Over the past few years, we have seen Google constantly making changes to local search and how they direct consumers to local businesses, including flooring stores. Google recently added several new features to Google My Business (GMB) to help local businesses engage their potential audience while searching on Google. All these new features offered by Google are free to local businesses. Yet, most flooring retailers never tap into the freebies offered by Google.
Flooring retailers can claim and manage their free store listing from GMB here: http://www.google.com/business. If you have never claimed your business listing from GMB click the “start now” button and follow Google’s instructions, otherwise click “sign in.” (You will need to first set up a Google account to proceed.)
Once logged into the GMB dashboard you will able to see how many people searching Google saw your listing and what actions they took, if any. From the dashboard you can upload photos of your store, show off your work, manage your store details, link to your website and select your business categories. You can also read and respond to any customer reviews left on Google. They also email monthly insight reports that gives you a quick overview as to how well your GMB page is performing.
New from Google
Google has added two new features to the GMB dashboard. One is called “Posts” and the other “Messaging.” Both offer retailers new ways to engage shoppers while they use Google search on desktop and mobile devices.
GMB Posts
Last month, Google rolled out Google Posts, which is sort of like micro-blogging with a maximum of 300 words per post and may include a JPG image. The posts can be either an event with a date range or post with a call to action, including a link to a page on your website. You can create up to 10 posts at a time.
To draw attention to your posts, add a product photo or graphic ad (750 pixels x 750 pixels max size) with a link to a sale page or in-store sale event.
GMB Messaging
This is brand spanking new from Google. Think of it as a text messaging chat service. The setup is easy to do in your GMB dashboard. You can manually turn it on or off at any time. To turn it on you will need a mobile phone number for receiving messages. Also, you want to add a Welcome Message that people will see when they click on the Messaging button.
At the time of this writing, the messaging feature only works for consumers on smartphones using the Google app, Safari or Chrome browsers. After the consumer clicks the Messaging button they then type in their message which you will receive as a text message. Be aware, right now messages can be sent 24 hours a day.
Flooring storeowners would be wise to keep your GMB page up to date and try using Google’s freebie features. One new flooring order generated through a store’s GMB page will more than pay for your time and effort.
John Simonson of Webstream Dynamics & GetFiveStarReviews.pro has been helping flooring companies with their online marketing for over 19 years. He can be reached at john@webstreamdynamics.com