When it comes to Search Engine Optimization for their business, a lot of people stop at the text of their website. They add a plugin to WordPress, hire an expensive SEO expert to create backlinks (for better or worse), or they simply change some heading text and think that will address most of their SEO concerns. People often overlook their Google My Business listing in the importance it plays in SEO and forget to maintain their listing regularly.

In this episode, I’m going to tell you what you need to do to get your My Business listing up and running on Google and what you can do to make your listing shine, including a couple of things that could help improve your SEO rankings, and why you absolutely MUST at least claim your business listing on Google.

Make Sure Your Listing Exists and is Correct

To start off, if you don’t have a Google My Business listing already, you should. It’s really easy to set up, but more importantly, it’s also not too difficult for someone to try to claim your listing and hijack your traffic if you haven’t already claimed it yourself. This is a common issue we’ve been seeing recently with people trying to change addresses, websites, and contact information on a number of photographers’ business listings to direct traffic to their own businesses.

The first thing you need to do is search Google for the name of your business. There should be a title card in the right-hand column with information about your business. If there isn’t, that means Google hasn’t created a listing for your business yet and you’ll need to do so. If there is a Listing Card, there will either be a link that says “Edit Your Business Information” or it will say “Suggest an edit” alongside a prompt that asks if you own this business.

You can click “Own this business?” to claim your business listing. Go to the Google My Business management console and go through the process outline there to claim your business. If this is your first verification, Google will send a postcard to the physical address of your business so they can verify your business is where you said it is. This can take a couple of weeks to get to you, so do this today. Right away.

If you already control your business listing, go to the Google My Business management page and check that all of your information is current. Make sure your address is updated. If anything is out of date, fix it right away. Also, right now, during the pandemic, Google has added some new tools to help you inform your clients and potential clients, including service availability, updated hours, post a COVID-19 update, and also to ask for support from customers.

Other items you’ll want to update might be:

• Adding a behind-the-scenes video showing you at work.

• Interior images of your physical studio.

• Members of your team.

• An indicator that your business is LGBTQ friendly

• The services you offer and your service areas.

Update with New Content

Your Google My Business dashboard has three quick create buttons right at the top of its page — one to create a post, one to add photos, and one to create an add. If you want to use this to run adds for your business, go ahead, but I’m just going to focus on the first two right now, creating a post and adding photos.

Creating posts and adding photos are great ways to keep your content updated for people searching for your business and the work you do, but it’s also great for letting Google know that you are constantly updating your work, providing great information for your clients, and creating imagery that will catch people’s attention. Even if you’re repped by a large metropolitan photo agency, you might also attract the attention of local businesses that want to work with you. Every time you post a new blog, create a post on your Google My Business page. You can add a photo, write a brief description, and link directly back to your blog on your website.

When you add photos to your listing, it lets people see your work right away when they search for your business. There are a couple of ways to approach this. If you’re a commercial photographer, maybe you specialize in architecture, industrial photography, or cosmetics, I recommend approaching your photo listings on Google as an overview portfolio of your work. Limit it to 20-30 shots that tell the story of your work. Include some of your best images, but also some images that may not be your best but highlight a key factor of what you shoot. Examples might be world-famous landmarks, celebrities, or personalities. Focus on work that brings value and elevates your brand. If you’re a portrait, family, or wedding photographer. You might want to upload a few highlights from each session to keep your listing fresh and up to date, the same way you would for Instagram. You can also try to find a balance between these two, but find something that works for you and be consistent about it. Either way, go update the photos on your Google My Business listing today. Right after the show.

Direct People to Leave Reviews

The final thing you’re going to want to do is to make sure people are leaving reviews on your Google listing. If someone sends you an email thanking you for the lovely photos you took, thank them and ask them to take a moment to leave a review on your Google listing. Setup automation in your studio management system to send out an email requesting a review either the day after your shoot or the day after you deliver your images.

Reviews establish social proof, which is good for potential clients looking for your services, but also for helping Google assign authority to your business. Google relies on a lot of indicators to establish your authority and one thing they can verify better than almost anything else, is people leaving you star ratings on their own system. 

Turn Messaging On/Off

The last thing you’ll want to do is to download the app to your phone. It’s available on Android and iOS in the app stores. 

A word of caution here: the apps will have Messaging turned on by default. Personally, I do not like having people contact me through a million different apps. I want everything to go into Sprout Studio as a lead so I can easily manage my work in one location. I didn’t know this until someone had messaged me and I found out weeks later because I often turn off notifications on my phone. I lost that lead and immediately turned off messaging within the Google My Business app.

Go update your listing, curate your photos, and start adding Google My Business posts to your Social Media strategy when you publish a new blog post.