Over 90% of Internet users use Google to search the web. And it's (still) possible to appear at the very top of the first page.
To achieve this, you need a Google my business insert (it's free!). When someone types in the name of your establishment, they'll see a large insert with a photo and your contact details: the best location on the first page of Google.
In this article, we share our tips for optimizing your Google My Business insert.
Be present on Google My Business
Let's see if you have your own Google My Business. Open Google and type in the name of your business. If it appears in the top right-hand corner, it's ok. If not, you'll need to create one.
Log in to your google account and follow this guide.
👌 Tip: Use the same google account for Gmail, Google My Business, Youtube, this will allow Google to bring up information about your establishment across all its products.
Promote yourself on Google
Google says: "The more complete and accurate the information, the more likely it is to be displayed for certain queries." So you see, you need to update your Google listing. To your keyboards!
Google offers a very good guide for filling in the information in your listing, which you can consult here 👈 .
I went through hundreds of Google My business to write this article and here are my tips to apply specifically for leisure establishments:
Photos: To make visitors want to come to your site, I advise you to include at least 3 different photos:
- A first photo showing customers enjoying the activity in your establishment (with happy people, sunshine... in short, the photo you'd use for your flyer). It's this photo that should be "highlighted" on your listing.
- A second photo showing your establishment, its installation, the nice terrace for a drink, the shady spot for a rest...
- The third shows the landscape in which the establishment is located: "Come to my place, the setting is magnificent! With these 3 photos, you'll score points with Internet users looking for activities.
🚨🚫 Warning: If the photos are of poor quality, badly framed, don't add them to your listing, you'll scare customers away. It's better to put just one nice photo until you have more.
Service area: If the starting points of your activities are located in different geographical areas (several rivers, canyons, different trails, etc.), it's best to define a geographical area around your establishment that encompasses the various practice sites. You'll have a better chance of attracting customers.
Attributes: Additional services ("attributes" in this case) are highly appreciated by vacationers. If you offer free wifi or shaded terraces, now's the time to say so, because it can make all the difference to your competitors.
Company description: Often overlooked, this is one of the essential elements of your profile. But why? Because it's the first impression you'll make on visitors, and your first words to them long before you welcome them to your establishment. The second thing to know is that Google will use this text to understand what you're offering (and potentially rank you higher depending on your relevance to the user's query). Describe your activities, your differentiating points, your story in 750 characters. The more relevant the information, the happier Google will be.
❤️ Indispensable: Check out this guide from Google on how to write a good description of your establishment.
Manage and respond to reviews
When a customer leaves you a review, it's important to respond, whether it's positive or negative. According to Google: " Responding to reviews shows that you value your customers and the comments they make about your establishment."
What's more, the number of reviews and the corresponding ratings are used by Google in ranking results so clearly, you need to ask your customers for reviews and you need to respond! Here's how:
- Positive feedback: Thank the person by personalizing the response to encourage them to return.
- Negative feedback : The most important thing here is to remain calm and never enter into conflict with the person on the web. Thank the person, keep your tone calm and professional, explain the problem and offer a solution. Internet users will see that you're listening to your customers' comments and doing everything you can to give them the best possible experience.
And in the end it's always Google that chooses
How does Google choose the order of results? No one knows the exact algorithm, but here's what Google says: "Local results are based primarily on criteria of relevance, distance and importance."
- Relevance: Does your establishment match the user's search criteria? If you've filled in your listing perfectly, you'll have a better chance of climbing the Google rankings.
- Distance: Since the purpose of the search is to get to a location, Google will favor locations close to the user (especially for mobile searches).
- Importance: This is the level of popularity of the establishment. This is the point you can influence the most. For Google, the rule is simple: the better known you are in the real world, the better known you should be on the Internet. So you need to work on your brand image and get people talking about your business. Every time someone talks about you on the Internet, Google knows about it and gives you points of importance.
In addition, Google uses customer reviews of your establishment. The more positive reviews you have, the more popular you are and the more important you are in Google's eyes. And so you move up in the results.
You can find out more about Google's ranking method here.
If you follow all the advice in this article, you'll have done everything you can to climb to the top of Google when a user makes a query that concerns you.
Thanks for reading 🙂
Julien,
Co-founder of GUIDAP
