The Small Business Guide to the Google Universe by John Jantsch Read more in Duct Tape Marketing
The video above is a replay of a live webinar I organized recently. You should have a good experience with the text below on how to use Google for small businesses.
While Google has many different products and services, for me, the following are what really make up Google’s small business universe for marketers and small business owners:
- Google My Business
- Google Analytics
- google search console
- Google Ads (formerly AdWords)
These are all great tools to help you grow your small business, so I thought I’d dive into each of them to give you a better understanding of how to use them and how they can benefit you.
Google My Business
This tool is vital for local businesses. This is one of the top ways, if not Along the way, businesses are mingling in their local community, which is why I spend so much time talking and writing about this topic.
Google My Business and 3-Pack (above) show up when someone searches for a term that clearly refers to a local business. As seen above, showing your business on a map listing is extremely important and is a good target for local businesses today. There are a lot of factors involved, but the first thing to focus on is making sure that your Google My Business listing is accurate and well optimized. To optimize a listing:
- claim listing
- Make sure you don’t have any duplicate listings (this is normal with different iterations through this tool)
- Choose a category specific to your business (avoid being too general)
- Make sure your name, address and phone number (NAP) matches the NAP on your website
- Add pictures and videos
- Try together to help your business increase positive reviews on listings (reviews are a huge ranking factor)
In addition to the tips above, there are some things you can do on an ongoing basis to increase your chances of being found in your 3-pack.
- Reply to all reviews (both positive and negative) – Be sure to turn on notifications so you can be alerted when a new review is posted so you can respond quickly.
- Use Google Posts – This is one of the new features in the Google My Business listing and generally speaking, if Google really starts paying attention to something, I would recommend you spend time on it and Also it can mean that it will affect search ranking. This is one of those things. This new feature lets you essentially show mini blog posts that can be educational or promotional in the Google My Business listing. This is another area to really showcase your business.
- Another thing to check frequently is making sure no one is suggesting wrong edits to your listing, which people have the ability to do by clicking the Suggest an edit feature in a public listing.
- With the new messaging feature on mobile devices, people can actually now message you from a Google My Business list (your number will never be shown publicly). This can be a great tool for businesses that are appointment-focused or need to respond to messages quickly.
- You have the ability to set your website as a tracking URL (UTM code) in the edit screen of your listing (it will still appear as your URL when it is publicly visible). This lets you clearly see where your marketing efforts are making an impact, where people are coming from, and so on. If you don’t create a tracking URL, and just enter your web address, all traffic to Google Analytics will say it came from direct traffic and will not deny that it was from your listing, which I think is important To have information By adding the UTM code, it will filter under the organic traffic bucket, which is exactly where it is.
google search console
This is another free tool that has been around for a while (formerly Webmaster Tools) and is one of the most important tools for you to use for your SEO efforts. Google has spent a lot of time improving it in recent years, which to me is a sign that it’s not going away anytime soon and is an important tool for you to use.
This tool is your best source of data about where your traffic is coming from, how pages are ranking, and what people are searching for that actually takes them to your website (we’re working on getting that information in Google Analytics). were able to but have not been able for a long time).
They’re currently in the process of releasing a new version of the tool, so right now you’ll be spending a bit of time going back and forth between the old version and the new one, which isn’t a big deal no matter how it’s set up But it is something to be aware of.
To set everything up, go to Google Search Console and:
- Claim and verify your website (I would recommend selecting the Google Analytics option in the instructions for doing so)
- Add your sitemap (If you use WordPress, the Yoast SEO plugin is a great tool for submitting sitemaps)
- Check Your Messages – This is where Google will communicate with you about your website and any issues you may be experiencing (messages may take a few days to populate). Google will be able to pinpoint exactly page crawl errors, HTML fixes, penalties, and if you’ve been hacked. It will also tell you how to fix all these issues.
- Integrate Google Search Console with Google Analytics (this will help you track goals and conversions). In google analytics, click on admin and then property settings, you will see the search console and it will give you the ability to add a search console.
- Wait a few days (depending on your site, it may take some time for Google to crawl your site and collect the required information).
This tool is also a great place to track the performance of your content and pages. You can do this:
- search keyword search ranking
- Compare performance over time
- check out click rate
- spot ranking opportunities
- Find Conversion Opportunities
google ads
Google recently changed its name from Google AdWords to Google Ads, and I think there are a couple of reasons:
- It’s more comprehensive than before (it’s a lot more than keywords now)
- Advertising is now more about intent
- Machine learning behavior and bots will decide how advertising is triggered
How to Link Google Ads to Google Analytics
The screenshot above is located in Google Analytics. Click on Admin and scroll down to Properties, where you’ll see AdWords linking (you can also do this from Google Ads). I recommend integrating these tools because you want to know where your traffic is coming from and if it is converting. This is a great way to track your goals and describe your marketing in detail.
New features in Google Ads
- Local Ads (new campaign type)
- Access New Campaigns
- Local Campaigns is focused on the small local business and makes it as easy as possible to run campaigns across different properties in the Google Universe
- As a side note, see where this makes sense as it would be an easy way to spend all your money at once.
- Reactive Search Ads (new ad type)
- Google does the A/B testing for you and you can input a maximum of 15 headlines, 300 characters and 4 descriptions into the pool, where they will combine all combinations (including extensions) and test on your behalf (leading to roughly 40K+ potential combination) so you know that ads give you the greatest opportunity for click-through rates.
- These ads will inevitably occupy page one of Google (which is great for advertisers) and is something that marketers should pay attention to.
- These ads are currently in beta and not yet showing to everyone (best practices are currently not implemented even in this beta stage)
- Local service ads from Google
- This feature has been around for a while but it is something that is expanding rapidly. It focuses on a handful of home service businesses and if you are one of these businesses, you need to pay attention to these appointments as they dominate the first page.
- Reviews, proximity, responsiveness and how well your advertising profile is optimized will all contribute to your prominence in this space.
- These ads are set up as a cost per lead based on the search term.
- You have the ability to do search terms and geo targeting.
To sign up for local service ads:
- google.com/adwords/local-services-ads . go to
- download app
- create a profile
- Get a Google Guarantee (Employee Background Check)
- Set a monthly budget in Google Ads
- respond quickly
- pay attention to reviews
If I had to name a few important things from this post, they would be:
- Google My Business is essential for local businesses.
- Google Search Console provides excellent SEO data.
- It is important to connect Google Ads, Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
- You should pay attention to the ads.
Yellow! Have you started exploring these areas of Google? If not, I highly recommend doing so.
Need more tips on Search Engine Optimization? Check out our complete guide to SEO.
If you liked this post, check out our Small Business Guide to Paid Search.
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