How to Set Up Google My Business
Creating your Google My Business profile is a critical part of local search. Get it right first time with our in-depth guide showing how to set up your GMB profile.
While there are lots of ways to monitor and improve GMB performance, to start with you’ll need to set up your basic profile, free of the bells and whistles that will come later.
Google My Business is a core element of local SEO, so it’s important to highlight at this point just how crucial it is that your listing data is accurate and kept up to date. Research suggests that 50% of consumers visit a store or business the day of performing a local search, such as ‘dry cleaners near me’, and that 80% of consumers lose trust in local businesses if they see incorrect or inconsistent contact details or business names online, so you’ll want you keep your NAP (Name, Address, and Phone number) consistent across all your listings, not just GMB.
Here’s how to get your company on Google:
1. Set up a new Google Account
Or access your Google My Business login, if you have one.
2. Head to google.com/business
And click ‘Manage Now’.
3. Enter your business name
If you have the same name as another business in your region, you’ll see the autocomplete function suggest those businesses for you. This is to allow you to see if your business listing already exists (to avoid accidental duplication), and to add a new GMB profile to an existing business if you’ve just opened a new location.
4. Enter the address of the business location
(Only if this is where your business engages in face-to-face interactions with customers).
If you’re a Service Area Business that delivers goods and services to your customers, you’ll need to tick the box at the bottom of this form. SABs have two options here:
- If you can receive customers at your business address, enter your address here, tick the box and click ‘Next’.
- If you don’t have any premises where customers can visit you, leave the address field blank, tick the box and then tick the ‘Hide my address (it’s not a store)’ box that appears below.
All businesses that deliver goods and services directly to their customers will have the option to specify a Service Area in the next step.
5. Specify service areas (Service Area Businesses only).
Before you can choose your business category, you’ll need to specify the areas you serve, so that Google can accurately surface your business for searches in those areas, even without a physical address. Enter one or more regions, cities, or ZIP codes that your business serves.
N.b. At the time of writing, Google My Business is phasing out the ‘Distance around your business location’ option and has stated that these will be replaced, so we’d recommend forgoing this option and specifying regions, cities, or ZIP codes instead.
6. Choose your business category.
This is a very important field that will not only strongly influence the kinds of search terms you appear in Google for, but also appear within your Google My Business profile. It’s also something worth testing when you come to update your Google business listing.
While you are able to adjust this later (which will require re-verification – more on this later), we’d recommend researching competitors and looking through a full list to find the most accurate category for your business.
N.b. Some Google My Business features are category-specific. For example, hotel listings show class ratings and list any amenities offered. Food and drink businesses can also add URLs to their listing for online orders, reservations, and their menu, and they can even add menu items directly into GMB. Services and health and beauty businesses may be able to add a booking button to their listing.
These are just a few examples of the sophistication that Google is developing for GMB, so it’s worth staying up-to-date on new additions to Google My Business.
7. Add a contact phone number and website URL.
Neither is compulsory but are strongly recommended if you want to take advantage of GMB functionalities like call tracking. If you ever need to change this when updating your Google business listing, be sure to make those changes to all other business listings, too.
If you don’t already have a website, Google will even give you the option to create a new ‘Google Website’ based on the information you’ve provided. However, as we’ve shown before, there are plenty of reasons local businesses need their own unique websites.
8. Complete your Google My Business Verification.
Google obviously needs to be able to prove that your business is where you say it is, and for entirely new GMB profiles, you have three options:
- Postcard verification. This is the most-used verification process, and is available to all businesses. With this process, a verification postcard will be sent to the address you entered earlier (it should reach you within five days). Once received, you can entered the code in your GMB account to verify the business. If your code doesn’t show up, you can click the ‘Request another code’ banner at the top of the screen in GMB.
- Phone verification. Some businesses have the option to verify their listing over the phone. You’ll know you’re eligible if you see the ‘Verify by phone’ option at the beginning of the verification process. Using this process, you’ll receive an automated message with a verification code, that you’ll then need to enter into GMB.
- Email verification. Like phone verification, this is only available to some businesses, and you’ll know you qualify for it if you see the ‘Verify by email’ option. This simple process sees you receive a verification code in the inbox of the Google Account associated with the GMB listing and entering it at the verification stage. Be sure you have access to this inbox before proceeding with this option.
The two other options are instant verification, which is only available if you’ve already verified your business’ website with Google Search Console, and bulk verification, for businesses managing ten or more locations. You can read more about both of these options here.
What’s Next?
Once you have an officially verified listing, it’s time to optimize your Google My Business!
Now you can:
- Add photos and videos to your listing
- Write and optimize a compelling business description
- Use Google My Business Q&As to understand your audience
- Create Google My Business Posts to showcase offers and promotions
- Add service menus and product collections
- Encourage your most loyal customers to ‘Follow’ you on Google Maps
- Start requesting and managing Google Reviews
- Use the Google My Business app to:
- Update your business hours, location, contact information, and description
- Post statuses and pictures
- View search insights
- Delve into and make use of Google My Business Insights, to learn things like:
- How many people visit your website
- How many people searched for driving directions
- How many people called you
- How many people viewed photos of your business
To benchmark your business’s GMB performance against others in your industry, take a look at our Google My Business Insights Study.
Basic Shopify, Shopify or Advanced Shopify: Which plan should I pick?
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Thinking of Shopify but you're unsure what the best plan for you is? Let us help you pick the right one!
Shopify pricing: What to expect?
Shopify Basic costs $29 monthly (and 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction). The Shopify plan is $79 monthly (and 2.6% + 30¢ per transaction). Advanced Shopify is $299monthly (and 2.4% + 30¢ per transaction). Shopify Plus pricing starts at $2000monthly. Use Shopify Payments to avoid extra fees.
There are extra charges for credit card payments (see table). If you are not using Shopify’s own payment system – Shopify Payments (read review) – there will be an additional charge for each sale you make.
However, let’s see what each plan offers in more detail.
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Shopify Plan Breakdown
| Feature | Basic Shopify | Shopify | Advanced Shopify |
|---|---|---|---|
| Products | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Digital products | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Customer logins | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Abandoned cart recovery | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Gift cards | No | Yes | Yes |
| Professional reports | No | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced report builder | No | No | Yes |
| Real-time carrier shipping | No | No | Yes |
| Print shipping labels | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Domain | Not included. You can buy a domain through Shopify ($14 per year) or redirect an existing one. | ||
| Email accounts | Not included. You can set up an unlimited number of email addresses, but you must manage your emails using your own email hosting provider. | ||
| Support 24/7 | E-Mail, Open Chat, Telephone | E-Mail, Open Chat, Telephone | E-Mail, Open Chat, Telephone |
| Credit Card Rate (with Shopify Payments) | 2.9% + 30¢* | 2.6% + 30¢* | 2.4% + 30¢* |
| Additional Transaction Fee for all online transactions (only charged if Shopify Payments is not activated) |
External Gateway: 2% | External Gateway: 1% | External Gateway: 0.5% |
| Pricing | $29 / month | $79 / month | $299 / month |
| 1 Year Contract (Payment in advance) |
$312 ($26 / month) |
$852 ($71 / month) |
$3,192 ($266 / month) |
| 2 Year Contract (Payment in advance) |
$558 ($23.25 / month) |
$1,518 ($63.25 / month) |
$5,640 ($235 / month) |
| 3 Year Contract (Payment in advance) |
$783 ($21.75 / month) |
$2,133 ($59.25 / month) |
$7,884 ($219 / month) |
| More information | Visit Shopify for a free trial account | ||
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Shopify’s pricing tiers: where’s the difference?
Let’s take a detailed look at Shopify’s prices:
Basic Shopify allows you to sell an unlimited number of products. This is the cheapest available solution when you have a vast product range. Shopify doesn’t limit the number of products or file storage. This plan also contains “Abandoned Cart Recovery”. However, features like gift cards or professional reports aren’t included. It’s great to see that telephone support is already part of this plan.
The plan named Shopify is $50 more expensive, but has a lower credit card rate and provides more features. The rate charged for credit card payments is 0.3% lower and professional reports provide greater insight into your online store, making analysis more convenient. In any case, you should check your Google Analytics before upgrading to this plan, it’s free and will give you a good understanding of your online shop’s performance. This plan also includes gift cards though this feature can be added with an app in the much cheaper Shopify Basic plan.
Advanced Shopify is the most expensive plan. But therefore, the credit card payment rate is the lowest (see table) and it provides the best shipping conditions for the US. This plan is the only option if you need real-time carrier shipping, which means that the shipping cost is automatically calculated by a third party. Furthermore it has an advanced report builder that will allow you to customise own professional reports.
Shopify Plus is an enterprise solution for businesses that seek a scalable ecommerce platform. Long story short: Shopify Plus pricing starts at about $2000 per month which is a massive increase compared to Shopify Advanced ($300). But what will you get on top? A dedicated support team will help you with the launch and will provide 24/7 priority support. Your developers will get more access to the Shopify system for customization (cart scripting, dedicated API etc.). You are covered with two additional clone storefronts for internationalization. If you need more information about this ultimate tier, please get in touch directly with the Shopify Team.
What are Shopify’s transactions fees?
There are two different fees: the one that Shopify charges on your turnover (ranging from 0.5% to 2%) and another one, which the payment gateway charges (such as Paypal, Stripe or Authorize.net). Please note that there is no Shopify charge to manual payment methods such as cash on delivery or bank transfers.
Using Shopify Payments to avoid the Shopify fee
The good news is that the Shopify fee can be completely avoided by using Shopify Payments (available in the USA, UK, Australia & NZ, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Japan and a few others). For a full list of all supported countries and businesses that are prohibited from using Shopify Payments, please consult this guide.
It’s important to note that using Shopify Payments eliminates the Shopify fee completely, so even if your customers pay via e.g. Paypal (learn more) or Amazon Pay, you won’t be charged any additional fee by Shopify anymore. So if you can, you should always try to use Shopify Payments! There is no monthly cost and setup is free too.
Costs for domain names
Common to all Shopify plans is that no domain or email hosting is included. Shopify allows you to buy a domain name for $14 per year, but this still doesn’t include any email hosting. To save a few bucks, we recommend that you compare these prices with a few external domain registrars (Namecheap, GoDaddy, etc.).
Furthermore, every plan allows you to add apps from the Shopify App Store or use a custom template. Most of these are available for free, but if you need a special feature, it could cost you extra. Therefore, we recommend that you test Shopify extensively during your free trial.
Monthly vs. yearly plans and cancellation
You can upgrade, downgrade or cancel Shopify anytime, provided you pay per month. If you want to minimize the financial burden, you should opt for a monthly plan – especially in the beginning. Afterwards, you can upgrade to a long-term pre-payment option to receive a significant price reduction (see table).
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Why you need an SSL certificate on your website.
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Don’t have an SSL Certificate? Google is going to flag your website as 'Not Secure'!
We turn to the internet for everything. From selling to buying, it is the introduction of an E-world. With this dominating trend, online security has become a necessity.
Undoubtedly, Google loves its users and therefore, is coming up with every possible way to make us feel secure here on the internet. With its recent announcement, earlier this year, Google will flag all the unencrypted internet by the end of 2017.
Google will flag 2/3rd of the web as unsafe.
This means if your website doesn’t have an SSL certificate, it will display a ‘Not Secure’ in the URL bar.
When Do You need to Worry About SSL?
Websites with any kind of text input will need an SSL certificate.
- Does your website takes text inputs in the form of login panels, contact forms, search bars, etc.
- Is your website on HTTP://?
If it’s a YES to both these questions, you need to install SSL to avoid any risks or warnings. If you don’t implement SSL, your visitors will see a “Not Secure” warning in Google Chrome on visiting your site.
What are some of the benefits?
1. Protection Against Hackers
HTTP is the text protocol which sends information between your device and the website you’re visiting. HTTPS is the secure version of this. It encrypts information between the two, so anything sent between the pair is scrambled, rendering it virtually unreadable.
This is essential if you’re inputting sensitive details like your password, or credit card info. But equally, it protects you from man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks: this is when a third party (i.e. a hacker) is intercepting transmissions between two clients.
You might not consider this a major issue. However, without encryption, a cybercriminal can display a fake webpage. Links on this false site could download something malicious onto your computer, like malware.
2. Chrome will display your website properly
While it’s not a fabric flag, it is a warning displayed by Google Chrome. Any readers trying to visit a site which doesn’t have an SSL certificate will instead see a page alerting them that the connection isn’t private.
Bear in mind that Google Chrome is the most popular mainstream browser. People like its interface and love that its largely very secure. For much of its life, Chrome has loaded encrypted pages with a padlock and green “Secure” message displayed.
In 2018, Google switched its stance on the issue. Instead of viewing HTTP as the standard model for sites, Chrome will expect HTTPS as default and only show non-secure sites reluctantly, i.e. after warning users it’s not safe.
We expect other browsers to follow suit.
3. Improved Search Engine Rankings
We’ve established that Chrome won’t like your site without SSL; Google, as the search engine, won’t either.
Many rely on search engine optimization (SEO) to achieve a higher ranking on Google. But search for anything, and the chances are the vast majority of results on the first page will have HTTPS addresses. Ask any SEO experts, and they’ll tell you that it’s vital for sites to be on the first two pages of results. Comparatively few look beyond that.
Anything (legal) you can do to stay ahead of the competition – particularly by prioritising security –is crucial.
With an SSL Certificate, not only will readers trust you more, but search engines will too. This results in more readers, and the more popular your blog becomes, the higher it’ll rank on Google! It’s a win-win.
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What should you do? Next steps.
Step 1:
Contact your Web Host and purchase an SSL certificate for your website.
Step 2:
Contact Taffy Design and let us know once the SSL is activated - this should take less than 24 hours.
Step 3:
Taffy Design will execute our Standard Wordpress Maintenance Package and install and configure a complementary SSL plugin.
Step 4:
Once the SSL is configured, Taffy Design will re-submit your website to Google and Bing search engines.
All done! Your website will be secure & trustworthy with better SEO performance.
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More Information
GoDaddy: Does your website need an SSL certificate?
7 Reasons your website needs an SSL Certificate
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Advertising Agency in Sydney
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Marketing consultant in Sydney
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Taffy is a new flavour of graphic design studio.
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Taffy is a new flavour of brand consultancy.
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Brand Consultant Sydney
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