While many optimizations are made on Google My Business, there are already numerous resources available online on this topic. In this article, I would like to address some common mistakes made in order to prevent you from losing potential customers.
1. Unclaimed Accounts
If your business is listed in Google results, and you haven’t claimed ownership, it ranks at the top among the mistakes made. Due to not claiming ownership, you won’t be able to manage your GMB account or respond to user reviews.
This is an example business account.
If you don’t claim ownership over your GMB business property and there is no activity on your account for an extended period, users may suggest an edit that indicates this entry doesn’t exist. Google accepting this edit and removing the entry is a possibility, which could have a negative impact on your Local SEO efforts. If you haven’t taken ownership of your business account yet, you can initiate the verification process right away.
2. Forgetting to Keep the Messaging Section Open
One of the GMB features that allows businesses to respond to their visitors, much like live support, is the Messaging section. You may also experience a loss here if you leave the messaging feature open but don’t check the notifications. If you are actively using this feature, be sure to focus on responding to your visitors’ messages.
3. Unclosed Business Accounts
If one of your branches in your area has remained completely closed, you can mark it as “permanently closed” on GMB. This way, those who previously called or visited your business will be able to easily determine that your business no longer operates in that area.
Continuing to mark the business as open on Google when it is actually closed can lead to a poor user experience and may especially prompt those who get directions and arrive to leave negative reviews about your business.
4. İncomplete İnformation
If you have a GMB account, it’s essential that key information, such as the phone number, website, and business hours that users will need to reach your business, should not be missing in your panel. These areas are critical for your business, and you should fill in any missing information whenever possible. Of course, you may not need a website, but having a phone number and especially specifying your business hours and working days can be very beneficial.
If you want to outperform your local competitors in this field, I recommend ensuring that these missing areas are completed.
5. Not Responding to Reviews
One of the most common problems many businesses face is not responding to positive or negative reviews and not taking them into consideration. Not responding to your customers’ reviews can give them the impression that you don’t value their feedback. Additionally, when you respond to reviews correctly, other users will also understand that you are an active business owner.
Respond not only to positive but also to negative reviews. Think about ways to turn negative reviews into positive ones. For example, you can reach out to the reviewer and ask if their concerns have been addressed. Of course, when responding to these reviews, it’s important to do so in a polite and non-angry manner.
6. Incorrect Information
For example, if your business hours are from 08:00 AM to 05:30 PM, but on Google, it doesn’t match accurately, such as 09:30 AM to 04:30 PM, it can provide a very poor experience. Users who plan to visit your business may have their plans disrupted and leave negative reviews if they see you as closed. In fact, if larger groups of people encounter this situation, your business could receive multiple negative reviews, leading to a drop in your average rating.
You can see editing suggestions in orange color on GMB.
7. Location Markers (Pins)
One of the common mistakes made when creating a location is that the location markers (pins) on the map point to incorrect places. There is a high likelihood that people who get directions may go to the wrong locations due to this incorrect marking. Furthermore, you may experience customer loss due to this misplacement.
8. Photos
If there are no photos taken by you for your business, it is likely that photos added by customers or malicious individuals will appear on your business account. Moreover, if you haven’t verified your business yet, you won’t even be able to make edits here. Therefore, you can add high-quality photos that clearly represent your business from the outside, inside, or various other angles.
Also, my recommendation is to take photos at different times of the day, which will help create a more optimized account.
9. Questions and Answers
Many visitors can now even add their reviews through the Q&A section. This section was added to business accounts in recent years. You can see users’ questions here and respond to them. One of the mistakes many businesses make is ignoring these sections. Because you don’t respond, other users might answer your visitors’ questions and provide incorrect information.
By creating your own questions and answers in the Questions & Answers section, you can help your customers find answers to their queries more easily, providing them with pre-existing information.
10. Spam!
I recommend that you adhere to the guidelines both in your business name and in other sections of GMB. Instead of thinking that you can get away with actions similar to what your competitors are doing, which might lead to the suspension of your business account, it’s better to avoid such activities.
Finally, I recommend that you correct the wrong category selection to make it more relevant.
If you have a Google My Business account, I strongly advise you to make the edits mentioned in this article. If you have any other common mistakes in mind that you’d like to share, I’m looking forward to your comments :)
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