on mobile result in a call or visit within 24 hours.
This means optimising for search engines isn’t just something online businesses need to do; you need to ensure your local shop has a Google presence if you want to get as many people as possible through the door.
And the best part about this? You don’t need to set up a website and spend hours upon hours optimising to drive visits via search engines as a physical shop.
In this blog, we’re going to teach you everything you need to do to get a presence and start bring in customers from the two most popular search engines: Google and Bing.
By investing a couple of hours of your time into setting up a profile for your business on Google and Bing, you can potentially benefit from all the people searching for products you sell in your local area. And all you need to do to take advantage of this opportunity is set up Google My Business and Bing Places profiles.
What are Google My Business and Bing Places?
Google My Business (GMB) and Bing Places are free, easy to use tools which help businesses easily manage their online presence – specifically across search and maps. For example, if you were to search on Google for “sweet shop near me”, you’re likely to be greeted by results similar to this:
You can click into this to see more results or get directions from your location to the shop you’ve chosen, and you’ll get similar results on Bing. These results are powered by GMB and Bing Places – not having your set up correctly will lead to other shops getting customers which may have instead come to you.
Although it may seem tricky, getting set up is actually incredibly simple, here’s how you do it:
How to set up Google My Business
To manage your business listing you will need to associate a Google account with it. So you first step is to either log into the Google account you wish to associate with the listing, or create a new one. We’d recommend using a Google account set up specifically for your business – it’s much easier to miss important notifications when they’re mixed in with hundreds of other emails in your personal account.
Once you’ve logged in, go to google.com/business/ and click ‘Manage Now’ at the top right before typing in your business name where prompted.
Creating a new business listing
If your business does not appear in the list, select ‘Create a business with this name’.
You will then be taken through steps to add the business name, category, address, telephone number and any other important information. Take the time to ensure this is all filled in correctly and you’ve followed all instructions, you will be able to edit the details but by the time you notice any mistakes you may have already lost customers!
Claiming an existing listing
The list which appears when you type in your business name shows businesses which already exist on Google Maps, if it appears in the list, click on your business (make sure you double check it’s the correct one!).
Once you’ve done this, follow the steps to enter or confirm your shop’s name, category, address and telephone number.
Verifying a listing
Before you go any further, you will be asked to verify your listing. Essentially, this is to prove to Google that the business has a physical location which you have access to and stops bad actors claiming businesses which aren’t their own for negative purposes. There are a few different methods to choose from:
By postcard
If you choose this verification method, a postcard will be sent to the address on your listing within 14 days. Once you receive it, you can follow the simple steps on the postcard to verify your listing.
Of course, things do get lost in the post occasionally. If your postcard doesn’t arrive, simply request a new one by clicking ‘request another code’ in the GMB admin. Alternatively, you can try another method to verify your business.
By phone
Not all businesses are eligible to verify by phone, so don’t worry if you don’t get the option to do this!
If you choose to verify by phone, you will immediately receive an automated text message or phone call with your code, so make sure you have your phone handy.
By email
You may also be able to verify by email. When you select this option Google will email you a verification code alongside instructions on inputting it.
Other methods of verification
If you’re running multiple shops, you might need to have lots of different business listings for different locations under one account. In these cases, you will be able to verify your locations in bulk: simply click ‘Get verified’ next to one location the click ‘Chain’ to start the verification process for your whole chain, rather than having postcards sent to every shop under your care.
Claiming a business listing
It may also be the case that the business listing you were hoping to verify is owned by another person. Don’t worry if this is the case! You can request management or ownership.
Should you need to do this, an email will be sent to the current owner of the page. If there has been no response after 14 days, Google will allow you to verify the business in the usual manner.
Managing access
Once you have access to your listing, you have the ability to provide access to other people, with either full or partial control over the listing. You can do this by going to ‘Users’ in the left-hand menu and adding users by email address.
Although most shop owners shouldn’t need to do this, it’s useful if you’d like an employee to take charge of updating the profile in future but don’t want to give them complete access.
How to optimise your GMB profile
Now you’ve got your GMB profile set up, you’ll have the opportunity to appear when people are making relevant searches in your area. Of course, you don’t appear here by random chance, and simply being the closest isn’t necessarily enough.
Instead, once you’ve set up, you should take the time to optimise your profile. Regular updates and providing viewers with the best information possible about your shop will go a long way to helping you bring in customers from Google searches.
Key optimisation work you can do includes:
Fill in your business attributes
Attributes are unique characteristics about your shop’s location. Disabled access, toilets or parking, for example. There are many different attributes you can add which will show up when people search for your products or services in the local area – all of which will help people make a more informed decision about visiting you.
Common attributes it would be wise for you to fill in immediately are opening hours and payment options. The more you fill in the better, however.
Create your shortcode
Your shortcode is important because it allows you to provide customers with a shortcut to give you a review. Google will suggest a shortcode name but you can enter any you like. Once this has been reviewed, a new review shortcut link that you can share for reviews will appear on your dashboard.
Photos
Having lots of high-quality images on your GMB listing makes a significant impact. As standard, ensure you include pictures of the exterior and interior of your shop alongside pictures of your staff and popular products. In short: anything that gives customers a good idea of what to expect at your business. It’s worth taking some time to get some good shots here, these photos will often be a key part of people decision making process.
Remember: your cover photo is the largest image shown on your listing, together with the map pin and the street view, so make good use of this space.
Your profile picture is shown when you upload photos or respond to reviews, so it’s important this is professional. Using your logo would be a good option.
Posts
It helps to think of this as if it was a miniature Facebook business feed. You can post on offers, events or anything else you think is relevant and try to drive people to your shop. Posts stay active for seven days, so it’s important to update this regularly if you want to make the most of it.
Messaging
When active, this function allows people to privately message you through the listing to ask questions. Google advises that you have to reply within 24 hours if this is on, failure to do so will lead to them removing it. So only activate this if you’re confident you’ll be able to respond to all enquiries promptly.
Reviews
The final part of the puzzle, but possibly the most important in terms of convincing people to shop with you rather than rivals is the review platform.
Encourage your regular shoppers to leave reviews to build this up and take the time to respond to any reviews made to show people you engage with your customers.
If someone leaves a negative review, make sure to respond with facts, rather than opinions or emotion. A negative review can be a great opportunity to show customers you listen to feedback and care about customer opinions, starting an argument might feel good at the time but will result in you missing opportunities in the long-run.
How to set up Bing Places
Creating your account
Start by going to www.bingplaces.com and selecting ‘New user’. If you’ve already set up your business on GMB there’s a handy option to import all of the information from that listing, making this process much faster.
Otherwise you’ll have the option to add a new business listing, or claim an existing one. Begin the process by searching for the name and location of your shop in the fields provided. If it already exists on Bing, Bing will recognise it and ask if you want to claim it, otherwise there is an option to create an entirely new listing underneath this window.
Once you’ve selected an existing listing or clicked ‘My business is not listed’, you’ll be asked to log in using a Microsoft or Google account. If you don’t already have a Bing account this is when you can create one to be associated with the listing. You could also use the same account you use for your GMB.
Adding information to your listing
Once you’ve logged into your Bing Places account you can begin to add information to your business listing. You’ll be taken through a series of steps where you’ll add basic contact information, the business category, photos and opening hours. You can also ensure the correct location of your business by moving the pin on the satellite map.
Again, it’s important to take your time and ensure all the information you input here is correct.
Verifying your business on Bing Places
Once you’ve submitted information about your business, you’ll need to verify it. To do this, you will need to get a code before navigating to ‘Complete verification’ under ‘Actions’ on your Bing Places dashboard.
There are two ways you can get your verification code:
Phone
If your business is already recognised by Google, and your phone number is correct on the listing, you can select phone verification. This will prompt a code to be sent to the phone number by either text or automated call.
Postcard
If the business is newly created, Bing will need to verify that the physical location is operated by you. To do this, they’ll send a postcard with the code on it to the address you’ve entered on the listing. This can take up to 14 days to arrive.
How to optimise your Bing Places listing
Once you’ve completed verification, you can crack on with polishing your Bing Places listing!
This process is similar to Google My Business, but it does have a couple of unique options we think are worth discussing individually:
Facebook integration
A new feature on Bing Places enables you to integrate your account with Facebook, this notifies you of any updates to your listing through Facebook – useful if you’re likely to spend more time checking your social media than your emails!
Deals and discounts
In the deals and discounts section, you can display the offers you currently have active directly on your listing – a great way to bring potential customers into your shop! Depending on the deals you offer, there are several options here, though you’ll most likely only need a couple of these.
The two lead options when adding promotions are “Free” and “Discount” – are you offering a product for free or offering a discount on a range? Once you’ve selected the type of promotion, you’ll be greeted with a drop-down menu where you’re able to provide more information.
For example, if you select the lead option as “Free”, you’ll be greeted with options like:
- N products or service Free when some/no condition (buy 3 get 2 free, for example)
- Nth products or service Free when some/no condition (buy 2 get 3rd free, for example)
- Free product or service
Simply select the relevant options to showcase your deals on your Bing Places listing. This is a great way to promote any deals you’re currently offering to people searching for a shop like yours on Bing, and provides you with another opportunity to bring customers in.
We hope this helps you get your search engine presence for you shop sorted out. Get in touch with us if you’ve got any questions about this.
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