Get listed on Google

Recently we have written that aggregator websites are a new business tendency. This means that earlier companies had to create and support their websites to be visible in online environment, spending a lot on SEO and content marketing activities. Today businesses can be listed in catalog or aggregator websites to be online, and this even eliminates the necessity to develop and promote own website. 

So, in today’s article we are going to talk about a possibility to create a website using Google My Business aggregator. It is free and available for any person or business and takes about half an hour to deal with. 

What is Google My Business?

Google My Business is a service that provides internet users with comprehensive information about companies. For companies, it offers a possibility to create a profile that will be visible in Google Search and on Google Maps.

Why do i need to be listed on Google My Business?

Google My business lets you create a comprehensive business profile, where potential customers – Google users – can find you. With Google my Business, you can tell about your business, services you provide, your products, share content, offer promotions and even communicate with potential clients in an online chat! 

What do you need to create a website on Google My Business?

To begin with, you simply need a Gmail account. Having email address in your company’s domain will be a plus and will allow you get access to advance statistics. 

The main idea of the Google My business aggregator  is to make it easier for you to enter data about your business. Everything that you specify here will automatically appear in Google services: on Maps and, most importantly, in Google Search, and here you need to remember that many marketers forget that digital-active users often look for products and services exactly on Maps, because Google Maps shows the nearest points with the necessary goods and services without any advertising.

Create Google My Business profile in 7 steps

1. Go to Google My Business portal. So, we need to open Google My Business portal and Login. In case you entered some information about your company on Google Maps earlier, you will get to you Google MB profile automatically. 

Note: if you already have Google My Business profile, or entered information about your business on Google Maps, please, skip this section ) 

2. Enter basic information about your business. If you have never entered information about your business in Google using the entered Gmail account, you will start the process from scratch. Just follow the process, answering questions:

 3. Tick “Get a free website based on your info” enetering your contact details. In case you already have a corporate website, enter it here, you will be able to create Google My Business website later. 

4. Choose a verification option. Google will ask you about a suitable verification option. Here in Belarus the only option available is by a printed postcard. As far as we know, in the US and EU other simple verification options are available, for example, verification via already verified Google Search Console or Google analytics:5. Add business description. The following step is to enter a text description of your business. It can be updated later if necessary.

6. Add photos. Upload real photo of your business. Simple, real, unique photos of your business even taken unprofessionally are better than fake professional from stock ones. Again, later you will be able to add more photos and videos.7. See the result. Here is the result of a registration process:To go further, you should follow the steps Google shows you in boxes in the center of the screen. Or simply filling in the fields, opening sections from the menu bar in the left. Even though the most of the information is entered on previous steps, here Google will ask you to add some additional details: services you offer, selecting from categories, products with descriptions and so on. 

Create a website on Google My Business

In case you entered information previously on Google Maps, it will appear automatically in the relevant boxes and you will see something like this, however boxes in the center may vary: 

Do not forget to check if necessary information about your business is missing. Google will show the unfilled boxes in the center, and, in addition, we highly recommend you to go through all the sections in the left to check data completeness. 

1. Open “Website” section. Go to “Website” section in the menu bar:

2. Check and edit website’s draft. Here you will see a draft of your website, created by Google, and the information you entered on previous steps appears in the draft automatically. To customize the website created, its design, texts, images use these 4 buttons and appearing boxes:

You can also click right on the box you need to edit right on the website draft to make changes.

3. Edit URL address. Pay attention to a URL address Google has generated for you. By default, it can be something like “information-service-55439” or “italian-restaurant-78093”. Update the URL if necessary:

Seems like the URL of the website looks more reliable that websites’ URLs created by other online website creation tools. The URL of your GMB website can be customized anytime. 

4. Publish the website created. Do not forget that by default your website is unpublished. Somewhere in the center you will see “Publish” button. We suppose it is clear what to do with it)

5. Verify the account if not done yet. After publishing the website, you will see that some features are not available to you. The reason – the account is not verified. 

Why do I need to verify Google My Business administrator?

Even though this step is optional, verifying an administrator provides you with some advanced features as search statistics, content views, number of visitors, number of searches etc. And most importantly, users can leave reviews and score stars only after you verified your administrator account. 

Basic option to verify the account is to ask for a printed mail with a verification code sent to you personally. When we confirmed the account, we did not wait for the letter and wrote to Google technical support. After checking the data, they will ask a representative of your business to confirm that the person in charge of the Google MB account really represents your business. Even if it is the same person. To complete this step, you need an email address with the domain of your business specified as your business website. Google will write to you at this address a message asking if you allow such a person to maintain an account in Google MB. If you have no email in your corporate domain, Google offers a possibility to create it:

After you verify the account, such features as, for example, reviews and statistics will become available:

Communicate with clients online via Google My Business mobile applications

One more step we highly recommend you to perform is to install a special mobile application: 

The application is available for both iOS and Android. When you install and login, you will have possibility to activate an online chat feature – make your business open to any Google user! 

Special bonus for advertisement campaign from Google 

By the way, when you create a Google My Business profile, Google will offer you $60 to spend on advertisement.

Results of creating Google My Business profile and website

Google MB profile and websites boosts your online presence, makes you visible on Google Maps and in Google Search, makes possible expand your target audience, attracting digital active people, communicate with potential clients. Google My Business website is an ideal solution for your if you need a promo website with some advanced features.

When your GMB profile and website are successfully created, you will have one more position in search results with the website. 

There also will be some changes in search results:

As you can see, there are some snippets. 2 snippets in the left are visible only to you, providing that you are logged in Google Chrome browser with the same account. You can see some basic statistics, as well as buttons to add news, photos, events, etc. The snippet in the right is visible to everyone and provides users with basic information about your business. This snippet appears after your My Business website is published. 

Pros of Google My Business website

1. Easy to create
2. No programming or marketing skills needed
3. Available to any person or business
4. Boost to online presence
5. Placement on Google Maps 
6. Visibility in Google Search
7. Simple tool to stay in touch with clients
8. Good platform for sharing content 
9. Almost perfect alternative to development and support of a corporate website
10. Absolutely free of charge
11. One more position in search results – Google search engine “likes” websites created in Google My Business very much )
12. Google My Business snippet in search results

Cons of Google My Business website

1. Sharing content features are simple: photos and videos are uploaded “as is”, no possibility to add title, description etc.
2. Some difficulties with posting updates with photos: there is no listed requirements to a size of photos and uploaded photos sometimes render incorrectly. 
3. Limited website functionality that might be vital for some business: for example, users cannot pay online for services. 

As you can see, pros are many more than cons. We highly recommend creating My Business profile and website as soon as possible. As far as we see, internal algorithms promote My Business profiles in search results nowadays. But the amount of My Business profiles and websites is constantly growing, and most likely that algorithms’ work will change when the number of created profiles becomes bigger. 

By the way, here is Code Inspiration’s Google My Business website. 

Google my Business profile and website is simple and effective tool for online promotion of your business. If you need a promo website with a possibility to connect with your clients – Google MB is perfect solution for you. If you need a website with a more complex functionality, such as, for example, online payments, placement and tracking orders, comprehensive admin panel integrated with CRM, multiple user roles etc., Code Inspiration team is ready to address your business needs.