For the small business owner, growing the business is a full-time job. The task of building a website can be costly and time-consuming, not to mention stressful. Google has made it possible to rank #1 in Google, even without a website. Hard to believe, right?
Well, Google has something called Google My Business. By claiming and verifying your business with Google My Business (GMB), you can appear on Google Maps.
Just take a look at the image below, which has a lawyer in Clifton, New Jersey, ranking #2 organically for “business lawyer, clifton, nj.” I put a red box around the listing. You can see it doesn’t have a website icon.
You can begin the process by creating a Google My Business profile. Once you’ve claimed and verified your business, then you can add a lot of other data, such as hours of operation, category placement, setup messaging feature and photos. There’s even the option to create a webpage that Google will host.
So, you can see, regardless of whether or not you have a website, you can still rank very well for your primary keywords and business name. This is a great tactic for any small business such as a law firm, dentist, plumbing contractor, doctor’s office, restaurant, real estate office, apartment complexes etc.
Once you’ve established your Google My Business page, then you can start writing blog posts and uploading photos and a virtual tour. Google will show you Insights, which shows how customers search for your business, where customers view your business on Google (maps or listing), the most common actions that customers take on your listing (visit your website, request directions, call you, chat to you), phone calls and photo views.
Businesses should take advantage of everything Google My Business offers in order to optimize their business listing and increase their chances of ranking well. Uploading photos can instill a vote of confidence to prospective clients. Uploading pictures of your team, interior and exterior photos and a virtual tour can be very helpful…even without a website.
Once you’ve built your Google My Business page, start building business citations and asking customers to review your business on Google.
By Shimon Sandler
Shimon Sandler is the president & co-founder of the digital marketing firm Search Interactions. Based in Clifton, New Jersey, Search Interactions specializes in large-scale enterprise SEO (search engine optimization), local SEO, pay-per-click (PPC), app store optimization and other channels of digital marketing. Shimon can be reached at [email protected].
