The fundamentals of search engine optimization (SEO) are perfect for Calgary. Calgary’s a big city with lots of neighbourhoods and many competing businesses. Instead of shouting into the noise in the hopes that someone will hear, SEO allows you to directly target consumers in your area who are actively looking for your products or services.
Your Google My Business (GMB) page is essential if you want to undertake any SEO. In fact, your GMB is essential to basically all online marketing – it’s a free tool, provided by Google. It is their business directory.
Why GMB?
Imagine I’m new to Calgary, and I want to find some nice places to eat. I decide to look up “best calgary restaurants” on Google. Here’s what I’m greeted with:
This is Google’s 3-Pack, sometimes affectionately referred to as a “Snack Pack”. You’ll note that each listing in the 3-Pack has some incredibly valuable information. You can, at a glance, see:
- The business’s name and address (including a pin on Google Maps)
- Price point
- Rating
- Images of food
You can also see other information (it differs from listing to listing). You cannot get results in this 3-Pack if you’re not listed with GMB. When we click to expand:
It’s a thing of beauty. A whole list of restaurants throughout Calgary, and a much more detailed description of the restaurant we selected (Pigeonhole). Call-to-actions, including a button to call the restaurant. A brief description of the restaurant. A question-and-answers section (and below it, a Review section, which we’ll touch on later). It’s basically a giant ad for Pigeonhole.
You need to take advantage of this feature.
How to Claim Your GMB
Here’s the good news. Even if you have never heard of a GMB, you’re probably still listed on the service.
The bad news is that if you haven’t heard of GMB, you don’t have control over your listing.
You can claim your GMB right now, for free. Go to this page, and type in your business name.
Let’s imagine I own Pigeonhole. I type “Pigeonhole” in, and the restaurant pops up! Clicking it brings me to this page:
Now, I must confess, I don’t own Pigeonhole, so this makes sense. They’ve already claimed (and probably optimized) their GMB.
Should your business not have a GMB listed, you’ll get a screen that looks like this:
Simply follow all of the steps, and you’ll create a listing! This will include adding information like your location, hours of operation, business type, and photos. Add everything you’re asked to – it’s all important!
Monitor Your GMB
Once your GMB is all set up, you’re going to want to check it every day. Why?
Because other people can make edits to it.
This was introduced by Google in order to keep GMBs more accurate – there are a lot of unclaimed listings, and Google relies on input from users in order to keep things like hours of operation up-to-date. Even claimed listings are not always updated by their owners as quickly as Google’s other users can update them.
That means anyone, even competitors, can change your GMB listing. Hours of operation, your address, even your business name.
Obviously, this opens the doors to nefarious conduct. By checking your GMB every day, you’ll ensure all of your information is always as accurate as possible. This can also help you change edits that Google has made based on information from other directories. Check out our guide to Canadian citations to learn more about how you can optimize information from directories.
Optimizing Your GMB
While not everyone in Calgary has claimed their GMB, many businesses have. In order to get your GMB to stand out in 3-Packs, and to support your online marketing efforts, you’ll want to optimize your GMB.
There are a number of ways you can go about this. One method that’s gained some traction recently is to regularly make Business Posts. These posts can be about recent news or changes to your business, sales you’re having, events you’re hosting, new products you’ve released – anything you think might be relevant to your clients.
You’ll generally update your GMB Posts every week, but you might keep a post on for longer if it’s for a multi-week sale. Even then, a new post each week may still be optimal (even if it’s about the same topic).
Questions, Answers, and Reviews
Reviews of your business will be posted on your GMB page, also. You should respond to every review, whether it’s positive or negative. You know the drill: when a review is positive, thank the person for the review, when it’s negative, try to flip it into a more positive experience by having a dialogue (off the Review page) with the customer.
There’s also a section in which your clients (or potential clients) can post questions. You should answer all of those questions to the best of your ability. Interacting with your customers on GMB shows that you’re an active business that engages with every customer’s query.
Following all of these steps should help your Calgary SEO and online marketing efforts; best of all, it’s relatively easy to do!
firstrank.ca
