Using Google for your business is quite contrary than searching for answers, products, reviews & direction. As a business owner your goal is to make your business visible across all Google platforms. Simply being visible on one platform is not enough to compete in the market.

Do you know if your business is listed on Google Map, or your business shows up on Knowledge Card? What options do you have and how can you list your business across all the available platforms?

By the end of this blog, you will learn to use these tools & techniques and gain maximum exposure for your business.

First, lets analyze Google Search Result Page and identify our options. We will use different keywords and phrases to distinguish various sections and determine the procedure to list your business on each of them.

Google Adwords:

The first few listings on your Search Result page is paid advertisements. If you want to display your business on this section, you will have to log onto your Adwords account and create Search Network ad campaign.

When you log on to your Google My Business account and click on Adwords, it will redirected you to Adwords Express. Adwords Express will walk you through the process and help you to create your first Google Search Network ad as displayed on the image below. See illustration 1 below.

Click here to run your first Google Adword Campaign

Google Places:

If you are a local business, Google will pull this information from the Google map and display it on the Search Result Page.  To appear on Google Places, you will need to verify your business on Google and provide correct information about your business. See illustration 1 below.

Organic Search:

We all agree that the ultimate goal of every business is to rank higher on the organic search. Google uses over 200 ranking factors to evaluate millions or billions of content and rank them based on the value it creates for its user. If Google decides your content is valuable to its user, it will rank higher on the search result page. The process of optimizing your content to rank higher on the search engine like Google is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

In the previous blog, you learn about the ranking factors and how to apply them to boost your SEO. Creating technically optimized content that provides in-depth knowledge about your niche market will significantly boost your ranking on the search engine. Click here to learn how to write SEO friendly content.

As you can see in the diagram that organic listings are just one of the many sections that google displays the search results.

Illustration 1

Knowledge Card / Knowledge Graph:

Knowledge card displays all the vital information related to your business. Some of the important information you can find on the knowledge card are phone number, address, website, reviews and business hours. Knowledge card are displayed when someone types in your business name in Google.

Illustration 2

Go head and type your business name in Google and check whether you have knowledge card or not. If you already have a knowledge card, review your business information. If you do not find your knowledge card, I will show you how to create one today.

Google Images:

If your images are named correctly with appropriate alt tag, google will display some of those images on the Search Result page. The images that appears on this section are also found on Google Image search. Here is the correct way of embedding your image into your webpage,

<img src=“image-name-with-keywords” alt=“description about the image” >

Illustration 3

Click here to learn more about search engine optimization and how to make your image visible on Google image search result page.

Google Map:

The best way to find any local business is to directly type the business name on Google Map.  Google map displays your business both on map as well as on the business listings on right-side of the screen. If your business is already listed on the map, try to find your business on  different zoom level. Sometimes new business will appear on the map only after zooming in right into the exact location.

Illustration 4

Google My Business – Setup :

Follow the video tutorial to setup your Google My Business account. This tutorial will help you to become visible across various Google platforms.

Video Transcript

Lets set up your Google My Business account. Go to Google and type Google. My. Business. From the search result, click on Free Business Listing on Google. Click on Start Now.

On the next page, log into your Google account. Now you will use your business information to fill the required fields. Type the category of your business. For example, we build websites so for this demo, I have chosen Web Designer for this field. Click on continue

Verify the information you’ve just entered in the previous page, to start managing your business on Google. Click on continue

You will need a verification code from Google to complete the set up process. If your business is new, you will receive verification code on your mailbox. Click on mail

Once you receive mail from Google, log into your google account. Click on Google My Business from the dropdown menu. On the next page under locations, find your business and click on Get Verified. Enter your verification code that you’ve received from Google.

You are almost done.

Now go to your Google My Business dashboard and add the required information, such as business information and photos. As you can see, now your business will be visible on the following google platforms.

This is one of the most important section on Google My Business. You can manage all your business reviews here. All the reviews posted here will also show up on the Knowledge Card. Creating Google My Business account automatically creates Knowledge card for you. To monitor how your business is performing on Google, click on the insight tab on the top.

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